There simply isn't a business in existence today that will not benefit from a web presence. Most will suffer without one. As far as real estate, with more than 90% of people wanting to buy or sell a home using the Internet in their search for real estate or brokerages, it's absolutely critical to have an effective real estate website that generates leads that result in commissions.

What a website needs to generate business:

With millions of real estate websites competing for site visitors, and with thousands in even a medium sized city, it's imperative that a real estate website provides certain information and services in order to generate prospect leads that lead to business.

• Content that visitors want and need.
• A real estate search utility for the MLS.
• Methods to entice visitors to provide their contact information.
• Lead to follow-up systems to work prospects until they buy, sell or go away.

Doing everything right, a website can provide most or even all of a real estate professional's business.

Choices for real estate websites:

There are so many vendors out there selling template websites and custom website design that it's very difficult to know which way to turn. If you have plenty of marketing budget, you could hire a custom designer and pay them ongoing every time you want to add material or change your website. Or, you can get a template site that lets you do a lot of it yourself, some even providing a blog as a part of the site.

These are valid approaches, but this series of tutorials is going to give you excellent reasons for using WordPress as your site platform.

Why blogs do well as real estate websites:

Blogs originally were for personal journals online. They made it easy for anyone to post their thoughts or activities, add photos and let the world know about their interests. Because it was easy, they became popular, and business soon picked up on their values:

• Easy to add content without html and page formatting.
• Once organized, all content is automatically placed appropriately on the site.
• Adding images, audio and video is easy as well.
• Blogs do better with search engines if new content is regularly posted.
• Blogs can look just the same as any other website.

WordPress is much more than blogging software.

Using WordPress for Real Estate Websites Brings Success:

The reasons in this article for using WordPress for your real estate websites are just the tip of the iceberg. It isn't the easiest way to build a website, and it isn't the easiest way to continually maintain one. However, with very little money, you can create a website that brings business. It will take time, and you'll need to continually add content to the site ... the right kind of content.

You'll learn how to set up a WordPress real estate website, fill it with content, and keep fresh content ongoing. It will bring you leads that result in commissions, and you'll be in control of your site and content at all times.

photo credit: Peregrino Will Reign via photopin cc