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Restb.ai is software that automatically identifies property images and tags their contents.
Platforms: Browser
Ideal for: Multiple listing services (MLSs); portals; large brokerages with listing pages; any agency looking to boost SEO rankings.
Top selling points
- API integration speeds image transfer
- Enables room-by-room comparison of listings
- Identifies finishes, door types and flooring
Top concerns
This isn’t an automatic SEO booster, but a tool to augment ongoing efforts.
What you should know
Restb.ai embeds metadata in listing photos.
A few lines of code connects real estate websites with the company’s API. When images are pushed through it, the company’s software transforms a data-static “kitchen” picture into a dynamic tool that can help a listing reach more people.
In a matter of seconds, Restb.ai’s AI-engine identifies room type and tags its features.
It can highlight counter top types, flooring, windows, natural lighting, stainless steel appliances and an array of fixtures. It can do the same for every room in a home.
Restb.ai
It also knows when it’s looking at an exterior shot, and whether it’s the front yard or back. This would allow agents to have images searchable by “fence,” “swing set,” “patio,” or “pool,” for instance.
The software auto-fills every picture’s alt-text, which is how Google identifies and categorizes images in web searches.
Manually completing image descriptions is a tedious task that I wager about 10 percent of all agents do when uploading a listing picture to their websites.
Restb.ai
There’s a clear SEO advantage to the brokers who choose to deploy this on websites that heavily market their own listings online instead of relying on portals to do it.
It could also be a nice tool to discuss in listing presentations.
Restb.ai, an ICNY 18 StartUp Alley participant, has integrated voice capability for the visually-impaired, and for those consumers who will inevitably become more comfortable looking for homes on voice-activated internet (VAI) devices.
Restb.ai and VoicterPro have since partnered to provide the company’s Real Estate app with image tags. Alexa can now provide Echo users a detailed physical breakdown of each room in a listing.
In a January 29 article, Amine Bentahar, chief operating and digital officer at Advantix Digital, wrote on Forbes.com that given the rapid rise of VAI devices, ” … optimizing for voice search is no longer optional, but it is a must for all business.”
When thoroughly implemented into an MLS or brokerage website, buyers don’t have to dive into each listing individually to browse interiors. Restb.ai empowers home browsers to search listing pictures by room type, instantly returning a grid of master bedrooms, great rooms or bonus rooms.
It’s easier to envision the value of image metatags when a listing’s top draw is a specific room, such as a home theatre or kitchen, or even a deck with a mountain view. (Yes, Restb.ai can identify Earth’s amenities, too.)
Restb.ai
This is one of those corner-piece technologies that fits snugly into the greater puzzle of how to compete in the web-driven world of real estate search.
Restb.ai should be on the radar of any brokerage or team aiming to ramp up SEO efforts in 2018.
Have a technology product you would like to discuss? Email Craig Rowe.
