Now with WordPress websites and the new IDX home search tool that we have developed lets visitors to your website look at listings with just one click on the map.  No waiting for emails, no signing up right away, clients can start their search more quickly.  Clients can also setup their own saved searches now and receive emailed updates when new homes enter the market.  The agent still has the option to create more advanced searches for the client if they need.

WordPress Training

Before you jump into trying a new WordPress IDX site, check out one of our regularly scheduled web trainings of WordPress 101 (You can also check out a pre-recorded video here).  The training will familiarize you with how to work with one of the new sites and eliminate the “What do I do now?” learning curve.

Upgrading your Site to WordPress

Upgrading a website to the WordPress platform is easy if you already have an older HomeQuest site.  Just click the “Change to IDX” button available in your HomeQuest account on the “Websites” tab and the system will give you one of our basic template sites available in red, blue, or green.  Site Customization is also available if you would like to break away from the template.

WARNING: Once you have upgraded a site to WordPress there is no option to return to the old sites.

Basic Setup

There are 4 things at the very least that you should check out to get going with your site. 1) Take a Training Class, 2) Change your Home page text, 3) Edit your Agent Profile, 4) Edit your blog posts.  Of course that is only the beginning, WordPress is a tool that if wielded correctly can have a lot more benefit than a site that stops at these steps.  For a more successful website try Going Beyond the Basics.

Frequently at the support desk I get the question “What do I do to get the most out of HomeQuest?”

1. Website: The first and biggest answer to that is a website.  Over 2 years ago we started offering WordPress based websites which are far more capable than the older websites we used to offer.

Our old websites were basically just a simple web page with some contact information and a way for clients to sign up for HomeQuest listing emails from you.  This was essentially just a lead capture to try to get listings into a clients hands.

The new websites are fully fledged WordPress websites.  You can blog on them, create pages with information and live listings from the MLS, add media including pictures and video and much more with it.  Because of the changes in search engines and web technology over time, upgrading to a WordPress site is imperative for your web presence.  Having an old website with the HomeQuest lead capture just doesn’t cut it for a website any longer.

The biggest and most noticeable difference between our old sites and our new is the way the listings are presented to the client.  With the old websites, clients had to signup and wait for the listings to come by email.

With the new websites, any visitor to your site can instantly see the listings by clicking on your Search Listings map.  No waiting for an email required, the search is available 24/7 for your existing clients and anyone who visits your site. See a quick tour vide of our new home search tool.

2. Unique Content on your site: The text and images of your website need to be something unique, not left as it was when you first setup the site.

A site without unique content is pretty much worthless.  If you setup a WordPress website and it still looks like the example image below, you are missing the point and missing out on an opportunity.  Default text is murder on a search engine ranking.  Not only does it look unprofessional to any real user, but when Google indexes a website that says “This is your default home page welcome text”, it knows that this is a crap website that has just been tossed together from a template and has no real value.

You need to change the wording on your pages, blog posts, and Agent Profile at the very least to get rid of that default text.

To take full advantage of your capabilities in WordPress:

Have useful pages up top with real information on them.  Your website needs to be a resource for the people who are going to be using it.  If your website is not a compelling resource of information, there is no reason for someone to return to it.  Likewise with the Google search engine, if your website is not full of information for it to read and index, how are you supposed to show up when someone searches?

Blogging is important too. If you add something to your blog regularly, there is more information for Google and the other search engines to crawl and look, more keywords that it will find and match you to.  One of the very best ways to move your site gradually up in the search ranking is to give Google exactly what it wants to find: new, fresh, relevant and unique content.  Being unique in your content is a big deal, Google will see copied content if it came from another site, and you will not receive credit for it.

3. Have a plan:  A website with a focus and a plan will make your web life easier.

Are you a neighborhood expert?  A short sale/REO specialist?  Your website needs to clearly reflect what you do.  If you are a selling agent you should write a great blog post about the home, and place the link to that blog post out there on the internet for people to find.  Click here to see how to write a good blog post about your listing. If you are a neighborhood expert your site should be full of listings, text, information and images from the neighborhoods that you serve.  Check out Jewel of the Pearl for an example of a good neighborhood expert site that is informational and unique.  Know what information you want to present to your audience before trying to decide what you need from your website.

4. Customization and SEO: Yes, it’s important; Yes, it costs more.

Another aspect of a good website is the customization.  Customization is completely optional, you don’t have to do it. A site that is customized is far more visually appealing to the visitors, and even the search engines can tell the difference between a template and a custom site which arguably would give it more weight in the search engine ranking.  Custom sites bring out a unique design based on what you and the designer came up with, and are built to match your needs rather than being bound by the limits of a template.  Click here to learn more about our custom sites.

The other important aspect to a truly effective site is your SEO (Search Engine Optimization).  For those who would like help with their SEO, HomeQuest recommends contacting Though Faucet.  Gahlord Dewald at Thought Faucet can help you with planning and executing the right SEO tools and techniques to improve your ranking with the search engines, and improve the website experience overall for both you and your clients.

Both customization and SEO are an additional investment into your website, but they also might just be the most important one you could make.

Supported Browsers:

• Internet Explorer 7 or higher
• Mozilla Firefox 2 or higher
• Safari 2 or higher
• Google Chrome 1 or higher

Browsers all work differently, even though they all surf the same internet.  This means that some browsers will work better than others.   With our speed tests we have found Google Chrome to be the fastest, followed by Safari and Firefox.  Internet Explorer 7 is old and has poorer performance, so Internet Explorer 8 is preferred.

The HomeQuest Hosted IDX sites are websites that are entirely hosted by HomeQuest in our closed system.  You get ALL of the same features that you would get with the plugin, but you do not have to worry about web hosting, installation, or setup.  All of this is taken care of by HomeQuest.  You get the standard set of themes, widgets, and plugins that are available on our system.  Any customization must be done by HomeQuest designers.

The WordPress IDX Plugin gives you ALL of the same features as the HomeQuest Hosted IDX sites, but the website is hosted on your web host of choice and the plugin is installed into your existing WordPress based website.  This gives you the ability to have the HomeQuest IDX features and the integration with your contact list, but on your own system.  That means that you can change the theme, look and feel, and anything else about your website without affecting the HomeQuest features.  You can even use your own web design and graphic design team to build you a great WordPress website and then use the HomeQuest IDX Plugin to bring the best home search tool right to you.

A valid email address:

support@pdxhomequest.com

INVALID email addresses:

test@test.com <—-Someone is just entering false information

rachel@comcast <——It MUST have comcast.net to deliver email, comcast by itself is invalid

aaa@gmail.com <——-Pay attention to the first part, an email address that looks correct can still be a dead end email that goes nowhere

If you find contacts with invalid emails, either contact them to confirm the correct email, or delete the contact out of your list.

When you or HomeQuest sends an email to an invalid address, the message “bounces” back, meaning that it is returned to you along with a message saying why the message could not be delivered.

HomeQuest has a way to send you these undeliverable bounce reports, so that you can groom and maintain your contact list to only include valid clients who are going to be looking at the listings that are sent.

Click here to learn how to receive undeliverable “bounced” messages

Returning customers: All of your old information is still safe inside of HomeQuest.  If you sign up for an account with us again, everything will return to the way you left it.  All of your preferences and contacts are there, as well as their search criteria and Saved Searches.

Fill out the necessary information, and with just a few quick and easy steps you can have a fully functional website.  No waiting, its working right after you sign up.  No long term contracts, just a month to month subscription automatically paid from your Visa or MasterCard.  See more about our payment and billing policy.