There are a lot of real estate appraisal web sites in cyberspace, some good and some bad, just like in every category of web sites.  Almost everyone has seen the benefit of having their appraisal business on the Internet. Heck if you're not on the web you are behind the times.  Everyone is bombarded with dot com this and dot com that so it is only natural to expect to see thousands of appraisal web sites. But many appraisal web sites are not doing the job that the appraiser intended and that is to generate more business for the firm.  Whether you are an individual appraiser or have 20 associates in your firm getting more business is the number one (and usually only) reason that your appraisal web site exists. Let's try to examine why some of these sites aren't working

Lack of traffic to the site.  First of all people have to find the site.  If no one comes to your site it doesn't matter how good it is it will never get the chance to do its job.  Most appraisal site webmasters have thought of this and have registered their site with some search engines.  Few go beyond this.  This is only a start.  Your site needs to be designed from the beginning with the idea of making it easy to find.  Yes, even the layout and placement of your content within your site affects whether or not people will visit.  You should use META tags within the HEAD section of your HTML which contain keywords and a description of your site that the search engines use in indexing your site.  Not all search engines use META tags so a well thought out design plan will help control what these search engines index from your site.  After you register your properly designed site with the search engines start registering it with indexes of services that are real estate appraisal related.  Exchange links with related business.  Getting people to visit your site is an ongoing process and has to be attended to constantly.

Slow load time.  After you drive people to your site if it doesn't load promptly they will quickly hit the "back" button on their browser and click on one of the other appraisal sites among the hundred plus that probably turned up.  This is very important and is covered extensively in my article "You have 20 Seconds!".

Boring content.  Okay, you say but the real estate appraisal business isn't glamorous like show business or professional sports so my site isn't supposed to dazzle the eye like these sites.  I couldn't agree with you more.  But the content of your site doesn't have to be boring.  I see many appraisers start listing their courses they have taken and other things that are not really of interest right on their very first (main) page of their site.  You need to always keep in mind who your reader is and what your objectives are.  Why are the people at your site to begin with?  What are they looking for?  What will make them want to choose to do business with you over your competitors? And then present your information in a straight forward, professional manner.  Your main page should address a few main points about your business to draw their interest and then they can follow the links from there to find out the details.  Listing that market abstraction course you attended in 1982 on your main page is of no interest to your reader (although I know it is important to you).

Nothing to do at the site (No interactivity). If you are building a  real estate appraisal web site with the idea that it should be like a yellow pages display ad and people will see it and remember it and refer back to it when they get ready to do business then you might as well not waste your time. You only have to look at that other device, the telephone, to see the failed logic of this.  Do people just browse the yellow pages looking at real estate appraiser ads?  No, they only look for the real estate appraiser ads when they are ready to call an appraiser.  They have the yellow pages out right by the phone and they call an appraiser right then.  So when people come to your web site 9 times out of 10 they are looking for a real estate appraiser NOW.  You have to provide them with a way to do something NOW.  In addition to e-mail links on every page of your site you need to have RESPONSE forms. Let them do what they want to do and that is to take action NOW. As a minimum have an appraisal order form and a price quote or more information form.  Think these forms through logically when designing them so they will be easy to use yet contain all the information you need to make them useful for you and your potential customer. When these forms are submitted they need to get a "thank you" page to show that their information went through.  You can even set up email auto responders to send them prepared information that lets them know that you will act on their request shortly and helps to solidify the professional image of your business. 

Conclusion.  If you will always keep in mind what you want to accomplish with your web site, keep in mind who your reader is, and spend some time on each of the above points your site will be more successful.  These are just the beginning points for a successful real estate appraisal web site, you must constantly improve and update your site.  There are thousands of appraisal sites in cyberspace, makes yours one of the top 10%!

Wayne McKerley, RWM.NET

This article is copyrighted 1998 by Wayne McKerley and may be reprinted in other electronic or print media as long as the following information is included in its entirety and unchanged at the bottom of the article.

"Wayne McKerley is the webmaster of RWM.NET a web site with the goal of helping real estate appraisers market their services over the Internet. Wayne offers FREE  information and services such as FREE web site design for appraisers as well as a other services related to Internet marketing of appraisal services. Visit Wayne's site at http://rwm.net and get your appraisal site off to a good start.  Wayne may be contacted via ."

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