Believe it or not, the field of web design isn’t all that different from the field of real estate. As Realtors, I know you’re often faced with people who think they are just fine (or even better off!) buying and selling real estate without using a Realtor at all. No matter how many times the industry tells consumers that having a Realtor is the safest, best, and most logical way to have successful real estate transactions, you’re still fighting against that stigma.
Web design is very similar. There are a lot of companies out there where you can put together a very nice looking website for your business. Companies like Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace are dominating the industry of “quick, easy, nice-looking websites”. Even for the real estate niche, I don’t mind telling you that some of my biggest competition comes from companies like Zillow, which now offers reasonably priced websites (provided you’re already a Zillow Premier Agent). Just like consumers feel like they don’t need Realtors because they have tools like Zillow, Trulia, and a good closing company, business owners often feel like they don’t need a custom website because they have tools like Wix and Weebly.
We both know that the consumer trying to buy or sell a home without a Realtor is setting themselves up to fail, and the same goes for the business owner who chooses an ‘out-of-the-box’ website solution.
But why? I’ll explain to you why I use WordPress, and why I recommend it to others, instead of quick-setup sites.
The first reason that I use it, is the same reason that I have an iPhone: it’s the golden standard. You’ll notice that most (if not all) companies that make anything for smartphones make their product for the iPhone first, and then the Androids, and everything else falls somewhere along the way. There aren’t many things made that isn’t compatible with an iPhone, because it’s what “most people” have.
WordPress is very similar. WordPress is undoubtedly the most popular website content management system in the world. There are so many businesses operating a WordPress site that the options are virtually limitless. Businesses of all types use it, and because it’s so powerful and flexible, it’s not limited to only small and medium-sized businesses. It’s used by some of the biggest companies, best-known brands, and most-visited sites in the country, including CNN, BBC America, The New Yorker, Best Buy, and MTV News.
The second reason that I choose it is because it’s easy to use. I know that 85% of my client base are people who have much better (and more productive) ways to spend their time than trying to figure out technology. You shouldn’t need a bachelor’s degree in computer science to post a weekly blog to your website, and with WordPress, things like that are simple. As an added bonus, and partially due to it’s “golden standard” position, there are thousands of how-to videos available for WordPress. It’s as easy as typing, “How do I create a new blog post on WordPress” and you’ll get 50+ videos showing you how.
The third reason that WordPress is a winner for me is, unlike the iPhone I mentioned earlier, it’s totally customizable. A lot of people don’t want an iPhone, just because it’s “what everyone else has” and it’s easy to think that all WordPress sites look alike, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. WordPress is over 10 years old and completely ‘open source’, which means it’s free from all commercial limitations and restrictions, and developers have been creating plugins, themes, layouts, and tools for it for at least a decade.
Lastly, and maybe most importantly, WordPress is SEO-friendly. As Matt Cutts, Google Engineer, has said in the past: “WordPress automatically solves a ton of SEO issues,” and even showed how WordPress takes care of 80% to 90% of SEO mechanics. That’s a big step in the right direction for having your site show up on the first page of Google.
I think you’d be hard pressed to find a website solution that offers as much as a WordPress site does. There are cheaper options, and there are more expensive options. In my opinion, nothing beats WordPress.
If you’d like to discuss creating your own WordPress site for your real estate business, just reach out! I’d love to chat with you, and work up a proposal!
