100 Web sites, one unfulfilling experience
The Davison Files
By Marc Davison, Wednesday, March 5, 2008.Bookmarking Sites
Ever search for a word but can't seem to find it? Or try to recall a fact that won't roll off the tip of your tongue?
Ever need to buy a vowel from Vanna White?
What's missing from the online real estate experience?
As part of a brand analysis for an East Coast brokerage, I drilled 10 pages deep into Google's results for "real estate" in the company's market area. I explored every result. There were 100 Web sites in total. Of these 100 sites:
- 51 belonged to either associations, media companies, builders, funeral homes (not kidding), or listings aggregators;
- 37 belonged to individual agents, teams or single brokers;
- 7 belonged to brokerage companies;
- 3 were ActiveRain blogs;
- 1 site was a listing blog with an RSS feed;
- 1 site was a Naymz profile.
While I learned a bit about search-engine positioning, this exercise revealed something far more concerning: the X that marks the spot where real estate Web sites, in general, fail.
Promises, promises
Several things crystallized.
1) The most obvious was the mechanical gunfire of platitudes rat-tat-tatting across every broker and agent Web site. The bullet holes murdered my ability to decipher and choose. It's like the old game show, "To Tell the Truth." Will the real local expert, market specialist, top producer, #1 expert please stand up?
2) Second was the overwhelming sense that the notion of what a Web site is or could be today has been lost among real estate companies in this high-tech, desirable place to live. Most of the sites I viewed were more closely related to their bus bench and moving-van-ad cousins than they were to the progressive sensibilities of the Web-using home buyer or seller.
3) Third, there were far too many promises not kept. Take "Find your Dream Home," a common call to action on the sites I reviewed. My dream home is a two-story penthouse overlooking Gramercy Park in Manhattan that costs under $1 million. But when I click on these links I encountered links to poorly executed IDX solutions covering tens of thousands of homes; the haystack in which I am left to find my dream needle. Have a nice day.
What's missing?
Truth. Honesty. A real voice. Every site I visited spoke to me with a voice wholly not its own, spewing every real estate cliché under the sun.
If you're branding yourself as a "top producer," what is it that you produce? What does this term mean to the user? What is your site doing to support that claim and extend a top production experience to the user? If you are a market specialist, what does that mean? What is a market anyway? This is an industry term that means nothing to a person who lives, buys and sells inside cities, towns, villages and neighborhoods -- not markets. When you claim to be a market specialist, how are you extending that claim on your Web site in a profound way so that your positioning statements are supported?
100 Web sites, one giant unfulfilling experience
Inside and across the caverns I hear the shouts of those who would claim this illustrates the failure of Web 2.0 in real estate. And yet, elsewhere, here and there, we find the Kris Bergs, the Teresa Boardmans, the Blueroofs of real estate hammering their pylons deep into the rock. They are building blogs, enhancing the search experience and offering the type of content most believe short-sell their value. And despite this, they are scaling to the top of a real estate boulder, their crampons and cams dug deep into something new.
It's been five years since mashups were introduced to real estate, three years since blogging became a hot topic. During these last few formidable years, hundreds of millions of Web users have been exposed to a new way of experiencing the Internet. And while I believe that there are many social aspects of Web 2.0 that make no sense for real estate, I will argue for the ones that do. I will argue that providing proof of claims made on a Web site hones in on the basic morays of quality branding.
Web 2.0 is a failure if you allow yourselves to believe it is. Web 2.0 is a failure if the only thing you value is the short-term lead and disregard the long-term benefits of creating a heightened user experience and conveyance of your brand position.
I visited 100 Web sites. Save for the ActiveRain profiles, there was nary a trace of anything Web 2.0. Seems to me, there's an opportunity just waiting to happen for one agent, one broker, one voice to cut through with something different.
Marc Davison is a partner at 1000watt Consulting. He can be reached at marc@1000wattconsulting.com.
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Submitted by Teresa Boardman on March 5, 2008 - 5:26am.
Thanks for the mention. I beleive there is power in the individual voice. I agree with your point about "many social aspects of web 2.0 that make no sense for real estate" I could list them here, but the list would be longer than your post.
Submitted by Denise Brophy on March 5, 2008 - 7:20am.
