Navigating the maze of the real estate world can feel a bit like exploring an unfamiliar city without a map. In today’s fast-paced digital era, a well-designed real estate website can become the compass that guides both sellers and buyers through the intricacies of property transactions.
But what truly constitutes a powerful online presence in real estate?
Join us as we unpack the elements that fuse to create an engaging and effective real estate website, helping you bridge the gap between brick-and-mortar property and its digital representation. From layout considerations to detailed market data, we’ll pave the way towards a web presence that not only showcases properties but also fosters connections and trust.
What is a Real Estate Website?
Think of a real estate website as your virtual headquarters — it’s where you hang your digital shingle. This is your platform to show off your properties, forge connections with potential buyers and sellers, and make your mark in the vast online universe.
Unlike a physical office, your website is never closed – it’s there around the clock, allowing folks to browse your listings and contact you at their own pace. But it’s more than just a space for transactions; it’s your chance to foster trust with visitors by showcasing your expertise and dedication to their needs.
Selling properties is the end goal, but the journey is all about relationship building and providing useful, engaging information to your audience.
What Should a Real Estate Website Include?
The Basic
1. A Homepage
The homepage is the main page of a website, and it serves as an entry point to the site’s content. For this reason, it’s one of the most important pages on your website.
Since it’s the first page your visitors will see and as it sets the tone for the rest of your site, it’s prudent to consider its design, your branding, and how it will be represented, including colors, fonts, logos, and taglines.
With a well-designed homepage, you can create a positive first impression and encourage visitors to explore your website further.
A homepage usually contains the following elements:
- A site navigation menu with links to important sections and pages that will allow users to easily navigate your website.
- Call-to-action buttons (CTAs) that will be clearly visible, with a clear call-to-action text that will encourage users to click on it and perform the desired action, like, for example, signing up for a newsletter or making a purchase.
- Many homepages contain a hero section to immediately catch the user’s attention and nudge them towards performing a certain action.
Note: Common Ninja has a wide selection of call-to-action buttons that you can easily add to your website.
2. An About Us Page
Another important page to have on your website is the “About Us” page. This page is crucial to establishing credibility and building trust.
The about us page often contains information about the organization, its mission, its history, and the people behind it, enabling users to establish a connection with the company and learn more about the organization and its values.
Note: Common Ninja has a great selection of widgets that can enhance your “About Us” page.
3. A Contacts Page
A “Contacts” page is another, very important page to have on your website. It provides visitors with a way to get in touch with the website’s owners or administrators. Typically, it will include contact information about the business (like a contact email address, phone number, and physical address), as well as a contact form that a visitor can fill out and send to contact the website’s owners.
This page helps to further build trust, improve user experience, and enable other businesses to contact the website owners regarding open new business opportunities.
Note: Common Ninja can improve how users contact you via a free and easily customizable Contact form.
4. A Header & Footer
Headers and footers have become an integral part of website design, and anyone building a website should add them to their website.
Having a header and a footer on your website will improve navigation, create a consistent look, support your branding, provide important information, and improve conversion with CTAs.
The header typically includes branding elements (like the colors, logo, company name, etc.), and navigational menus (to other pages, login options, etc).
The footer will also include branding elements, as well as links to other pages, but its design enables adding more links, CTAs, and other information, in an organized and aesthetically pleasing manner.
The Advanced
While the above elements are true for all websites, an Real Estate website requires a few more elements.
Property Listings
Property Listings serve as the backbone of a real estate website. This is where potential buyers can browse available properties. Each listing should include high-resolution images, a comprehensive description of the property, the asking price, location details, key features like number of bedrooms and bathrooms, square footage, and the contact information of the listing agent. The listings should be regularly updated to reflect the current inventory.
This page is crucial as it’s essentially your online showroom – it’s where clients can browse your products and choose something they’re interested in.
Advanced Search and Filters
When you’re hunting for a perfect home, you have specific things in mind, right? That’s where our Advanced Search and Filters come into play. With this handy tool, you can adjust your search to reflect exactly what you’re looking for, whether it’s a cozy two-bedroom in the city center or a sprawling estate on the outskirts.
By tweaking parameters like price, location, and amenities, you’ll skip past the “not quite rights” and focus on the “just perfects”. This feature is all about making your property search as easy and efficient as possible – because who has time to sift through hundreds of irrelevant listings?
