Do You Need A Real Estate Website?
One of the most common questions I get from agents is whether they should have a Real Estate website or not.
Ten years ago I would have said “yes”, definitely. These days, I would say that it really depends on what result you expect to get from your website. So maybe you don’t need your own website.
What I am sure of, is that whether you have your own website - and I am not referring to the pages that Brokerages provide, or not, most agents will benefit from having a strong internet presence. So whether it is your own website or just being visible on the most popular apps, you have to be found when your potential clients Google you. And they will.
For my Brokerage business, I have multiple websites. Truthfully more than I need and if I didn’t already have those websites getting traffic, I would probably have only one or two. Why do I have multiple sites? Well they each have different purposes and content.
On ellisposner.com I have what I consider my full portfolio including past sales, videos, blog posts, reviews and just about anything else you can think of. I’ve also tried to give it a more personal feel than most Real Estate websites.
Another site I have is socalistings.com. Socalistings is also a brand name I use on Facebook. That site has less about me and more information about buying and selling Real Estate.
A much more Buyer focused site is losangeleshousehunt.com (isn’t that a great name). That one is 90% Buyer focused and I use some managed services on it like a virtual assistant and a call center to contact people who register on it.
Two of the oldest sites I have are 90278RealEstate.com and 90266RealEstate.com which, if you recognize the zip codes are for Redondo Beach and Manhattan Beach. I launched those sites over 10 years ago when having hyper local sites seemed like a really good idea. These days, I wouldn’t do that again for a whole bunch of reasons with the primary one being that there are many more platforms that I need to spend time on and there’s only so much time available.
As for the 2 neighborhood specific sites, I have over ten years of blog posts on each of those and many have what are considered “long tail” keywords which get SEO traffic. Speaking of SEO, I can directly attribute millions of dollars of sales to people who found me from those blog posts. And, chances are that if you are reading this and are not a current coaching client of mine, you first found this site from a Google search.
Let’s backtrack and ask the question again: “Do I need a Real Estate website?”.
“If your Real Estate website has a specific purpose, it can be a very effective way to attract business.”
By specific purpose, I am referring to sites that are:
content rich to get SEO traffic
supported by PPC traffic for lead capture
special purpose or have special purpose pages
What I don’t recommend is a generic Realtor site with a search bar and content blog created for you. Unless you spend a ton of money supporting that via PPC, it won’t get you any business and you are better served putting your time, money and effort elsewhere.
Where is “elsewhere”.
Round up the usual social suspects such as Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Twitter. I’ve heard good feedback about TikTok (really) and some agents have done well with Pinterest or Houzz. Then there are neighborhood focused sites search as NextDoor which I have heard that some agents have leveraged.
In addition to those, having reviews everywhere is also useful. I have done very well with Zillow and others have done well with Yelp (where I’ve never gotten any real traction). And those are just two. Recently the Google business page reviews have gained traction and then there are the other portals where you can find reviews.
SUMMARY
In 2022, and presumably going forward, Real Estate agent websites most likely are of limited value unless:
They have a special purpose, or
You spend a a lot of money promoting them, or
Both
Whether you have your own Real Estate site or are using social media to promote your brand, content is king with video being some of the best content you can do.