As a broker, your website is your first impression, the place where you get to establish the heart of your company and begin to build trust with potential clients.
It should be custom-tailored to match your brand and scalable as you grow. Whether managed by internal resources or by a developer, WordPress is one of the best ways for a broker site to stay up to date with contemporary strategies for calls-to-action, lead capture, recruiting, and SEO.
WordPress might be just one of many options but it does provide you with some great advantages as a brokerage: scalability, endless customizations, mobile responsiveness, SEO, ownership and transferability, and blogging.
- Scalability
You need a platform that will last for the long haul and grow with your business. WordPress software powers almost a third of sites on the web today and is constantly updated and improved by developers the world over. This means you can start with something simpler and, as resources and budget allow, can add to the complexity of your site to continue to wow visitors to your company. - Endless Customization with Plugins
Plugins extend the capabilities of WordPress websites, enabling you to achieve what was once functionality that required custom code from an experienced web developer simply by installing a “plugin” to your site. And there are thousands of options, most importantly for real estate, plugins that allow visitors to search active listings in your MLS, like FBS Products’ own WordPress IDX plugin - Mobile Responsive Themes
The look and feel of a WordPress website is controlled by a “theme”. And there are thousands of them, even some specific to real estate. When choosing your theme, however, it’s best to find a theme design that is designed to work with IDX listing data to ensure a smooth implementation and professional display of your local listing data as well as one that looks great on all device types: smartphones, tablets, small laptops, etc. The latest stats say that over 80% of users performed a search on a mobile device. How your listings are displayed on mobile vs. desktop is critical. - SEO
WordPress is probably the best-positioned solution of any content management system when it comes to Search Engine Optimization. Implementing one of the better SEO plugins as an adjunct to your keyword and key-phrase strategy will have you at the top of your brokerage’s game when it comes to capturing organic web traffic for local search terms. - You Own Your Site: Lock, Stock, and Barrel
There are some fantastic platforms for broker websites out there. However, when you create all of that content and design around your brand, do you really own all of it? What if you changed from one brand to another? If you had to move the site without losing your content, could you? And how hard would it be? With WordPress, you have complete access to your entire website, associated databases, and more. Making changes won’t require starting all over again and losing your content or blog history. - Blogging
Blogs are built into WordPress. It’s probably the single best resource for displaying unique content that engages your current and prospective customers on an ongoing basis. Blogs also improve organic SEO by helping you stay consistent with great content that pleases the big search engines.
A WordPress website, with integrated IDX, is one of the single best ways for brokers to build a professional presence on the web that can grow and continue to increase lead capture, agent recruiting, and overall market share.
Have one of our Broker/Agent Product Consultants provide you with a personalized demo of our IDX WordPress plugin, connected to the Flexmls® Platform.
