Learn how to build a beautiful, search engine-optimized website that encourages engagement and showcases content that your customers love with our new eBook: The Ultimate Guide to Building a Real Estate Website: Everything You Need to Know to Become a Smarter Online Marketer.

2. Your real estate website is more than just
a website: it’s the most powerful tool in your
marketing arsenal. Look at any major brand
(real estate or otherwise) on Facebook, Twitter,
LinkedIn, Google+, or Pinterest: there’s always
a link back to their website. To be sure, social
networks are great for sharing your content
and engaging with consumers. But in most
instances, your prospective customers aren’t
discovering your business in these places:
they’re discovering you through search, and
oftentimes the first point of contact they have
with you is your website.
Introduction
Chapter
1

3. 3
As the hub of your online universe, your website serves a variety of purposes.
From instilling trust, to amplifying brand awareness, to nurturing prospective clients through your
sales cycle, a well-conceived, artfully-designed website can truly do wonders for your business.
Still not convinced that dedicating the time and energy to building (or improving) a real estate
website is worth it? Just have a look at the numbers...

5. If you’re like the majority of real estate professionals, you
already understand the importance of having a website.
According to the National Association of REALTORS®,
62 percent of realtors have personal websites for real
estate business purposes, separate from the websites of
their parent companies. What we can’t glean from this
statistic, however, is how many real estate professionals
have GREAT websites.
A great real estate website...
• is designed for SEO
• serves as a resource for buyers & sellers
• has IDX/MLS search built in
• encourages engagement
• captures leads
• positions your brand in a positive way
• showcases content your customers love
• has a beautiful design
5
62% of realtors
have websites

7. With so many real estate websites out there competing for attention, you want your site to stand out. You want your
site to be the one that folks take action on, not the one they overlook. This eBook is dedicated to showing you
how you can achieve those goals.
This eBook will show you:
7
• How to choose a domain name that drives traffic
• Where you can buy a domain name
• Which website design solution is best for your business
• Best practices for real estate website design
• Why having a mobile-friendly site is a must
• How IDX/MLS integration works and why it’s important
• A list of popular IDX providers
• Best practices for creating content for your website
Next Chapter: What’s in a (Domain) Name? >>>

8. We hate to be the ones to break it to you,
but most prospective homebuyers aren’t
searching for YOU on the web: they’re
searching for properties. They’re not going to
Google (or Bing or Yahoo!) and typing in “Joe
Agent real estate.” Instead, they’re typing in
things like “Boston homes for sale” and
“houses for sale in Boston.” It’s not the “who”
that they’re focused on, it’s the “where.” So,
when choosing a domain name for your real
estate website, what kinds of search terms do
you think you should you focus on? If the word
“LOCAL” just popped into your head, you’re
100 percent correct.
What’s in a (Domain) Name?
Chapter
2

10. Of course, not all successful real estate websites follow
this location-based approach to choosing a domain
name. For example, Corcoran* (corcoran.com) and
Stribling** (stribling.com) are two of the most popular real
estate firms serving New York City, yet their website
domain names don’t mention location. Here’s the thing: if
you have a strong brand name - a name that is
recognized by thousands - you can certainly use that
name for your domain and still have a successful
website. But, when considered strictly from an SEO
perspective, it’s not ideal.
*It's important to note that Corcoran spends a significant
amount of marketing dollars building awareness of their
brand and associating themselves with local, useful
content. (Just take a look at their efforts on Foursquare.)
**Besides the power of their brand in the upper echelons
of the power elite in NYC, Stribling has chosen to
differentiate themselves with magazine-class,
professional photography for every listing that they
showcase. As a result, they have some of the most
beautiful housing images on the web.
“If the URL for your name or the name of your
company is out there, you should definitely own it.
That being said, it shouldn’t necessarily be the primary
way people find your site...The fact is that while
existing clients might be able to remember your name,
it’s unlikely that anyone else will know the name of an
agent they have never met. More realistically, your
prospects won’t be searching for you. Instead, they’ll
be searching for what you have to offer.”
-Seth Price, Director of Sales & Marketing - Placester
10

11. 1. Start with the location you want to target (e.g. Boston)
2. Add what you have to offer (e.g. homes for sale, luxury condos, etc.)
3. Do your research! Use the Google Adwords Keyword Tool to see how much monthly traffic your search terms
receive (e.g. “Boston homes for sale, “Boston luxury condos,” etc.)
4. Choose a few of the highest-ranking keyword combinations, add “.com” to the ends, and do a quick search
to make sure they’re not already taken. Pro tip: if you’re having trouble finding available domain names, try
adding on a word that describes you or your brand. A great example of this is The Phoenix Real Estate Guy’s
domain name (phoenixrealestateguy.com).
11
A Step-by-Step Guide to Choosing
a Real Estate Domain Name

12. 5. Head to a site like Valuate.com or EstiBot.com. Enter in your domain name candidates and you’ll get an idea
of how much each domain name is going to cost you.
6. Pull the trigger. Once you’ve decided on a search engine-optimized domain name that fits your budget, buy it
from an online vendor.
Here are some of the most popular domain name vendor options:
12
• godaddy.com
• name.com
• namecheap.com
• 1and1.com
• sedo.com
• buydomains.com
• domainnamesales.com
• enom.com
• networksolutions.com
• register.com
• tucows.com
• domainnames.com

13. 13
Domain Name Do’s and Don’ts
DO focus on local
And don’t be afraid to get creative. Add a bit of your personal brand to the local
search terms you’re targeting (e.g. PhoenixRealEstateGuy.com).
DO be specific
Lots of folks sell real estate in Boston, but far fewer specialize in selling luxury
condos. In this case, “BostonLuxuryCondos.com” would help you drive more
targeted traffic than a more generic option like “BostonHomesforSale.com.”
DO act quickly
Once you’ve decided on a domain name, buy it right away and get it setup.
Google trusts older domain names more so than younger ones, so getting your
domain name in Google’s database as soon as possible will help with SEO.
DO make it easy to spell
Use the phone call test: call a friend, say your domain name out loud, then ask
your friend to spell it. If they struggle, you might want to consider simplifying the
name.

14. 14
Domain Name Do’s and Don’ts
DON’T use hyphens
There’s no proven SEO value in using hyphens. Search engines can recognize
the individual words in “BostonLuxuryCondos.com,” so breaking it up into
“Boston-Luxury-Condos.com” will only make the domain name clunkier and
harder to say out loud.
DON’T make it too long
A short domain name is a memorable domain name.
“BostonLuxuryCondominiumsForSale.com” is an example of an overly long
name.
DON’T choose a “.net,” or “.org,” extension over “.com”
.com is popular, it’s got history on its side, and people naturally type it in when
they’re visiting a website directly (i.e. not searching).

15. If you want to learn more about best practices for choosing a real estate domain name,
check out some of the following resources in our Real Estate Marketing Academy:
• Guide to Choosing the Right Real Estate Domain Name
• Checklist for Choosing a Real Estate URL
• [Interview] Secrets from a Domain Name Broker: Choosing the Right URL for Your Website
Next Chapter: Diving into Design >>>
15

16. Want to keep reading?
Click here to download the full eBook!