A single property website used to be one of those “nice to have” things that only the especially savvy realtors use. Not anymore: as the Internet plays an increasingly bigger role in the home buying and home selling process, more and more sellers – and buyers – are expecting to see a listing website.

A listing website is a Web page that is dedicated to a single property, or a single listing. It’s a wonderful way to present a property, because it creates a one-stop place where all the relevant information about a property, including photos, neighborhood photos and even disclosures, can be found.

Single property websites are very easy to find online, because their URL usually contains the property’s physical address, which means that when someone searches for the address, the single property websites will likely be the first result they see.

Sellers are expecting you to create a single property website for their listing because they see it as something “extra” that you are giving them – as going above and beyond. Most don’t realize just how affordable listing websites are for agents, and how easy they are to create, because they look so professional!

The best thing about a listing website is that you can create a demo site before winning a listing, present it to the sellers, and then- after that beautiful website helps you secure the listing – you can go ahead, pay, and take it live. The site will stay up for a full year, and will include built-in, easy to use tools for sharing properties on a wide range of social networks.

Savvy sellers expect their agents to be savvy too, and this means knowing how to leverage every possible online tool to help them sell their home quickly and effectively.

Sellers Expect a Listing Website is a post from: Properties Online Blog

We love technology and believe it can greatly help real estate agents. One noteworthy example is the use of QR codes for real estate. A QR (Quick Response) Code is a barcode that is readable via a smart phone. The idea is that users scan a barcode using their phone, and are then directed to a specific landing page. In real estate, we see QR codes used in several ways.

QR Codes Embedded into Print Advertising

This can definitely be useful, as it enables a prospect who looks at a print ad to scan the code and use their phone to get to the property site or to the agent website, where they can learn a lot more about the property.

QR Codes Embedded into Agent Sites

This seems to us like more hype than a useful feature. Why would anyone whip out a camera and take a picture of a QR code to bring them to a website on their mobile phone, when they could just click a link on their computer that takes them to the page?

QR Codes on For Sale Sign Riders

This is another useful tool for Agents. However, not everyone has a smart phone (yet) so Property Address Domains are much better and easier for the consumer because they can simply enter the url and go to the website, either in front of the home, or later in front of a computer.

Another issue with focusing too much on QR codes is that this marketing method pretty much eliminates anyone who doesn’t own a smart phone with internet access, and there are still plenty of those!

It will be interesting to see what new programs and platforms that utilize QR codes pop into the real estate tech field in the near future. I for one am looking forward to that!

QR Codes for Real Estate is a post from: Properties Online Blog

Once you have an agent website, you should make sure it’s optimized for search engines. But Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a long-term effort to get your site to the top of the search results. It can take months until your efforts pay off and requires constant monitoring and tweaking. In the meantime, for faster results, you can use Google Adwords.

What is Google Adwords?

Google Adwords is Google’s Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ad network.  PPC is an Internet advertising model, in which advertisers pay their host only when their ad is clicked. With search engines, advertisers typically bid on keyword phrases relevant to their target market. For example, if you work in Seattle, you would likely want to base your Adwords campaign on keywords such as “Seattle real estate,” “Seattle homes for sale” etc. If you manage your Adwords campaign well, your ad could appear on the first page of search results, under the “Sponsored Links” tab.

Why Use Google Adwords?

As explained by Google, Countless home buyers use Google to browse for real estate information each month. Google Adwords enable you to reach prospects in your region at all stages of their home search – while they’re looking for properties, checking out locations, and selecting an agent.

Google AdWords can be a very effective  tool for sending more traffic to your real estate site. Google AdWords  offers a measurable, pay-for-performance solution that enables you to determine your costs and only pay when a prospect clicks on your ad to visit your website. You can continually monitor your campaign to see what’s working and what’s not, and you can modify or halt your campaign at any time.

An important aspect of Adwords for real estate agents is that it enables you to target users by location. This allows you to reach home buyers and sellers specifically within your service area.

