The more websites, the better, right?
If you have a lot of lead-generating websites, you’d think that it will result in more leads, more business, and a better bottom line. Quantity is rarely quality though, so if you have a lot of websites, you might need to re-think your strategy.
Sure, it’s possible to have several websites, each with their own unique strategy to generate leads, but for most agents, it just doesn’t make sense.
A lot of agents still do it though. So, let’s break down when it makes sense to have multiple websites, when it doesn’t, and how you can serve your business by understanding when you really need a website.
When does it make sense to have more than one website?
The only time it makes sense to have more than one website is if you have more than one strategy in place.
Let’s consider two unique examples where having multiple websites might make sense for you…
1. Attracting (and Qualifying) Multiple Leads
If you have an ISA team who has the job of converting low-quality buyer leads, it might make sense to have a separate website exclusively for buyers, which you’d likely want to drive traffic to through a paid search strategy. Regardless of quality, your website could work towards getting as much traffic as possible (while your staff handles the rest).
But, for most agents, this approach won’t work. That’s because they simply don’t have the team infrastructure in place to handle multiple inquiries from multiple websites.
2. Serving Distinct Markets
Another reason to consider multiple websites is if you’re trying to appeal to more than one market.
Perhaps you have a highly-distinct breakdown of target markets that you service. You may want to create multiple websites to service each and every one of them.
For example, if you’re part of a big team, you may have a branch of your business dealing exclusively with high-end, luxury buyers and sellers.
You may also have another branch that deals with entry-level buyers and sellers that don’t fit into the luxury category.
In this scenario, those more discerning, luxury clients will have different needs and respond to different calls to action. They’ll also want to see higher-end properties and digest content around higher-end transaction issues.
Whereas, if you put everything onto one site, it’s easy for a lower-level buyer or seller to feel like you don’t work with people with their needs. Especially when all they see is luxury content.
At the same time, you could have one website which speaks to high-end buyers while working to visualize a high-end experience for any buyer or seller. At that point, it’s left to your storytelling and design abilities to paint that picture and engage that audience.
When doesn’t it make sense to have more than one website?
For most agents, one website is always going to be the best approach.
In almost any case, pushing traffic to one site helps in many ways. It focuses your digital strategy, allows your online presence to build authority, generates more traffic, and results in more leads.
Planning a successful digital strategy and building a website is a lot of work. That’s why having multiple sites in place mostly just confuses things and makes it more difficult for agents that don’t have the team or time to make it successful.
Ultimately, more websites result in more content, more management, and more work.
So, if you don’t have the ability to do that, then you’re better off having one website and implementing a great strategy on it. Instead of working on multiple websites and not doing a great job on any of them.
If one of your strategies is to have multiple, single-landing-page websites, but you don’t have a strong strategy in place to push traffic there, there’s isn’t much point.
Chances are your single landing page websites won’t build much authority, and won’t rank in search results. So no one will ever find it to even convert on it.
What about landing pages for specific listings?
In 99% of cases, that doesn’t make sense either, yet most agents do it.
If you have single-page websites for your listing and you’re pushing traffic there through your marketing efforts, it’s basically lost traffic.
That’s because you’re promoting a website that’s going to be taken down shortly after your listing is sold. For a lot of agents, they like this approach because they’ll be able to use a custom property domain, like www.123street.com.
While that might be nice for marketing, a better approach is to buy the domain and forward it to the page where the listing lives on your main website.
Having multiple websites in place is also going to cost more. So, if you’re concerned about your budget, it’s likely not a strategy worth investing in.
In the end, it will cost you more than it’s worth to implement.
Start by taking a hard look at your business
Trying to decide if you need another website? It helps to start by really evaluating your business.
Think about your audience, how your current website serves them, and if you’re solving a problem or simply doubling up on the work.
In most cases, it’s not worth the effort and can be baked into your current site.
But, if you’re a large team with a lot of resources looking to expand, it might make sense. In cases like these, you really need to think about your audience, the branches of your business, and how to strategize additional websites to serve their needs and grow your business.
All in all, just like any good website, it takes time, effort, and a great strategy to work.
Want to drive traffic, build your brand, and engage your target audience? Download our eBook: ‘The Ultimate Guide to Real Estate Marketing’. It’s a collection of some of our best marketing articles, tips, and tricks that we’ve collected over the years.
