Go Pro Systems

If you feel like it is time to change your online presence, you can go ahead and start the process for a complete overhaul...or you can tweak a few things about your website. While it is good to get expert advice and do thorough research, sometimes you should just attempt something new on your own. You may find that you enjoy it and no matter what the results, you will learn something. You may find that minor changes can make a major difference.

We have a few suggestions, some of which may seem contradictory, but the point is to get you to try something new. What works for one real estate professional, may not work for another. None of these changes have to be implemented on a permanent basis. You can even have a message on your website that states you are trying out some new things to better serve the public and ask people to drop you a line to tell you what they think.

Page color and font

Ask clients or friends (especially those who work in marketing) for feedback about the color and font on your website. Change the color and see what people think.

While you will not be able to pick a color that appeals to everyone, you can get people's opinion on whether the main colors used on your website are distracting in any way.

Registration

Do you require internet users to register on your website to get to certain pieces of information? If it seems like this is a barrier to connecting with internet users, try removing the requirement to see if you get a better response.

On the other hand, if you do not require registration, but really want to know more about the people who visit your website, you can start to require registration.

Video and photos

If you have absolutely no videos of the properties on your site, try to shoot and edit a brief video on your own to post it to your site.

Those of you that have regular photos on your website can try to use panorama shots instead. If you only take shots from faraway, try some close-ups.

And if you have always kept up with all of your leads on your own, why not free yourself to try new things by using lead management and lead communication tools from GoPro Systems?

Realtors understand the importance of staging a house to promote a fast sale and ensure a good selling price. Hooking the buyer's interest is all about appearance. A house that impresses buyers from the moment they arrive at the curb through a tour of the bedrooms and inspection of the kitchen is one that is guaranteed to sell quickly. "Curb appeal" is equally important when real estate agents design their website. A well-designed website home page invites the visitor to stop and explore in much the same way that an attractive front porch invites a home buyer to come inside and look around. Easy-to-read typeface, attractive use of graphics and white space, pleasing eye flow and a well-organized and easily accessible index of website content work together to make a good first impression on website visitors and encourage them to stay and explore.

However, just as a home that looks attractive on the outside must have what the buyer is looking for inside to generate an offer, your real estate website must offer value-driven content geared to engage and maintain the interest of site visitors if you want potential clients to interact with and return to your website. Interior web pages that provide original content that is useful to home buyers and sellers will attract potential clients. Buying and selling how-to tips and checklists, home financing options and links to loan sites, community statistics, school district information, local recreational opportunities and shopping venues will promote return visits to your website as home buyers research different neighborhoods. Linking area real estate listings to your website ensures that home buyers will keep returning to check new listings.

Designing an effective real estate website is a combination of art and science. Considerable research has gone into the study of how website viewers look at a web page, how the human eye moves around a page, what attracts a viewer's attention and what causes him to lose interest. Well-designed professional web page templates use this information to place content and visual elements in optimal locations. Offering home buyers and sellers "one-stop shopping" through interior web page content and outside links to professional partners (loan officers, real estate attorneys, title companies, moving firms, home organizers, decorators, etc.) helps turn casual leads into paying clients.