Social Media Tips for Estate Agents

The advent of social media has been a boon for marketing your estate agency business for free.

Social Media gives you the opportunity to drive traffic to your estate agents website for free, and to reach out to potential and existing customers without spending a fortune. In today’s time most people have social media profiles on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google+ and others, they spend a large portion of their time on social platforms through phones or computers.

It is logical for your business to have a professional social media presence, as without it you are likely losing out on any potential customers who may be interested in the services you are offering. If your business does not have a social media presence then you are out of sight of potential customers and therefore losing business, social media also boosts SEO. Read more to find out why it is essential to have a social media presence nowadays and how you can make the most of having a social media profiles for your estate agent business.

Build a Professional Social Media Presence

In order to build and grow a good social media presence for your estate agency website and your business, you need to gain more followers who may also become customers in future. Follow social profiles of companies, businesses and government organisations where you can find information relevant to the property industry. There is a chance that they will follow you back since you are a part of the same industry, and they may be eager to get information about your services and property offerings, thus driving traffic to your estate agents website. It is also a great idea to follow your current clients and they may follow you back. Always follow back any relevant followers of your business. It is highly likely that your happy customers may recommend your services through social media, and leave reviews which their followers and other people may find useful. Social media is all about connections after all – the more you increase your connections, the greater are the chances of gaining more leads and in turn more business!

Share Interesting Content

As an estate agent you need to understand how your posts can appeal to your potential and current clients, and what kind of material your audience may find interesting and useful. By giving your customers this type of valuable information, you are giving them a reason to follow your business. This may include a mix of fresh and quality content – from latest news, updates, announcements, government legislations and any general information relevant to the property industry. If people find your social media presence interesting and useful to them, they will keep coming back for more. Posts with images, videos and graphics increase interaction and readership, try to make your posts appealing and interesting.

Promote your Properties and Services

After all your main purpose is not just to promote general news and updates, but to highlight your property business through your property website to gain more leads by promoting your services and properties. Other than just sharing relevant news and general updates about the property industry, share each property on offer, any relevant promotions, campaigns or offers you are running for your services in a professionally presentable and appealing format. Also, make sure that you don’t appear to spam the audience by sharing too many similar posts or repetitive content for your services as this may not be a good impression.

Increase Engagement

To drive engagement you can try some interesting ways to get people to interact. Social media is just not all about selling and marketing. For example, share some fun facts, seasonal greetings, run competitions, ask people questions or polls, share or raise money for any charity related work etc. You can also use your social profiles as a medium of customer service since potential or current customers may have questions about your services.

Share Client Testimonials and Reviews

Nowadays most people trust businesses with positive reviews, specially any potential customers who will research about your company. The reviews your customers may leave for your estate agency business on social media accounts will help other people in trusting you. Ask your clients to leave reviews for you if they haven’t already and share them on your business social media accounts, this will increase trust and confidence towards your business. Happy clients bring in more business through recommendations.

Out of sight is out of mind!

You certainly don’t want your estate agency business to be forgotten or left behind, especially in a tough competition. It is important that you keep posting regular and relevant content that will appeal to your audience. It is important to devote a set time and a set goal to achieve your target. Setting some time aside is necessary for a successful social media presence, as it certainly has its rewards, and is guaranteed to boost your professional business profile.

If you want to get more leads online by having a professional and impressive social media presence, then we can help you to achieve your goals. Get in touch with us now to improve your business profile or your property website.

8 Must-have Features of Best Estate Agents Website Design

Your estate agency website represents your business brand and professionalism online.

In today’s competitive environment, having a modern and impressive online presence is an important prerequisite for a successful estate agent or property lettings business. How you present your business to potential property renters and buyers online will affect how much they are impressed with you, and if they can trust you and choose you above your competitors. Having a good estate agent website design for your estates or letting agency business is essential.

Web technology is constantly changing and evolving. In order to improve your estate agency’s professional image online and maintain a top-notch performance, one must not only have the best website design for estate agents that meets the requirements of modern technology standards, but is also easy to use and manage on your own.

