Years ago, when we first created websites for estate agents, we built them from scratch. Starting at zero for every new client or request, we’d plan and code the site to meet their business needs.

Nowadays we use WordPress and it’s the platform we’d recommend, if you’re thinking of making a change. WordPress holds a huge portion of market share – around 35 per cent of all sites use the platform, from newbie bloggers in their bedrooms to massive multinational corporations. And it’s easy to see why.

WordPress is modular, with thousands of widgets and plug-ins.

WordPress is a modular system, with many thousands of widgets and plug-ins you can add, to meet your business needs. In 99 per cent of cases, when we receive a request from a client, WordPress already has the functionality to delivery it, saving huge amounts of time and money. To get down to specifics, we can think of 12 reasons why WordPress is the best solution for real estate businesses.

1 Because things are always changing

The digital world moves fast and your website needs to work hard to keep generating leads and converting them into client instructions. Investing in a website that isn’t flexible, means frequent rebuilds, which are costly. With WordPress that functionality probably already exists. It may be free or a paid add-on, but a fraction of the cost of coding the changes yourself.

2 It’s built for SEO

You don’t need us to tell you that search engine optimisation (SEO) is crucial to generating leads in sales and lettings. WordPress puts you ahead of the game in this respect. The Yoast plugin, which works with WordPress, is a leading SEO tool and will help your business rank on Google.

3 It’s so easy to use

The free version of WordPress is the platform of choice of bloggers and small businesses. One reason is that WordPress is very simple and intuitive to pick up and use, meaning you can carry out many functions yourself, as and when they are needed.

4 It comes with a great content management system (CMS)

The WordPress CMS pulls your blog, media library and website pages together into one system keeping everything simple.

5 The blog editor tool makes posting a breeze

Creating valuable content is vital to generating leads, and the WordPress blog editor tool makes this a simple process of clicking ‘add new’, inputting your content and publishing. The Yoast plugin means you can instantly optimise your blog for SEO too.

6 The landing page builder helps you convert leads

Creating static landing pages is as easy as posting blogs. Plus, you can capture contact details by integrating forms, created by any number of plugins to suit your needs.

7 Updates are free and easy

We talked earlier about the fast pace of real estate marketing and the need to keep ahead of the curve. WordPress has this covered with frequent updates to its themes and plugins to reflect changing times. Rather than needing to go back to your developer, WordPress updates are free, and as easy to carry out as updates to your phone or laptop.

8 Social media integration is done for you

WordPress give you a few options for easily sharing your content on your social platforms. For example, you can add share buttons to your landing pages and blogs, add your social feeds to your site and directly share new content to your social accounts, when it’s published.

9 It’s mobile friendly

With most property searches starting on phones and tablets, this feature is essential. Most WordPress themes are designed to automatically adjust to mobile screens so that the page is instantly phone-friendly.

10 You can integrate your email marketing too

WordPress can be integrated with email marketing software, such as Mailchimp, and your CRM system. This means you can transfer email sign-ups from your website direct to your database.

11 It’s great for A/B testing

If you’re not sure which customer offer will work best for capturing or converting leads, you can test them both. Using WordPress, A/B testing functionality, you can funnel traffic to different pages and compare the results.

12 The possibilities are limitless

You can add as many blogs, pages and media items to your site as you like, though you may need to review your hosting plan if it grows exponentially. And, as we said at the start of this piece, there are so many new features, themes and bits of functionality coming on stream, it’s unlikely there’s anything you need your site to do that WordPress hasn’t got covered – the possibilities really are limitless.

If you have any questions, visit
www.artdivision.co.uk or
email [email protected]