Controlling Your Adwords Budget

You should be aware that if you’re not careful, your Adwords budget can easily balloon and get out of control. If you’re just starting out with Adwords, it might be a good idea to pre-pay for your first campaign. This will ensure that you don’t go over your budget.

Converting Adwords Traffic To Leads

A well-managed PPC campaign is likely to increase the traffic to your site, but that traffic will stick around and turn into leads – and possibly clients – only if your site is attractive, rich in information and interactive. The last thing you want it to pay for clicks that end up bouncing off your site. Before starting your PPC campaign, make sure your agent site is as good as it can possibly be.

Nice Video from the UK with more information about google Adwords:

An introduction to Google AdWords

Adwords and PPC advertising for Real Estate Agents is a post from: Properties Online Blog

Adding video to your agent site also allows you to reach out and connect with more potential clients. While a text-rich website is important from an SEO point of view, adding video to your site enhances the user experience, which is an important factor in the success of any website.

Real estate websites are sometimes “dry,” even a little boring. By adding video to your site you can add an entertainment factor that your visitors would appreciate. As a result, your website will be more “sticky” and visitors will stay around longer, browsing.

Since we believe video can greatly enhance realtor websites, our real estate websites are equipped with a YouTube plug-in that enables you to easily place a YouTube video on any page of your website. Our built-in YouTube player allows you to add video to your website either in the media panel or in the body of any website page.

Adding video to your website using our YouTube plugin is easy, and it makes your website interactive and fun for your visitors. Take advantage of this free tool – it’s a great way to improve your agent website.

Agents – Engage your Visitors with Video is a post from: Properties Online Blog

SEO, or search engine optimization, is important for any website, and this is true for real estate websites as well. Essentially, SEO helps to make sure that your website will be found on the Internet.

Optimizing your web site itself, or on-page optimization, is just part of your efforts to build a web presence, but it’s certainly a major part.

If a search engine bot crawls your web pages but your web pages don’t “tell” it what your site is all about, then the search engine will not be able to index your web site correctly, and people who search online for what you offer will not be able to find you.

For example, if you sell real estate in Austin, Texas, your site’s title tags and copy need to include related keywords such as “Austin real estate,” “homes for sale in Austin” etc.

Another important factor in determining whether your website will rank well for your main keywords is inbound links. Search engines show strong preference to websites who have links from other websites pointing at them. High quality agent site companies have tools in place to help your agent website get links.

Engaging in social media will also bring you links over time, because the people you connect with will learn about your site, and if you provide useful material, they may link to it.

Another important aspect of on-page search engine optimization is to add a blog to your real estate site. A blog, unlike a static site, tends to be rich in text. If you write it correctly and include your main keywords throughout the text, a blog can give your SEO efforts a significant boost.

Real Estate Websites: Why SEO is Important is a post from: Properties Online Blog

Over the years, Google has been fighting against spammers and their spam sites. It was almost like a game, but it was a high-stakes game: Google’s top priority was to only serve relevant, legitimate results to its users. Spammers had a different idea: their goal was to get their low-quality sites to the top of the search engine result pages (SERPs), even if for a short time, slap Adsense ads on those sites and earn nice amounts of money from all the traffic that would click on the ads to exit the disappointing site.

Determined to win this war, Google has tweaked its famous search algorithm, adding more and more tools and parameters that would make it nearly impossible for a spammy site to climb to the top of the SERPs. Google has pretty much won this war – and a big part of that is the insistence that sites have backlinks from other sites before they can get higher rankings (and in many cases, before they can be indexed at all).

What are Backlinks?

Backlinks are links that other sites are sending to your site, and they are essentially an indication of  your website’s reputation on the Web. A site that has no backliks is suspicious and won’t have good search engine rankings, because if other sites do not acknowledge its existence, then it could be a spam site, or it could simply be a low-quality site. Google doesn’t want to see either at the top of the SERPs.

