Entegral Blog

As a real estate agency, having a website is essential for showcasing your properties and attracting potential buyers. But in today's digital age, it's not enough to simply have a website - it needs to be responsive and user-friendly. Here are the top 10 advantages of using responsive web design in real estate for estate agencies: Improved user experience - Responsive web design ensures that your website automatically adjusts to the screen size of the device it is being viewed on, providing a seamless and intuitive browsing experience for your visitors. Increased mobile traffic - With more and more people accessing the internet from their smartphones, a responsive website allows you to tap into this growing market and attract mobile users to your properties. Enhanced search engine optimization - Google favors responsive websites in its search rankings, so implementing responsive design can improve your search engine visibility and drive more organic traffic to your site. Imp...

Invitation Homes, a joint venture between the Rabie Property Group and Kloof Capital South Africa, recently launched a brand new responsive website powered by our industry-leading Flex framework . Our team of highly skilled developers worked closely with the design team of Invitation Homes to create a custom-built Flex website for them.  The site is not only branded according to their corporate identity but is also armed with leading, custom-developed technology which will enable them to provide an online presence for their business. The website embraces responsive technology, secure browsing, and optimal UX design to deliver a unique browsing experience that is based on the latest design and industry trends. A lot of attention has been paid to make the property search experience as fast as possible. The website’s custom-built search functionality allows a user to search according to the various developments in particular Cape Town areas owned by the groups, ensuring that vi...

Most real estate searches today starts on mobile, so it makes sense to have a mobile optimised website for your visitors. So much so that in 2016 Google started including mobile friendliness as a ranking factor and also started advising of upcoming changes on how it crawls and indexes websites. Now Google has just made a big announcement: it's going to default to mobile 1st indexing for the entire web:   https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2020/03/announcing-mobile-first-indexing-for.html In their announcement, Google again clearly highlights their recommendation for running a responsive website: "...While we continue to support  various ways of making mobile websites , we recommend  responsive web design  for new websites. We suggest not using separate mobile URLs (often called "m-dot") because of issues and confusion we've seen over the years, both from search engines and users...." How to check if your real estate website is responsive What i...

These days there are two ways you can approach to designing your real estate website: 1. Responsive design (one website works on all screen size devices, one domain) 2. Separate desktop and mobile websites (usually 2 domains) Let's have a look at the advantages of opting for a responsive design. So what is a responsive website design? Responsive web design is an approach to web design that makes web pages render well on a variety of devices and screen sizes. The developers will code the website in such a way, that it automatically adjusts to accommodate the screen size of the device your visitor is using  (e.g. large desktop screen, smaller laptop screen, even smaller tablet screen or mobile screen). To illustrate, if you open a responsive website and resize your browser, it should automatically adjust the contents as can be shown here. This is not possible with separate desktop and mobile websites: What are the advantages of having a responsive real estate websi...

Creating a professional online presence has never been more important and to ensure that we offer the very best to our clients, we continuously work on not just the way your website works but how it is presented to visitors. With that in mind, our designers and developers have made it possible for clients to choose from new themes that adhere to the latest design trends without losing what makes our Flex product unique in its offering. As always all our websites are responsive, hosted on the cloud and backed by our unrivaled tech to produce a 24/7 lead generating machine. Starter Theme Our Starter theme no-frills, no-fuss cost-effective real estate website solution you have been looking for. We have worked tirelessly to create a product that would offer real estate agents the perfect base to get started from in the digital landscape. Our new Starter theme boasts with all the basics you would need to get started and will be available as either the Normal Starter theme or as ...

Mobile traffic is not new and in years gone by a mobile version of a desktop website would have been enough, however, in the age of smartphones, tablets and an agile society that wants information right now responsive design is the only way forward. You can argue that a mobi-site is suffice for your business but you would be wrong. Not only is responsive design a key element in a strong SEO strategy, it is also a deciding factor for many consumers on whether or not they will make use of your services. Here are the latest statistics that prove that you can no longer wait to switch your site over to a responsive website: As mentioned before - mobile traffic is not new, in fact  Statista has found that it has been ahead since 2015, however with the technology behind smartphones improving turning mobile phones into mini laptops and the increase in mobile traffic, websites that aren’t responsive are losing progressively larger portions of their audience each year. The ...

By offering competitive industry tools, supporting an agent's personal brand, and investing in a collaborative workplace culture, agencies can make themselves indispensable to their agents and future talent as well. Invest in technology that makes agents better According to an Inman report, real estate agents overwhelmingly support tech tools provided by their agencies. The vast majority of agents at franchised agencies and independent agencies use tech products either on a daily basis or at the very least, a few times a week. Additionally, they have come to rely on their agencies sharing the costs of these technologies. Investing in technology that aids in their productivity will help you retain your current agents and will also become a great selling point for agents considering joining your agency. Here are a few examples of technology that will aid in productivity in your real estate agency: Document Management Contracts, inspection checklists and other real estat...

