How Real Estate Websites Make Money

Real estate professionals who have been in the business for a while usually have a solid strategy when they write business ad copy or their listings. Media like newspapers, home magazines, and TV and radio ads haven't changed a lot over the years.

But when it comes to real estate websites, all bets are off if you take advertising experience in the other media and place the same type of material on your website. The same strategies will not work, because the website visitor expects something quite different:

Target Focus

If you take up more than about 5 percent of your homepage with your photo, you've started out poorly. Only the tiniest percentage of your visitors will come to your site via a search engine query for your name.

Limit Clicks

If a prospective buyer navigates to your site through a search engine, they want to look at your listings right away, not find a statement of your vast experience or a large photo of your team. Make that happen with a highly visible place to click for listings.

Avoid Walls

The average internet real estate prospect wants to browse your site without giving up their life history. Provide local real estate and community information in abundance and without requiring a log-in in or an email address, or you'll watch your future clients go to another site.

About You 

There is a place on your site for your experience, designations, and certifications. It's the "About Me" page or something similar. Have a link to it from your homepage. At some point, they'll want to know about you; it just shouldn't be the focus of the homepage.

Not Classifieds

When people read the newspaper, what do they want? It's all about information. They don't look at ads unless they need goods or services. Don't make them look at ads about how great you are when they simply want information. Give them information and lots of it.