Agents - Are You Getting the Most from Your Web Address (URL)
I recently picked up a magazine from an estate agency group that had 150 properties advertised from across many of its offices. Inside the front page, the following was written
"ABC (not real name of the group) is a truly international network of offices ... Every ABC office operates under a common set of objectives, policies, procedures and quality control to ensure our clients receive the same high quality service where-ever they are. ..." and so on.
Based on this writing you would think that they would have a clear and consistent appraoch to handling their website and driving traffic from the magazine to the website so that i could find out more information on a property.
So imagine my surprise when looking at this publication to see that there were 10 different web addresses being promoted and none of the URL's being promoted actually immediately gave me any more information on the property they were referring to.
So there are 2 simple things that a group or an office can do to get the most from their URL or web address.
Consistent Use of Your URL Across All Advertising Materials
All of the marketing materials of an agent should carry a consistent URL. No matter if it is your business cards, letter head, newspaper ads, or magazines. One magazine i picked up recently mentioned the URL of the website on the front cover and never again in the publication.
Another important point is that an agent should not do is carry the branding from a third party such as another portal like rightmove or primelocation. They are service providers and should be carrying your branding and links to your website. Too often i see the agent's URL right next to a portal's URL. Well if i was to type the portal's URL i would get the agent's properties and those of their competitors.
Use URL Extentions to Link Directly to A Property
Often agents have a URL but dont get the most out of it. I recently picked up another magazine that had the agent's URL at the bottom of the page. However, having typed that, i had to search through 200 properties to find more information on the property that i was really looking for.
If there purpose of the magazine or other advertisements is to get someone interested and they want to find out more information, then it is important for the agent to make it as easy as possible to do so.
One simple way is to use URL extentions. These usually take the form of www.abc.co.uk/propertyid number. Here is an example from our sister site in Australia www.realestate.com.au/103058561
Comments
Simon are you suggesting that we use the Property Finder URL for an individual property advert and expect interested parties to type in the url? A typical url for one of our properties is http://tudorestates.assertagroup.com/3/ow/property/details.do?propertyDetailsKey=7687217&atn=ATN_GET_PROPERTY_DETAILS&groupIdForOw=204904&=
or is there an easier way?
Thanks
Stephen
Posted by: Stephen Tudor | April 17, 2006 07:15 AM
Stephen
Thanks for your email.
Firstly, i would get your own email address - e.g. www.tudorestate.co.uk. You can then use this on all your marketing materials.
Secondly, i would ensure that this email points to your website
Thirdly, i would then ensure that all my properties had an address such as www.tudorestate.co.uk/1234567 and then market this on my advertising materials.
Any which way you choose to approach this, your website designer should be able to help you out. If not, please let me know as we build websites for estate agents.
Posted by: Simon Baker | April 17, 2006 11:05 AM
Hi Stephen,
There is actually an easier way for the assertagroup sites. You can create a shorter URL using the unique property reference that you enter into your property management software. For the property you mention above, the shorter URL would be:
http://tudorestates.assertagroup.com/details/204904/gcp3066
I hope that helps,
Alex
Posted by: Alex | April 20, 2006 12:00 PM