Web Enhancements: Buyer's Guide: REALTOR® Magazine

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Web Site Enhancements Guide

Buyer's Guide: Web Enhancements

Add pizzazz to your Web site with interactive maps, mash ups, widgets, virtual tools, and more. There are plenty of new Web tools that you can easily add to your Web site to keep customers returning.

By Michael Antoniak July 2009

Your Options

Virtual tours, blogs, interactive maps, widgets—there are plenty of bells and whistles you can add to your Web site nowadays. And many vendors make adding such tools to your site a cinch.

With the range of Web site add-ons and enhancements now available, the only problem is trying to keep up with all that's fully available and deciding what updates you want to make. Contact your Webmaster or site provider/host. Several companies offer a specific service or feature that can be easily added to an existing site. You just simply add code or a link to your page and the feature is activated, often in a pop-up window. Some of these upgrades may be sold for a one-time fee, or on a subscription basis.

Do You Need It?

Every real state professional needs a Web site—that’s a given. But the challenge is making your site an online resource that prospects can’t bear to leave, and one they'll return to again and again. Enhancing your Web site with blogs and interactive tools can be one way to do that.

Assess your site with an eye on improvements and think like a buyer or seller: What would you want from a real estate site?

Inside this Guide

Michael Antoniak is a journalist and technology expert with a focus on real estate applications. Antoniak also writes about real estate technology at his blog, RealTechTools. He can be contacted at antoniak@dtccom.net.