If you haven’t already, it is in your best interest to update and upgrade to a good estate agent website. Surely you would not want to fall behind from your competitors (including online estate agents) because of using outdated and poor quality technology, or not having a property website at all.

A list of essential features of a high quality estate agent website design are summarised as follows:

1. Modern, responsive estate agents website design (mobile and tablet friendly design)

With most people now accessing websites through mobiles and tablets, a responsive property website design is based on modern and advanced technology that ensures that your website is fit to be viewed appropriately on all devices – desktops, laptops, tablets and mobiles. Each device has a different screen size, so a responsive website is automatically resized accordingly based on the used device. It is built in such a way that it provides the viewer with an optimal user experience without any hassles whether on the portrait or landscape viewing mode.

In line with the modern technology, a responsive design is Google’s search engine ranking signal, thus Google prioritises responsive websites above all other types of websites and ranks them higher in search engines.

If you want to test how a responsive estate agency website design looks and resizes on different devices – mobile, tablet, laptop or desktop, check out the responsive estate agents website templates from QuantaTec.

2. Estate agent website cloud CMS (Content Management System)

A property website CMS (Content Management system) enables you to edit your website pages, add property listings and edit other content on your website on your own. Modern technology has enabled the user to update their website without the need to know or learn coding skills. It is essential to have a CMS-based property website design since you will need to constantly add properties and put up to date information, images, documents, news, videos or Blog on your website without the need to hire someone with coding skills to do the job for you.

A good estate agent website CMS is user-friendly, fast and secure, and gives you full control over your website, and a complete peace of mind to edit anything by yourself. QuantaTec’s Property Website Software Suite CMS enables you to easily update your property listings, website pages and content. It makes website editing simple and seamless since it also includes additional ready made page modules for better content presentation so you can manage and edit all the page contents, properties, videos, documents and Images with ease.

3. Detailed property listings with map view and good quality property photos

If you want your listed properties to gather attention and interest from potential property renters or buyers, it is essential to have a detailed information about each property on your estate agents website. This must include property features and summary, with fields such as: for sale or rent, price, furnished, unfurnished, number of bedrooms, bathrooms, garden or garage, property floor plans, brochures, EPC’s, virtual tours or any other relevant detail.

Property maps are a key feature as they give the interested parties an idea of the property location and surroundings. A full property address is also important to include for people to view it on an embedded map on your website or Google Street View for the property.

A picture can speak a thousand words! Attractive property photos gather more attention and people will surely show more interest in good and professional quality property images. A photo gallery that includes a full screen or a large slideshow is a must have.

More in-depth information about each property can be easily stored and beautifully displayed using QuantaTec’s Estate Agents Website Software Suite.

4. Advanced property search, filter and sorting facility

Property search is the most important feature on an estate or letting agent website, it should be included on the home page where it must be visible easily and be able to quickly return accurate property search results.

It is always best to have an advanced property search facility with the option to filter results. Potential renters and buyers looking for properties have different requirements. It is always helpful to have property filtering options included, so they can narrow out their choices based on their search criteria, without going through time-consuming and lengthy search results.

QuantaTec’s estate agents web design offers  grid view (magazine style), list view and map view of your property search results, as well as advanced property search and filter options to provide you with smooth search results.

5. Receive property enquiries from the property page and store it in a database

A vital feature in a good property website design ensures that potential property renters and buyers should have the option to contact you directly from the property page in which they are interested. It is convenient for people to get in touch with you straight from the property of their choice to save them time, rather than contacting you from a generic contact page or email.

Enquiries made on properties from buyers and renters via your estate agents or lettings website can be sent to you via email, and you should be able to see which property the enquiry was relating to, view details of the enquirer, and assign it to a negotiator to deal with.

When a enquiry is received through your website you should also be able to send auto-responders containing a customised message and similar properties. Potential buyers and renters may also have the option to ‘save’ their favourite or shortlisted properties or share or send to a friend an earmarked property.

