“WordPress is not only the most popular CMS, it is also the fastest-growing system: Every 74 seconds a site within the top 10 million starts using WordPress. Compare this with Shopify, the second-fastest growing CMS, which is gaining a new site every 22 minutes.” (MarketingLand)
Many real estate agents that we speak to question if they should use WordPress for Real Estate Websites and currently fall into one of these categories:
- Real Estate agents wonder if the website that their brokerage provides them is giving them a competitive advantage
- They don’t have a website but know they need one and are overwhelmed by the options and prices
- Agents have a website that they don’t like or does not do anything for them
We are going to show you 20 answers to the question “Should I Use WordPress For Real Estate Websites?”.
1. OWNERSHIP
I could almost stop the list right here. I CAN NOT over emphasize how important this is.
If you start building your business on a website that you do not own at some point it will come back to burn you. And when it does you will be left with nothing.
What I mean by ownership is that as long as you keep your hosting account current, your site will never go away, switch owners, go out of business, become irrelevant, move offices, etc.
Interesting fact, most real estate agents websites that rank on the first page of Google for strong keywords are there primarily because of how long the website has existed.
2. SCALABLE
No matter how small you start your WordPress website can grow with your business. WordPress will scale with your business needs and you will never outgrow your site. That is why we call it “The Last Business Website You Will Ever Need”.
3. THEMES
WordPress themes allow you to lay the groundwork for a professionally designed website.
There are currently 3,815 Free Themes available in the WordPress repository.
There are also many “Premium” theme developers including Agent Evolution, StudioPress, Elegant Themes, and Theme Forest.
4. PLUGINS
I will dive into plugins more deeply as the list progresses because there are so many wonderful things you can do with plugins.
Basically, WordPress plugins are small apps that you can easily add to your site to fulfill a functionality need. Do you have a need on your website, “There’s a plugin for that”, as the saying goes.
There are currently 43,768 plugins in the WordPress Repository.
There are also many “Premium” plugin developers including Code Canyon, iThemes, and WPMU DEV.
5. SEO
So much can be said about SEO, but we will not get into that for this post. What is important is that Matt Cutts, of Google Spam, has publicly stated that a self-hosted WordPress site is good for SEO. In his presentation at WordCamp, he states, “WordPress automatically solves a ton of SEO issues.”
Install the Yoast SEO Plugin for free and configure it to really fine tune your on page SEO.
6. COMMUNITY SUPPORT
One of the big advantages to using WordPress that we will cover a little later is that it is easy to use… that being said it does have a learning curve. In addition, your site will probably need some trouble shooting from time to time.
When that happens there are many places to go and find the answers you are looking for.
Personally, when I have a problem I usually start by typing my problem into Google and usually within a few links I find the answer I am looking for.
There are many community support groups you can join to find answers including the official WordPress forum, or the official forum for the Theme, or plugin that you are struggling with.
7. OPEN SOURCE
Open Source Software means the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Meaning it is being constantly developed, or improved, by a huge community of WordPress Developers.
This is why there are so many free plugins and themes. This is also why the adoption rate has been so high and why we can count on it to continue to be a developed and updated CMS for many years to come.
8. PRICE
You can do everything but host your site for FREE! WordPress.org is free, you can use free themes, and free plugins and design it yourself for free.
9. BLOG
WordPress offers the best internet publishing tool in the form of a rolling blog.
A blog is short for weblog, or a log of ideas, opinions, and information that is on the web.
Today many businesses are using Blogs to help a Content Marketing strategy that helps to generate business online.
10. CMS
WordPress does offer the ability to blog, but it also acts as a full CMS or Content Management Solution. More commonly known as a website. That means you do not need to think of your website and your blog as being in different locations. With WordPress, they are one in the same.
Although, you can use WordPress as just your CMS or as just your blogging tool.
11. LANDING PAGE
You may have been told that in order to generate leads online you will need a Landing Page, or Capture Page, or Squeeze Page. These are simply a single page online that offers something in exchange for the visitor’s contact information, thus producing a lead.
WordPress makes creating Landing Pages quite simple with the help of a Contact Form plugin. You can also create landing pages with Leadpages.net and integrate your landing pages into your WordPress site with their plugin.
12. EASY TO USE
Look, no website worth its salts will be built in an hour. It takes some time to put together a nice WordPress website just like any of the other website alternatives.
Don’t believe the hype if you see the commercials that show websites being built right before your eyes.
That being said, WordPress is as easy to use as any website building software that is out there. And the WordPress community is constantly coming up with new themes and plugins to create a complete Drag N Drop set up so it is even easier.
If you do get stuck as I mentioned earlier there is a huge community to help you get back on your feet.
If you use a managed WordPress hosting company they will install the WordPress.org for you and aid you with technical problems.
13. SAFE
WordPress takes security very seriously. With 25% of all websites being built on WordPress, it is going to be vulnerable to attacks, and WordPress is aware of this and that is why they are constantly releasing updates and patches to keep your site safe and secure.
That being said it is better to be safe than sorry. If you use a Managed WordPress hosting service than your site will automatically have extra layers of security like Firewall, Virus Scans, and Auto Backups.
If you want to add extra security to your site you can use plugins like Jetpack, iThemes Security, WordFence, and Limit Login Attempts.
14. FLEXIBLE
As I already have mentioned your WordPress site can be used as a CMS, as a Blog, and as Landing Pages.
It is used by single agents, small businesses, and corporations.
It can be used for ECommerce, as a Social Media Channel, Classified Ads, or as a Membership site.
WordPress has more than enough power to accommodate any businesses needs.
15. FREE UPDATES
WordPress’s extensive community is constantly at work adding new features, improving old ones, and addressing security risks. In doing so they release free updates on a regular basis.
WordPress notifies you when there is a new version available for download. Then you just push a button to update to the newest version.
16. SOCIAL MEDIA
With the help of themes and plugins, it is very easy to turn your site into a Social Media powerhouse. Link to your social media profiles, add social sharing functionality and easily publish your content to your social media channels.
17. LEADS
WordPress is perfect for generating leads. There are so many tools that are built specifically for turning your WordPress site into a lead generation machine.
18. REFERRALS
Even better than leads are referrals and WordPress can power your referral generation as well. The blogging platform is perfect for sharing your industry information and teaching people what you know.
Once you have empowered people with your information they are more likely to contact you directly and ask you to be sold.
19. FORMS
Forms are the life blood of Lead Capture and come in many shapes, sizes, and configurations and they all work on WordPress.
Many themes come with contact forms and there are multiple plugins that you can use to easily add forms to your WordPress website including Contact Form 7, Formidable Forms, or Gravity Forms.
20. IDX INTEGRATION
Most IDX (internet Data Exchange) Services offer a plugin to integrate their service with your WordPress website. Many, in fact, only offer a plugin, or are WordPress only offerings.
Even if there is not a specific plugin for the service any IDX could be easily integrated into WordPress.
Widgets, pages, and posts make adding all the IDX functionality a snap.
Source: https://www.jasonfox.me/should-i-use-wordpress-for-real-estate-websites/