The real estate industry is highly competitive, and everything from generating leads to converting them into customers requires careful planning and strategizing. An important step in growing your agency or brokerage is effectively marketing your business, and digital marketing has become the norm in the industry. Building a user-friendly, SEO-optimized IDX website is one way to enhance your real estate business and boost your profits.
This article covers everything that realtors need to know about IDX websites: from what this is, through how to create the best one with a real estate website builder tool, to how to maximize its performance.
Key Takeaways
- A real estate website with IDX is an online platform that shows the MLS listings of an agent or broker in real time.
- The best IDX website is mobile-friendly, SEO-optimized, easy-to-search-through, and up-to-date.
- The Mashvisor Real Estate Website Builder allows realtors to quickly and easily launch their own website to generate leads at an unprecedented rate.
What Is an IDX Website?
Before getting into how a website with IDX can help you grow your business, it’s important to understand this concept and its importance in the real estate industry.
What Is IDX?
IDX stands for Internet Data Exchange and refers to the online system that real estate agents and brokers use to display their MLS listings on their website.
While it is crucial to have your properties for sale on the MLS, this is not of much value unless you have an effective and efficient way to show these listings to the wider audience of potential homebuyers and real estate investors possible. The IDX takes care of this by making it possible and easy to list your MLS properties directly on your real estate agent website.
IDX is not the only way to showcase MLS listings on your website. For example, some popular real estate websites like Zillow and Trulia don’t use Internet Data Exchange but appy other methods, such as brokerage syndication. However, IDX is usually the most straightforward, direct, and cost-efficient way for realtors and brokers to show up-to-date listings without the need for excessive efforts.
IDX software works by establishing a data connection between your website and the MLS website, importing your listings with all relevant information, and showing them on your website. This is an ongoing process to ensure that your listings are always up to date.
IDX vs MLS
While closely related, the MLS and IDX are two separate online systems in real estate. The MLS, short for the Multiple Listing Service, allows brokers and agents to post and distribute their available homes for sale online, on the local MLS. The MLS is restricted to agents and brokers only, so homeowners and real estate investors need to work with an agent to view MLS listings.
IDX, on the other hand, allows agents to publish their listings on their own website, from a single MLS or multiple MLSs. In this way, their listings become visible and available to a general audience, without the need to hire an agent.
Rules and Regulations for Using IDX
Each MLS applies different rules in order to regulate the use of real estate IDX. Such regulations have generally been influenced by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), but there are still some significant differences among different MLSs. So, it’s best to check with your MLS before starting working on an IDX website.
What Is a Real Estate IDX Website?
This is what an IDX website is
An IDX website is a real estate website that integrates with the MLS database to display available listings for sale. This capability makes it an integral part of the digital marketing strategy of real estate agents and real estate brokers as it helps drive traffic to their website, generate leads, and convert qualified leads into customers.
The most important features and attributes of a real estate website with IDX include integration with the MLS, regular updates, search functionality, mobile responsiveness, and search engine optimization. We’ll discuss each one of them in detail in a bit.
The Importance of IDX for Real Estate Agents and Brokers
With the advancement of technology in the real estate industry and the emergence of digital marketing in the real estate business, having an IDX website is a must for agents and brokers who want to be competitive.
According to NAR data, for 41% of recent homebuyers the first step in the home purchase process is to search for homes for sale on the internet. The percentage is likely to be significantly higher for real estate investors looking for investment properties for sale.
This means that realtors need an efficient way to display their listings to property buyers online and to bring traffic to these listings. This is the exact purpose that a website with IDX serves.
Benefits of IDX for Agents and Brokers
An IDX website brings many significant advantages to real estate brokers and their agents, including:
- Showing up-to-date MLS listings: Once the IDX integration has been set up and implemented correctly, it will provide updated listings and their information from the MLS without further effort on behalf of the agent.
- Generating and capturing real estate buyer leads: An SEO-optimized real estate website will bring traffic from interested potential clients, many of whom are qualified leads.
- Nurturing and educating real estate leads: You can use your website to educate buyers on national and local real estate market trends, the home buying or home selling process, and the real estate investing journey (depending on your typical customers) and to show your expertise in the business and the local market through a blog. This will help in the nurturing and converting of leads into customers and will solidify your online presence and reputation as an expert in the field.
