Website Tips for Commercial Real Estate Brokers Today
When it comes to running a successful commercial real estate brokerage today you will require a solid Internet presence and a professional web site. It is a sad fact that many brokers have little understanding of the Internet and their website profile. That can then have a dramatic impact on their listings and commissions.
There are plenty of people around who understand website design and search engine opportunity. Importantly those factors need to be incorporated into the brokerage website design. The marketing of property today is increasingly biased towards online activity. Any tenants or buyers for commercial real estate will usually surf the Internet before they contact an agent or a broker.
If you are considering opening a commercial real estate brokerage, look at the location of your market, the property types, regional demographics, and client requirements. All of these things will need to be integrated into your website design and configuration. A clear and consistent message needs to feed through your website design from the home page to every other section of the website.
It directly follows that the agency website will also need to send a clear message about their available professional services for the local area, the tenants, and local property investors. First impressions count when it comes to capturing the attention of the search engines and the right people that are looking for listings.
Here are some ideas to help you with website establishment for your brokerage:
- Review the competing agents in the local area and check out their websites. Look for any strengths and weaknesses that apply in each case. Determine the key messages that apply for each agency website that you visit. Can you provide a relevant and unique message for your agency when you establish your new website? How will your website stand out as the best alternative for the people that you serve?
- The generic approach doesn’t work on the Internet today. It will pay you to have a specific and clear statement on your website about market share, location, and services. That will be part of your branding process for the agency and also for the online profile.
- Integrate social media into listing activity, website design, e-mail newsletters, and the profiles of each of your agents. Consistency is the key to capturing the enquiry. The home page for your site should feature an entry point to your database. Every your visitor to your site should be encouraged to register for property information.
- Before you seek expert help to design and construct your future website, look at the other competitors locally and determine the ideal page configuration within your potential website. You can plan your site on a simple piece of paper before you see a website designer. In doing so remember that search engines love logical page configuration, and relevant page descriptions. Choose the correct keywords for your property type, location, and services. Those keywords will need to be integrated into the content management system for the site.
- Purchase a domain name that is relevant to your business and location. Determine the words that a person would enter into the search engines to find you or a real estate agent in your location. Those words should be incorporated into your domain name.
- Given that your website relates to a local area, a town or a city, ensure that your website is named with relevance to the country (using the country suffix at the end of the domain name) and is hosted within that country. That will help your search engine profile and recognition.
So there are some things to do here in preparation for the establishment of a new website. Seek expert help; however make the right choices in the initial design before you get started. Recognize that you will be spending a lot of resources in shaping and improving your commercial real estate website over time. A good website will attract prospects, listings, and clients. That is exactly what you want.
