There are winning features for your site and then there are truly WINNING features

I read a few words the other day in an article on Realtor magazine that just popped out at me like a geyser gushing from a broken water main on a seller’s front yard.

The title of the article was “Winning Features For Any Real Estate Website.”

Now, I know the writer used the words in a broad sense to make a point about how to improve your web pages.

But as Mark Twain said, the difference between the right word and the almost right word is like the difference between lightning and lightning bug.

Before I tell you the words, let me put them in context.

The article explains how a real estate pro should focus on these attributes for their website: Is the content Accurate and Approachable? Customer-centric? Property rich? Knowledge rich? Analytical?

I particularly focused on the “knowledge rich” part.

The writer states: “Visitors to your site probably know right away that you’re a real estate pro – but what does that mean? Explain each aspect of your job. Spell out which communities you serve, and offer links to resources such as sites of local schools, cultural activities, and commerce.”

See the words in question?

The first word that caught my attention was “spell.”

Hey folks, this is the visual age. The Internet is a visual medium. Everybody knows photos and videos catch the eye of users tenfold more times than text.

Don’t spell it. Display it. You can use a real estate tool like the SpatialMatch IDX and Lifestyle search engine to create screenshots of the communities you serve. (see example below)

Screenshots of a map pointing out homes for sale. Aerial satellite views of the community. Heck, even a view of the terrain. That’s impressive.

The other words that caught my eye were “offer links.”

Now, links are okay. But remember, they also mean you are sending your prospects away. And any internet-savvy person knows that’s a no-no.

You spent a lot of effort over the years creating a site and positioning your site to get people there. Once you send them off into cyberspace, there’s no guarantee they will come back. There are plenty of sharks out there looking to grab your customers.

With the SpatialMatch platform embedded right on your site, again you can create pages showing home buyers maps of where all the schools are located.

Better yet, SpatialMatch provides a data snapshot of each school – number of students, teacher/student ratios, etc.

All on your site.

Same goes for businesses. You can create a page pointing out the highlights of each town – your favorite coffee shop, award-winning restaurants, cool book stores, neat places to shop, etc., etc.

Again, you can provide this hyper-local information without the prospect ever leaving your site.

Be proactive. Whenever you see a discussion going on about subdivisions or schools or local businesses, you can create a page with SpatialMatch and share a link to it by email or Facebook. Use it (like a shark) to drive people to your site.

So, the article had great advice, but there’s the difference that will set you apart from the others who read it.

They can write a list of the communities they specialize in. And they can provide links to various locations around town.

But you can be the epitome of “knowledge rich” by displaying all this information and a ton of other hyper-local information directly on your site.

Here are the critical points – don’t tell, show. Don’t send people off your site onto the giant highway that is the Internet. Keep them on your site by providing all the relevant information they need.

That’s a winning strategy.

To read the full Realtor magazine article and its useful tips, go here.

To learn more about SpatialMatch and how it can make your site “knowledge rich,” click here.