How IDX Integration (MLS Search) Works for Squarespace Websites

Squarespace is one of the best real estate website builders for Realtors and investors. It’s easy to set up and customize; however, if you are a US-based Realtor, you would want to know if it’s possible to integrate IDX with Squarespace so that you can fetch listings by your MLS and display them on your website.

In this guide, I am going to explain what challenges you are likely going to face when integrating IDX with Squarespace for your real estate website, how to make the process smooth, and how much it will cost you.

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Does Squarespace offer IDX service?

No, Squarespace doesn’t offer IDX service of its own like many other real estate website builders such as AgentCarrot do, but it’s possible to get IDX for your Squarespace real estate website.

Apart from paying a monthly fee for Squarespace (click here to know more about Squarespace plans), you will need to subscribe to an IDX service provider such as IDXBroker.

You will need at least Squarespace Business Plan (costs $18/month when paid annually) to integrate IDXBroker with Squarespace. The IDXBroker starting plan costs $50/month. You can check out IDXBroker’s Lite plan by clicking here.

How to integrate IDX?

The process is very simple.

You need to get the MLS code snippet from your IDX service provider. This code snippet will be different for each type of IDX widget. For example, the code snippet for displaying featured listing on a page will be different from the one that you will need for displaying an MLS listing for a particular community, neighborhood, or zip code area.
You need to add a Squarespace Code Block on the page where you want to display MLS search or property listings. In some cases, you may also need to use Code Injection – a Squarespace tool used for adding custom HTML to their website.
The third step is to paste the MLS code into the Code Block.

The MLS search integration process hardly takes less than 10 minutes if you know what you are doing.

Integrating IDXBroker with Squarespace

IDXBroker provides detailed guides on how to integrate their IDX with Squarespace. You can check out these guides by clicking here.

It’s basically very simple. You need to copy a code snippet from IDXBroker’s widget section and paste it into the Squarespace Code Block.

Some considerations

While IDX providers such as IDXBroker make it extremely easy for Realtors to add MLS search to their real estate website, the process may differ from provider to provider. Before choosing an IDX provider, make sure that it’s easy to integrate with your Squarespace website.
In some cases when an IDX provider uses HTML <iframes> tag to display MLS listings. It can be very challenging to make the listing display mobile-responsive in these cases. You may have to hire a Squarespace website designer/developer to help you make the listings mobile responsive. Even then, it may not work properly.

Benefits of adding MLS search to Squarespace real estate website

Wondering why you should integrate IDX MLS search to your website? Well, here are a few reasons:

Content marketing: Generating content on a regular basis is one of the biggest challenges for real estate professionals. By integrating an IDX with your Squarespace website, you will put content creation on autopilot. Listings will be fetched from MLS based on the filters you choose such as the latest listing, featured listings, neighborhood, and zip-code specific listings and displayed on your website. You will get tons of content for search engines to index.

Lead generation: You can collect contact details including phone numbers and emails in exchange for allowing your website visitors to browse listings and use MLS search. You will generate leads this way without any additional efforts on your part.

SEO: Many IDX providers such as Realtyna (it works only for WordPress) provide organic MLS search functionality. It means that the content fetched by the MLS is hosted on your website, not a third-party server. This will pass on a lot of SEO juice to your website. Read Also: How to SEO-Audit Your Real Estate Website

Better engagement: The visitor will stay on your website longer when they will use MLS search. They will browse multiple listings. This will not only boost your website’s SEO (average time on site is a major ranking factor these days) but also lead to better engagement with the leads.

Email marketing: You can use MLS search to make your email marketing better. You can email different types of listings alerts at a set frequency to your email list. This will increase engagement with your leads. Creating guides, eBooks, and blog posts for email marketing is a very time-consuming task.

Beat your competition: Even if you are a small team or an individual real estate agent, you can easily beat your competition because like big websites such as Zillow or Realtor, you will also be able to offer your prospects the opportunity to browse listings free of cost.

Looking for help with Squarespace – IDX integration?

If you are looking for professional help to integrate IDX with your Squarespace website, you can reach out to RealtyCrux experts. We will not only design a beautiful real estate website for you but also integrate any IDX service of your choice. Contact us today to learn more!