If you’re in the real estate business, chances are that your website is one of your most valuable tools. In fact, it may be the number one way that you reach your customers.
Today’s real estate companies rely on their website as their go-to marketing strategy. They use it to communicate with consumers and gain new business. They rely on it to grow their email/e-news lists, identify potential prospects, and much more.
According to data from the National Association of Realtors, in 2017, 95% of homebuyers searched online when looking to buy a home. Only 50% of buyers attended an open house during their search. And a measly 6% relied on yard signs to locate houses.
The NAR also reports that 89% of homebuyers found online images helpful. And, 85% turned to the web for detailed information about potential purchases.
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How Can the Benefits of WordPress Help Your Real Estate Business?
In their Real Estate in a Digital Age 2017 Report, NAR’s researchers found that over 90% of real estate companies have a website for their business.
You might already have your own business site as well and are wondering how it measures up. Or, you are just getting your company off the ground and want to determine which content management system is right for you.
It’s quite possible that you’ve been around for awhile, long enough to realize that your current system isn’t meeting your needs. Now, you’re hoping to switch to one that will.
No matter where you are in your website’s development, if you’re reading this, you must be wondering how the benefits of WordPress apply to you.
Chances are, you’re here to find out if you’re getting all that you can out of your website.
If you are, are you taking full advantage of all that the software offers realtors? And if you aren’t, are the benefits of WordPress enough to convince you to become a customer?
WordPress is the #1 CMS on the Web
There has to be a reason that WordPress is the most widely used CMS in the real estate industry. And, it’s not just ruling the real estate industry. It’s the top pick of the vast majority of sites on the web.
The reigning web king grew from servicing 13% of all sites in 2011 to providing service to a whopping 25% by 2015. The next two top choices in line behind WP serviced less than 5% combined. And, all 4 of the remaining competitors that were ranked at the time also held a combined total of less than 5%.
Could the millions of website owners who prefer the benefits of WordPress over any other CMS, actually be wrong?
We suppose it’s possible. But, in this case, we’d have to agree that they are right on target.
Here’s why WordPress gets our vote.
Reasons WordPress is the Right Pick for Realtors
1. It Offers Businesses a Full-Service All in One Content Management System
What started as a blogging platform has blossomed into a pro content marketing system available to anyone and everyone. The WordPress.org site allows you to own and fully control your website. While their .com site, which is more limited, can be shut down if a user violates the terms and conditions.
For a small monthly fee, you receive access to your own business website, along with thousands of widgets, plugins, and themes. The dashboard is among the easiest out there. And, they have customer service experts available to assist you along the way.
Overall, WordPress offers an exceptional user experience.
In addition, they have detailed explanatory pages available via their WordPress home site. And, they offer a variety of educational opportunities to increase your knowledge and skills.
It’s easy enough that everyone can set up and run their own site if they have the time and put forth a little effort. It’s affordable. And, the benefits of WordPress includes all of the necessary features to rival any competitor’s website.
2. Thousands of Real Estate-Ready Themes to Choose From
There are plenty of themes available at no extra charge, on both the free and paid WordPress platforms. The WordPress.org site offers a full array of themes released at a cost in recent years (2015-2016). These are now available to existing customers for free.
But, to get the greatest benefits of WordPress, it’s suggested by those that businesses install an additional theme set. This allows you to fully customize your own site so that it’s completely unique to your business. And, it’s usually affordable enough to fit within the smallest budgets.
The great thing about WordPress is that it offers pro themes that are specifically for the real estate industry. So, you have a variety of options to make your site look polished and professional, with easy setup and uniformity included in these packages.
3. Update Content / SEO Whenever and Wherever You Choose
One of the major benefits of WordPress is that it’s perfect for the content-driven marketing strategies that are used by the majority of real estate professionals today.
It allows you to communicate up to the minute information to your potential and existing customers.
As soon as you find out that a house is listed, you can pass that information on to your audience. And who knows, it could be just the news that a buyer was waiting to hear, making it a win-win for you and the consumer.
In addition to allowing you to schedule content and post at any time and from any location that has an internet connection, it was created originally for blogging. So, it’s super user-friendly and makes blogging a breeze. The interface is simple, and there are loads of tools available to help make sure that you are delivering top-notch content.
You can identify keywords, optimize your SEO, get help with images and access other great marketing tools and bonuses that make your job much easier.
For example, optional plug-ins keep spam out, construct your call to action and contact forms, and ensure that your internal links are not broken and lead customers where you intended.
