Real Estate Web Sites
Make Your Real Estate Web Site
Search Friendly?
Have you noticed that most Realtor and real estate web sites are not
designed to be search-engine friendly? While most real estate web sites
look good, most of the sites only have one or two pages listed in the
major search engines. Usually, those two pages are the Home page and the
About Us page. One or two pages will not give you the exposure you want
but two pages are better than none. Yes, two pages are better than no
pages but where are the homes, lots, and businesses you want to sell?
Real estate is like any other business: its about traffic. Is your real
estate web site providing you with e-mail contacts and questions from
prospective buyers? If not, the reason may be simple: your site is not
being found in the search results of search engines like Google, Yahoo,
and MSN. These three are the major Internet search sites but there are
many more search engines and search directories in which your real estate
web site should be listed.
TIP:
To see which pages Google or Yahoo has listed for your site,
type: site:www.yourdomainname.com in their
search input field.
There are several reason why most real estate web sites don’t show up
well in the major search engines:
- Complex site navigation schemes.
- Improper use of frames.
- Properties are listed only in a database.
- The web site wasn't designed for global
access.
While there are other reasons for your real estate web site having poor
search engine results, these four are the main reasons.
As an example, complex JavaScript or DHTML site navigation menus may
look neat and appear to save space and even appear to make site navigation
easier; however, search engines have a difficult time reading and
following navigation links embedded within any script. There are
workarounds but the best solution is to not rely on any menu system that
relies on any complex coding.
Also, complex navigation menus may not behave as you expect in other
browsers so even if someone does finds your real estate web site, they may
become distracted by the navigation system and leave your site. Simple
navigation should always be used instead of complex navigation menus that
pop up or pop out as the mouse is placed on a link.
Frame are another reason for poor real estate web site search engine
listings. Frame are handy and search engines can follow the frame page if
legal coding tricks are used. However, the real problem with frames is
that a page can show up in search engines that has no navigation or no way
to re-frame the page. This frustrates your potential buyer, which means
he/she may well go to an easier real estate web site.
Another serious real estate web site design flaw is placing your
properties only in a database. Pages generated from a database do not
exist until someone fills in a form that tells the database to display a
list of properties that meet his or her input criteria. Search engines
cannot fill in a form to request such a list so those pages do not exist
for search engines.
If you want your properties listed in search engines, and you should,
your properties must be listed on one or more pages of your real estate
web site. You can use several methods for displaying your listings:
- List by categories: Homes, Apartments, Condos, Businesses
- List properties under each listing agent
- List homes by size, price, number of rooms, etc.
If you have less than 30 to 50 listings, it is better to actually list
one or more properties on a web site page. However, if you prefer a
database listing of your real estate properties, it is still better to
provide both the web page and a database search. Of course, if you have
more that 50 listings, a database may be the best solution, but it would
be a good idea to provide individual pages for some of your featured
listing in each property category.
This method of listing each property on individual pages of your real
estate web site takes a little more time and effort than only using a
database but the search engine exposure for your real estate web site can
provide more sales leads and, hopefully, more sales.
These are some simple things to do on a real estate web site if you
want to improve your chances of being found in the major search engines
and increase you web site traffic.
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