Real Estate Website Design Considerations

Posted by Premier Commission on December 15, 2016 in Real Estate

Real estate website design can be incredibly challenging and tiring, not because it is particularly difficult, but because of how many things you must consider. The site needs to be visually appealing without being overbearing. It also needs to be easy to maneuver, user simply do not have the patience to figure out a website that is difficult to navigate.

If you are faced with a new real estate website design project, here are the things you should consider before you get started.

Research

Before you get started, take the time to research other real estate website designs. Look for commonalities that make them better, as well as the unique elements that make a website stand out compared to the competition.

Be aware of the latest trends. The current trend may become the expectation within a few years. That is exactly what happened with responsive and mobile designs.

Branding

One of your first considerations for your real estate website design will be how you add your branding. Some companies do it by using their company color, others use fonts and characters that express their company’s identify.

For real estate, you are the brand. This means you will need to include pictures of yourself in several places. You should also let some of your personality shine through in your site.

Layout

The way your layout each page will affect the number of people who continue to use your site. While the traditional side bar is great to help with navigation, more sites are opting to have a home page that looks different. An increasing number of home pages are the site map. Each of the pages are broken up into short sections on the home page. These sections provide details about what users will find on the page.

This does mean that the home page is incredibly long, but this is no longer considered a problem. Since users are already accustomed to this kind of functionality because of cell phone, they have become accustomed to getting what they need in one place instead of having to flip through several pages.

Your Platform and Technology

One of the most critical elements of real estate website design is the platform you will use and the technology that will access it. Since your site needs to be interactive, you need a robust platform. WordPress is one of the most common because it offers a lot of solutions that you aren’t even aware you need in the beginning.

Ultimately, you want a platform that takes care of all the major areas of the website:

• User experience
• CRM technology
• Live listings

WordPress is popular because it integrates a lot of different technology for optimal results.

Content

This one is obvious yet all too often not considered element of real estate website design. You need to create a content plan for your site. It will help you determine how many pages you need, define what you offer, and how to use SEO most effectively. Since listings fall into this category, you need to have a plan before you start.

Integration

For real estate website design, IDX integration has become the fastest way to generate leads. IDX integration gives visitors a way to browse live listings and gives you a way to index them. It’s a handy tool that can make it much easier to see what is attracting attention.

If you aren’t sure how to proceed of if you would like some assistance, contact us to help get your website working for you.

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