Website Design Best Practices for Real Estate Agents That Actually Help You Get More Leads
Real estate agents often rely on sites like Zillow and Realtor.com can be tempting. Those sites have a great offering and can get homes listed and seen. For those agents, their own website can quickly become and afterthought. It can even become nothing but a digital business card.
For many real estate agents, a strong website of their own can be a steady stream of leads. Setting the site up correctly is the key to making that site a great lead generator.
There are several website design best practices for real estate agents that will make all the difference.
Make a Strong First Impression Right Away
Any website has just a few short seconds to grab attention. A real estate website is no different. The top of the site needs to clearly state who you help as well as where you work. This can be done with a great hero image and Heading 1.
The best way to make sure you have a strong first impression is to have a simple and clean design. If the design is cluttered, dated, or unorganized, users will quickly lose interest. One their interest and commitment is lost, getting them to navigate to a second page on the site is almost impossible.
Having low quality photography, blurry images, or (worse yet) confusing images will only never set the site up for a good first impression. Great photos help to connect users to the site and stir up greater emotions.
Simply put, if users don’t get it right away, they will leave.
Keep Navigation Simple and Easy to Use
Once a user comes to your site and is captured with the strong first impression, the next step is to get them to another page. This is where the navigation comes into play.
Having a clear main navigation at the top of the page helps move users closer to a conversion point. Having the main links at the top (Home, Buy, Sell, About, Contact) will clearly give the next step users need to take.
Just like every other part of the website design, do not overcomplicate the main navigation. Keep it clean, easy to follow, and in an obvious location. Your navigation might include drop down menus, but do not use drop down menus off of drop down menus. I make websites for a living, and I even can’t navigate those.
Some sites will do “cute” things and split the navigation in half with the logo in the middle. Rarely do I see this working well. Users have an expectation of what they’ll find on a site. One expectation is that the menu will be to the right of the logo. Splitting it can leave half your links unnoticed by some users.
Make sure users can easily find the most important pages. Pages like a Listings page and Contact page should be clearly listed. If a page is not as important, it can be added as a drop down link if they are used.
Make Sure Your Website Works Perfectly on Mobile
All data points to the fact that users search the web on their phone far more than any other device. You might think that for your industry that you’re the one exception. You’re not. Your users are for sure looking at your site on a mobile device.
Even if they’re not, Google values responsiveness heavily in search rankings. If a site is not responsive, there is going to be a ceiling on just how well the site can rank.
Make sure that all buttons, especially major Call To Action (CTA) buttons, are easy to click on a smartphone. For some users, myself included, a larger button is needed. It isn’t a matter of navigating a tiny mouse cursor into the button, but needing to press the button with a finger instead. If you’re thinking “Should I make this button bigger?” the answer is almost always going to be “YES!”
Your pages on the website will need to load quickly on mobile as well. For a real estate website, there are likely going to be many photos. Those photos ill need to be optimized and set correctly to load quickly. Those cool flashy features might look neat, but if it increases load time, they’ll contribute nothing.
Sometimes on a mobile device, a section might have an odd formatting. Most formatting and layout issues can be corrected to display evenly and smoothly on mobile. The mobile browsing experience should be as flawless as if on a desktop or laptop computer.
Use High-Quality Photos and Visuals
Images are an important part of any website. That is even more true for a real estate website. Low quality images have no place on a real estate website.
That doesn’t mean you need to hire a professional photographer for each house. Your iPhone can take photos that will work great. Spend the time to make sure the photo is taken at the right angles and orientation. I love my iPhone, but sometimes the Android camera will give a better photo.
There is a time and a place for stock photography. A real estate website is not the place. Your photos should be filled with the houses you sell and the families you work with. If you do need to use stock photos, don’t use them on any listing pages. Leave them for a more general page like the About or Contact page.
If you want to take the visuals on your real estate website up to a higher level, you can look into some video walkthrough options. Having a video, even just showing the highlights of the house, can help draw a more emotional picture for the user. If a photo is worth 1,000 words, a video is worth 1,000,000. Make sure the video is optimized for the web or hosted on YouTube for the best playback options.
Use Clear Calls to Action on Every Page
Once on your site and looking around, the next step is guiding the user to take action. This is where your calls to action come into play.
A call to action is telling the user what to do next. Common CTAs are booking a showing, contacting you, or starting a home search. The key is to make that next step always clear and easy.
CTAs should not be hidden. They should be placed in noticeable spots like the top of the page, in content boxes, or near the end of the page. If someone is ready to take action, do not make them have to search for how to do that.
Try to keep your CTAs simple and direct. “Schedule a Showing” or “Contact Me” will almost always outperform something clever or vague.
If you are ever unsure if you have enough calls to action on a page, you probably need one more.
Capture Leads Without Making It Complicated
Getting users to your website is one thing. Turning them into a lead is another.
Your forms should be quick and easy to complete. Name, email, and section for questions is usually plenty. The more questions added, the fewer people that will complete the form. The form is not the sales engine. You are. Gather the information, and follow up. That follow up will likely require more information, but you can get that later.
At the same time, do not overwhelm users with popups and forms everywhere they go. There is a balance between capturing leads and driving people away.
A clean, simple form placed in the right spot will outperform a complicated one every time.
Use IDX and Turn Your Website Into Your Own Real Estate Platform
This is one of the biggest website design best practices for real estate agents, and one that can completely change how your website performs.
IDX allows users to search for homes directly on your website. Instead of sending them off to another platform, they stay right where you want them.
Without IDX, your website is limited. With it, your website becomes a true tool for buyers and sellers.
This is also where the conversation shifts a bit.
When someone searches on Zillow or Realtor.com, they are on their platform. You are one of many agents competing for attention on that same listing.
When someone searches on your website using IDX, they are on your platform. They are interacting with your brand, your content, and your experience.
You are not competing with other agents on the same page. You are guiding the entire experience.
That is a big difference.
Your website should not just be a place you send people after they have already searched elsewhere. It should be the place they start.
If you want to build something that actually grows your business over time, IDX is a key part of that.
Build Trust With Content and Reviews
Real estate is a high trust decision. People are not just choosing a house. They are choosing who they want to work with through a major life decision.
Your website should help build that trust.
Start with the basics. Testimonials and reviews go a long way. If past clients had a great experience, let future clients see that.
Your About page also plays a big role. This is where people can really get to know you. Keep this page professional, but do show some personality. Let the user know what you and your business are really like. People want to work with someone they feel comfortable with and can connect with.
Beyond that, use great content to set you apart. Write blog posts, guides, and answer questions users have to position you as the expert in your area. This will give users good reason to stay on your site and come back again and again.
Over time, this builds credibility. Not just with users, but with search engines as well.
A Better Website Can Mean Better Leads
A real estate website is not just about looking good. It is about helping users take the next step.
When your website is set up the right way, it becomes more than a digital business card. It becomes a powerful lead generation tool that works for you. It can do anything from bring in new leads to answer client questions and even help home buyers navigate the buying or selling process.
Many of these updates can be simple and small improvements. And they can be done over a few weeks. But they will make a big difference. A clearer layout, better photos, stronger calls to action, and the right tools like IDX can all add up quickly.
If you are relying on Zillow or Realtor.com, your website is an opportunity to take control of your business and leads.
If you want help designing a website that does all of this and is easy to manage, we can help. At Full Scope Creative, we build websites that are designed to work for your business, not create more work for you.
If you are ready to take a look at your current site or start something new, reach out and let’s talk through it.