What is HTTPS? Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) is the secure version of HTTP, the protocol that data is sent between your website browser (Ex: Google, Yahoo, Bing) and the website that you are connecting to. When your computer encounters a HTTPS website, they start communicating in a different language, or encrypting, so it’s difficult for hackers to decode it – it’s similar to the unbreakable radio Navajo code used in the 2002 World War II film, Windtalkers.

In this blog article, I will discuss list the benefits of using secure HTTPS websites, compared to insecure HTTP websites.

NextDoor is a private social network for members in your neighborhood. This network is a great tool to communicate with your neighbors effectively - allowing them to ask questions, share ideas, and more. Need help finding a lost pet or a dentist?  Ask your neighbors on NextDoor! As you can see, NextDoor is a great platform for neighbors to communicate online, but how can real estate agents use it?

In this article, I will examine the neighborhood social network, NextDoor, to see how you, a real estate agent, can leverage it to farm leads, promote open houses, and establish yourself as a neighborhood expert.

A visitor will scroll down to the bottom of your website when they aren't able to locate the piece of information they were searching for. Your website's footer is your second chance to direct them to the right place before they navigate to a competitor’s website. One of the ways you can keep your visitors longer is by having a set of quality widgets in your website’s footer that helps them get closer to the information they’re searching for.

In this article, I will list 5 of the best free widgets for your real estate website and explain the reason each of them is the best. While designing your website’s footer, consider how it complements your home page, popular pages, and other important information.

If you hear real estate agent say, "Open houses are obsolete," there's a good chance they’re doing it wrong. When executed correctly, open houses are a great way to generate new buyer and sellers leads, while getting to know members of your community. With most of real estate, you get what you put in and the same applies with open houses. If you want a successful open house, you’ll have to put in the time and work – but it will be worth it in the long run.

Real estate agents have different needs from their brokerage at different points in their career. For example, a rookie agent will want to look for a brokerage with high brand awareness or mentoring, while a veteran agent might be looking for new marketing tools or digital marketing training. There are other important factors to consider when selecting a brokerage: let’s go over each factor and why you should consider them: 

Vine, Tumblr, Google +, TikTok, Snapchat, Trance. Did you know that these are social networks? There are so many these days. Being on every network means better visibility right? Yes...but it might not be the visibility you want.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the determining factors that drive traffic to your website. A search engine, such as Google or Bing!, will initiate crawling on your website to collect data about titles, keywords, images, links, meta tags and more. This information, along with other data will determine your website's ranking when someone performs a search. The more relevant and structured your content, the higher it will rank. SEO is like a sophisticated filing system – it’s easier to locate the most relevant information when it is structured and organized correctly.

For real estate, SEO is important for searches like listings, housing information, local events, blog articles, and more. It also helps you understand how people navigate to, through, and away from your website. This data will help you make decisions on which pages to invest more time and add more value, and which ones to get rid of.

Hot sheets are a catalog of listings in your MLS. Real estate agents should be leveraging hot sheets on their website to provide a better experience for their visitors. Generally, a “better experience” means being able to navigate to the information that they’re searching for using minimal clicks. You can use hot sheets for cities, neighborhoods, price, time on the market, and more.