You have been in the game for years and people in the areas you operate in know your name - so does it matter if you are still using the branding you had when you started 10 years ago? Two sides of the logo Perception matters and in our visual driven society an outdated logo or branding can hurt your chances of scoring business from the younger generation entering the property market. It is not just clients you might lose - you might be missing out on hiring the next big real estate rockstar because they don’t like the image you project with your outdated branding. However, there is something to be said about staying consistent throughout the years. Take a look at Coca-Cola, McDonalds and Nike as examples. You know exactly how their branding looks because it has stayed consistent throughout the years. So what are you supposed to do? Rebrand or stay the same? Meeting in the middle In most cases you don’t need to rebrand completely - all you really need is to refresh your c...

Voice search is here to stay - because it is easier to speak to a digital assistant than typing - so we take a look at three ways you can gear your real estate website towards voice search. To prove that voice search is the way of the future, take a look at these statistics: Voice labs found that there were a total of 33 million voice-first devices in circulation. In a survey of SEO trends for 2017 and beyond , voice search stood at the third spot. In his keynote, Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced that one-fifth of the queries on Google are voice searches. REA Group's move into AI with Amazon's Alexa With the increase in the use of digital assistants, optimising for voice search is critical to your SEO success. We take a look at three SEO strategies to help you optimise your website - it is easier than you think! 1. Claim your Google My Business Listing Probably the easiest thing to do is to simply claim your Google My Business listing! The reason why this is im...

The digital landscape is fast moving and ever changing, and a stale digital marketing strategy won’t cut it anymore. We take a look at a few things you can do now to spruce up your strategy to ensure you don’t fall behind and miss out on valuable website traffic in 2018. Stop stuffing content with keywords This might have worked in the past, but search engines have changed dramatically and this won’t help you at all. You might even end up hurting your business as search engines might flag your page as spam. Keywords are still important but search engines (and humans) prefer long tail keywords. Long tail keywords are those three and four keyword phrases which are very, very specific to what you are selling. This means content with the phrase ‘Lonehill property for sale’ will fare better than simply ‘property for sale’ when you want to ensure you are getting better ranking in personalised search results. Step-up your social game Everyone is on some form of social media...

Our creative thinking is not just applied to our industry-leading tech to make your responsive real estate website load faster, deliver more accurate results and provide you with a powerful online marketing tool. We also apply it to design better-looking websites to ensure your site doesn’t just work great but also looks great. With that in mind, we have updated and revamped one of the variations of our Elegant theme . The upgrade has enhanced the way the featured properties are displayed on your Flex responsive website - making for an overall better user experience. Current clients with this variation of the theme will now see the change on their website, while new clients will automatically have their featured properties displayed in this format. As always all our Entegral Flex real estate websites are responsive and backed by the cloud and managed by our Office Management System. Take a look at the theme in action by visiting some of the sites already using this variation on t...

As we reach the fourth quarter of 2017, it’s time to start thinking about the year ahead and what to expect from SEO in 2018. Here are some of the trends you should be keeping an eye on in order to stay ahead of the curve. Voice search and digital assistants  Voice search technology presents a big opportunity for changing the way we communicate and process information. The rise of digital assistants has presented a growing market that can change the way search queries are performed. According to Google, 1 out of 5 searches already come from voice queries. The rise of voice search brings out the need to focus on more long-tail search keywords and a natural language that matches the user’s conversational tone. As accuracy improves in digital assistants, there will be more people using voice search from their mobile devices, seeking for quick and relevant answers. It becomes important to research the voice user intent will provide more accurate results, helping the algorit...

You’ll never generate more leads or attract more visitors to your website if it isn’t credible - but what determines the credibility of your website and what influences it? In our latest blog, we take a look at what influences your credibility and what you can do to build and maintain it. Visitors are skeptical from the get-go Scientists from Microsoft Research analyzed page-visit duration for 205,873 web pages (with more than 10,000 visits to each page). Using data from a popular web browser plugin, they were able to find the answer They found that 99 percent of web pages have a negative ageing effect*. When website visitors hit your landing page, they’re skeptical. They’re quickly scanning the page looking for a reason to abandon your site. Get your website visitors past the 30-second mark and they’ll spend a lot more time on your site. So how do you get them to stay longer? Credibility! They are looking for signals that show your organization is reliable, trustworthy, a...