Property Map
A list of addresses is all well and good, but wouldn’t you rather see where those dream homes actually sit on a map? Our Property Map does just that, showing you exactly where each property is located.
With this feature, you can scout out local schools, check the commute to your office, or see how close you’ll be to the beach or that hip new coffee shop. In the real estate world, it’s all about “location, location, location”, and our map tool helps you nail down just the right spot.
Agent Profiles
Agent Profiles are individual pages for each of your real estate agents that include their professional bios, contact information, current listings, and possibly customer reviews. This is important for building trust with potential clients.
By showcasing the experience, qualifications, and track record of each agent, clients can feel more comfortable knowing they’re in capable hands. This page also helps to personalize your service, showing that there are real, dedicated people behind your brand.
Blog/News Section
The Blog/News Section of a real estate website can serve a variety of purposes. It can include market updates, tips for buyers and sellers, home maintenance advice, community spotlights, and more.
This kind of content is not only valuable for users but can also improve your website’s SEO, driving more traffic to your site from search engines. By establishing your brand as a knowledgeable authority in the real estate field, you can build trust and attract more clients.
Testimonials & Reviews
Testimonials & Reviews are a powerful tool for building trust and credibility. By featuring real feedback from past clients, you can demonstrate your track record of successful transactions and satisfied customers.
This user-generated content provides social proof, which can be influential in the decision-making process of potential clients. Having a dedicated space for these testimonials and reviews allows users to easily access and read through experiences of others before deciding to engage with your services.
Note: Common Ninja has a powerful Testimonial Slider, as well as a collection of powerful review widgets that you can use to enhance credibility and increase trust.
Services Page
The Services Page is where you clearly outline what services your real estate firm provides. This could include buyer representation, seller representation, property management, investment consulting, and more.
Detailing these services is crucial as it lets potential clients know exactly how you can assist them. It’s also a chance to highlight any unique services or specialties that set you apart from other firms.
FAQs Page
The FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) Page can be a significant time-saver for both your team and your website visitors. By preemptively answering common questions about the buying and selling process, mortgage information, contract details, etc., you can reduce the number of basic inquiries your team receives and help potential clients feel more informed and comfortable.
Note: Common Ninjas has a great, fully-customizable FAQ widget that you can use to create an FAQ section or page!
Video Galleries
Video Galleries or Virtual Tours offer a dynamic way to showcase properties. High-quality videos or interactive virtual tours allow potential buyers to explore a property in-depth from the comfort of their own home. This can enhance user engagement, make properties stand out, and potentially increase the chances of property inquiries. With the increasing popularity of virtual and 3D tours, especially in light of COVID-19, offering this feature could give you a competitive edge and meet the evolving expectations of buyers.
Note: Common Ninjas has great video-related widgets, including the Video Gallery, the Video Carousel, and the Video Poll that can help you add video content to your website in the most simple, and visually appealing way.
Email Newsletter Signup
Our Email Newsletter is like a friendly coffee chat about all things property — without having to leave your living room. When you sign up, you’ll get a regular digest of our freshest listings, latest market insights, and even some handy homeowner tips.
It’s our way of keeping in touch and keeping you informed. But don’t worry, we’re not about spam – just useful, interesting content to help you on your real estate journey. So why not join our community of savvy buyers and sellers?
Social Media Links
Let’s get social! Did you know we’re not just on this website, but on your favorite social platforms too? From stunning property snaps on Instagram to timely market updates on Twitter, our social media channels offer a different slice of our real estate world. It’s not just about listings and sales, though.
We share behind-the-scenes peeks, homeowner tips, and even the occasional dog photo (because who doesn’t love a good pupper?). By connecting with us on social media, you’ll get to know us on a more personal level. And we’re really looking forward to that, so go ahead and click those social icons – let’s make our connection even stronger!
Note: Common Ninja has a bunch of social media-related widgets that can greatly enhance and improve your engagement with your users, including Social Media Feed widgets and Social Media Links.
How To Create a Real Estate Website?
Step 1: Choose Your Website Builder
There are lots of available website-building platforms today. How many you ask? Well, there are well over 200 website and e-commerce builders.
Clearly, not all are on the same level or for the same purpose, but the sheer amount is both fascinating and scary. Fascinating because it means that there’s a lot to choose from, and scary because there’s too much to choose from.
Luckily, there are around 20 that truly stand out in terms of the features they offer, how easy it is to use them and their prices. We have a great article about the best website builders out there that you should definitely take a look at.
