Listings Listings Listings on Your Real Estate Website

Where do you start when you want to put together a web site? You have to have listings on your web site. Now that seems pretty obvious but I'm always amazed at how hard it is to find listings on a lot of sites.

Access to listings should be prominently dispayed on your home page. A button is fine but there should be another place beside the button. It should appear on the part of the page that visitors see when they arrive at your web site. (Fancy web term for where the access should be found-above the fold).

You only have a very short period of time to snag the visitors attention. Make sure they know that they can access listings easily. If you have the world's greatest site and no one gets into it what have you accomplished?

Listings aren't the only ingredient but I think they are essential. Put yourself in the shoes of a typical web site visitor. They don't care about the real estate agent-at least at first-it's hard to care a lot for someone you don't know. You want to see what is available in the area first and foremost. Make it easy for me and I may just want to get to know you.

For visitors who don't know you, your web site is sort of like a blind date-you want to know what they look like first and easy to find listings make you good looking. OK good first impression, maybe it is worth getting to know you. (Now is where the rest of your content comes in-thats your personality)

What if you don't have listings? There are lots of ways to get them. How about your company's listings? Will they let you put them on your site? Is there an IDX or VOW solution available from your multiple listing service? Will other agents in your office let you put thier listings on your site? Figure out a way. Just make sure what you are doing doesn't violate the rules or the law.

Here of some examples of sites I have helped my clients with that demonstrate what I am talking about. Ed Wojan Realty- Ed has a small office on beautiful Beaver Island in Michigan. It is almost impossible to stop on his page and not be engaged by the listings. Evanston Area Homes- This site is owned by John Adamson of Lake Shore Partners in Evanston, Illinois. John uses an IDX solution to display listings prominently on his site. Long Grove Property- Bev Ross' site in Long Grove, Illinois frames her companies access to the multiple listing service to allow visitors to search for listings. Finally, Ric Realtor- Rick Brown's site in Libertyville, Illinois combines an MLS search similar to Bev Ross' site along with his own listings like we saw in Ed Wojan's site.

OK repeat after me, where do we start when we put together our web site? Listings, listings, listings.