You Need Quality Backlinks

But it’s not enough to get backlinks. They need to be quality backlinks.  When Google first added the backlinks parameter, spammers were quick to create “link farms” – sites whose sole purpose was to send links to other sites. Since this process can be automated, spammers were able to send tons of links to new sites. As soon as the folks at Google figured out this was going on, they tweaked their algorithm yet again, de-indexed link farms, and they also added the requirement that at least some of the links that a new site receives need to be quality links, from reputable sites.

How Does One Get Backlinks?

So How do you get those coveted backlinks? The best way is to create a truly interesting, high-quality agent site; write an interesting blog; and connect with others in your space using social media tools. When you write your blog posts, link to other blogs (make sure they are reputable), and leave comments on those blogs. Sooner or later, one or more of the people whose blogs you frequent and the people you interact with using social media, is likely to link back to your own blog or site. If you get links from reputable sites or blogs, all you need is a handful of those links to convince Google that you are for real.

High Quality is Key

Another way to get backlinks is to submit real estate articles to article directories such as EzineArticles, including a link back to your site in those articles (follow each directory’s linking rules). But whatever you do to get backlinks, remember that gaming the system is pretty much impossible these days. Your material, whether submitted to a directory or published on your own blog or site, absolutely must be of high quality.

Google Backlinks – Why Do I Need Them? is a post from: Properties Online Blog

If you’re using social media to promote your real estate business, that’s great! Congrats on being sophisticated enough to use a widely available marketing tool that can make a real difference in terms of building your brand and connecting with prospects and clients. You should however realize that when it comes to social media, there are definitely a few unspoken rules that you should be aware of. Here’s a list of social media Do’s and Don’ts:

DO Use Social Media to Interact

Social media is, above all, about interacting. If all you do on your social media channels is broadcasting, meaning you just broadcast your own links and opinions but never interact with others, then you are missing out on the most important aspect of social media, and your social media campaign will be significantly less effective. It’s called social media for a reason – it’s all about socializing.

DON’T Spam!

One of the most annoying uses of social media by inexperienced users is to use social media to spam other people. For example, there are countless Twitter accounts who are created for the sole purpose of following the maximum amount of people Twitter allows at a time (2000) and spamming them with the message “Check out our website!” We always wonder about the people who do this – do they really believe that anyone would actually go and check out their website? This type of “social” media activity is in fact anti-social and is a waste of time for everyone, including the spammer.

DO Follow People of Interest

When you create a Facebook account or a Twitter page, do follow people and businesses who are of true interest to you and are related to your area of expertise. For example, on Twitter it’s perfectly fine to follow people from your immediate area, or to set up a search for people who mention that they’re looking for a house in your area and follow them.

DON’T Play the Numbers Game

Lots of social media users get caught up in a “numbers game,” where they feel pressured to have as many followers as possible. But a lean social media account, where you have a handful of followers who are truly interested in what you have to say, is far superior to an inflated social media account where you’ve used automatic following tools to follow thousands of people, got thousands of follow-backs, but none of these followers listens to what you have to say, becuase all they’re interested in is having lots of followers.

DO Be Polite

The number one rule of social media: even though you’re on the Internet, you are interacting with real people. Be as courteous and polite as you would be if you were interacting with those people face to face.

Social Media Do’s and Don’ts is a post from: Properties Online Blog

If you’ve been ignoring the mobile trend, assuming it’s “just a phase” or just not finding the time to deal with it, we urge you to reconsider. Mobile is hot, and real estate mobile is here to stay. In fact, all studies point at one direction – more and more people will choose to access the Internet through their smartphones, and more and more people will expect the ease and convenience of mobile apps.

Smartphones are convenient, and more and more consumers are seeing them as part of managing their hectic modern schedule. As of Q1 ‘10, Nielsen data shows that 23% of mobile consumers now have a smartphone, up from just 16% in Q2 ’09. Experts agree that penetration will near 100% by 2013. And the global market for mobile applications is expected to more than triple from just under $10 billion at the end of 2009 to $32 billion in 2015.