It is worthwhile to have your property enquiries stored in a database so that you can keep a track of all of the enquiries ever made about the property in question. This also makes it quick and easy to provide feedback to owners and landlords how much interest their property has received since it’s been on the market. QuantaTec’s estate agents property database system includes this important functionality.

6. Property applicant registration, database and automatic property alerts

Interested property renters and buyers (applicants) should be able to register themselves through an online registration form on your estate agents website. Applicants should able to create an online account when registering, where they can login any time to manage their contact details and requirements using a user-friendly account area.

The applicant registration database system should also allow you to store and edit the applicant’s’ details on your own. Each applicant’s requirements including information such as preferred price, bedrooms, locations and property types can be stored.

Automatic email alerts feature is quite useful, once a matching property is listed on your estate or lettings agency website, applicants should be able to receive automatic emails regarding the property based on their chosen preferences.

QuantaTec’s property web design and software suite offers a quick, efficient and secure solution to register potential property buyers and renters, maintain your registration database system and send automatic property alerts.

7. Download and print property brochures

It is handy to provide visitors of your property website the ability to print or download a printer-friendly version of the properties they are interested in, straight from the property page. This includes all the property details containing photos, floorplans, descriptions, a map, obligatory EPC etc. You can also use this feature to print and display your properties in your office shop window for any passersby to see.

Each property agent website design from QuantaTec incorporates the download and print property brochure feature, where you or your website visitors can print beautiful colour property brochures with the click of a button.

8. Google friendly and SEO ready property website design

It is vital to make sure that your estate agency website is built on a modern technology, where Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) techniques are incorporated into the design and build of the websites. There are numerous companies selling websites to estate agents and letting agents that do not support or include this feature, someone who does not have coding skills will not be able to tell the difference because they cannot check the code of the website. Nowadays, having an online presence on Search Engines is important as it is the first point of contact for people to search for a business on Google or other search engines.

QuantaTec’s estate agents websites and property templates are built with the best practice, modern and advanced technology that is compliant with the latest Google and other Search Engine algorithms, where SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) techniques are incorporated into their design and built.

If you require or would like to upgrade to a modern and responsive estate agent website design with advance features, CMS, databases and property portal feeds then get in touch for a FREE Website Mockup and demo in your own branding.

Why should Estate Agents bother about website SEO?

Do you really want your potential customers (tenants, buyers and landlords) to find your business before they find any of your high street neighbour Estate Agents?

Do you really want to boost your business by having more potential clients and ensure people visit your business website first? If so, then for you to stay ahead in the game, it is worth doing your SEO homework for your Estate Agency website!

In short, SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is a process that optimises and enhances your Estate Agency website by applying certain measures and parameters to it that improve its ranking (get you in the top search results) in Search Engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo. SEO increases your website visibility on the internet and thus boosts traffic to it which means more potential customers! Non-optimised websites simply fall far behind in internet searches and miss out on potential clients.

So, how can you ensure that you do not fall behind on the internet, and achieve your goal of making your website feature amongst top search results in Google for getting more clients for your Estate Agency business?

Here are 5 main reasons why an Estate Agent should go for website SEO:

1. SEO gives you an edge over your competitors

In the era of booming property demand, there are countless people looking out for houses to rent and buy, and landlords are looking out for a trustworthy and reliable estate agent – there are innumerable property websites already out there, so how can you make sure that they come to you before any of your competitors? A good answer would be – with the help of SEO.

In a tough competition, SEO enhances your website and gives you an advantage over other Estate Agencies by making it found easily and conveniently in search engine results such as Google, ahead of others, and this helps you stay on top of other business rivals. A website is optimised based on SEO standards, procedures and guidelines by putting certain technical measures and parameters to it that significantly boosts its ranking and visibility over the internet so that it can be found effortlessly in top search results.

For example, if people search in Google for ‘estate agents in Camden’ then based on the results returned it is most likely that they will visit the credible websites of those estate agencies that are featured on top of the list and on first few pages – people will simply find what they are looking for effortlessly so there is no need to search far ahead on the pages further down the line. If your agency is not visible in the top search results and on first few pages then it is likely that you lose out on customers who have already found other estate agents before you!

