Real Estate Marketing & Beyond
As we discussed last week, there are few better choices than WordPress for any real estate professional that's looking to establish their online presence. But while WordPress is easy to use and others numerous advantages over other blogging platforms, choosing from one of the numerous specialized real estate themes can be a headache.
photo credit: Peregrino Will Reign via photopin cc
So what's a budding cyber-realtor to do? Simple, they narrow down those choices based on what they really want their website to do.
First, real estate pros should consider whether they'll be using their site as both a blog and a website, and if so, they should select one that offers menu navigation options, such as Home Page, About, Services, and Blog.
They also should choose a theme that is mobile-responsive and consider which features — such as buttons, call-to-action items, headers, and images — are built in and which must be purchased separately.
Additionally, the preferred theme should allow for videos, photos, blogs, and other types of content that you think you'd like to display on your website. The theme should also have enough columns so that it does not look overcrowded when all of your widgets are added, and of course, it should come with built-in social networking icons – or at least make it easy for these to be added.
There are other considerations too – these include whether the theme is search-engine friendly, whether your IDX provider offers WordPress-friendly integration and/or plug-ins, and whether the theme's designers and developers offer technical support.
Those who are not comfortable with formatting and other back-end tasks should avoid themes that need a lot of customizing or be prepared to hire someone to manage it for them.