Just read your article. I've been struggling with websites without presence or content, or anything valued added for the consumer including my own. And I am guilty as charged with attempting to attract business from the web though I can count on one hand the contacts received that have translated into closed transactions. My thoughts are the same as yours the real estate sites/ agent sites are clogged with "hire me, let me help you, I am the best, the first, the top producer" and no content.
A few years ago my partner and I hired a "marketing" person who "branded" us, ouch! We were satisfied with the results (it looked pretty) and after numerous meetings we finally said we could no longer labour over/keep tweeking it because we just got to get out there with our campaign. Financially and emotionally we felt we would be able to connect with the real estate buying and selling public, we added content, spoke about the market, linked to important sites and felt we had put plenty of information out there - and maybe just maybe it would translate into a web presence and more business. I think our failure (and it is) with our web presence is our inability to communicate to the marketing person that the customer was "it". Where she felt we were "it". And so we are lost in the pages online and our online experience, which we feel we should be having with people looking for homes, is just not happening. And, if its not happening to us, is it happening for others, to anyone?
I have a blog site on ActiveRain that has brought more interaction with not only real estate professionals but the buying and selling public who are seeking real estate advice as well. It is less costly, more timely, and user friendly and sometimes I even make it to page 1 on Google with a well written blog.
I wish I had the magic formula real estate agents are seeking, including me, but I don't. I do think if we continue to overlook the needs of the buying and selling public whereby we promise to get them the listings they want "first" because we sell the most, or that our "marketing" system beats all other systems and seeming to welcome inquiries with open arms yet keeping them at arms length is not a way to built relationships web based or otherwise.
Thanks for a thought provoking article.
Submitted by Jay Thompson on March 5, 2008 - 10:42am.
You have a great way with words Marc. Brilliant stuff here.
"The most obvious was the mechanical gunfire of platitudes rat-tat-tatting across every broker and agent Web site"
I do my best to be me on my blog -- open and transparent. People can accept me, like me, hate me, decide to enter into a client/agent relationship, or say "This guy is not for me". All are perfectly acceptable responses. For whatever reason, enough seem to be interested in entering into a relationship.
Thanks for your insight!
Jay Thompson
Broker / Owner
Thompson's Realty
Blog: www.PhoenixRealEstateGuy.com
Submitted by Kris Berg on March 5, 2008 - 10:57am.
I couldn't agree more.
Interesting that you link to my blog and not my static website. Some day they will morph into one, and some day is sooner than I want to admit, but the undertaking is going to be a challenging one. Initially, we wanted to make a distinction - This site is commercial, and that site is safer, a place where we aren't overtly trying to sell you something - because this is what the customer wants. Add to the equation that we have busted our hineys trying to provide deep, meaningful and unique content on our "static" site (which isn't very static at all). Migrating this presents all of the difficulties of a mixed marriage, but our Web 2.0 society is progressive, and I think it is about time.
You make a great point about the dearth of meaningful web sites truly trying to deliver the content that the consumer is looking for. Yet, there are many agents who are delivering a message which would by all accounts resonate with the customer - if only the customer could find them. You looked at 100 sites; the consumer will rarely venture into Page 2 territory. Needle in a haystack, indeed.
Teresa rocks the house for the search term "St. Paul Real Estate." Try breaking into "San Diego Real Estate." With perhaps one exception, Page 1 is a vast wasteland of the antiquated stuff you speak of. So, the knee-jerk reaction is to start an SEO stuffing campaign, or that is what the experts will tell us.
>Web 2.0 is a failure if the only thing you value is the short-term lead and disregard the long-term benefits of creating a heightened user experience and conveyance of your brand position.
I couldn't agree more. Call me short-sighted, ignorant, or in a state of denial, but this has always been my approach and always will be. I continue to try to improve our online offering through better tools and through better and deeper content. Marketing a business is a process, not an event, and I continue to hold to the notion that while my approach may not be instantly gratifying in terms of search ranking, I will eventually achieve long-term success organically, and it will be earned (and just maybe stickier). In the meantime, our web presence continues to grow in popularity locally which, last time I checked, is where the people wanting to buy and sell homes in San Diego reside.
