Mike Minard with Property Pursuit: Real Estate Agent Coaching - Real Estate Web Site Checkup Checklist

Take advantage of every opportunity by taking five minutes to give your real estate website a checkup. You need to ensure that you actually get the leads that you work hard for.

In 2008, I found that of 30,000 real estate agents, 11% had incorrect email addresses on their web sites. That is a whopping 3,300 real estate professionals that would not get the leads customers submitted on their real estate web sites.

As another example: I was visiting a real estate broker while out of town and used his web site to get his cell phone number. When I went to call him, I found that the cell phone number on his web site was not his cell phone number.

You need to take advantage of every opportunity in your online real estate business. Use my checklists below, on an annual basis, to ensure that you get every lead you deserve!

7 Annual Tests to Perform on Your Real Estate Website

Name for ease of searching

Most web site systems allow your name to be searched. If customers may know you by different names you should make sure that you have your name entered each way. For example: Stephen (Steve) Smith. In this example, when a customer searches for Steve or for Stephen, you would come up in the search results.

Phone contact information for accuracy

Need I say more? Check to ensure that your phone numbers are accurate! Do not assume that they are accurate.

Default phone for contact

Your real estate web site system must give you the ability to setup a default contact phone number to show with property listings on your web site, including IDX or VOW listings. Ensure that you setup the phone number that you want to appear with each listing. In many cases, the default phone number from the MLS Data Feed is the company office phone number.

Email address for accuracy

Check your email address for accuracy. I do not recommend having your email address show on your web site. You will notice that with my web site, you need to complete a contact form to contact me. This is done for anti-spam reasons, and for marketing and lead tracking reasons. If you have a blackberry, use your blackberry email address on your contact forms. You want to be the first agent to respond to customer inquiries.

Send yourself a test email through your website

Actually send yourself a test email from your site. Don't just trust that it works, check it for yourself.

Your MLS ID(s) for accuracy

Your real estate web site should automatically update real estate listing information from your MLS. Most systems associate your listings with you based on your MLS ID. Make certain that your MLS ID is accurate.

Send yourself a test SMS message

Test your SMS (Short Message Service) settings. This is another great way to be the first agent to respond to customer requests. Make sure it works!

Real Estate Coaching

Real Estate Website Checkup Checklist

7 Annual Tests to Perform on Your Real Estate Website

Name for ease of searching

Phone contact information for accuracy

Default phone for contact

Email address for accuracy

Send yourself a test email through your website

Your MLS ID(s) for accuracy

Send yourself a test SMS message