5 Common Mistakes Real Estate Agents Make on Their Website (and How to Fix Them)
Maintaining an engaging and well-designed website is essential for any real estate agent. Websites are also a fantastic way to showcase your listings, attract new clients, and build your brand. There are so many types of real estate websites and lots of room for error!
Below, we explain the 5 most common mistakes real estate agents make when setting up their websites, and how to fix them:
1. Ignoring SEO Best Practices
One of the worst mistakes real estate agents can make is neglecting SEO best practices in the writing on their websites. SEO, or search engine optimization, is the process of optimizing your website to rank higher in search engine results pages. Optimizing SEO is crucial because it helps websites increase visibility for your business and listings, and attracts more web traffic.
There are a few key ways to optimize online presence, specifically a real estate agent website, for SEO. First, make sure the website has a mobile-friendly design. This means that it should be responsive and easy to use on all devices, including smartphones and tablets. Second, research competitive keywords to use in titles and descriptions for your listings. The higher the keywords rank, the higher up your website will appear in search results. This means that the site is easier for potential buyers to find. Finally, make sure your website loads quickly. Slow loading times hurt search engine rankings and drive potential customers away. Agent Fire, a widely-used web host made specifically for real estate, incorporates SEO strategy into your website to help you along the way.
SEO is all about the long game - the benefits won’t be obvious overnight, but by slowly but surely accumulating content with strong SEO your website will continue to rank higher. This need for consistency is why many real estate agents opt to outsource the help! Marketing agencies and firms take care of all of this. If you’d like more information about how a marketing agency can strengthen your online presence, get in touch with us here.
2. Using Off-Brand Stock Photos and Low-Quality Images
This one may seem basic, but you’d be surprised. Many real estate agents often use unoriginal stock photos on their websites. The photos you use on your site should always reflect your brand’s tone, and be high-quality images. They should also be properly sized so they load quickly without taking up too much space on the page.
While yes, using stock images is a great way to add visual appeal to your website without spending too much time or money on personalized photos, you should avoid using overused or spammy-looking photos. Just make sure the images you choose are relevant to what you’re trying to promote and that they aren’t overused elsewhere. Having general photo guidelines will help if you are stuck using stock photos.
Guidelines that are adjusted for your brand and client, such as tone, coloring, and elements will help make sure all photos you use look uniform and trustworthy. If you do have the money to spend on professional photography, we highly suggest working with a local photographer that edits in a way that aligns with your brand’s identity.
One more helpful photo tip: when adding images to your site, optimize your images for SEO when possible. This means that you should add descriptive keywords to the title and alt tags of your images so they can be properly indexed by search engines. This will allow your images to show up in image search results, helping you drive more traffic to your website when users click on them.
3. Making a Website That Isn’t User-Friendly
Your website needs to be easy for anyone to use—regardless of their tech savviness. That means having a clean and simple design that’s easy to navigate. Information on your site should be easy to find, and there should be no dead links or broken pages. In addition, your contact information should be prominently displayed so that potential clients can easily get in touch with you. Remember that these days your website must be optimized for both desktop and mobile use. That way your site is accessible no matter what device they’re using. Luckily, web hosts like this one build these design features into their sites so that you don’t have to worry about it.
By optimizing your website for usability, you will also be improving its search engine visibility. If Google can easily crawl and read your site, your site will be more likely to show up in the top results. Lastly, don’t forget to submit a sitemap and use other tools like Google Analytics to track user behavior on your site. This helps you to determine what works best for your website, giving you the information necessary to make adjustments accordingly.
4. Failing to Update Content Regularly
This is a big issue and drives away potential clients. When real estate agents don’t update their content regularly enough, or in some cases, not at all, potential clients see that your business isn’t active and engaged. Keep in mind that real estate websites for agents need to be engaging and personalized according to the agent’s branding and personality. One way to make sure that users know that your business is active is by adding a blog to your site and writing new posts regularly. This also can improve your branding as you can pick blog topics that showcase your personality.
Including unique content via blog posts improves SEO optimization (boosting your Google rankings), and allows potential clients to easily find you online. We recommend trying Jasper to help get started with content ideas. Jasper aids with anything from listing descriptions to blog content and bios. Regularly updating your content with relevant and intriguing information keeps visitors engaged and encourages them to return to your site. Add new photos, infographics, or videos to keep things interesting. Just make sure all of your content is high-quality and relevant to your target audience.
A great way to keep your content current is by reaching out to influencers and other businesses to collaborate. This increases your visibility and creates new connections that can lead to opportunities and a larger and more diverse audience. Collaborative content is also a wonderful way to build relationships with potential clients, as it showcases your work style and how you work with others.
Creating and optimizing website content is time-consuming, but the effort you and your team put in will be worth it in the long run. By using keyword research, internal links, and content promotion tactics, you can ensure that your content is seen by more people and ranks higher in search engine results pages.
5. Failing to Promote Your Website
Just because you have a website doesn’t mean people will automatically find it. To be successful, businesses need to actively promote their site. There are several ways to do this—including social media marketing, email marketing, podcasting, and SEO. By promoting your site using a variety of platforms, you’ll attract more visitors and gain leads.
This is where many real estate agents and teams hire a marketing manager or team to oversee their content, schedule regular posts, and take care of audience engagement. Marketing is a full-time job, and it’s a field full of experienced professionals who get the job done quickly. So if marketing feels like it’s too big to be an in-house job, don’t hesitate to outsource this work.
6. No lead magnets
Make sure you are offering a lead magnet. Your lead magnet should be valuable content that potential clients would be interested in and will encourage people to provide their contact information to download it. This is the best way for you to stay in touch with your audience and get in contact with potential clients. It’s also a great way to build an email list, which you can use later to promote your services, successes, and growth. Once you have created high-quality content and have a plan for promoting your website, you’ll be well on your way to building a successful website.
A well-designed and user-friendly website is essential for any real estate agent who wants to succeed in today’s digital world. Dedicating time each week to review and update your site will keep it professional, up-to-date, and more attractive to potential customers. Remember to add high-quality content regularly and promote your site using multiple methods or channels, like social media. By avoiding these common mistakes, you can ensure that your website is a powerful tool for your real estate business and will make you competitive online.
If you’re an agent looking to build up or enhance your real estate website, we can’t recommend Agent Fire enough. They are a website host specifically made for real estate agents, and include all the features, landing pages, and overall design needed to make a compelling and successful RE site.
Searching for a little extra support? Working with an experienced digital marketing agency maximizes your website’s impact. Digital marketing agencies like ours aid in creating a comprehensive strategy to meet all business goals, from driving traffic to boosting conversions. Get in touch to learn more about our services or get a direct quote here.
