Website checklist for a regional real estate agency

A regional or rural agency website has two jobs. It must prove you know the local market, and it must turn visitors into sales and property management enquiries. This post gives you a 12 point checklist for both, after a look at a custom website we designed for an agency in Mt Isa.

The project: City and Country Realty, Mt Isa

City and Country Realty services Mt Isa and specialises in residential sales, leasing and property management. The agency approached us wanting to redesign its website, which was nearing five years old and needed a refresh.

City and Country is a successful and growing agency, and we wanted the website to show that. The brief was to design a premium site that complemented the brand and the location, and that actively prospected new visitors to generate quality sales and property management leads.

That brief is a useful model for any regional agency. The website should look like the business you are today, suit the place you work, and be built to capture enquiries, not just display listings. Our case study is also published on the Aro Software website.

A 12 point website checklist for regional agencies

Local credibility

1. Say where you work in the first screen. Name your town or region in the headline or sub-headline, not just "Real estate agency".
2. Show your people. In a smaller market, vendors and landlords often choose the person, not the brand. Use real photos and short bios, with the areas and property types each person handles.
3. Add local proof. Recent sales, reviews from local clients and your years in the market all help. Only publish reviews and sales results you have permission to share and can verify.
4. Write area content. Create pages for the towns, suburbs or districts you serve, with real information on the local market, schools, services and lifestyle. Our guide to creating content from client questions is a good source of topics.

Lead capture

1. Put a clear appraisal call to action on the homepage and every key page. One button, one outcome, such as "Book a free appraisal".
2. Keep forms short. Name, phone, address and email are usually enough. Add an optional message box for the rest.
3. Give property management its own path. Landlords should see a page that speaks to rent appraisals, tenant screening and routine inspections, and a different form for owners and tenants. If you offer sales, leasing and property management, do not bury two of them under the third.
4. Make the phone number tappable. Many regional enquiries are calls, so a click-to-call button on mobile matters.

Performance and tracking

1. Test it on a phone first. Check how fast it loads on a mobile connection, including in places with weaker coverage. Compress images and avoid heavy video on key pages.
2. Keep listings fresh. Connect your listings feed so properties appear and come down without manual edits.
3. Track every enquiry. Set up analytics so you can see which pages and campaigns lead to form submissions and calls. Start with our Google Analytics guide for real estate.
4. Complete your Google Business Profile. It shows up in local searches and maps. Make sure the address, hours, categories and website link match the website. See how to improve your Google Business Profile rankings.

When a website is due for a rebuild

Age alone does not mean a site is failing, but a site close to five years old deserves a proper review. Ask these questions:

• Does it look and read like your agency now, or like the agency you were then?
• Is it fast and easy to use on a phone?
• Does every page lead somewhere? Is there a next step on each page?
• Can you edit content yourself, and do the listings update automatically?
• Do you know how many enquiries it produces each month?

If the honest answers are no, a redesign is likely to pay for itself in better lead capture, as long as it is built around leads from the start. Our post on six website changes to increase lead conversions lists smaller fixes you can make first.

How to brief a website project

Whether you work with us or another team, a short written brief saves time and money. Cover these points before any design starts:

• Goals: the number of appraisal enquiries and property management enquiries you want from the site, in order of priority.
• Audience: who you want to reach, such as local vendors, investors living elsewhere, or landlords with a rental already managed by someone else.
• Brand: your logo, colours, tone and photography, and whether any of it is changing.
• Content: which pages and area profiles you need, and who will provide the photos and copy.
• Systems: your listings feed, CRM and any forms that must connect to them.
• Measurement: how you will count success three months after launch.

Our post on what to do after launching your real estate website covers the steps to take once the site is live.

Custom or template?

A template can work well for a new agency on a tight budget. A custom design makes more sense when you have a distinct brand, a particular location to reflect, and several service lines to organise, as City and Country does. The deciding factor is how much your site needs to differ from your competitors' to win enquiries.

Agencies with a livestock focus

If your business sells rural and livestock property, there are extra considerations for listing types and buyer needs. We cover those separately in our post on website design for a livestock and rural agency.

Next steps

Work through the checklist this week and note the points where your site falls short. If you would like a second opinion, or are thinking about a custom website, you can book a call with Lead Fleet to talk through it.