WordPress IDX for Real Estate
November 10, 2011 Leave a comment
WordPress IDX Plugin Solutions Worth a Look
WordPress was originally developed as a blog content management system to provide bloggers with an easy to use and manage CMS. Blogs are a great solution for agents who don’t have time to manage their site content via an html editor. That’s why the wordpress platform is so popular. You can add news, videos, and even property listings now and Google just seems to like the wordpress format. The wordpress idx plugin is perhaps the most important feature to come along yet.

Wordpress Blogs
Some great wordpress idx products are available, but Canadian real estate agents are not able to use many of them. So far, these providers are focusing on US markets only.
WordPress Content Management
WordPress has stuck to its core niche yet it’s now seeing its platform being used in new ways. The major developments are blog plug-ins and widgets that allow automated content from popular sources Twitter feeds to Video to news feeds. It’s web 2.0 compatibility allows all sorts of functionality with the social web. Integration with Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube are fairly seamless.
Blogs – Do it Yourself Ease but SEO becomes a Little More Difficult
Blogs however have their limitations. Although they are time efficient for do it yourself content management, it necessarily gets you more involved in the nuts and bolts of your site (instead of building leads through personal contact, and selling). It takes agents away from their core competence. And, pages can only be edited one at a time as opposed to editing in Dreamweaver is very quick and efficient. Those with large sites with tons of content can find it difficult to organize their SEO strategy to keep the details working with the whole. That’s the realm of a professional search engine optimizer and top agents are very wise to have a top SEO pro working with them.
One of the most exciting new solutions for real estate agents is the wordpress idx plugin. The wordpress plugin allows blog owners to have mls listings display in their blogs. The key benefit aside from having so many properties visible is that the listings appear right in the blog and not on a 3rd party site. Some wordpress idx solutions have very easy to read layouts that are effective for search engine spiders. A key goal of any real estate agent SEO solution is to have thousands of their pages show up in Google searches. A source of top quality leads.
This graphic shows a typical listing in the left column of a 2 column blog layout. The layout itself is under your control since it’s your wordpress blog. You may need a wordpress blog programmer to help you customize your blog.
Keep in mind however, that the wordpress mls idx solution is available to any agent, so you’re just getting up to a level playing field with your competitors. If you’re going to exceed the competition, you’ll need some sort of custom solution.
Mobile apps from Realtor.ca, Trulia, Zillow, and Realtor.com. Find out more about the Seattle MLS, San Diego MLS, Los Angeles MLS, Houston MLS, Vancouver MLS, Edmonton MLS, and San Jose MLS associations.
What are the pros and cons of using a real estate slogan? Learn more about the bank foreclosure market.


