If you don't have an SSL certificate on your website, you need to change that.

Once a nice-to-have, SSL certificates are now as necessary as having a URL.
You can not, should not, and will not have a successful website without one.

Althought Google led the way, other browsers are following suit: your site will be penalized severely without the proper security settings in place. Let's go through some of the most commonly asked questions about SSL certificates:

Do I Need an SSL Certificate for my website?

Yes. Absolutely. Oui. Sì. Shì. Ja. Ae. Yebo. Hai.

An SSL certificate is way to tell both your website visitors and search engines that your site is safe, and secure. Without one, Google (and other search engines) will mark your site as

This article is part of a series about real estate PPC. We highly encourage you to read the entire guide as it's released. Follow the discussion on REW Forums!

• Part 1: What is PPC?
• Part 2: How Much Does Real Estate PPC Cost?
• Part 3: The ROI of Real Estate PPC
• Part 4: To be continued...

Your website should be an investment, not a business card.

In real estate, PPC is the most cost-effective way to generate traffic to your website, and fast.

But what type of ROI should you expect from real estate PPC?

In this blog, we'll cover all the factors that go into the expected expenses and commissions you can earn from PPC, including advice on how to improve your ROI.

We'll also go through a practical example, using typical results

This article is part of a series about real estate PPC. We highly encourage you to read the entire guide as it's released. Follow us on Facebook to stay up to date!

• Part 1: What is PPC?
• Part 2: How Much Does Real Estate PPC Cost?
• Part 3: The ROI of Real Estate PPC (and How to Improve It)
• Part 4: To be continued...

It's the first question we're always asked when an agent or brokerage is considering PPC:

"What's my expected cost per lead?"

To be honest, there's no simple answer. But, by answering the following questions, we can get a pretty close approximation and help you understand the mystery behind the cost of PPC:

1. How does the Google Ads auction work?
2. Cost Per Click: What is the expected CPC in real estate?

This article is part of an upcoming series about real estate PPC. We highly encourage you to read the entire guide as it's released. Follow us on Facebook to stay up to date!

• Part 1: Real Estate PPC Guide: Everything you need to know
• Part 2: How Much Does Real Estate PPC Cost?
• Part 3: The ROI of Real Estate PPC (and How to Improve It)
• Part 4: To be continued...

Let's talk PPC for real estate!

PPC is one of the most cost-effective forms of lead generation in real estate.

What is it? Why should you care? Let's dive in!

What is real estate PPC?

PPC is an acronym for Pay-Per-Click Advertising. Why is it called Pay-Per-Click? Because you pay every time someone clicks one of your ads.

The term PPC most commonly refers

Real Estate Webmasters recently hired a market research company to complete extensive surveys and interviews with Realtors, buyers, and sellers across North America. We gained a lot of valuable insight into the real estate industry, which we've shared throughout this blog over the past month.

In this post, we're going to summarize the research that told us how Realtors can turn their buyers and sellers into loyal, lifelong clients who will be happy to share their name with all their family and friends. (After all, referrals are still a top way to get new clients..!)

Most people only passively follow the real estate market when they aren't planning to buy or sell. However, they are motivated to stay in touch when Realtors send information that helps

Upgrading your site can be scary.

You've worked hard to build up authority, earn traffic, and create a system that effectively generates leads.

Therefore, it's understandable that one of the most common questions we get when people are considering an upgrade is, "Will this hurt my SEO?"

The short answer is "no."

Completed properly, an upgrade shouldn't have any negative impact on the authority you've built. If anything, it should only help. Here's what you need to know:

Steps of a proper REW website upgrade

A proper REW website upgrade is simple:

1. Transfer - All content is automatically transfered by REW in its current state to the new website
2. Format - Go through the website and reformat the content to suit your new website

In exactly one week, the European Union's new data laws go into effect. Here's what REW clients need to know...

What is GDPR?

GDPR is the acronym for General Data Protection Regulation, which is a series of laws that will go into effect in one week, on May 25, 2018.

GDPR tackles 7 different principles of data collection and protection, a few of which apply directly to real estate sites:

1. Principles relating to the processing of personal data
2. Lawfulness of processing
3. Conditions for consent

Simply put, GDPR wants to ensure that businesses are collecting personal data in a way that is accurate, ethical and responsible, and that personal data is kept safe and confidential at all times.

What are the rules of GDPR?

Until legal

We recently hired an independent market research company to interview 10 random people who have bought or sold a home worth at least $300,000 in the past 12 months, and ask them a series of questions over the course of an hour.

When asked to describe the best real estate websites they have seen, guess what they said?

Nothing.

Most respondents didn't have any awesome sites to share because nothing stood out to them. The few that did comment on a website referenced the major portals, including Zillow and Realtor.com.

This means there's huge opportunity for real estate agents, brokers, and franchises to make an impression in their local markets. All they have to do is create the best website visitors have ever seen, and we're here to help:

The

What are sitelinks?

Sitelinks are the smaller links that sometimes display below a site's primary link in the search results. Sitelinks are most likely to appear when someone searches for a specific company name or domain, offering quick links to the pages of the site Google thinks a user is most likely to be interested in.

What is the benefit of sitelinks?

The biggest benefit of sitelinks is the amount of visual real estate they take up on the search engine results page (SERP). We've seen anywhere from 4 to 10 sitelinks, which represents a large portion of the overall results page. Studies have shown that when a user is presented with sitelinks, their odds of clicking through to the site increase.

How do I get sitelinks?

Sitelinks

We hired an independent market research company to survey 300 active real estate agents across the United States and Canada. These agents were asked questions on a wide variety of topics, including their marketing and spending habits.

In this blog, we'll walk through the spend results and reveal the intriguing insights we saw about top-performing real estate agents. (Hint: if you think they spend differently, you're right!)

First, let's take a look at what the average agent actually makes in a year:

We simplified the categories so we could better analyze their marketing and spend habits, and observe behaviour trends that emerged within different levels of success. These were the three GCI groups we reviewed:

• under $100,000
• between