Submitted by Mary Pope-Handy, CRS, ABR, E-Pro, SRES on March 5, 2008 - 12:19pm.
Hi Marc,
Great post and right on target. When I visit search engines and look for important terms like "Silicon Valley Real Estate" I am astounded at how few agents actually come up in the results. It is mostly, as you say, aggregators (which is probably not what a buyer or seller is seeking).
Agents are trimming marketing expenses and looking for a return on dollars spent in this more challenging market. Blogs can really work when added to consistently and, as you say, with the consumer in mind. The static websites aren't doing the trick in most cases. I've got multiple sites and multiple blogs (some of it an experiment in niche marketing) and am moving more and more to combining the old "standard content" of sites with the dynamic content of blogs so that a comprehensive blogsite can give the consumer more and more of what is sought. A year from now, I will have fewer sites and blogs, but I expect the new array to be more productive.
Submitted by Lori Turoff on March 5, 2008 - 12:49pm.
I agree with your criticism that most agent websites are lacking. It's easy to attack 'same old content' but where is your suggestion for a better way? Agents are inundated with sales pitches for internet solutions and services on a daily basis. Most are not very technically proficient.
Interestingly, both of the two sites you mention, Kris Berg and Theresa Boardman, look to me to be just like all the others. Kris even uses the words "Top Producer" which you mock. I see a search map that leaves the customer to figure out what to search. On the www.tboardman.com site I found more of the same old, same old. Hard to navigate, nothing to tell me about the agent or why a buyer or seller would want to use her, the usual canned "for the buyer" and the "my listings" link just took me to yet another 'search all listings' map providing no guidance to a buyer.
Sure, blogging is great and can be creative but I personally don't believe that it should be used to sell listings. Realtors are generally disliked by the public and many of us are in denial about our image. Plastering my blog with self-promotional sales hype is not going to engender trust or give me any credibility with the public. Trust has to be earned. I think an agent blog should give valuable info and be educational. Once the relationship is developed, the sales will follow. But the sales pitch perhaps should be made in a different forum - bringing the agent website into the picture.
I'd love to hear some innovative ideas for an agent website that actually engages the consumer and generates leads. Those you point to, in my opionion, don't cut it. Nor do those that the sales legions try to push on me every day. The whole corny format, from the photos of the white picket fence to the 'learn how much your home is worth' calls to action are just dull and tired.
There's lots of room for improvement here. The agents who have the time, skill and resources to stand out from the crowd will succeed. I'd love to see some examples that are truly innovative and effective.
Submitted by Mitch Argon on March 5, 2008 - 3:43pm.
Quite an interesting experiment. I've always thought this business made it very difficult for a consumer to know who is "really" in the game versus who is "on call" with the appearance of being a professional eh-um - full time real estate professional.
Unfortunately, the landscape of realtor web sites still has the remnants of realtor business cards - cheezy, outdated, in poor taste, in poor quality - yes, I'm talking about wierd photos and slogans and all that stuff.
I hope when people search for Reno Real Estate, they find my site not only palatable but delivering on what we say we offer online and with our services.
Submitted by Carolyn Enlow on March 5, 2008 - 3:49pm.
Interesting article, Marc.
Yes, the web is a wasteland of ineffective real estate sites. And yes, the agents and sites could be more effective. And yes, good blogs do work better for personal branding than most of the agent/agency sites. And no, there does not seem to be a sense of what a contemporary website should be. And yes, there are far too many platitudes and hyped promises.
However I’m not sure that condemnation helps much and I feel that blogs are an answer to a different question. In a very broad sense, agent and agency blogs should be where personalities are exposed and familiarity established. In contrast, websites should be where brands, properties and communities are exposed and promoted. At least that is today’s common perception by searchers, agents, buyers and sellers.
Agents face a tough dilemma. They have to please their broker, their sellers and the potential buyers. They have to do this as part of a pool of agents within an agency which they are generally considered interchangeable shift workers.
The brokers face their own dilemmas. They must differentiate themselves from the agency down the street while not outshining their own individual agents. They also must meet the needs and demands of experienced high producing agents while protecting those agents in development. In most cases the agency site is competing with a mishmash of private agent sites maintained by their own agents.