Recent extensive studies performed by SEMrush and Searchmetrics has showcased what the ranking factors are that will help your real estate website. We take a look at some of the most important in our latest blog. SEMrush Ranking Factors 2.0 Olga Andrienko from SEMrush, who shared the results of a large-scale study on ranking factors. SEMrush looked at on-page factors, referring domains and traffic data, then compiled their findings to see which ranking factors appeared to be the most important. Website security (HTTPS) SEMrush found that 65 percent of domains in the top three positions for Very High volume keywords are already secure. Although it’s not a huge ranking factor, Andrienko recommended switching to HTTPS to help with conversions and building trust. Content length SEMrush found that content length generally had a positive correlation with search rankings; content for pages in the top three positions is 45 percent longer, on average than content in the 20th posit...

With more than 13 years of experience in the property industry, Kainos Properties, are industry leaders that have built and expanded their brand from the Northern Suburbs of Cape Town to now include the breathtaking properties along the Western Seaboard. www.kainosprop.co.za Situated in the picturesque Welgemoed, Cape Town affords the dynamic real estate agents of this busy agency a unique understanding of the old saying that you are not buying a home but the neighbourhood - they know that finding the right home also means finding the right lifestyle. With this in mind, their newly launched Entegral responsive Flex website is not only a showcase of their latest listings but also an online marketing tool for their agency and the areas they work in. From here they can market their for sale properties, feature their recently sold listings and attract tenants on the hunt for new rental accommodation on any screen size without compromising on design and most importantly functiona...

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) can seem like a daunting (and very technical) task but by avoiding a few common pitfalls you are already increasing your chances of ranking higher on Google’s search results page! Pushing the wrong keywords A few years back generic keywords would have done the trick, but times have changed and with it how keywords are used in SEO. If you want to rank in Google you have to make sure that you’re using the right keywords for every page. If you are a local real estate agency pushing “property for sale”, you’re aiming too high. You should consider something a more specific. It is estimated that up to 80% of searches are long-tail keywords. Long tail keywords are those three and four keyword phrases which are very, very specific to what you are selling. This means content with the phrase ‘Lonehill property for sale’ will fare better than simply ‘property for sale’ when you want to ensure you are getting better ranking in personalised search results. ...

We are going to say it again - content is king - and Google rewards high-quality content with better ranking positions. But just what makes content ‘high-quality’ according to Google? We take a look in our latest blog. The answer to what makes for high-quality content is not new, however, it is something that is not implemented on websites often enough. Google’s style guides reveal that high-quality pages — the kind that ranks well in search — are a combination of high-quality code, content and UX (user experience.) We here at Entegral have you covered in terms of high-quality code - with ongoing updates and tweaks to ensure your website runs at its very best . The content, however, is up to you, and with these tips from the style guide, you will be sporting some impressive content in no time. Here is a quick overview of Google’s Developer Documentation Style Guide tips for content creators: Use a friendly, conversational tone with a clear purpose — somewhere between the ...

The look and feel of your marketing materials can influence your business a lot more than you think - but how do you know whether or not it is time for a boost? The simple answer - if you are looking at your marketing materials and they are not reflecting your brand now or even worse if they are sporting outdated information it is time for a boost. If you have outdated information on your marketing materials it is fairly obvious where you should start, if however you just need to refresh your brand to fit with the times, figuring out where to start is a bit like a simple science experiment. This means that you should have a look at your marketing materials and find the problem - is your brochure too cluttered, do the colours feel bland or overpowering - once you have identified the problem, you can use the guidelines below to boost your brand. Less is more : Do not try to tell everything about you and your business in a tiny space; this clutters the design and suffocates th...

At the latest Apple event, the launch of ‘Animojis’ is more than just a new fun way to communicate, it is yet another definitive sign that brands (and real estate agents) should get serious about augmented and virtual reality. “Augmented reality mobile content will go beyond gaming, as we have seen before and offers new ways to visualize content and personalise mobile experiences, expanding to industries such as retail, sports, and entertainment,” predicted Roman Taranov, CEO of RGK Mobile. “Advertising will follow suit, taking on new formats and offering an immersive user experience.” Such a scenario is getting easier and easier to imagine. The International Data Corporation predicted in February that total spending on AR and virtual reality will reach nearly $14 billion by the end of 2017. “The possibilities are endless and range from Minority Report-style programmatic outdoor advertising to superimposing sporting events and concerts on top of consumers’ living rooms,” added ...

Established in January 2017, Mikaya Real Estate has grown in leaps and bounds, expanding their real estate footprint in Bloemfontein and with that came the need for a cutting edge real estate website that would reflect their brand and showcase their latest listings. www.mikaya.co.za With years experience in the real estate industry, the dedicated Mikaya Real Estate are poised to ensure the very best service to their clients whether they are on the hunt for a rental property, new family home, an agricultural property or commercial real estate. Mikaya Real Estate chose Entegral Technologies to be their service provider for all their online marketing and property management needs.  Their business is run and managed by our Office Management System (OMS) which is linked to their brand new Momento themed Flex website . Not only do they now boast with a fully responsive website, but is also one of the very first of our clients that have taken advantage of our new theme! Visi...