Web Site Design and Cost

So you’re ready to get a real web site……now what?

There are many options (at a variety of costs):

1. You could go with a template site with prices going as high as hundreds of dollars.

	PROS: It’s easy. Pay the money and you have a web site. OK, so it isn’t that easy. To get a good site out of a template site you will need to do customization to make it into a good site.
	CONS: No matter how much time you spend on customization it will still look like other sites on the internet.

2. You could get a custom web site designed for you at a price ranging from hundreds to thousands of dollars.

PROS: You can get a site that is unique and unlike every other site on the internet.

CONS: You still have to do a lot of work deciding what needs to be on your web site and how to say it. Plus you have to know what makes a really good site. You’ll need to make sure the designer doesn’t just throw in a lot of “bells and whistles” that make it look great. Sometime those things can hurt you in getting “hits” on the search engines or turn off customers. Keep you goal in mind. To get quality leads.

3. You could do it yourself for the cost of the software and hosting.

PROS: You get a unique site and have control of the content and design.

CONS: It can take a lot of tome to learn the program and then design the web site.

4. Give up and have a semi-web site on Realtor.com or on a large company web site.

PROS: There isn't much work in these two methods.

CONS: These methods still cost money and even if you purchase a domain name, it is only set up as a pointer to the page. Now here's the really bad part. Usually these sites are set up so they don't exist until someone types in the domain name or clicks on a link. If there is a ? in the real web address of the pages (pointing and masking hides this), then the "site" will not be found by the search engines and all the money spent will be to enrich your company or it's web designer or the operators of Realtor.com. Remember, although NAR ones the domain name, they let another company operate the site. I could give you the long and painful details here, but it would take up too much space!

5. Transfer to River City Real Estate. Linda will work with you to design a custom web site or get you going on a total free "starter" template web site.

Whichever way you go, here are some important steps:

Step 1. Purchase a good domain name.

It’s really tempting at this point to go with your own name. But will people be searching for your name with the search engines? You need to find a domain name that will help you with the search engines. Another plus of this kind of name is that once you have built it into a quality site and are ready to retire from real estate you’ll be able to sell it.

I highly recommend Internet Crusade for purchasing your domain name. The owners are REALTORS®, so know the industry. They have friendly, helpful employees. Plus you can purchase your domain name at a very low price if you pay for a year of e-mail forwarding.

Step 2: Branding

If you haven’t started branding yourself in all of your marketing materials, now is the time to get started and make sure that your web site and other marketing materials all have the same branding. Set yourself apart. Differentiate yourself from other.

Step 3: Plan your keywords for search engines.

Step 4: Get the site on line and gradually add to it.

Step 5: Test your site to make sure everything works like you thought it would.

Step 6: Have friends or family check it our and give you feedback.

Step 7: Put your domain name on every other marketing that you do.

Step 8: Tell everyone about it.

Step 9: Register it with as many search engines as possible.

Step 10: Continually improve it.

Step 11: Learn how to work with the leads you get from your site so you can convert them into real buyers and sellers.

The author of this article is Linda Grissette. Some of you may remember her as Linda Grayson. Linda is a Broker-Associate with River City Real Estate. She is also the company trainer. Learn more about how River City Real Estate can help you make more money...even in today's market...browse through this site.

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