Real Estate Site With Custom MLS Feed Enjoys Sharp Increase In Traffic And Leads
Real estate agents are finding it ever more challenging to get traffic their Web sites because in every city throughout the U.S., there are hundreds –perhaps thousands — of agents all competing to get their sites listed on the first page of Google and of the other search engines. Real estate site owners who understand search engine optimization are learning the advantage of having “integrated IDX”: listings from their MLS boards programmed directly into their site with data such as addresses or MLS numbers of homes for sale that the search engines can read.
To help overcome competition in the search engines, Gulf Shores Alabama real estate broker Mike Steward recently contracted with graphic designer Suzanne Stephens to create a custom-designed Web site with custom-programmed MLS feed for his real estate company.
Within a week of his redesigned site’s launch, Mike Steward began telling his real estate agent friends, “You have to contact Suzanne about building a site. We are getting leads already! I think we have found a killer combination: Suzanne designing your site and a live IDX feed.”
What’s the advantage of a custom-programmed MLS listings feed? The benefit comes from comes from what search engine optimization experts refer to as “longtail” keywords. Internet searchers can only find most real estate sites by searching commonly used keyphrases (strings of keywords) such as “city state real estate” or “city state homes for sale”. Since most real estate sites are search engine optimized for these same or similar keyphrases, competition for the first page of Google’s search results has become fierce.
With its county MLS board feed programmed directly into the site’s pages, Steward Real Estate’s new site has suddenly begun getting a whole new type of searchers, people who search for homes by MLS numbers or by street addresses of homes that they have seen for sale. As a result, traffic to the site increased fivefold in just its first two weeks and dozens of site visitors have already registered and given accurate contact information.
Additional advantages of integrated IDX include great surfing speed, with listings displaying much faster than if they were displayed in i-framed search pages, and the ability to quickly create all kinds of interesting custom search results pages, such as pages of listings for golf course properties, for foreclosures listings or for homes offered within a certain price range.
“I have been designing real estate Web sites for over ten years and in my opinion, the ability to have true, fully integrated MLS listings in a reasonably priced Web site is one of the most exciting developments in my field during the twelve years that I have been designing sites for real estate agents and brokers. Working with Mike Steward to develop his company’s Web site has been one of the most interesting projects of my career as a graphic designer,” writes Suzanne Stephens, owner of Suzanne Stephens Design.
To view the new Steward Web site, go to Gulf Shores AL Homes for Sale. To find out more about Suzanne Stephens Design, visit Real Estate Web Site Design by Suzanne Stephens or contact Suzanne at 360-666-0881 weekdays 9-5 Pacific Time.