Web Sites and Domain Names

Web Sites and Domain Names

According to the National Association of Realtors 80% of home buyers use the Internet to shop for a home. 70% of them use agents they found through real estate websites. Internet home buyers take an average of about two weeks with an agent to buy a home while traditional buyers take an average of 46 days. Internet buyers are younger, have higher incomes and buy higher priced homes than those who are not connected to or do not use the Internet. How do we stack up as real estate agents? 75% use e-mail for their business (what I've found is that most of them are using AOL, Hotmail or Yahoo accounts or those provided by their company). The amazing statistic is that only about 40% actually have web sites. WOW! What an opportunity!

Welcome to the first of our series of setting up websites and getting onto the Internet and World Wide Web. What we're going to cover today are: what you need in a web site and how to select a domain name or URL. That's the technical term for the website name, such as http://www.yourwebsite.com/.

Domain names:

1.       Simple

2.       Accurate description

3.       .com

4.       Memorable

One of the biggest mistakes that I’ve seen over the past couple years is that many agents try to use their own name in their URL, such as www.JoeSmith.com. Why is this a big mistake? Well unless your name is Martha Stewart nobody knows who you are and nobody, quite frankly, cares who you are. Here is a litmus test when you’re choosing a URL: if you put a one line classified ad in the newspaper - whoever saw it would know exactly what your site was about and remember it. It would require neither tagline nor a description to let people know about the subject of your site.

If you were searching for a home and saw two ads side by side: the first was www.JoeSmith.com and the second was www.DenverRealEstate.com - which would you visit? No contest - you would visit http://www.denverrealestate.com/!  Why?  For two main reasons: 1) the name actually tells you what the site is all about; and probably more important 2) it was not associated with a salesperson. Remember that public views real estate agents right there with used car sales people by reputation. It's well deserved unfortunately and that's what we are here to change.

I recommend http://www.realestatesitenames.com/ for URL (Domain Name) registration. It is $8.35 per year (there are some that are less expensive) and there are so many options and free services attached that it makes it worth it!

Now that you have a Domain Name - what do you need in/on your website?

Web Site Key Ingredients

1.       Information

2.       Homes

3.       Free Reports

4.       Automated follow-up

5.       Auto responders

6.       IDX or VOW

7.       Easy Name

8.       Promotion/Marketing

You simply MUST have ALL of these ingredients or you will not have the most successful website that is possible.