2. SEO is an important part of your business marketing strategy and investment in it is worth it

In today’s time a good website is an important ingredient in your marketing recipe. A good technologically superior and secure website that fulfils the internet standards is a good start. If you have already taken the step to invest in having a professional website for your business then it is also worth that you make an effort to make sure that it is found easily and conveniently on the internet, after all the prime motive of a business to have a website in order to be more visible to as many customers as possible – tenants, buyers and landlords. An investment in SEO can ensure that your website climbs the top rankings in search engines.

3. SEO is a powerful measure that can boost your business in a tough competition

An optimised website can be found easily and conveniently in top search engine results. An ever-increasing usage of modern smart phones and tablets, customers are looking for a convenient and easy way to find things with so much variety and information on your fingertips. So, if you want to be found quickly and easily on top of others in a tough competition then it is imperative that you are found by clients before they find other providers. Time is of the essence and customers will hardly get to your website and find you if it is sitting far behind on Google search results.

4. SEO earns trustworthiness and reliability for your business brand

An important step towards your business is showcasing a reliable and reputable Estate Agency business brand so that people can trust you and do business with you. In this information age customers trust businesses who are visible and noticeable with a positive image on the internet. It is difficult to trust a website if they have no credibility on a search engine such as Google. SEO improves your trustworthiness and reliability and increases your visibility, it increases the confidence in customers to do business with you.

5. Google loves an SEO Optimised website

Google loves a website that has followed its guidelines and standards for a good SEO, and you will be a favourite candidate as long you follow the best practice. An Estate Agents website can feature in the top search results by applying certain technical procedures based on the SEO recommendations set out by Google. So, if you want to be featured amongst the top in the list you need a good SEO for your website. Non-optimised websites simply fall behind in Google and lose visibility and thus losing customers.

In simple words, SEO is a dynamic process and with the help of certain tools and steps applied, your Estate Agency website can climb to the top of the search ladder and can have an edge over your competitors within no time.

So, you can leave the SEO technical jargon up to us, since we specialise in estate agency website design and SEO, and have helped our numerous customers achieve their aim of making their website found in top search results – you can also accomplish this goal. Don’t feel left behind, get in touch with us now!

Google to mark all websites without HTTPS encryption as ‘Not Secure’

From July 2018, Google Chrome browser will be flagging all websites without an HTTPS encryption as ‘Not secure’!

For past few years Google has been strongly advocating HTTPS encryption for websites for a more secure web. Google had gradually started marking non-HTTPs websites as ‘Not secure’, and it will flag all websites as ‘Not secure’ from July 2018 with the release of Google Chrome 68. Any website without an SSL Certificate will display a prominent red insecure warning in the URL. This can be damaging for the reputation, trustworthiness and reliability of your business since it will alarm the website visitors and discourage them from engaging in any further activity on your website.

How to identify a ‘Secure’ and a ‘Not Secure’ website?

The installation of an SSL Certificate applies an HTTPS encryption on a website and thus, the current Google Chrome 67 browser showcases a recognised ‘padlock symbol’ in green and includes the HTTPS:// prefix for URLs along with the word ‘Secure’.

 

Currently, any website without an SSL encryption displays the regular HTTP:// or just the letter ‘i’ which upon clicking shows the message ‘Your connection to this site is not secure’. However, with the release of Chrome 68 in July 2018, every website without an SSL encryption will display a prominent ‘Not Secure’ warning in red in the browser URL as a caution to visitors.

How can I avoid my website being flagged as ‘Not Secure’?

An SSL encryption is the first step towards earning trustworthiness and reliability for your business website. Having an SSL certificate is vital for your website and it will prevent Google to display any alarming ‘Non Secure’ red sign. HTTPS provides your website with critical security, data integrity and makes it safe from any malicious activity.

