OK guys here it is JimMessenger.com design is basically done thanks to Bryan (one of my designers) for some wicked custom graphics and flash, now I'm on to SEO'ing the site and should be done that in a few weeks. Its my first attempt at designing and SEO'ing a real estate website so I would love some feedback from you real estate agents and webmasters out there as to how I can make this thing smoke conversion wise. Im pretty confident with the SEO but like I said, its my first real estate site and Im the first to admit I dont know everything.

Some specific suggestions I'm looking for are:
What information would you like to see as the visitor?
What if anything is lacking (Besides content which we still mostly need to write) and suggestions for that would be great too.
How is the navigation, is it intuitive enough, does it give you access to what your looking for?

Any and all suggestions are welcome be brutally honest if need be because I honestly want this site to smoke when it comes to conversion
Thanks guys and Gals

hey SEO Guy

That site is sweet. I still have not been convinced that all the flash is well received by the less than web savvy surfers that tend to be the real estate shoppers but it sure looks nice to me. I'm certainly glad I found this site cause I realize I have alot to learn from you. We had several clients that had very flashy sites with next to zero conversion rates and changed them over to very straight forward reach everything you need with one or at the most, 2 click designs and they close a very high percentage of their overall saes through web leads. I'm extremely interested to get some updates on how the site is converting leads. Another important tool for your real estate clients is the use of quality virtual tours. Not only does this give them distinct advantages in terms of a listing tool but with the type of exposure I'm sure your SEO will generate for the site, ...properly utilized, it's a HUGE time saver for the Broker and agents when qualifying people and narrowing down the list of homes they may truly be interested in before they start slepping around.

From a strictly marketing standpoint, take a look at his overall marketing and advertising efforts and see how he's branded himself and/or what his niche is and tie it into the site in a big way.

By the way, Brian should be designing a template or two for me when he has some free time

Am I the only one with an opinion here

I just wanted to mention that the site is absolutely beautiful. Now that you guys have the template put together, want to share?

Just a thought. How about a slightly emphasized area with an accented color scheme that tells the user "Go Here!" (in appropraite text for the site) so that people who arrive will get some direction to their visit? It's almost too much to digest. It also seems a bit overdosed with navigation options...took a while to realize that everything is duplicated between the tabs and navbar. But then, it's so good looking, I find myself just staring at it enjoying the colors and such anyway

Tell your designer he gets some kudos from the peanut gallery...

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the site looks awesome. I was looking at it the other day and those pics/flash is awesome. The only problem is that if someone is on dial up...and there are still too many of those people out there...they will never see it, because they will be gone. I had to use dial up for about a month (have been using cable since it was first offered in San Diego) and I almost killed myself. I think most people just want to see what is available for sale. If they could somehow sign up on the broker's calenar to make an appointment to see it, I think people would use something like that.


Of course, most busy agents are going to want to do some pre-qual before they commit any of their time to someone new. This is where you are going to need to strike a balance, as most people surfing the web don't want to give out any information about themselves. Basically what I am saying is, I have no answers. I just know the people that have visited our income property site are almost always there to see what is on the market and to get more information about the listings.

First you get the listings, then you get the power, then you get the women.

I love Jim's site. It's unique (and I've seen them all ). Have you ever considered requiring a sign-up before offering additional information on the listings? I'd also like to see mapping available. Aside from that, there is little to complain about with the site. It's classy and it works for me.

Obviously the ultimate arbiter is the consumer. If it's bringing in the kind of business that I think it should, therein lies your answer.

Now, about your spare time . . . you could certainly design one for me. First real estate site? I'm impressed!

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Thanks for the feedback everyone.

A couple of things that were mentioned were great observations.

We kinda knew that we had too many navigation choices for the consumer to choose from and we are planning to cut that back a bit and divide it into one very prominant one (the first section on the right) and another sub-section a litte furthur down. That way the main catagory will catch their eye first.

Part of the reason to place so many links on the navigation was to get all of them indexed.

And I don't want to require people to register to see listings. I have done some research about this and my opinion is people don't like it. I do make them register to see the MLS.

For the traffic we are getting we are converting quite well. Of course, we will always take suggestions for improvement and then make minor changes to measure the outcome.

I have not considered doing mapping yet. To many other fish to fry! Like getting the visitor section completed (should be close to 1000 pages) and writiting posts about all of the surrounding cities in our forum (

I think we can rank for a lot of the lesser competitive search terms by doing that. By my calculations we could pick up another 3500 visits a month right there.

And finally, didn't Morgan do a outstanding job on the design! I was impressed the first time I saw it.

I just got back from signing a listing and the clients told me they sat there and watched the flash for 20 minutes.

I love it!

Keep those suggestions coming. We appreciate them all!

Jim

Whats in the visitors section?

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Ewok,
I am creating a Phoenix Visitors Guide that will have everything I can find to put in it about Phoenix and the surrounding areas. Example, over 400 golf courses, resorts, attractions, master planned communities, etc.

Jim,
Your site is impressive! I like all of the information it gives. Keep up the good work. I, for one, look forward to seeing the visitor information you compile.
Fran

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