Agents and agencies are both struggling to get and hang on to listings at the same time they are searching for buyers for those properties. In many cases those listing platitudes, i.e.: “dream homes,” are necessary to maintain listings as sellers become discouraged over today’s long selling cycle. The agents can be as frustrated by their sellers’ descriptive demands as you are critical of them.
Because of their open and singular nature agent and agency websites are asked to do much more than any single site should be asked to do. By their very nature they can’t do more than one service really well. That’s not to say that they couldn’t be better. Unfortunately we haven’t seen a good website model or seminar out there for the agents and brokers to learn from or to model on.
We operate a regional single-purpose real estate site. Our singular aim is to attract buyers for homes and residential lots in the central Sierras of California. We have about twenty five agencies we work with along the Sierra foothills. The site, www.sierrascenic.com does not promote us nor does it mention our affiliated agents or agencies. It simply focuses on showing homes in the searched-on community.
Because we are in regular daily contact with our client agencies we get a feeling for our results. We place several referrals every day.
Almost without exception the referral managers within our client agencies say we are providing more quality clients than their company site, their agent sites and their national affiliations.
I don’t think that happens because we are particularly good… we do a terrible job on SEO placement, for example… but because we are singularly focused on showcasing the scenic nature of our clients’ listings.
It will be interesting to see how this unfolds as the agencies and agents learn to optimize their web presence. How will they balance the need to brand? They are paying 6-8% franchise fees for that national brand, so they can’t ignore it. And they have their local agency brand reputation that must be promoted as well.
How will agencies please their best listing and selling agents so they don’t leave? How will agents please their sellers as they ask for listing extension after listing extension? How will all concerned… agents, agencies and MLSs, catalog, sort and provide informative targeted responses to potential buyers without overwhelming, frustrating or confusing them to the point that they hit the back button?
Yes, Marc, your criticism is very valid. But it would be well to have some sympathy for these poor agents and agencies. They are not ignorant of the problem. We talk to them every day. They agonize over the same issues, they try different approaches, but no clear answer has evolved yet.
Submitted by Greg Tracy on March 5, 2008 - 5:03pm.
Part of the challenge with websites is the struggle between search engine optimization and good design. Having a page full of text is great for SEO but not the most desirable to lookf at, and a website like BlueRoof.com has a great design but it's all about the consumer experience and so it has little text for search engines to grab onto, and therefore does not rank in organic search results.
There are solutions, and we will be addressing many of these issues, with real-world solutions, on the Blueroof360.com platform.
For instance,
Most websites have a homepage and then interior pages. What if you could have a homepage with all the latest technology (video, instant chat, map based search, blog) and then another homepage for every neighborhood in your city?
What if you could have a separate website for every condominium complex and for every listing, and have all these websites link together under your one domain name, yet be separately optimized for SEO?
There are many solutions we will be addressing that I believe will truly (not just lip service) revolutionize the industry.
Consumers are becoming more net savvy and are less willing to accept an average website, which is why third-party listing aggregation websites (Trulia, Zillow, Realtor.com) are getting traffic- because so few individual agent and broker websites offer a great experience.
Submitted by Marc Davison on March 5, 2008 - 6:27pm.
Lori,
I appreciate your question and concerns. I hear them loud and clear. I believe attending to each one soundly and calmly can assuage many of your concerns.
You are correct the article could offer more than the three suggestions I offered - truth, honesty and a real voice. Fortunately, there are many other articles here on Inman and other destinations that converge on this topic.
I don't believe a blog is a cure all for everyone. It is for some. But certainly, building some presence online that is not a template is the direction you must take. If you work for a broker that does not allow that - leave. Go across to the street to another broker. Or enlighten your broker as to the benefits of doing things differently that they have been.
There's no reason not to join Active Rain, Zolve and other social networks emerging in real estate. They are not cure alls, they are just part of the fix.
If you believe that Teresa and Kris are more of the same old same old, then we see things differently. To me, each has their own unique writing style. Each cover a different aspect of their marketplace and each has infused a sense on honest coverage written in their own voice. Each comes up high in search engines and each follow through quickly on inquiries. These elements alone are intensely compelling.
Are they perfect? Nothing ever is.
