Many Realtors and Estate Agents often ask if they should have a Website or a Blog. Well, the answer is both. The two are not mutually exclusive and in the best solution is a combination of the two.
Some static pages that make up your “website” which includes (at least in our sites) things such as information for sellers, information for buyers, about you, a contact form and other information that is useful or even vital to the users and does not change or changes very rarely.
One of those pages could be “News” where you post you blog. The benefit of blog posts is twofold, it keeps the content fresh which keeps the search engines coming back and more importantly, it keeps your visitors coming back… client loyalty is a huge factor for developing sales.
A third part of this should also be a “listings” page where properties are shortlisted and provide the ability for the visitor to search either by form fields or quick search links and lately by maps although I’m not a big fan of the map searches.
You could also make your homepage show you 5 latest listings and blog posts so that the latest information can be quickly accessed.
When you combine all of this you have the solution. So, where can you get this solution?
WordPress is a blog publishing application that is ideal for the job as you can have both static pages and publish blog posts. Furthermore, there are many Themes (Website Designs) and Plugins (a program that extends the core functionality of WordPress) that are specifically related to Real Estate.
So what to look out for when searching for a WordPress Real Estate Plugin.
Well, firstly, you must be able to manage listings / properties and publish these on your website. As part of this, you will want to be able to upload images and set and publish location information and even map information.
The properties must be searchable, both on the website and in the administration area by at least location, property type, number of bedrooms and price.
This would provide a basic website, but what about a more advanced solution. In this case, you would need to ensure that the Software also provides and integrated Lead Management solution. It makes sense that people who register on your website can also be managed as active leads.
This way you would have an Integrated BackOffice Solution where you can match properties to clients and inversely, you can match clients to a property. This way you would be able to send requirement specific listings to your clients with the arduous task of finding which properties match the client requirement taken care of by the software.
cskMicro provides one such solution. If you are looking for a Plugin for WordPress Real Estate then visit the website at http://www.cskmicro.com for more information, an online demo or a Free Trial.