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This Number Shows Why WordPress Real Estate Agent Websites Are The Right Choice

wordpress real estate websites

Want to hear a number that should make brokers and agents think about using WordPress real estate websites?

There are more than 1.1 MILLION new registered domains made every SIX MONTHS using WordPress. This platform must be doing something right when it comes to convenience and effectiveness to get that volume of usage.

As a budding star in the real estate business, you know that one of the first things you’re going to need is a slick, modern, and easy to navigate website that is simple to maintain and meets all of your clients’ needs for information.

There are dozens and dozens of website building platforms on the Internet. So it’s easy to get overwhelmed with all the choices out there.

We’ll make it easy for you: here’s why we think you’ll agree that WordPress is the best website building platform for real estate agents.

WordPress real estate websites for agents are user-friendly

WordPress is a versatile and highly customizable platform built with advanced and constantly updated coding.

However, it can also be simple enough for anyone with basic computer skills to learn. Even if you hire a web developer to create the actual site for you, you still need to be able to log on to the platform and make changes and updates as needed, without having to ask for help.

Companies such as Home Junction provide ready-to-go, attractive real estate themes  so you don’t need to know coding to select an theme that works for your brand. (Anyone will tell you, if you create a custom theme from scratch, expect a long process that could be costly. Why bother? There are off-the-shelf WordPress real estate themes that provide all the relevant functionality an agent would need).

Pre-made themes allow you to have total control over the look of your website, and you can even switch to a new one if you get tired of the one you start out with.

This platform also boasts fast loading times, which increases the number of potential clients that stay on your site instead of clicking away.

This point is very, very important. One of the major factors that search engines such as Google and Bing use to determine rankings for search is site speed. If your real estate website is slow, the search engines see this as a negative user experience and will not reward your site with high rankings. Period.

Plus a pre-existing WordPress real estate theme should be designed to look great on every device from a desktop to a tablet to a smartphone.

That is a second, very, very important point. Google and Bing also know that most people use their mobile devices to search. Your site might look great on your laptop, but if it is all weird and jumbled on a mobile device, that will hurt rankings as well.

We are not just talking an iPhone 8 either. We’re are talking about ALL mobile devices and their various operation systems – iPhones, Androids, tablets. etc.

Although using a WordPress theme is fairly intuitive for anyone with basic skills, should you need any help along the way they offer a huge support system.

There are blogs, forums, and video tutorials that can help.

However, as most people know. Nothing on the web is as easy as it sounds.

As a broker or agent, do you want to spend your time selling homes or trying to figure out how to fix your website? If you use a company that develops WordPress real estate websites such as Home Junction, you will have the support you need.

WordPress is well-known with enormous market share

Tried-and-true is always a good way to go, especially if you’re not completely familiar with an industry.

A whopping 30%  of the Internet’s nearly two billion websites are hosted on the WordPress platform, and for good reason.

WordPress used to be known as one of the places to be to set up a blog and send your thoughts out into the void while running some flashy ads.

However, in recent years the site has made quite a household name of itself when it comes to choices for website development platforms.

From personal blogs to local businesses all the way up to huge globally known names like BBC, Harvard, and Mercedes-Benz, many of the websites you visit are built using WordPress.

The platform supports any type of site, from an eCommerce store, to a new social media outlet, to a local directory, to anything else you can dream up.

In the content management systems industry, WordPress is a juggernaut with a 60% market share.

They are great for any type of website, but especially for those using pre-existing content managing systems. Joomla, a competitor, comes in second with just 6.8% of market share: a stark difference.

Nothing does SEO like WordPress

Search engine optimization (SEO), is ultimately the whole point of having a website. When a potential client Googles “real estate firm in my town,” you want your site to come up on the first page – and ideally, in the first result!

Having your website optimized with search keywords and other tools will increase its standing with Google and other search engines.

Not all web development platforms are created equal when it comes to SEO. WordPress is a recognized leader in this regard and its founders specifically wrote the code to be search-engine friendly.

WordPress is also known for its staggering number of available plugins – 44,000 at last count.

These are types of software that can be installed onto your site to make it even more multi-functional.

There are plugins such as Yoast or All in One which help you optimize your website for search engines, and even analyze all of your content to give you suggestions on what to improve for better results.

Tools like this will help your WordPress website rise through the ranks and make it to the first page.

Then there are a large number of specific WordPress real estate plugins, many offered by Home Junction as well. You can use these real estate WordPress plugins to add School Data, Recent Home Sales and a Home Valuation tool to name a few.

