Do you have a website?

Question

John Thedford · Answer

@Eric Armstrong

Having a website is not necessarily THE answer. Having one that people find and use is another. In the RE space there are hundreds of thousands of websites. How can you make yours different, rank high, and bring people back. I have 3 websites. Two are not RE related. One ranks between #1-#2 on google without paying one dime for SEO. The other ranks usually #1 on google. Those sites are in an industry that is a niche market. What sets one apart is reputation and being one of the top people in the industry. The URL is one of the best. Same for the other site..the URL makes ALL the difference. The "we buy houses" just won't cut it. It is nice to have a site, but having one that generates leads takes good planning, probably good SEO, marketing, and a good URL that will help you rank. IF you can find a way to generate traffic AND keep them coming back you will get higher and higher in ranking.

Scott Hollister · Answer

Hello @Eric Armstrong,

Take a look into squarespace. They have great layouts (Fewer than other companies like wix but they look amazing IMO) The best thing I liked about squarespace is building it. Its super simple for someone that has basic computer knowledge. They offer a few different packages to purchase as well.

My PRIMARY reason, even though I don't collect seller lead info is for the email. An email with your name and website says you're professional. I found if you want to be taken seriously, act professional. Even if you have to fake it 'til you make it!

Eric Armstrong · Answer

@Scott Hollister thanks for the tip, I'll look into that.

@John Thedford I understand I'll have some work to do to get it noticeable, but all I'm really looking for right now is for a easy layout,  maybe some page ideas, and like Scott said, a look of a professional business.  In the future, I hope to be able to pick your brain about driving the traffic to the site. Thank you for your helpful input.

Ray Dipasupil · Answer

Wix & Squarespace are good starts. If any of y'all need websites built, feel free to holler at me & we can discuss about building your own website. It's one of my specialties.

Dakotah P. · Answer

As a professional web developer, I would rank Wix and Wordpress at the bottom and Squarespace at the top in terms of professional presentation. Anything is fine if you want to reduce costs temporarily but Wix websites look like crap and may not be properly responsive (mobile-friendly), if at all.

Wordpress websites can range from poor to decent based on the quality of the template but the problem is twofold: Wordpress needs to be updated constantly to address bugs and security fixes (which is a pain to do), and Wordpress is primarily a blog engine and doesn't look great for bonafide websites.

From my critical eye, I can tell when a website is made on Wix or Wordpress and not in a good way. Squarespace sites, however, always make you look as professional as possible. Hope that helps anyone decide on where to host their site.

Gordon Cuffe · Answer

@Eric ArmstrongColton outlined the costs the best with a woodpress site. A woodpress site is the best website builder and easiest if you want to do it yourself. The hard part is getting visitors to your site. I have a seller site for my city at http://webuyhousesinsacramento.com/

I rarely get visitors because I dont pay for ppc. I have not paid for facebook ads yet either. I am on the first page of google in my city but so are many others. If you dont want to build your site , you can buy the domain name then go to a site called fiverr com and pay someone very cheaply to build you a site.

Mike Chamberlain · Answer

I would have to agree with John, a website is only part of the solution. You could have the nicest website in the world but if no one ever sees it.... SEO is one way to go but there are several other options to drive traffic to your website including Pay Per Click, Facebook ads, Craigslist, email lists etc...

Scott had mentioned Squarespace which seems to be a good platform to build what I would call a brochure site, similar to a flashy online business card. You may need additional functionalities that Squarespace does not offer such as enhanced SEO and a solid Property Listing Platform.

Please contact me if I can be of assistance.

Mike Chamberlain

Colton S. · Answer

Hey @Eric Armstrong, I would look into one of the premium themes on WordPress. They will typically range from $5-$50 and are well worth the cost. With a WordPress site, you own the hosting and most of the content you just use their CMS (Content management system).

This allows you to be a bit more flexible with the places you host and how exactly you market you site, unlike the sites like Wix or SquareSpace.

WordPress also makes it extremely easy to manage any leads, integrate new plug ins and really add valuable features to your site.

Here is an example of breakdown costs:

Wordpress Theme: $5-$50 (One time)

Hosting from HostGator: $5-10/mo

Domain name - Namecheap: $14/yr

Custom email address - Google Apps; $5/mo.

MailChimp - to collect the emails and allow you to send out emails to a mass audience: $10/mo. or FREE

You of course don't have to do everything here, but it's a good example of the costs. Time to create depends on what you want, but normally it'll be 5-10 hours.

John Thedford · Answer

@Eric Armstrong

Always glad to help! There are many people a lot better at this than me. My success has been due to being in a very niche market with few players that do much. If you were to google my name, you may find me:) There is more than one John Thedford, but I am in Naples..and it isn't big enough for two of us:)

Adrienne Bryson · Answer

I will be following this thread!  I am curious about building a RE website and the best way.

I've had some people tell me that it's best to have two: one for motivated sellers (a "we buy houses" type that basically just brings in leads) and one for buyers and general RE information.

Do you have a website?

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