- Collecting potential buyers information: IDX websites offer online contact forms on multiple pages so that agents can collect contact and other information about their leads that they can use along the marketing funnel.
- Engaging website visitors: Through search functionality, good structure, useful content, and strategic visuals, a website can grab and retain the attention of real estate leads. When they find your website to be useful, they are more likely to come back and get in touch with you.
- Covering national markets: A real estate website integrates with IDX in a way that allows it to pull listings in any real estate market nationally, no matter how big or small. This means that an IDX website can work in any location.
Some Challenges to Consider
Despite the many important benefits, an IDX website comes with some challenges that agents need to take into account.
The main ones include:
- Lack of control over listings: The IDX feed takes and displays all information from the MLS database on your website. Agents and brokers cannot select to show certain listings only and not display others.
- Need to work on SEO: If implemented correctly, a website with IDX has the basic SEO features, but agents still need to create and publish content that targets local SEO to continue bringing new traffic to their online platform.
- Necessity to apply further marketing and conversion strategies: While having an IDX website is the first must-have step in the real estate digital marketing process, it is not enough to grow your business. You need to supplement your strategy with further realtor marketing ideas like email and social media and to build a solid conversion funnel.
Key Features of an Effective IDX Website
When building an IDX website, realtors need to take the following obligatory features into account to boost results:
Seamless MLS Integration
First and foremost, IDX needs to be set up in a way that offers smooth, problem-free integration with the MLS database. MLS listings and their information need to be updated regularly (on a daily basis) in an automated manner. It’s crucial to have active listings on your website at all times.
Customizable Property Search Functionality
Second, it is crucial for an IDX website for realtors to have a superior property search function. This should allow interested home buyers and rental property investors to search for available homes for sale based on different criteria such as location, price, property features, and others.
Mobile Responsiveness and User Experience
Third, the best real estate websites have to work equally well on desktop and mobile devices. According to the NAR, as much as 76% of home buyers use a mobile device in their search for home, and they expect superior customer experience in order to choose an agent over competitors. Thus, building a mobile-friendly real estate website is a must.
Built-in Investment Potential Analysis
Finally, agents who want to work with real estate investors – instead of or in addition to homeowners – need to build an IDX website with integrated rental property analysis. Working with investors has many benefits such as a faster sale process, more frequent cash purchases, and repeat business. And investors care much more about the expected performance of a property when rented out on a short term or long term basis rather than about its exact features and specifications of the house.
Building an IDX Website: Step-by-Step Guide
Follow these steps to build an IDX website
Traditionally, creating a website for lead generation for real estate required hiring a software development company. Now, agents and brokers can build, launch, and maintain a website on their own, without any software skills or coding experience whatsoever. All that’s needed is getting access to the top specialized website builder for real estate.
Choosing the Right Real Estate Website Builder
Among the many real estate website builders available online, the Mashvisor tool stands out as the best choice for agents and brokers, especially those who work with investors. The Mashvisor Real Estate Website Builder is a self-service platform that allows realtors to create their own IDX website that not only hosts their MLS listings but also features comprehensive analysis of each individual property for sale.
The investment property analysis is based on nationwide real estate analysis and data collection from reliable sources like the MLS, Zillow, HotPads, Airbnb, and public records. The analysis works for both short term and long term rentals so that investors can evaluate and compare the performance of properties when rented out on a nightly or monthly basis, choose the best investment property, and select the right rental strategy.
This feature makes the Mashvisor IDX website builder unique and turns it into the most useful tool for agents and brokers working with real estate investors.
Launching an IDX Website for Realtors
In spite of the enhanced functionality, the Mashvisor Real Estate Website Builder is extremely easy to use.
The required steps for creating your own website include:
- Enter your website domain name
- Choose a website design template
- Fill in the required information and details for the selected customizable theme
- Implement the IDX integration by entering the URL for your IDX feed into the Mashvisor system to import the MLS data
- Create and customize additional content for search engines
- Preview your real estate website design and functionality
- Update the DNS records on your existing website (if applicable)
- Launch your real estate IDX website
If you have any questions or face any obstacles along the way, the Mashvisor Customer Success team is available 24/7 to help out.