Ask Jay Thompson about a buyer that recently hired from overseas. Ask Jay what he's doing that made the buyer bypass all the other sites and agents and hire him. It's fascinating. It’s where you will get answers to many of your questions.
And they are great questions. Keep asking them.
Submitted by Lenore & Alex Wilkas on March 5, 2008 - 11:29pm.
What I see around my area, the San Francisco Peninsula, are generally static web sites developed by the same company with different landing pages, some variations on tabs and that's it. After developing a new web site at then end of 2006, we scraped it for a blog through RSSPieces and haven't looked back, except crying over the money spent on that site.
I now write two blogs, and contribute to a third and have had clients come to me because of it. I focus on San Mateo County, www.SanMateoRealEstateNews.com, and that's what I write about. I try to give information to people that is useful, funny occasionally, rants rarely but on occasion, and it's working.
We have pages for communities in the works, but that takes a lot of time and energy to produce, so they're coming slowly. One of my sites will, it's just being changed, focus only on one community, while the other is for our area. This is where it's happening, and where it's going.
I do not believe in writing to other Realtors. They are not my consitituency. I'm here to teach people about real estate and our community. If you Google San Mateo Real Estate, I'm right up there at the top, where I should be.
Submitted by Kris Berg on March 6, 2008 - 8:30am.
Lori - "Top Producer" point well taken. You are speaking of the "about" page, of course, which is an outdated, unfortunate side effect of a very long to-do list and limited time. A relevant web presence is like painting the Golden Gate Bridge - You are never finished. When you think you are, it is time to turn around and head back the other direction.
Agents are not very technologically proficient you say, and I generally agree. But, that doesn't mean it must remain so. Some of us are at least trying to be different and make a distinction. We are putting a boat-load of effort into learning what we didn't know and being more proficient. If my "looks like all the others" blog misses the mark for you, I am disappointed and will vow to do better. But, at least I am trying when it would be much easier to say "I don't understand that stuff, so I am not going to do it."
Submitted by G Dewald | Union Street Media on March 6, 2008 - 9:24am.
This is a great topic. The meat of it, backing up your claims and getting rid of the fluff, seems more about branding than anything web2-0. Backing up your claims is as old haggling.
I think that those who claim all this blogging, social networking, social media creation, content-sharing and so forth is a waste of time are probably right... some of the time. And at other times they are dead wrong.
Luckily, the tools to measure this are now available and financially accessible. The ROI can be calculated on these activities with a minimum of discipline. But it's probably not as fun as posting comments on a blog.
Now that the tools exist and some people are using them, it's time to start measuring and fine tuning.
But back to the meat of the original post: all the web2.0 kool-aid in the world won't save you if your branding is mess.
(quickly scrubs "top producing" from his company site until he finishes the whitepaper)
Submitted by Lori Turoff on March 6, 2008 - 2:01pm.
Marc,
Truth, honesty and a real voice - yes, that should be everyone's motto. In every business. Blogs, social networks, thinking outside of the box vs. conventional marketing techniques, door knocking, postcards, bus ads - definitely the way to go, at least to some extent, for some agents, in some proportion. Have many of the agents active in these parts done that on their blogs - no doubt. I still question the more traditional website format of even the more innovate and technically savvy agents, my own included, which was the topic of your original post.
There is much to learn and much info available here on on other good RE tech sites. Yet I'm still puzzled over the best way to reach the consumer searching for listings without looking like Web 1.0. I suspect from what I read from other agents that I'm not alone. Even if our brokers let us have a free hand - after all we are independent contracts, not employees, we are often constrained by our local real estate boards who grant our licenses. My board still hasn't approved IDX if you can believe that. NAR's recent rule regarding MLS advertising in a URL is another example of the constraints and vagueness within which agents must operate.
At the end of the day, if the home buying consumer has a choice between an aggregator like Trulia or Zillow and an individual agent or even brokerage website to search for listings, unless we have something else to offer of value, and of course that is the rub, where do you think that consumer will click?
So the challenge is to deliver that value, stay highly ranked in SEO, set yourself apart from the crowd, offer ease of use and elegance, have an original voice that's informative and interesting and do it all while having time to show properties, go on listing presentations and do deals. Whew!
