Table of Contents
Competition is tough in the estate agent market, and customer expectations are higher than ever. Property search largely happens online these days with clients expecting to have the latest information available at their fingertips. Therefore to gain trust and credibility from your users and viably compete, your website and online presence do need to be up-to-date and relevant.
Here’s how you can ensure your estate agency remains a top choice for buyers and sellers alike.
Keep your estate agency website up-to-date with correct property information
If you’re reading this article, the likelihood is that you sell or rent property. My message for you here is, don’t overlook the basics; your business is all about your properties! Keeping property information current is fundamental to your agency’s credibility and success. Accurate and up-to-date listings ensure that prospective buyers and renters have the most relevant information, helping them to make informed decisions.
Bear in mind that outdated listings could lead to frustration and a loss of trust in your agency. If a property status, price or availability changes, do make sure it’s obvious to those visiting your website. There’s nothing worse than landing on a property you love, only to later discover that it’s unavailable. Let’s face it, that doesn’t look great for your agency.
Have you tried the Property Hive Import add on? This well loved feature allows you to import properties from your CRM to WordPress for displaying on your website. Depending on your import format, you can send properties in real-time or change the frequency of imports to suit your needs. That means you never need to manually update property data on your website and you can rest assured knowing your website is up-to-date. Winner!
Highlight recent sales and success stories
One of the best ways to demonstrate your agency’s success is by showcasing recent sales and lettings. Consider creating a gallery on your website featuring properties that have been sold or let recently, including dates and details about them. Showcasing your positive results is a great way of building credibility and demonstrates that your agency is active and successful in the current market.
Seasonal graphics
Personally, I really appreciate it when a website has a nod to something seasonally relevant. Be it a bit of holly adorning your logo at Christmas or some leaves scattered around the website footer in the autumn. Not only is it visually pleasing but it’s an obviously human touch in the digital space that reminds you there’s someone behind the website.
Whilst it’s arguably not as easy to jump on the bandwagon of every calendar event like say a clothes retailer could, there’s still room to be creative. Seasonal graphics also show that you’re committed to keeping your estate agency website up-to-date. Consider updating banners, backgrounds, logos and other design elements on your website in keeping with your brand’s persona to keep your website fresh and engaging.
Showcase recent reviews
Testimonials and reviews should not be underestimated. After all, who buys any product or service online without looking at the reviews? With that in mind, if you don’t already do make sure to set up a campaign to obtain reviews from current and previous customers. These testimonials and reviews are powerful tools that will help to build trust with prospective clients and set you apart from your competition.
Consider featuring reviews somewhere obvious like your homepage under a ‘Recent Reviews’ section and update these every couple of months. When considering which reviews to showcase, look for those that highlight the key attributes of your agency such as responsiveness, professionalism and success.
There’s plenty of plugins and widgets available that allow you to pull in reviews from 3rd parties and broadcast these on your website. For example, if you wanted to showcase your Google reviews, WordPress plugins such as Plugin for Google Reviews or WP Google Review Slider are great tools. Property Hive has it’s very own add on for embedding allAgents reviews, which is also worth trying.
Bradley’s Estate Agents are a great example of how to showcase reviews effectively on your website. The reviews are central to the page which is incredibly effective and certainly grabs your attention when you land on their homepage. In addition, this image also links to a page with video testimonials and a widget to embed reviews from third parties.
Keep social media up-to-date (or get rid of it!)
Social media is a vital extension of your website and a great tool for estate agents. Get the basics right by making sure that your account is up-to-date and relevant with the correct business information such as website URL, office address and telephone number if you choose to display this information.
I’ve lost count of the number of times that I’ve visited a business’s social media page and it’s featured an outdated link to their website. Equally, this is also the case the other way around. Ensure that links from your website to social media are also current and that they lead to active and well maintained profiles.
So what does an active and well maintained profile look like? The obvious way of keeping your social media profiles up-to-date is by posting new listings, market insights, client testimonials and any community involvement. Some agents do sneak peak posts at properties coming to market which is a great way of adding suspense and getting buyers and renters engaged with your agency and property stock. You might also consider posting videos to your socials for additional engagement and an enhanced modern feel.
Maintain an active blog
An active blog is a great way to keep your estate agency website up-to-date. Regularly publishing informative and insightful posts can help to establish your agency as a forward thinking and leading force in the estate agency world. You might consider writing about topics such as market trends, tips for buyers and sellers, neighbourhood showcases and updates on local events.
Blogs are great because they give useful information to the reader and establish credibility for your agency. Not only that, they’re also hugely helpful for boosting your SEO. An active blog is proven to drive more traffic to your website; which is something all of us want, right?
Here’s a few blog ideas to get you started:
- “Top 10 Tips for First Time Buyers”
- “The Best Neighborhoods for Families in …”
- “How to Stage your Home for a Quick Sale”
To find out more about the benefits of blogging, head over to this previous blog of ours: ‘5 Powerful Benefits of Blogging On Your Estate Agency Website‘.
Regularly run your site through a broken link checker tool
It’s often overlooked, but it’s important. Broken links are frustrating for users, damaging for SEO and harmful to your business’s image. Therefore, regularly running your website through a broken link checker tool is a simple but essential task that helps to keep your website user friendly and credible.
Broken link checker tools are a helpful way of identifying any outdated URLs or dead links so that you can fix them quickly. The easiest way to keep on top of this task is to use a tool such as Dead Link Checker or Screaming Frog SEO Spider. Both of these tools offer free versions. In order to keep your website in top shape, I’d advise scheduling a reminder for yourself to do this task every month.
Automate your copyright date
A small but important detail is keeping your website’s copyright date up-to-date . Ensure that your website automatically updates the copyright date to the current year. This simple step helps to keep your estate agency website up-to-date. It also reassures visitors that your site is actively maintained and current.
Conclusion
People often say that a website is the shopfront of your business. So to make yours as effective as possible and let it do the hard work for you, try to keep your online presence as fresh, interesting and credible as possible.
Be creative with your website and if you have the time, include effective strategies like a blog to elevate your online presence. In the case of limited time focus on quick wins that make a huge difference, like broadcasting reviews and success stories. All that being said though, don’t skip the basics such as making sure your property data is up-to-date. After all, you’re selling houses!