To build your real estate IDX website in a matter of minutes, click here.
SEO Strategies for IDX Websites
Creating and launching your real estate website is an important first step, but it doesn’t suffice to start bringing traffic to your business. You need to put efforts into search engine optimization, or real estate SEO, so that search engines like Google rank your pages high and show them to investors and home buyers looking for properties for sale in your market.
Optimizing for Local Search
Real estate digital marketing is very much about local SEO. After all, most property buyers focus on no more than a couple of markets, so you have to make sure that the content on your website is targeted for the areas that you cover.
This means choosing the right website domain, website name, and page titles to bring buyers interested in your market in addition to distributing it naturally across all your content.
Keyword Research and Content Creation
Before and after you launch your IDX website, you should conduct keyword research to find the search terms that your target customers use. These usually include your local market (state, city, neighborhood, and area) as well as something like homes for sale, properties for sale, real estate listings, etc.
It’s recommended to use tools such as Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, and Ahrefs to identify the most suitable keywords. Then you need to create useful content around them. It’s a good idea to launch your own real estate blog that can educate leads on the property buying process while also building your online reputation as an expert on the local real estate market.
Building Backlinks and Online Presence
To boost SEO for real estate agents, it’s also crucial to look for opportunities to build solid backlinks to your website. This means links on third-party websites that lead to pages on your own IDX website.
To do this, you can claim your profile on real estate agent directories, create a profile on review websites, and cooperate with other real estate websites so that they link back to you.
Using Social Media
Additionally, you should share the MLS listings and blog posts from your website on your social media accounts as well as your blog content and analytical pieces. This will help bring additional traffic to your website besides growing your online presence.
While social media shares might not have a direct impact on SEO, getting more qualified traffic is always a plus.
Leveraging IDX for Lead Generation
The main purpose of a well-developed real estate website is to drive traffic to your MLS listings and to generate leads.
Here are a few things you can do to optimize results:
Using Effective Call-to-Action Techniques
It’s important to use calls to action (CTAs) strategically on your IDX website. Each page should offer a way to get in touch with you and ask questions about your listings.
Creating a Real Estate Blog
Even if you don’t have superior writing skills, you should run a real estate blog as this will help boost the ranking of your website and build your online reputation. Content on your blog should be optimized for SEO, and you can use different AI tools to speed up the research and writing process and improve the quality of your blog posts in case writing is not your forte.
Utilizing IDX for Email Marketing
Your website should feature an option to sign up for email updates, whether receiving new MLS listings or new blog posts. Email marketing is an effective way to nurture leads and convert customers.
Tracking and Analyzing Website Traffic
You should use tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console to track vital website performance analytics such as organic traffic, user engagement, and conversion rates. This can help you improve your digital marketing strategy and enhance the outcomes of your real estate website design and functionality.
Providing Investment Analysis
If working with real estate investors, an IDX broker will generate significantly more leads and convert a lot more customers if their website offers readily available investment property analysis. Investors are more likely to contact an agent if they have listings that promise to turn into profitable real estate investments.
Case Studies and Success Stories
The Mashvisor Real Estate Website Builder, as the best tool for agents and brokers, has helped multiple real estate professionals build a profitable website.
As one example, our tool helped Mark Shay, a Pocono Vacation Home Realtor, launch PoconoVacationHomeSales.com, to generate more leads and close more deals than ever before.
Mark says:
The Mashvisor team helped design a very powerful website for my STR buyer focused business. Their data has been a nice addition to my content and the team has been responsive to adapting to my needs.
Mark Shay, Realtor & Owner
Launching Your Own IDX Website with the Best Real Estate Website Builder
While building an IDX website is a must for every real estate agent and broker, it doesn’t have to be a difficult and costly endeavor. To the contrary, with the Mashvisor Real Estate Website Builder, you can launch your own website in a matter of minutes to showcase your MLS listings, provide rental property analysis, and generate more leads for your business.
To build your real estate IDX website in a matter of minutes, click here.
