Real estate startup WebsiteBox is now offering its agent and broker website customers an app designed to help them improve their rankings in search engine results and thereby boost their traffic.
Launched in January 2013, the Toronto-based company provides mobile-optimized websites to real estate pros for a one-time fee of $99 and offers add-ons for $99 each. Add-ons include a Craigslist ad-building app, email marketing, and a lead capture system. WebsiteBox also began offering a live chat tool in February using a “freemium” model.
Now, the startup has rolled out a search engine optimization app for $99 that will offer agents keyword suggestions and help agents understand how their websites rank against competing websites, the company said.
“When it comes to understanding SEO practices, many Realtors don’t know where to start. The website needs to have more than just pretty pictures,” said WebsiteBox CEO Peyman Aleagha in a statement.
“The SEO app is an additional tool we wanted to provide our clients because SEO is one of the most affordable and surefire ways to increase website traffic. The app provides real estate agents a starting point with SEO by identifying issues and solutions that may be preventing their website from being picked up by search engines.”
The SEO app helps Realtors figure out if the SEO strategies they are implementing, such as content marketing and meta-tags, are making a difference by identifying their current position for a keyword and monitoring that position over time, WebsiteBox spokesman Chad Bhalla said.
Screen shot of WebsiteBox SEO app.
“The real advantage in using this app comes from the ability to monitor what keywords your competitors are going after and seeing if they are any key terms that they are missing which you could rank for,” he said.
“The keyword suggestion tool helps clients find quality keywords that get a good amount of traffic each month. Realtors can study these terms to figure out which ones are being overlooked by the competition and go after them.”
The app comes with custom analytics reports that include site statistics like traffic peaks; hits; page views; when visitors access the site; the amount of time they spend on the site; and most viewed pages.
Agents also receive demographic information about their site visitors, including detailed geographic data on where the visitors are coming from down to the city, and the browser, device and operating system visitors are using when they access the website, Bhalla said.
WebsiteBox has partnered with more than 240 multiple listing services in the U.S. and Canada in order to integrate Internet data exchange (IDX) listings into the websites it builds for agents and brokers. In April, the startup announced it had signed agreements with Arizona Regional MLS, Triangle MLS in North Carolina, and three other MLSs in Florida, Oregon and Missouri.
