Spelling/Grammar Mistakes

NOBODY is perfect. It's always best to check and recheck the spelling and grammar on your site on a regular basis. You might also want to get a second person to read your content as well, as not all programs are going to find all errors.

Your Entire Life Story

While it is nice to show your clients that you are human and can relate to them, there is a balance you need to remember. Your bio should give an indication of how you can relate to clients without any unnecessary details. For example:

"I was born and raised in Port Dover, Ontario, and have since lived in numerous places throughout southern and central Ontario. I have been happily settled in Cambridge, Ontario for the past 8 years where I now reside with my two boys."

From this, a potential client can gather that I:

• Know what it is like to relocate
• Know what it is like to move children
• Understand that I know how to budget for a household
• Know the Cambridge area fairly well
• Can handle noise, messes, and chaos in general

Remember, they want to know what you can do for them, so always ask yourself when writing your bio and adding images: What needs of my potential clients am I answering with this?

Outdated Information and Tools

It is always good to read your website content and make sure that it's still relevant. As we all know, the rules of real estate are always changing. These changes can be related to the evolution of the market, the governing associations, and so much more. It can also be the evolution of how the general public looks for homes. Make sure that you are on top of the changes. I am sure that we can all relate to the experience of going to a website and looking for something and feeling like you were just transported back in time. Do not let this be your website.

Remember that your website is the online representation of you. You wouldn't want to show up to a meeting with a client wearing bell bottom pants and platforms.

Music

I know some of you have music on your sites and that you had the purest intentions when you decided to do this. But let's face it--the top real estate websites aren't doing it, so you probably shouldn't be either!

Here is a list of the three main reasons that I feel you should not add music to your website:

• It will alienate people: I am not saying that your taste in music is bad. What I am saying is not everyone is going to love it, and do you really want to make musical preferences the first determining factor in qualifying your leads?
• Volume: Say a user is already listening to their favourite song at a completely acceptable level while looking for their dream home when they land on your site. You have just given what could have been a valuable lead a headache. They have now bounced from your site and are moving on to the next one, which in all likelihood is a competitor of yours.
• Users may be in public: A user just bought their favourite mocha/ccino/latte and are settled in to one of those big comfy armchairs, minding their own business looking for their dream home. All of a sudden they have Michael Jackson's "Thriller" blasting from their computer--which can be pretty embarrassing!

REALTOR® Speak!

Remember your audience and why they came to you. Talk to users in plain English, otherwise you'll end up sounding like one of the grown-ups on the Peanuts cartoon. If you are referring to one of your designations, don't just say, "I am a CRS." Write out the full name so it is easy to understand. For example:

"I am a Certified Residential Specialist (CRS). I will use my extensive training to help clients understand the local market and negotiate in your best interest."

Another good example is something I came across in a listing description I was enhancing for an agent. Under the items included in the house "all ELFs" was listed. I like to consider myself a person who is slightly more versed in REALTOR® speak and I could not determine what it was they were trying to say.

I am sure for any REALTOR® reading this page, it was simple enough to understand, but I was thinking, "There is no way that this house comes with little creatures that get up during the night and do my laundry!" Between you and me, I was hoping there was because I was ready to buy!

After doing some research, I was able to determine that it was electrical lighting fixtures. I can ensure you that anyone looking for a house did not research this and moved on. Not to mention when search engines index the page, 'ELF' won't carry a whole lot of relevance. If it is important enough to write it out in full!

When deciding what to add to your website, keep the user in mind. Ask yourself this one simple question: What are their real estate needs and how is adding this particular piece of content going to meet those needs?

To view the original article, visit the Lone Wolf blog.