In the internet age, the online identity of your business showcased as a reliable and trustworthy brand is of prime importance and it increases the confidence in customers to do business with you. Customers trust websites that are visibly safe, secure and genuine with a positive image on the web.

Apart from avoiding the imminent Google insecure warning, HTTPS for your website is not only important for security of the website and integrity of the data but is also vital for GDPR compliance as well as the SEO ranking factor.

If you decide to make your website secure by switching to HTTPS, QuantaTec can provide you with a trusted solution and handle the process for you!

Read more details about what is HTTPS and SSL, and the importance of HTTPS encryption for your business website on our Blog article.

What is a Responsive Property Website Design and why is it important?

What is a Responsive Website Design?

A Responsive Website Design (RWD) is built on modern advance web technology that is capable of adapting to any computing or mobile device on which it is viewed, where it automatically resizes and accommodates to any screen size and resolution. A responsive property website provides a hassle free accessibility, user-friendly interface and an optimal user experience in any orientation – whether on a portrait or landscape viewing mode.

People use a variety of gadgets and different devices to view websites – including PCs, laptops, tablets or smartphones, and a greater number of people are now using mobiles to view websites than ever before. Whether a user is viewing a website on iPhone, iPad, Samsung, Sony or any other device of any brand, or using any internet browser including Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox or others, a responsive website is optimised in such a way that it adjusts and adapts itself accordingly for the different viewing platforms.

Why Should you have a Responsive Estate Agents Website Design?

1. Google ranks responsive websites higher in Search Engines

A responsive web design is Google’s Search Engine ranking signal. Google gives priority to websites built with responsive web technology over all other types of websites, and ranks them higher in search engine results as compared to non-responsive websites.

When people search for something in Google or other Search Engines (such as a website of a property business), the results are displayed based on a number of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) factors. A Responsive Website Design is one of the factors that count towards achieving a higher Search Engine Rank (your property website listing result in Google).

2. One website works for all devices

A responsive property website design eliminates the need of developing a separate website for each device, and also keeps design consistency across all platforms. A non-responsive website is built on an outdated technology which is not suitable for viewing on smartphones, and is not compatible with modern devices. It simply does not provide the essential features that form the basis of modern technology standards of a website. Such non user-friendly websites are a definite turn-off for your customers.

3. Helps to keep up with a tough competition and prevents losing customers

It is important to update and upgrade your website to meet the industry standards, and provide a modern and professional online image to your clients, so that you may not fall behind in the competition. In the modern era of technology, having an outdated website is surely a set back for your Estate or Lettings business, and you certainly do not want to fall behind your competitors and lose customers.

QuantaTec incorporates the best practice methods and the most advanced technology in the market to develop modern responsive property websites. Our websites provide you with a competitive advantage to succeed in a tough environment, as well as impress your customers.

If you want to check how a responsive Property Website Design performs on different gadgets and devices including mobiles, tablets, laptops or PCs, try the responsive Estate Agents Website Templates from QuantaTec.

What is HTTPS encryption and why you should have an SSL for your website?

The difference between ‘HTTP’ and ‘HTTPS’ on a website URL may not be noticeable or significant to most people but there are huge implications for not having HTTPS.

With the launch of Google’s Chrome 68 browser, when it will start to flag all non-HTTPS websites as ‘Not secure’, HTTPS is becoming a standard for all websites for a more secure web as Google has been advocating it for many years.

The SSL certificate shows trust and authority to your website visitors and HTTPS encryption ensures the security as well as data integrity. HTTPS can protect the information exchanged through a user’s connection by encrypting the information so that the user’s data cannot be stolen or their activity tracked. It ensures data integrity and prevents information from being corrupted while transfer. It provides authentication which protects against malicious attacks.

People are often confused with the terms SSL and HTTPS and they are frequently used interchangeably – an SSL or SSL Certificate is essentially a product that can be purchased and installed on your web server, whereas HTTPS or HTTPS encryption is the result of applying that certificate on your website.

What is an HTTPS encryption?

HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) is an extension of HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol), where the extra ‘S’ stands for ‘Security’. HTTPS applies an encryption on the bidirectional information exchanged between a browser and a web server to prevent someone trying to steal any information through a website.

What is an SSL Certificate?

An SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) Certificate is a set of data files which can be installed on your web server, and it results in applying an HTTPS protocol on a website. It also showcases a recognised green ‘padlock symbol’ with the word ‘Secure’ in the website URL and includes the HTTPS:// prefix.

Currently, a website without an SSL encryption may display the regular HTTP:// or just the letter ‘i’ in the prefix of the URL, which upon clicking shows the message ‘Your connection to this site is not secure’. Any website without an HTTPS encryption will display a prominent red insecure warning sign in the URL from July 2018.

Here are 5 reasons why you should go for HTTPS for your website:

1. HTTPS provides security and integrity of data, and protects from malicious activity and intrusions.

Hackers and intruders are always looking to exploit vulnerable websites, including unprotected information exchanged between your website and users. Malicious attackers and intrusive companies exploit unprotected websites to steal information, install malware, inject ads or unauthorised links and create security vulnerabilities. HTTPS protects against man-in-the-middle attacks. The encryption of data and communications exchanged between a user and server protects against tampering of the communication and eavesdropping.

2. GDPR Compliance – HTTPS protects the privacy of your website users.

The GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) came into effect on 25th May 2018.  GDPR was designed to protect the privacy of personal data of EU Citizens, harmonise data privacy laws across Europe, and to reshape the way organizations across the region approach data privacy, it applies to anyone doing business in EU irrespective of their location. Non-compliance with the GDPR can result in imposition of massive fines on businesses.

GDPR has clear requirements that can only be addressed through the implementation of HTTPS encryption. Every unprotected HTTP request can potentially reveal information about the personal data including identities and behaviours of your users to intruders and hackers. The principal motivation for HTTPS is protection of the privacy and integrity of the exchanged data while in transit and authentication of the accessed website.

Article 32 of the regulation (“Security”) states:

“Taking into account the state of the art, the costs of implementation and the nature, scope, context and purposes of processing as well as the risk of varying likelihood and severity for the rights and freedoms of natural persons, the controller and the processor shall implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure a level of security appropriate to the risk, including inter alia as appropriate:

  • the pseudonymisation and encryption of personal data;
  • the ability to ensure the ongoing confidentiality, integrity, availability and resilience of processing systems and services”

GDPR states that regulated information must be protected with ‘appropriate technical and organisational measures’, which includes encryption of personal data and the ability to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of systems and services, thus HTTPS fulfills this requirement for the component of data protection.

3. HTTPS and SEO ranking factor

In order to achieve and retain higher rankings in Google search results, there are many best practices for Search Engine Optimisation. Whether websites use secure, encrypted connections has been a signal in Google’s search ranking algorithms since 2014. Also, websites with HTTPS load much faster than the HTTP sites, and speedy websites are likely to rank higher in Google. Google favours a website that has followed its standards and guidelines for a good SEO.

Better SEO leads to better Google rankings which can lead to more traffic on your website, and with more visitors seeing a secure and trusted website will use it over a non-secure one, thus improving your website’s click-through-rate.

4. Google will flag all non-HTTPS websites as ‘Not Secure’

Google advocates secure HTTPS websites and has been voicing for a secure web for years by encouraging webmasters to make the migration to a secure website.

Starting July 2018, Google Chrome browser will be flagging all websites without an SSL encryption as ‘Not secure’, thus any website without an HTTPS encryption will display a prominent red insecure warning sign in the URL.

5. HTTPS builds trust and authority.

Website visitors are highly likely to be alarmed by insecure warnings on websites and will abandon any activity or purchases on a non-trustworthy website. HTTPS encrypted websites are more safe and secure and are likely to build trust and authority for your customers for further engagement on your website.

In conclusion, HTTPS is an important step to protect your business and the data of your customers, as well as to maximise confidence in your website.

Read more on our Blog article about why you should bother about SEO.