Now I'm taking my passion for web marketing and communication to the real estate industry by developing websites for real estate agents that focus on useful content, tight MLS integration, and (of course) lead generation.

• Learn more about generating real estate leads from your website.
• Contact me for web marketing help

I focus on several objectives in creating sites for my clients:

Websites should deliver content that is useful for visitors. This should go without saying, but unfortunately, it's often one of the things most lacking in real estate websites. This takes some time, creativity, and good writing to accomplish. After all, text still drives web search. But the payoff is a site that truly performs to the expectations of both agent and user, resulting in more leads. 

Far too many agent sites still use frames to present MLS results. There are much more technically advanced methods to integrate MLS listings onto a website using any web design and the agent's own domain. Framed listings not only detract from the design and user experience of a site, they don't play well with search engine spidering, since the listings get presented by a third party site. You want listings to be on your own domain - and did I mention that they should actually produce leads?

A lot has been said about search engine marketing and optimization. If you want a website to show up high in the search engines, it's best to do it right: by building a good site that users want to spend time on. Nevertheless, there are good design principles that should be followed, like unique meta tags for every page of the site, proper use of heading tags, and URLs that will actually present keywords to the search engines to determine relevancy. The goal is not to trick the search engines (you'll get penalized for this!), but to actually communicate to them properly the data that are actually there. Many cicks are left on the table due to poor writing, poor coding, and lack of attentiveness to detail.

The best site in the world, even if it belongs to the best agent in the world, is useless to the agent if it doesn't generate leads and pay for itself. If a website doesn't pay for itself, it needs to be fired, as it is only an overhead expense. Instead, a website should be a revenue-producing asset that is worth every penny spent on it. I specialize in transforming content and integrated MLS listings into leads for my clients.

Great website stats don't buy houses, people do. Unless your users contact you, you can't turn them into clients.

I specialize in delivering websites that allow the agent to actually take ownership of the site, changing it and adding to it as much as he or she desires. This goes far beyond blogging or giving the agent a couple of key ares or attributes of his or her site that can be customized. I strive to bring every page, every design detail, every article, and every menu item within the control of the agent by using a robust content management system (CMS) that is easily learned and managed. There is no greater joy for me as a web designer than to see an agent take ownership of his or her site and get excited about the ways it can be controlled and updated.