Great Website Builders for a Real Estate Website
While the above gives you a broad overview of website building, here are some website builders that could be great for building a Real Estate website:
Wix
A vibrant playground for the creative mind, Wix allows you to craft a unique and striking real estate website without the constraints of coding knowledge. Its drag-and-drop interface is delightfully intuitive, and the rich variety of customizable templates caters perfectly to the real estate sector.
The icing on the cake? Wix’s powerful SEO tools and integrations ensure that your properties are visible to search engines and effortlessly shareable across social media platforms. With Wix, your website becomes a dynamic digital brochure of your offerings.
Squarespace
If there’s one place where design and functionality coalesce into a seamless dance, it’s Squarespace. Known for its beautifully crafted templates that have an innate knack for sophistication, Squarespace is the artist’s brush of website builders, ideal for painting your real estate dream.
From showcasing elegant property portfolios to scheduling those crucial viewings, everything is effortless with Squarespace. Its innate blogging and SEO prowess make it more than just a pretty face, providing the tools to reel in potential buyers with compelling content. With Squarespace, your real estate website is not just a platform—it’s an experience.
WordPress
As a pioneer in the website-building world, WordPress offers unparalleled flexibility and control. Its vast array of plugins, including real estate-specific ones, makes it a versatile choice for real estate websites.
From detailed property listings to mortgage calculators and interactive maps, there’s a plugin for almost every feature you might need. Coupled with its robust blogging capabilities, WordPress enables real estate professionals to create a comprehensive online hub for their business.
Placester
Specializing in the real estate sector, Placester provides a website builder experience tailored specifically for realtors. It caters to industry-specific needs, such as IDX integration, enabling seamless property listing updates from the MLS.
With Placester, you can also personalize your website with custom branding, building credibility with prospective clients. Its emphasis on lead capture and management makes it an ideal choice for real estate professionals focused on converting site visitors into potential leads.
Webflow
Webflow beautifully marries the visual appeal of design software with the granular control of hand-coded HTML and CSS. Its unique capabilities make it ideal for crafting bespoke real estate websites that stand out from the crowd.
With Webflow, you can bring your property listings to life through intricate animations and interactions. The platform’s CMS features and e-commerce capabilities also provide the perfect tools to effectively manage listings and facilitate transactions, offering a complete solution for real estate professionals.
Choose a Hosting Plan (Optional)
Depending on what website builder you chose, you may have to get a hosting plan separately. We have a great guide on the top 10 hosting providers available on the market. Mind you that many of these offer the option to get a domain name, too.
Choose a Domain Name (Optional)
Depending on what website builder you choose, and on what hosting plan you choose, you may have to get a domain name separately.
Step 2: Start Designing Your Website
Choose a Template (Optional)
Some website builders offer pre-made templates that you can choose from for specific website types. This is a great way to save time on design.
Choose Color Schemes
Color schemes are super important in website design and branding. They’re not just for show—colors can really affect how we feel and react. If a brand chooses the right colors, it can guide our eyes where they want, make us feel a certain way, and even get us to take action.
This is where color theory comes in. It’s basically the science of how colors work together and how they make us feel. For instance, blue usually makes us feel calm and trustful, red stirs up energy and passion, and green symbolizes growth. So, when a brand chooses colors that match its vibe and the feelings it wants to evoke, it can really boost its recognition and trust with customers. Super cool, right?
Choose Fonts
Font pairing is like the secret sauce in website design and branding. Just like colors, the fonts you choose can really set the mood and deliver your brand message. You’ve got to think about the vibes different fonts give off. A fancy script might feel elegant, while a bold, all-caps font can scream confidence and power.
The trick is in finding fonts that complement each other without clashing or looking too similar. That’s why we do font pairing. You want your headline font to grab attention, but it needs to work well with your body text font, which should be easy to read. So, for instance, you might pair a decorative font for your headers with a simple, clean one for the body text.
Get it right, and you’re on your way to a website that looks super professional and keeps your visitors reading. It’s a bit like a good music duo—each part’s got to be good on its own, but together they create a whole new level of awesome!
Add a Hero Image
The hero section of a website is like the opening scene of a movie—it sets the stage and grabs your attention. It’s that first big chunk you see when you land on a website, often with a big image, a catchy headline, and a call to action. It’s there to quickly show you what the site or the brand is all about and, hopefully, make you want to stick around.
