Getting buyer leads can be extremely challenging due to the fierce competition. Brokers and real estate agents compete against companies such as Zillow and Trulia to grab the attention of buyers.
In such a scenario, your real estate website can help you stand out and make it easier for you to capture buyer leads. However, it should have certain features/elements to win over the competition.
In this guide, I am going to explain what these features are and how to implement them on your website:
Table of Contents
Community guides
Many buyers do in-depth research online about the community they are planning to buy a home in.
Even if a buyer has visited the community in person, she may like to read reviews from local residents and people who have lived there. This is why websites with detailed neighborhood guides attract millions of page views.
For example, Niche.com drives nearly 9 million pageviews a month as shown in the screenshot below:
In order to capture buyer leads, make sure to have a dedicated page for each community that you serve. Make it as detailed as possible with all the relevant data and information about the neighborhoods.
Real estate market data
Home buyers want to know the current state of their target real estate market.
They search for information such as average home value, median listing price, type of homes, number of homes listed for sale on the market, best schools and their rating, demographics, amenities, and distance from nearby landmarks.
It is for this reason that websites such as Zillow put so much emphasis on providing real estate market data on almost every neighborhood or community page of their website.
You can include this information on community pages or the pages targeting keywords such as ‘homes for sale in (neighborhood)’.
So, for example, let’s say you have a page on your website ‘homes for sale in Katy, TX’ on your website.
You can display listings from the MLS feed for this area through IDX. Below the listings, you can provide detailed information about the Katy real estate market. Provide the information with bullet points, infographics, images, and icons. This will not only make the page visually appealing but also make it easier for buyers to consume the information.
‘Homes for sale’ pages
Finding properties for sale is one of the main reasons people visit real estate websites.
For this reason, it is extremely important that buyers are able to search for properties in their desired location.
Here are a few related features that your website should have:
- A search bar that enables prospective buyers to filter the home search based on different criteria such as the number of bedrooms/bathrooms, price range, and location.
- A page dedicated to advanced search where people can use more advanced features such as map, property type, and additional criteria such as lease-type, age of construction, lot description, kitchen description, etc.
- The home buyers should be able to save their search and view it whenever they want to.
- Home search result pages dedicated to each community or neighborhood you serve.
Hyper-local content (local businesses, relocation guides)
Want to get more referral traffic and leads? Well, you can feature relocation guides and promote local businesses in them.
You can also have a section dedicated to featuring the best restaurants, bars, diners, and other such places. You can interview the owners of these businesses.
You will benefit from this in many ways. You will provide buyers useful and authentic information about the local community, and at the same time, get an opportunity to network with local businesses. They can be a great source for referral leads.
Real estate guides for buyers
Most buyers are clueless about the home buying process. There are so many legal and financial formalities that they are often at a loss for what to do in a particular situation.
You can write detailed guides and offer free courses on different aspects of home buying. You can turn the guides into eBooks and share them in exchange for the contact details of buyer leads.
You can then target these buyers with drip email marketing campaigns.
Blogging
Blogging is the best way to get your content ranked higher in Google.
You can write articles on home buying tips and publish them on your website.
Publishing fresh and unique content on a regular basis will not only boost real estate SEO but also help you get buyer leads.
There are hundreds of topics for writing articles that specifically target real estate buyers.
You can get the ideas for real estate blog posts by visiting popular real estate websites and the websites of your competitors.
If you are planning to write real estate blog posts, make sure to read this article that explains how to make them SEO-friendly.
Here is a list of keywords that you will find useful when writing real estate content.
Promoting buyer-focused landing pages
You can create landing pages focused on capturing buyer leads and promote them through paid and free advertising on social media and Google.
If you are planning to build community pages with MLS feeds, detailed community information and real estate data, you can use those as landing pages and promote with Facebook Ads and Google PPC Ads.
You can use geo-targeting features provided by Facebook and Google to promote pages in specific communities and neighborhoods.
Make sure to read the following two articles to know certain restrictions that Facebook and Google have on real estate ads as per the fair housing laws in the US:
- Facebook’s Special Ads Category for Real Estate: Definitive Guide
- Google Ads Restrictions on Real Estate PPC Campaigns: Complete Guide
Social proof to win the trust of buyers
Buyers want to work with real estate agents who are neighborhood experts.
You should use social proof on your website to demonstrate how you are truly a neighborhood expert. Here are a few things that you should highlight on almost every page targeting buyers.
- Reviews and testimonials (Pics of the buyers and/or videos will make them more authentic)
- Reviews you have received on Google My Business, Zillow, and similar platforms
- Recently sold listings
- Recommendations from influencers and local businesses in your area
- Statistics about total number and value of real estate sales and number of clients you have worked with
Engagement tools such as a mortgage calculator
Engagement is important to turn random website visitors into qualified leads.
Your website should have tools such as closing costs and a mortgage calculator.
This will not only boost engagement but also help your content rank higher in Google.
Wondering how?
Well, the visitors will stay longer on your website if they find these tools useful. The length of time a person spends looking at a webpage after they’ve clicked a link on Google is called ‘Dwell Time’ in SEO.
Dwell time has become a major search engine ranking factor in 2022. It means if a visitor stays longer after landing on your website from Google, it will boost SEO.
Engagement tools such as mortgage and closing costs calculator will help you improve Dwell Time.
You can use mortgage calculator pages to provide information about the latest mortgage rates and mortgage news.
Bringing it all together
Providing up-to-date and detailed information about property listings, communities, and real estate markets can help you get buyer leads. Once you get the leads, make sure to keep them engaged through email marketing, social media promotions, and Google Ads.
You can use the retargeting feature of Facebook Ads and Google Ads to show ads to people who have visited your website. This will help you increase brand awareness.
If you need professional help with building a real estate website that helps you capture buyer leads, get in touch with us today!
