Components of successful real estate websites

There is a lot of information available from a number of sources telling us what makes a website appealing and successful. We've read most of those recommendations and we have compiled some of them here. We realize that not all real estate websites will include all of these features. But can you? Does your website product have the capabilities to include these functions? We've added some comments about the WebCubic real estate product and its ability to accomplish these. You'll find it in blue text.

The home page should make it easy for your visitor to navigate to relevant content - information about you, property searches, etc. WebCubic uses navigation buttons. But we suggest you limit the navigation buttons to about a dozen or so. Exceeding that number makes the navigation difficult for your visitors. Some WebCubic customers imbed hyperlinks within a narrative text as a way to either make more links available or to provide additional options to find information.

Property information must be current. This is where your IDX information will be helpful. Whether the data is refreshed once every day or multiple times daily, it is "current". WebCubic websites are IDX-enabled. Simply get the hyperlinks from the MLS and insert them as links or navigation buttons on the website.

The visitor should be able to access a mortgage calculator and "link" to a mortgage lender. WebCubic has a built in mortgage calclulator - it is a spreadsheet style so that you can easily compare multiple options. A link is simply embedding a hyperlink in text or adding a navigation button.

You should "brand" the website with more than your name. WebCubic websites include a "slogan" to accomplish this.

Try to provide a map of the general area. Take a look at www.mapblast.com or similar source. WebCubic users embed a hyperlink in text or add a navigation button.

Use your local chamber of commerce when providing community information. It is important, also, to provide school information. WebCubic provides a reference links page(s) that can be used to provide references to other websites. This would be an ideal place to include the local chamber of commerce.

How about a community calendar of events that includes local activities that your marketplace cares about? WebCubic users can use a "free form" page. These pages are built by entering text that is displayed within the website. If the user is familiar with HTML or can learn simple formatting techniques, then the text will be display more elegantly.

Sellers should be able to request a CMA on their property. WebCubic provides a form builder to easily develop forms to collect CMA requests or any other information.

Describe your services and provide customer testimonials. WebCubic provides a "free form" page which many clients use to describe their marketing plans and services. There is a special "gallery page" that includes both text and graphics. This is an ideal form for customer testimonials.

WebCubic real estate websites provide a wide range of tools and page formats to enable the individual REALTOR many options when designing their websites. There are strong customization capabilities to personalize the website.

Quotation

"Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail" - Muriel Strode

iPod Future

A stock analyst speculated that PortalPlayer, Inc may be involved in the release of a wireless iPod in 2006. They plan to build out wireless capabilities in 2006 which gives rise to speculations that Apple is considering wireless capabilities.

Another technology company, MagneticTime, is advertising that you "listen to your eMail and Word documents on your iPod" and other similar devices.

A book "Beyond the Music: Doing More with Your Apple iPod" discusses several interesting uses beyond its music listening capabilities: a PDA replacement, portable hard disk drive, or even an eBook reader.

What's a generation?

A recent free Redeye newspaper (see http://redeyechicago.com/) featured an article on differences in generations and how the generational styles vary while on the job.

Their breakdown of the generations and approximate ages were:

- Baby boomer - born 1946 -1964

- Gen X - born 1965 to 1977

- Gen Y - born 1978 to 1989

- Millennial - born 1990 +

The obvious differences center on tastes in TV, music and clothes.

It seems also obvious that the way they interact with one another, communication styles and work patterns play a role in how REALTORS can best connect with them. One size does not fit all. A colorful marketing brochure may meet the needs of one generation while another may want to gather opinions on a possible new neighborhood from others already living there by visiting a blog. And each is likely looking in a different sector of the market.

Many baby boomers (1946 to 1964) have reached their peak earning years. Their plans are now on the house of their dreams, an empty nest, or a second/vacation/retirement home. Gen X (1965 to 1977) is in the midst of their family years - therefore they are likely moving up to accommodate growing families. Gen Y (1978 to 1989) people are purchasing their first home or condo.

So, not only are their housing needs different, their approach to purchasing real estate is also different. That's a topic for another blog post.

2005 Survey of California Home Sellers

The 2005 Survey of California Home Sellers is available from the California Association of REALTORS. This survey establishes the growing use of the Internet during the home selling process. Here are a couple of key facts from that survey:

• 57 percent of home sellers use the Internet
• Sellers used the Internet mainly to research comparable prices, get current information on the neighborhood, and to find an agent.
• Sellers primarily selected their agent because he/she was the best prepared (31 percent) or most qualified (30 percent), or offered the lowest commission (27 percent). The seller expected the agent to work most aggressively on their behalf, or because they appeared to be most responsive.
• 97 percent of all sellers used an agent to assist them in the home selling process.

What happened to your Google search engine results?

In November a startling thing may have happened to your website's rankings in Google - as it did for so many others. Your WebCubic website search results probably improved. For so many others, it decreased. What happened?

One of elements influencing the search engine rankings are links. Formerly, Google seemed to favor reciprocal links. Many real estate websites took this algorithm element to an extreme and implemented link farms and link rings. This was in an effort to increase the number of links thereby granting some advantage in search engine placement. Many major real estate website companies promoted this technique.

WebCubic took another approach. We realized that such link farms were not a long term advantage to anyone - even from the standpoint of short term search engine results.

Google continues to favor quality inbound links so we have always recommended creating these. As a result, those that used link farms have now been devalued. Taking their place are other websites - probably YOUR WebCubic website - that were implemented using more intelligent optimization techniques.

Here are two suggestions to proper link management:

- cancel membership in all link exchanges
- accept or develop inbound links only from real estate websites that are listed in Google

Remember, Google will change their algorithms from time to time. It is their desire to rank sites that are naturally more significant. Avoid spamming or other tricks to improve your search engine results.

FYI, WebCubic's company website www.webcubic.com improved its search engine results as this new algorithm was implemented by Google.