The Value of Indexing for Real Estate Industry Websites

WAV Group
Published: 12/14/2010
Posted by: RET Staff

WAV Group is proud to release this property indexing white paper to explain NAR’s policy on indexing listings. The paper provides an overview of indexing, the process used by search engines to catalog information on the Internet.

In order for MLSs to enforce IDX rules and regulations, they must understand indexing. Furthermore, anyone operating an IDX website needs to understand indexing and the advantages that it offers to search engine optimization (SEO) and online competition.

Non-IDX property search websites like Trulia, Realtor.com and others have been indexing listings for years, and as a result - they have a significant advantage over brokers in online search results. The typical broker website may only have a few hundred pages of content if the listings are not indexed. In a major MLS market, that same broker may have 100,000 of pages of content if the IDX listings on their website are indexed.