4. WordPress is Social Media Savvy
It’s well known that today’s consumers are getting more and more of their marketing information from social media sites. So, even if you aren’t personally into friends and followings, it’s important that you are mindful of those in your audience who are.
And given the typical modern-day customer, there’s a good chance that many of the people that you want to reach can be found surfing the social media platforms.
With all of the benefits of WordPress, you’ll be set.
They have created buttons and other social media add-ons to invite your visitors to keep in touch with you on virtually all of the major social media platforms. This enables you to maintain contact with those visitors who aren’t regular subscribers to your blog or on your email contact list, by allowing them the option of connecting on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and others.
There are also tools that can help you create the most enticing and shareable headlines possible. And, their content-friendly interface assists in creating content that can be easily passed on via yourself or your audience in a package that’s suited to be shared on the most popular social media sites around.
There are plug-ins that assist site owners with scheduling automated social sharing, social media management, unfollowing accounts, identifying real-estate -minded groups, boosting traffic, and redirecting commenters to your social media site, subscriber form, or to a customized thank you message.
5. No Expertise Needed to Create, Share, and Capture Beautiful Images
With multiple plug-ins and free tools available, sharing high-quality images with your visitors is a cinch.
This is one of the benefits of WordPress that realtors find especially useful. The time it takes to list and load photos on your site is cut down to less than a minute in many cases. And most people in the real estate business realize just how valuable this can be.
There is the option (via a plug-in) to integrate major real-estate online sources, such as Trulia, Zillow, and Yahoo into your feed, so you and your audience can easily access updated information and images from these popular sites.
In addition, there are plug-ins that you can use with your captured images and video to maximize the benefits of WordPress.
There are specifically designed for-realtor WordPress features that give you the ability to create panoramic images and 360-degree views of property listings. Realtors are able to offer buyers virtual tours and images in HDR, which both you and your customers will appreciate.
You can easily categorize and display only available properties or display feature listings on your site.
There is the option to design and create professional Open House fliers, printables for your customers of listings, directions, to do lists, and more with WordPress. As well as compile commonly requested forms under one tab and make them all handily accessible to your visitors.
WordPress plug-ins offer realtors pre-formatted templates to create their own customized forms for their site as well.
You can even capture screenshots and images to share immediately on social media or on your site through your computer.
6. WordPress is Cost Effective
One of the benefits of WordPress that has made it so wildly popular, not only for the real estate industry but for all site owners, is that it’s exceptionally cost-effective.
While the pro-site, as well as some of the additional features, themes, and plug-ins, do incur a charge, the cost is far less than one would expect.
In fact, if you were to individually purchase all of the benefits of WordPress it might cost you hundreds to thousands of dollars a month.
With their easy to use dashboard, operating system, and overall functionality, the site makes it possible to forgo the expense of hiring multiple sources for social media management, content management, marketing and website design. The costs of these duties can be combined, saving you thousands of dollars.
Of course, if you choose to outsource optional tasks, that’s up to you. But, it’s possible for a novice to perform their site’s management.
Many realtors, especially those with limited budgets or those just starting out, prefer maintaining much of their own site and can save loads of money doing so.
A professional real estate website developer and digital marketing expert can perform all of the maintenance, set-up, and design for your site. This includes security, social media marketing duties, creating landing pages, lead generation, recruitment software and more.
Traditionally, these tasks would require hiring several individual professionals. But, today, you can use one service to manage your site, market your site, and climb rankings.
With the help of a modern-day real estate web developer, you can also fully secure your WordPress site. This is not often true of traditional sites. Although this service may cost you up-front, the advantages of ensuring your site’s security are well worth it. And, an insecure website can cost you in all kinds of ways.
7. Grow Your Site Easily
As your business grows, your needs within your website will grow and change as well.
The ease of transitioning your site alongside your company is one of the most attractive benefits of WordPress for professionals.
You might be a one-man show today, but in a couple of years you might have grown to include your own staff, and have several realtors working for you. Obviously, your website for one wouldn’t accommodate your needs any longer.
You don’t have to create a new site or go through a complicated process that could involve losing uptime. WordPress allows you to integrate upgrades, add many users, and increase functionality as needed.
There are even tools to track your growth and keep you notified when an upgrade would better suit your needs.
Find Out How WordPress Can Benefit You!
Are you ready to take advantage of all of the benefits of WordPress available for realtors?
Your site can be set-up quickly, with all of the features listed in this post, as well as many more.
WordPress is the top choice for realtors who want more from their website.
Want a website that maximizes your potential, drives traffic and boosts conversion rates?
Contact us today to put WordPress to work for you!