Yes, Kris, we do the best we can and you and others are very good at it. But there is so much more that can be done and if you techies are listening - so much opportunity to give us realtors, whose job is to sell real estate, better technological tools to allow us to reach that paradigm of which we all agree should be achieved. Maybe then we wouldn't have quite such a crummy reputation in the eyes of the general public.
The bottom line is that forums like this to share and learn are a huge step in the right direction for the agents who will survive and prosper in this crazy economic market. So thanks for that to all of you.
Submitted by mark langowski on March 12, 2008 - 6:05am.
I couldn't agree more with your views. I am the Founder of www.BeatYouThere.com. We are still in our "soft launch beta mode" but will be releasing to the media very soon. We plan to help both the buyer and the seller/agent with our effective search engine and social networking platform. Many unique features that will blow other search engines out of the water. Coming soon!!!!!
Submitted by Rob Regan on March 13, 2008 - 11:09pm.
How is it that most Brokers, Agents and so-called industry experts still don't get how to attract real estate consumers??? Every NAR internet study says that the #1 thing Buyers want is property information and property photos. So why are you still bothering with branding???? Instead, find a way to let users shop for homes on your site, or in the case of Sellers... which Zillow has locked up... offer free valuations of their home in a robust and simple manner. Then, there are simple ways to get their contact info on the back end.
Internet users are largely task oriented... they want USEFUL first, whereas pretty is a distant second. Pretty and not useful is NOT visited. Useful and not pretty might be wildly popular.
They certainly don't want "welcome to my site" "#1 producer" text. Is that what you want when shopping for a car? Or do you want car specs, prices, photos and videos (of that car - not the sales person). Unfortunately for me I moved from one firm to another and my new first doesn't subscribe to the #1 IDX solution according to my buyers and leads. And all I get are blank stares and unreturned emails when I explain the above. I used to get tons of online leads, now I get next to none.
Stop looking for the magic bullet... it already exists. Give consumer the ability to search for homes on your site with the best, most intuitive, robust IDX solution you can find. One that makes them rave about how easy and fun it is to find homes (hint, the public access ones get complaints, certainly not raves, at least in my area). THEN you get TONS of buyers on your site signing up to save searches, save properties, and emailing you for showings.
Submitted by Marc Davison on March 14, 2008 - 9:15am.
You hit on an important point Rob. The bulls-eye on the dartboard of issues belongs to the cottage industry of coaches and whose entire business models are vested in the personal branding game. Given their tenure and their attachment to a spiel that is now rendered old school and useless by Web 2.0 standards, they have nowhere to go but to keep on pressing the only thing they know --personal branding and vanity oriented websites.
And this is where I see the biggest opportunity for brokers and agents. Built sites around search. Build it around email updates, homes by email, whatever it's called. Build it around open house searches. Build sites around real, honest organically generated content. Allow feedback and comments.
Not only will agents witness better traffic, they'll get better leads and save a fortune paying for fancy trifold Brochures that no one reads.
Marc
1000Watt Consulting
Turn On!
Submitted by Steve Loper on April 1, 2008 - 11:17am.
Top 5 quick tips to make your site better:
1. Don't require a user to sign up or login to view properties.
2. Give them information. Data is everywhere and pretty cheap.
3. Don't talk about yourself and how good you are.
4. Tell them the industry information you know.
5. Be honest. People have a negative perception of real estate agents. Be frank with people and you gain credibility.
http://steveloper.com
http://frontyardview.com
321.277.2041
Submitted by Mindy Allen on April 7, 2008 - 7:02pm.
Steve is right, free information is everywhere. Consumers no longer want to be "sold" they want to make informed choices. They want how-to's, check lists and free helpful articles without having to sign away their first born child to read it. I think with the rise of the internet as a real estate search tool what it means to be a real estate sales professional is going to change drastically. I think blogs have great potential but are frequently misused. However, If I have anything truly helpful to say in this post it would be that you can't leave out the SEO work. I have actually done a lot of my own seo work on my blog and it is fairly simple. My lifeline in this endeavor has been http://www.rsspieces.com/
The owner of the site is knowledgeable, reliable and the customer service is outstanding. I im'd a question about my blog and someone was calling me on the phone within 10 minutes with an answer and it's FREE...