These real estate plugins can make your website a powerful LOCAL resource for buyers. You can now compete on the same level as the big mega-real estate portals. But in this case, you keep all the leads. For free.

Numbers don’t lie. When you go with a widely-known content management system that is multi-functional, SEO-friendly, easy to navigate with a full package of real estate functionality already built in, it’s hard to go wrong.

Real Estate WordPress Websites Help Maximize Those Precious Share Buttons

real estate wordpress websitesSuccess is in the little details and that’s why real estate WordPress websites can easily help you maximize every little detail of your website.

Take social share buttons for example.

Those are the little icons that go at the bottom (or top) of a web page and encourage people to share or like the content on that page.

Seems like a simple matter at first.

But for a real estate broker or agent, these buttons can be extremely important. And that’s another reason why using a WordPress real estate WordPress website, developed by WordPress experts such as Home Junction, are incredibly important.

Here’s why.

Those social buttons are ubiquitous. They are everywhere on the web. Too many people take them for granted.

Their value depends on who is posting the content that is hoped to be shared.

For a mom who writes a blog about a recipe for pecan apple pie, someone hitting one of those buttons and sharing the recipe can be kind of fun. Gives that mom a satisfying feeling that someone cared enough about her recipe that they decided to share it with their friends.

That’s nice.

Real estate WordPress websites make it easy to optimize

Now, take a page of content on a real estate website.

Using a real estate WordPress website, an agent can easily post a chart about real estate data on their website about recent home sale trends in a particular neighborhood. The data shows property sales are heating up.

The agent posts information about that chart (with a link back to their website) on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter.

The post catches the attention of several people. They visit the site.

A few of those people like the information so much, they decide to hit the share and like buttons at the bottom of the page. The chart now appears on their Facebook page and is seen by all of their friends (on average there are about 155 friends per Facebook user).

One or two of their friends are interested in that chart. One of them lives in that neighborhood and is thinking of selling their home. They contact the agent who posted the chart.

Another Facebook user knows someone who has thought about moving to that neighborhood. They share the chart with that friend. That person views the chart and contacts that agent about purchasing a property in that neighborhood.

Here’s an important point most people don’t realize. Humans like to share.

According to research:

– 49% of people say they share to inform people about things they care about and to encourage some sort of action

– 78% share because it helps them stay connected to other people

– 68% say they share information because it gives them a better sense about themselves and what is important to them

– 69% share information because it gives them a sense of involvement

As anyone can see, there’s a big difference between a mom sharing pie recipes and people sharing real estate market trends that result in hot leads and contacts for an agent.

A gigantic difference.

Constantly test position of buttons to increase shares

So why just take those social media shares and like buttons for granted?

Optimize them.

And one of the best ways to optimize anything on the web is with the leading web platform in the webiverse – real estate WordPress websites.

WordPress has a super easy back-end for brokers and agents to manage.

In fact, WordPress was first created to be the easiest platform for people to start a simple blog.

The superior coding caught on so well, that the developers of WordPress decided to offer it to business people as a way to build out a full website as well.

That decision resulted in WordPress becoming the leading web platform in the world.

Many brokers and agents might think, “Well, I have a website now, that shows my listings and descriptions, why change?”

Let’s go back to those little social share buttons.

With WordPress real estate websites set up by Home Junction, a broker or agent has the ability to easily experiment with the placement of those buttons.

For some content, place them at the bottom of the article.

For other content, place the buttons at the top of the content.

Place the buttons at the top and bottom.

Experiment with the look of the social share buttons. (Most plugins for social share buttons offer several variations to choose from).

Add more social share buttons for social media sites like Tumblr.

Delete some of the social share buttons if you just want to focus on say Facebook and Instagram.

Add an email share button for someone to send that content by their personal email to a friend, or even to themselves as a reminder to read later.

Like any marketing program, monitor the progress. Measure the number of shares and likes (they are counted).

Did your chart on Property Sales in My Target Neighborhood generate five shares one month? But the next month when you posted the new chart on Property Sales and you moved the social share buttons to the top of the page, you generated 12 shares on Facebook.

Here’s the point of owning real estate WordPress websites.

All this moving around is easy to do. You don’t need to hire a coder to rewrite the HTML code on your page to make the change. You don’t need to wait two weeks for that coder to find the time to make the change. You don’t need to wait for your web developer to return your phone call a week later.

