6 Most Common Problems with Brokerage Websites and How to Fix Them

Sometimes even the most experienced brokers and national franchises can fall into these website traps. In this post, we'll cover the most common problems we've observed with these sites and share tips for how to fix them and set your brokerage up for online success.

Today, all buyers and sellers make their first move in the same place: online. Your website is your digital storefront, helping you put your business (and your listings) front and center. It helps you showcase your brand and, most importantly, funnel organic leads to your team. But common problems can keep your website from performing at its best, and these problems are holding you back!

There are lots of do-it-yourself and bargain website platforms out there, and lots of brokerages use them to create their websites. But even brokerage websites created by experienced web designers fall short when it comes to real estate. Let's take a look at what we mean.

Problem #1: Creating a website, then trying to make it fit your brokerage—not the other way around

Brokers know that at a bare minimum, their websites need to be able to do certain things:

• Attract buyer and seller leads
• Display listings
• Provide a clear path for getting in touch
• Showcase the brokerage's brand and team

The problem is that out-of-the-box website solutions don't usually come standard with everything brokerages need. That means brokerages need to get their designers to use a variety of complicated tricks and unreliable third-party plug-ins to make their sites. This is especially true for listing data and property search, and CRM functionality. After all, the leads your website generate are useless if your team can't action them.

Solution: Using a purpose-built real estate website platform from the beginning will help brokers avoid the bulk of these performance problems.

Problem #2: Not leveraging office or agent sites correctly (or effectively)

Brokers know their sales team is their greatest asset. So why don't they also leverage the power of agent websites?

Many brokerages don't provide agent websites for a variety of reasons, from complexity to cost to the tech savviness of their teams. But the benefits of properly built (and linked) agent sites can have a major impact on brokers' business.

When every agent has a website that is properly linked to your brokerage site, traffic to their websites and listings has a direct benefit on your website, helping to boost traffic, share your brand more widely, and get more eyes on your listings.

Solution: The best brokerage sites are built with office and agent websites in mind and provide easy (often low-code or no-code) functionality that allows agents to customize their sites while aligning with the brokerages' brand.

Problem #3: Neglecting (or ignoring) real estate SEO best practices

You've probably read or heard about how important search engine optimization, or SEO, is for your business, but either never learned more or have no idea where to start.

Solution: There are things you can do today to improve your SEO, but true SEO success comes from building a website with SEO in mind from the bottom up. Ranking high in search engines means paying attention to hundreds of tiny details that add up over time. It can be hard to dominate in the search engine arena if you've been neglecting it for too long without an overhaul, which is why not paying enough attention to SEO is one of the biggest problems we see when it comes to brokerage websites.

Problem #4: Infrequent or poor-quality website updates

Consumers (and search engines) crave the latest and greatest. This applies to so many things, but for websites, we're referring to listings, market and pricing information, and even the welcome message on your home page. The dilemma is that brokers and their teams are busy, and it takes precious time to make good website updates.

Solution: Maintain a high-quality blog about real estate, your regional market, or your niche (e.g., luxury real estate). Better yet, there are ways to insert dynamic content in your website with a content management system that updates regularly and automatically, allowing you to keep your website fresh without lifting a finger. When you work with the right website provider, features like these are already built in.

Problem #5: Poor listing presentation and low-quality IDX/VOW

Most DIY or budget website options do not provide listing data themselves, putting you and your website at the mercy of a third-party plugin. The issue is that these plugins frequently don't work well, putting your business at risk. If a consumer lands on your site and can't find what they're looking for (homes for sale in your area), they'll quickly go elsewhere. Is it really worth the risk?

Solution: It pays to work with a website provider with the best data feeds, and not only that, one that is recognized for the quality and comprehensiveness of its data, with best-in-class refresh times, so you always have the latest listings.

Problem #6: Bad plugins galore

Depending on where and how you built your website, you might need third-party plugins for everything we've already mentioned above, plus CRM and more. The result is a Frankenstein website, with odds and ends that were never made to work together. The outcome? A poor user experience, a low SEO ranking, and a site that doesn't deliver the ROI your team needs and deserves.

Solution: Find a website provider that has as many of the features and functionality you need built right into the website or with native, high-quality integrations with the programs you know and love. You can even find ways to integrate your site with your existing ERP, TMS, CRM, and more.

Learn more about how a Constellation1 website could power your brokerage.

To view the original article, visit the Constellation1 blog.