Real Estate Website Design

If i were going to build a real estate website today starting from scratch.
These are a few things I would focus on.
Understanding what I know now about webdesign, SEO and Real Estate Websites.

1. Domain name - This is tricky because if your only marketing will be
Organic Search/ PPC you may want a keyword spam type domain name. ie
www.YOURCITY_State_REAL_ESTATE.com or whatever.
If you are going to advertise your website in your print advertising,
business cards ect. You want something someone can see and remember. You can
rank any site with time and effort but as far as I know keywords in the
domain name are still a factor in all the engines so its just a little
harder. The best solution to this problem is to just simply have 2 domain
names.
One for print and one for ranking. Have your print domain redirected to
the keyword rich domain name and you get the best of both worlds.

2. Website - I would focus on building (or having built) a SEO friendly site
that was easy to add content/new pages to as well as having a blog
installed. I would make sure the site looked professional of course, I
believe that having quality photography and a clean design are the two best
ways to get a professional site. I would have a very limited amount of
outgoing links on my main page and NO BANNERS from directories.

3. Lead Generation - I would build my site so it entices people to contact
me. I would have a contact me page, a Auto Email from MLS page, free CMA
page, and of course I would have my IDX search accessable and I wouldn't
make people sign up prior to using it.(This is debated but I find forced
contacts to be a waste of time others disagree and I see there point as
well) The reason behind this is a site that doesnt convert might as well not
be ranked. If you have 1 million visitors and only 1 person contacts you
would probally be better off building a site that 20 people visit you but 10
contact you. You want a site that does both, you want to both a rankable
site and one that converts those visitors to leads.

4. Off Site SEO - if I had the money I would hire Off Site SEO out. If i
didn't have the money (which I dont) I would focus on building
[U]relevant[/U] links to my site. I would roated between 10 or so different
anchor texts but I would be heavy on my main 1 or 2 terms. These are the
different types of links I would focus on getting. 1 Ways links, Recips, 3
Ways, Article, Directory (free and a [U]select[/U] few paid), Forum Sigs,
Offsite Blogs, Blog Comments, and Press Releases.

I believe if you do (or hire someone to do) just these 4 easy steps you will
rank well in the search engines. MSN will be almost instant, Yahoo 3-6
months, Google 8-12 months. During this time I would use PPC and print
marketing to suppliment my poor rankings and help drive people to my
website.

One more point, people need to realize that web leads are different then
your normal office leads. Usually web leads are just starting there search.
They need to be cultivated, you will need a good lead management system to
keep track of these leads. I have found personally that my leads are usually
6-10 months out when they first contact me. I have obviously also recieved
the I need a home NOW leads as well but they are very few and far between.

Drip Email, Newsleters and PERSONAL PHONE calls are the best way I have
found to keep in constant contact with my leads. I like to mix it up and
contact my clients at least 1 time a week with one of these methods.

About The Author: Sam Dodd is a professional real estate agent in Southern
Utah. If you are looking for http://www.cedarcityonline.com contact Sam for
more information.