Real Estate Web Design - Web Design, SEO

estate

New (IDX enabled) Real Estate WordPress Theme

Posted by | Wordpress | No Comments

A new real estate wordpress theme from Woothemes has been released called Estate and all I can say is that I am quite impressed.  Not only does it look very professional and clean but it has some cool advanced features that should make real estate agents very happy.  And I’m talking about the integrated IDX feature which allows you to include searchable and indexable property pages on your site.  The indexable content is very important for SEO and I think if you’re an agent and you’re not using something like this that you’re at a disadvantage  to those that do.  If you care about SEO then it’s quite important to have lots of content on your site.  Basically having IDX listings that are found by search engines and are able to be indexed means you expand your site’s size.  It now has a better chance at being found for the keywords that are included in your listings.  Think “bigger net”.

Screen Shot of Estate

Estate Theme

Estate is not your ordinary real estate theme. It is more advanced, yet simple to manage real estate theme built specifically for real estate agencies. Built on the WooFramework it boasts advanced SEO controls, clean code and advanced styling features.

Making use of WordPress 3.0′s custom post types and taxonomies the theme unleashes a new “Properties” management facility when installed – proving it’s far more than just a WordPress real estate theme, it’s a web solution. With flexible page templates, an advanced search facility that allows you to drill down into properties based on very specific criteria, Google Maps integration and smart property images management you’ll find huge value in the modest price tag.

dsIDXpressNEW: Now with IDX functionality thanks to dsIDXpress plugin integration.

Estate Theme Advanced Features:

Advanced Search

Search all the property listings based on any combination of it’s location, property type, price, number of bedrooms, to name but a few!

Featured Slider

The home page scroller can feature any noteworthy property listings you wish to highlight in the most prominent home page space. Simply add a tag to the featured posts to enable them in the scroller.

Custom Post Types

Blog posts and pages are typical post types – this theme adds properties, with custom entry fields to populate it’s property listing.

Multiple Layouts

Choose whether you want a widgetized sidebar on the home and other page. Intelligent page templates determine if you have included a virtual tour, Google Map or property images and adjusts the listing layout accordingly.

On Show Properties

On Show properties get prominent styling, and all the “On Show” properties can be viewed on their own unique archive page template.

Google Maps

Associate a Google Map address to your property listing and enable street view and location maps allowing your site visitors to browse the neighbourhood.

Theme Pricing:

This theme currently costs $200 which in my mind is a steal.  But for some that might seem like a lot for a wordpress theme.  But how I look at it is that you are paying for the advanced features.  The IDX feature alone makes this theme stand out.  If you care about SEO and getting more traffic the IDX is really a must have.

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Recent Website Design Work

Posted by | General | 2 Comments

New website design for Blesch and Associates.I recently redesigned Blesch and Associates (a Southern California real estate agency) website so that it would be not only be better looking but follow current web standards.  So it is completely designed using css/xhtml, seo friendly and loads super fast.  The homepage alone is 150Kb smaller in size then the previous design.

That’s one of the great things about using css/xhtml is that it makes your websites a lot smaller in file size.  But another great thing is that it’s a 100 timess more search engine friendly.  When you take out all the regular html that makes up html based websites you not only remove a lot of the file size, but your content moves up higher on the page (in the source code) and there’s not as much code to traverse through for search engine bots.

Going from regular html to css/xhtml is like moving from the stone age to the Jetsons.  If your site is not currently css/xhtml then you should consider changing it asap.

Blesch and Associates is a Southern California real estate agency offering San Bernardino real estate, as well as real estate in surrounding areas such as Redlands, Colton, Riverside and more. If you’re looking for real estate website design then please contact me.

Generate Qualified Real Estate Leads with A Professionally Designed And Optimized Website

Posted by | Online Marketing | 3 Comments

With a professionally designed website you can generate leads 24 hours a day, even in your sleep.

It’s no wonder more and more agents are turning to the web to generate qualified leads. Because of the current market slump agents are spending less money on newspaper classified ads. Agents and brokers are now realizing that their ad dollars pay off more when they invest in their own websites. Investing in their own websites they own and control makes more sense.

If you plan on being in business in the next 5 – 10 years now is the time to get a website.

It’s getting harder and harder to obtain top rankings on search engines like Google. Being on the first page of any search engine when someone searches for keywords related to your business is not a random occurrence. Google and the other major search engines like Yahoo and MSN have complicated algorithms that determine who is on that first page when you search. Do you want to know what one of the factors they use to determine who should rank where?

It’s how old a website is.

That means sites that have been online longer take precedence over newer sites. It’s a fact. That means if you are not already online you are losing precious leads to those who are. A websites age is only one of a hundred or more factors that play a role in where a website ranks however. It takes more than just being online or having an older website then your competitors.

Just having a website is no longer enough.

Many businesses offering website design to agents are offering inferior, quick DIY websites that are built from templates. So your website looks like a lot of other agents websites and are built around outdated technology that makes your website immediately less favorably to the major search engines. There are several reasons for this.

They simply can’t see your content.

Online content is king and many DIY sites and even expensive website designs are designed using a technology called “Frames” which means your content is separated from the main site which makes your content basically invisible to search engines. See my post Real Estate Websites with No Frames for more info. Your content, the text on your website is a huge factor in how search engines know what your website is even about.

It’s better to be unique.

A majority of real estate website design agencies offer cheap alternatives so you can start building your website immediately online. They offer template based designs that even though might look enticing have a negative drawback – they are cookie cutter designs. The search engines can tell who is unique by what is commonly referred to as a “foot print” which a site leaves. Websites based on templates have a foot print you don’t want to have. Unique is better if you ever want to rank for your keywords and generate leads.

You have less control over your website.

When you choose a company who offers inexpensive website alternatives you are giving up your freedom to control many things you should have control over. Sure, you might be able to update colors, text and even images but there are a lot of things that you cannot control that are important to your websites rankings. Things like Meta tags, page titles, site structure and more. All which play a big role in where your website ranks in search engines.

This is where I can help you.

I can design your website so that it is unique, fully editable and found by search engines – a site that will continue to bring you qualified leads for years to come.

When you have me design your website you will receive the highest quality design — one that meets current web standards and is completely accessible by searchers searching Google, Yahoo and MSN.

Even though your website will be editable we offer complete maintenance programs to boot, just in case your not comfortable editing your own site.

And I don’t stop there.

I offer complete search engine placement services so that you rank for the keywords you need to be found under. After your website is designed I put into effect techniques for gaining top positions for your website.

This includes content creation, link building, article marketing, press release writing and more. It is a complicated process which I have mastered over the last 5 years.

See for yourself. You can check the rankings of www.bleschandassociates.com on Google right now. Just search for Redlands Real Estate, Yucaipa Real Estate or even San Bernardino Real Estate.

If you would like these types of positions – ones that will bring you qualified leads 24 hours a day please contact me.

If you’d like to view more real estate site I’ve designed please check out my web design portfolio.

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