Is your website helping or hurting you?
Let me start by asking you this question: When you’re thinking of hiring someone for a job (a contractor for instance), what is the first thing you do when vetting this person or organization?
You “Google” them and visit their website, of course! So, you’d better believe your clients are doing the exact same thing. A well-designed website can showcase your professionalism, while a clumsy and poorly-designed site will have your visitors quickly moving on to your competitor’s site. In addition, a relevant and compelling website will rank higher on Google, organically increasing your SEO (search engine optimization).
If you maintain your own website, these tips can be implemented yourself with a little technical know-how. Where possible, I’ve included links to some additional how-to’s to hopefully make it a little easier. If you have a web developer, feel free to send this list to them to make sure your website is fully optimized to help you stand out. Knowing that you have only 10 seconds or less to get people on your website interested, here are 5 things you can do yourself to convert more visitors:
1) Test the Mobile Friendliness of Your Site
According to Google, in 2016, 58.07% of real estate related searches were made on mobile. Making sure your website is optimized for mobile is key. A great way to test this is to enter your website info at testmysite.thinkwithgoogle.com for a free analysis of your mobile site.
2) Add Video
A recent study showed 50% of consumers look for more information after seeing a product/service in a video. And real estate listings that include video are 403% more likely to receive inquires than those without!1 Moreover, a personal video is a great way for your potential clients to feel more connected to you – it makes you seem more human and likable. Try adding a video to your “about” page. Don’t worry about having a high tech setup. Just shoot something with your phone, telling the viewer who you are and what you do.
3) Add Buttons and Forms
Make it as simple as possible for your potential clients to reach you by adding contact forms and subscription buttons to the pages on your site. You may have an option to create a contact form via a “widget” on the back end of your site. If not, there are a variety of ways for you to do this instead. You can create a form to embed on your site with Google Forms or BombBomb Forms and a simple way to add a lead capture box to your website is through SumoMe.
4) Update Stock Content With Your own Wording
This is the easiest way for you to organically increase your SEO. When your website was designed, did it include stock content such as a buyer’s page with generic “we can help you buy a home” content that you didn’t write? Update that content with something of your own as soon as possible. Your website needs to contain unique content to rank higher on Google, so change that wording so you don’t look like everyone else. No need to overthink it, just keep it honest and simple, and add photos and videos where possible.
5) Add Share Buttons
Adding social buttons on your site makes it easy to share, thus increasing your web traffic. Include social share icons wherever possible, especially on pages such as listings and blogs. Check around in the back end of your site for social media widgets or plugins, if you don’t see any, you can add a line of HTML code to include buttons for various social platforms. Follow these instructions on how to do this for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.
Regardless of which tips you choose to implement, keep this in mind: People won’t remember what you said, but they will remember how you made them feel. Be authentic when adding content to your site and remember that if you can create a positive experience for someone online, they will be more likely to retain your services. If all of this is feeling a bit overwhelming, it’s worth noting that all of these tools are easily implemented in a real estate web hosting platform such as Ixact Contact Websites (free to RRI coaching members). If you’d like more information about this service or any of our coaching services, give us a shout! We’d love to hear from you.
A quick note on SEO: I’m sure you’ve all received those emails by companies claiming to be able to increase your SEO. In reality there is no magic sauce for getting your page to the top of Google. Google looks mostly at relevancy, frequency of updated content, and how many users interact with your site. All the tips given will help you organically increase your SEO without paying a third party.
Until next time. Make it count!
Rich
[1] https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/video-marketing-statistics#sm.0000wwwh7ug8rds2pfs2qr8y80fqt