A broker or agent can experiment with these changes on their own.

People like to share photos and information with friends and family. They like to help out people they know.

Researchers report that psychologically when web users share something important, it gives them a positive feeling. They get a warm buzz from being a helpful resource for their friends or family. In their mind, it elevates their status in the minds of their acquaintances. That’s their emotional reward. And they relish that feeling.

And as we pointed out, unlike the mom’s recipe for apple pie, one move that generates more social shares that reach out on the web could result in a buyer for a $550,000 home with three beds and three-car garage or a listing for a $750,000 home on WeWantToBeThere golf community.

Any successful business person will admit, it’s the attention to the little details that make a big difference.

Fortunately for brokers and agents, those little details can result in a big payoff.

Get a WordPress real estate website that helps you maximize those little details.

Recruiting Real Estate Agents

The Best Broker Tools For Recruiting Real Estate Agents

Recruiting Real Estate AgentsAs any real estate broker knows, it can be a battleground out there when recruiting agents and one of the best weapons they can deploy are state-of-the-art WordPress real estate websites and real estate data.

Sure, some brokers chant the usual mantra when talking about how they go about recruiting agents. They tell the newcomers how their brokerage is top in the marketplace. How they have outstanding brand reputation in the community. How they have a great training program with seasoned veterans willing to help them out.

Here’s the challenge. Right now, according to the National Association of Realtors, there are fewer people under 30 in the real estate business than there have been in years. In 2010, there were 42,000 agents under 30. Five years later in 2015, there were an estimated 23,000.

Why? One reason is massive student debt. Graduates today on average are saddled with $30,000 in student loans. Tough to take on a commission-only job that far in a hole.

The other reason why you don’t see many millennials in real estate is that many of them have attended college (remember the reason for all that debt?). In college, you don’t see many real estate or even sales majors.

Luckily, many baby boomers are waiting longer to retire, so there is still a well to draw from for new recruits. But what is going to happen as those boomers start to retire? Millennials are the largest generation in the workforce. Brokers will need them.

WordPress real estate websites help recruit new agents

There is one solution. It’s something a brokerage can use in addition to all those accolades about being a leader in the marketplace with a top-notch mentor program, etc., etc.

The sweetspot with the millenials is that this is the generation that was raised on technology. Baby boomers can remember when their parents brought home their first color TV. Millennials are the generation that creates their own TV shows (YouTube) and communicates on TV (Facetime).

These people are plugged in.

So for a brokerage to gain a competitive edge when recruiting millennials, use technology.

First of all, get rid of that archaic website. Build a high-performance, stunning real estate website with a mobile responsive WordPress platform. WordPress—the top content management system in the world—gives you so much more versatility as far as publishing stunning photos and videos, giving people the ability to upload content quickly, adding a huge number of helpful plug-ins and adapting to different devices, i.e. tablets, smartphones, etc.

In addition, WordPress is one of the best platforms out there for enhancing rankings on all the search engines.

Most millennials are familiar with WordPress. They’ve blogged on this platform. The brand is very well recognized with this generation.

Secondly, you could almost say that Google is integrated into the brain of just about every millennial. They don’t ask other people questions, they ask Google. (To them Google is a verb that is as common as the walk or speak).

So when it comes to recruiting agents, show them how you are using the latest web technology on the market (supplied by WordPress real estate website developers and data providers such as Home Junction), and you will get their attention.

Real estate market data gives agents more tools

There’s more. Not only should you provide a stunning WordPress real estate website platform with spectacular photos of listings, but you also need to show how your firm goes the extra mile and loads that website up with big data (another term millennials are very familiar with).

You not only have a photo of that million dollar property, you also have massive data sets showing Recent Homes Sales, Local Market Trends, Home Values, School Information, Demographics, Boundaries, Local Businesses, Points of Interest, Maps, Statistics, etc.

That’s impressive to a 30-year-old. If that young person is split between joining your brokerage or another one down the street, roll out the technology angle. It will close the deal.

To be honest, the same goes for any generation. Boomers are immersed in technology as well, and they will immediately be attracted to any brokerage with enhanced web tools.

If a brokerage is going to grow, it’s going to need bodies. This is 2017, the old recruiting techniques are important, but you must be No. 1 in your marketplace on the tech side.

If you want to appeal to the plugged-in generation and start recruiting agents, your firm must be plugged into a WordPress real estate website with the latest big data real estate tools.