Realtor Websites: What Brings in Leads and What's Just Decoration

Real estate agent websites often look impressive: large photos, drone video, slick animations. Many of them bring in very few leads. The parts that bring in buyers and sellers are usually simpler, and easier to get right.

This post sorts the parts of a realtor website into what earns leads and what’s mostly decoration, so you can spend your time where it counts.

What brings in leads

A clear answer to “who are you, and where?”

People choose agents who know their area. Say plainly at the top of your home page who you help and where, for example “Helping buyers and sellers in Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights.” Name the neighborhoods, towns or areas you actually work, not the whole region.

Neighborhood pages you wrote yourself

Pages about the areas you know are among the most useful things on an agent’s site. They help buyers who are new to an area, and they help search engines connect you with people searching for those places.

A good neighborhood page covers what it’s like to live there, the kinds of homes and price ranges, schools and transit, and your own honest take. Write it yourself, from experience. Generic text that could describe anywhere won’t help anyone.

A reason to leave contact details

Most visitors aren’t ready to call an agent on their first visit. Give them something useful in exchange for an email address or phone number:

• A home value request for sellers. “Find out what your home could sell for” gives homeowners a reason to get in touch before they’re ready to list. Follow up personally with a real estimate, not only an automated number.
• Listing alerts for buyers, so they hear about new homes that match what they want.
• A short buyer’s or seller’s guide to your area.

Keep the forms short: name, email or phone, and one or two questions.

Listings that are current and easy to search

If you show listings, they must be accurate and up to date. A home that sold two months ago, still listed as available, wastes a buyer’s time and makes them doubt everything else on the site.

Listing feeds (IDX, through your MLS) keep your site current automatically, and let buyers search by price, area and size. If you don’t use a feed, show your own current listings and sold homes, and update them every time something changes.

Proof you get results

Buyers and sellers want to know you’ve done this before. Show:

• homes you’ve sold, with the area and, where you’re allowed to share it, the result
• real reviews from past clients, with their permission, or a link to your reviews on Google or Zillow
• your license information, as your state requires

Never invent results, numbers or reviews. Keep claims specific and true.

An easy way to reach you

Your phone number and email should be on every page, and the phone number should be tappable. If you text with clients, say so. Many buyers would rather text than call.

What’s mostly decoration

None of the following is bad. It just rarely brings in a lead on its own, so don’t let it crowd out the things above.

• Autoplaying video on the home page. It slows the site down on phones and pushes the useful parts further down the page.
• Drone footage of the skyline. Beautiful, and it tells a buyer very little about which homes you can help them find.
• A long mission statement. Two or three plain sentences about how you work are enough.
• Heavy animations and effects. If the site feels slow, people leave before they see your listings.
• Stock photos of happy families holding keys. People have seen them a thousand times. A real photo of you in the neighborhood you work does far more.

Where to start

If you’re rebuilding your site, or starting one, work in this order:

1. A clear home page: who you help, where, and how to reach you.
2. A home value request page for sellers.
3. A page for each main area you work, written by you.
4. Current listings and recent sales.
5. Reviews and a short, honest about page.

Everything else can come later.

Mistakes to avoid

• Out-of-date listings still shown as available.
• A site that’s slow on a phone, where most buyers look at homes.
• Contact forms that ask for too much, or go to an inbox you don’t check.
• Brokerage branding so dominant that nobody learns your name.
• Claims you can’t back up, such as “top agent” without saying top according to whom.

Check your brokerage’s rules too. Many have requirements about how you display your license, the brokerage name and listings on your own site.

If you’d like help

We build agent websites around what brings in leads: a clear home page, area pages, a home value request and easy contact, all fast on a phone. A site is $2,000, with a page for every area you cover. We write the words with you, so your area pages sound like you. See our pricing, or tell us about your business.