Choosing the right elements for your hero section is key. A stunning image or background can draw people in, while a powerful headline can spark interest. Then there’s the call to action, which could be a button or a link, nudging you to do something—like shop now, sign up, or learn more.
So, think of the hero section like your website’s elevator pitch. It’s got to be punchy, engaging, and super clear about what’s on offer. If it’s done right, it’s like a friendly welcome mat that invites visitors to come in and explore more.
Add CTAs
Calls to Action (CTAs) on a website are like your friendly tour guides. They tell you where to go next and what to do. You’ll often find them as buttons or links with words like “Buy Now”, “Sign Up”, “Learn More”—you get the idea. They’re super important because they help guide your visitors and encourage them to take the actions you want them to.
But here’s the thing: all CTAs are not created equal. A good CTA is clear, concise, and compelling—it tells you exactly what you’ll get and why you should click on it. And where you place them can make a big difference, too. You want to position your CTAs where they’ll be noticed, like in your hero section, at the end of a blog post, or even in a pop-up.
So, think of CTAs as your website’s friendly nudges, steering your visitors in the right direction and getting them to engage, interact, and hopefully, become customers. It’s like having a good salesperson right there on the page.
Step 3: Publish The Website
When you are done setting up and designing your website, publish it. And that’s it.
How To Enhance Your Real Estate Website?
Enhance Your Website With Powerful Widgets
While many of the website builders we recommended are great for building your Real Estate website, they are somewhat limited in the features and tools they offer, and, in a competitive world, every additional feature that you can add to your website can be a game changer.
That’s where Common Ninja comes in to save the day.
Common Ninja offers an extensive, ever-growing collection of professional and reliable widgets that will help you save time and money and improve your website beyond what your current website-building platform offers.
Common Ninja’s widgets are free, fully customizable, perfectly responsive, and easy to use (just check our YouTube guides), so be sure to check them out, and greatly improve your website.
Common Ninja — The Only Collection of Widgets You’ll Ever Need
Content
Content is an important part of any website, no matter what niche it’s in. Content can include anything from text, images, videos, and other media that informs, educates, or entertains the audience, and we highly recommend that you add good content to your website.
It is crucial for several reasons:
- It provides value to visitors — good content, can provide value to users, whether these are guides, service or product comparisons, tips, tricks, or other equally helpful content.
- It builds trust and credibility — by creating good, well-written, and well-researched content, you can increase trust in your brand and improve its credibility.
- It improves SEO: Search engines like Google prioritize websites with high-quality, relevant content, so by creating content that includes relevant keywords and provides value to your audience, you can improve your website’s search engine rankings and drive more traffic to your website.
- It drives conversions — well-written content that addresses pain points, with strategically placed CTAs can drive conversions, such as sign-ups, purchases, or inquiries, up.
- It establishes your brand’s voice and identity — the content on your website is an opportunity to establish your brand’s voice and identity. Consistent and high-quality content can help your brand stand out and create a memorable impression on your audience.
Optimization
Optimizing a website is essential for improving its visibility on search engines, increasing traffic, and improving the user experience. Here are some effective ways to optimize your website:
- Remove unnecessary distractions
- Improve page speed
- Optimize for mobile
- Optimize forms
- Write good copy
- Write good CTAs
- Define and communicate your value proposition
- Localize content
Promotion
Promoting a website is essential for increasing its visibility and driving traffic to it.
It requires time & effort, and here are some ways that can help you promote your website:
- Social Media: Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram are great for promoting your website, building a following, and driving traffic to it.
- Email marketing: Building an email list is an effective way to promote your website, reach your audience directly, and keep them updated on your latest content or products.
- Paid advertising: Paid advertising through platforms like Google Ads or social media ads can help you reach a larger audience and drive targeted traffic to your website.
- Collaboration: Collaborating with other websites in your niche can help you gain exposure, drive traffic to your site and improve your SEO via backlinking.
- Incentives: Offering incentives like discounts, free trials, or giveaways can attract new users to your website and encourage them to share it with others.
Conclusion
To wrap things up, creating a standout real estate website is a thrilling adventure. It’s not just about putting properties on display; it’s about designing an engaging platform that fosters trust, delivers value, and serves as a bridge between you and your potential clients.
Always remember: your website is the online embodiment of your brand, so invest time and thought into making it as polished and user-friendly as possible. And most importantly, enjoy the process!