But what does mobile have to do with real estate? A lot! As a real estate professional, you must assume that a growing number of prospects will have smartphones, and Internet access on the go. Be conscious of that as you plan your marketing and make sure you make the most out of that Internet access. Include QR codes in your print media and on your lawn signs, for fast access to a listing’s site. Optimize your website and property sites for mobile viewing, or at the very least create special optimized landing pages and make sure the QR codes direct to them.

Another great way to make the most out of the mobile Web is to develop a real estate mobile app, that would enable prospects to access the Internet directly, will provide an optimal Internet experience, and will – of course – have a “cool” factor that would make it fun to access the app and use it. After all, “fun” and “cool” are just as important as “fast” and “useful” when it comes to the mobile Web in general, and to mobile real estate in particular.

Real Estate Mobile is a post from: Properties Online Blog

Real estate videos are hot! They are one of the fastest growing marketing trends for real estate professionals. Perfect for a social media and for an Internet savvy generation, real estate videos provide buyers with a rich experience, they beautifully capture and highlight each listing, and – when included in a single property website  – they deeply impress sellers and help you win listings.

Here are our must-dos for creating a great real estate video:

Keep it short

Attention spans on the Internet are SHORT. People are busy and don’t have time to watch anything that’s longer than a couple of minutes. The ideal real estate video is about one minute long.

Add a soundtrack

The right soundtrack gets people in the right mood and will help them enjoy the visuals included in the video.

Include still images that highlight different angles

The idea is to get an almost three-dimensional feel of the house, and including a sequence of photos of the same room taken from different angles is a great way to achieve that. The real estate video software will create smooth transitions between the photos and zoom in/out effects, so you don’t need to worry about that.

Add captions

While you shouldn’t include too much text in a real estate video – after all, this is about visuals, it’s important to include a few captions that highlight the most important information you would like to share about the property.

Most importantly, don’t forget to have fun! Creating a real estate video is a wonderfully creative process, and one of the best ways to truly showcase a property. The final outcome is always so exciting to watch. Play with your options, have fun, write short descriptive captions, and the end result will be fun to watch and to share online.

Real Estate Videos – The Must Do List is a post from: Properties Online Blog

Are you using social media? Are you making the most out of it? If you don’t, you might find yourself behind the real estate professionals who do! Social media is a wonderful tool for reaching out to prospects and letting them know about your services and your expertise. It’s also a valuable tool for staying in touch with existing and former clients.

Here are our top five social media must-dos for realtors:

1. Create a business page on Facebook

It’s important to keep your professional social media presence separate from your personal account. A Facebook profile is appropriate for keeping in touch with your friends, but most of the information you post there will not be relevant, or interesting, to your clients and prospects. For example, your clients will not want to hear that you are going out drinking with your friends this weekend! By keeping these accounts separate, you can keep in touch with your friends AND with your clients, providing each group with the information they would actually like to get from you.

2. Don’t keep your social media presence a secret!

Include prominent links to your social media accounts on your agent website, in your email signature and on your print media. The more fans your Facebook page has, the more viral it will become and the more valuable it will be. Make it easy for people to find it.

3. Update your social media accounts regularly

A Facebook fan page should be updated about once a day – more than that could be an imposition on fans and could cause some of them to hide your messages, which is the last thing you want! A Twitter account can be updated multiple times each day. Include short updates on new and sold listings (Real Estate Sites automates this process), and general observations on the real estate market.

4. Be helpful and knowledgeable

Social media is about forming connections, having conversations and sharing information. It’s important to use social media to show your expertise and share tips and information with clients and prospects. A blog is the best tool for this, but writing regular notes on your Facebook page will work too.

5. Make it fun and worthwhile

Research consistently shows that one of the main motives for people to join a Facebook page is when you offer them an incentive. It’s a good idea to offer the occasional discount for new fans, or new blog subscribers, run contests, and include interactive tools on your agent site that make it fun for people to join.

Top 5 Social Media Must Dos for Realtors is a post from: Properties Online Blog