There’s no doubt that the latest internet revolution is throwing a number of industries for a loop, and the real estate business is as affected as anyone else. Real estate web platforms like Zillow and Trulia provide potential renters and homeowners with a wealth of new tools for their search, offering an alternative to traditional real estate brokers and agents. But that doesn’t mean that everything is hopeless for real estate agencies. By adopting these technologies themselves and moving beyond the traditional real estate website, they can compete with these more disruptive approaches to how we shop for homes. But regardless of which areas these clients come from, it’s fertile ground for people with mobile app development experience. Here are some common mistakes you should avoid when building out a real estate platform.
Neglecting
the Search Interface
When you really separate the process of real
estate app development down to its component parts, it’s not that dissimilar
from building a traditional marketplace shopping app. For the majority of
startups trying to create a real estate app, the service itself will operate as
a third party provider connecting supply to demand. It’s a model employed in
countless industries today, but whether you’re operating an airfare shopping
service like Expedia or a more traditional shopping app like Wish or eBay, the
core objective is the same. You need to provide the users with the tools they
need to identify their needs and receive accurately and appropriately filtered
results.
That means that the search engine is going to
serve as the core of any real estate app, and the options therein are going to
be what causes it to sink or swim. Regardless of the platform, there are a few
fundamental filtering options that tend to serve as the core of the real estate
search experience:
The location of the property. Many buyers will come to the home shopping experience with some understanding of their ideal neighborhoods, and that means that in addition to a functional map system (which we’ll address below), a simpler way to sort homes by location is integral. This could be broken down into neighborhood names, zip codes, or both.
Listing and home types. Whether a user is
looking to buy, sell, or rent their property, their needs are going to be very
different. You may want to integrate the selling process using a different interface,
but that will depend on how deep is a feature set you want to create for
sellers.
The number of bedrooms. A single college
student will have very different demands from a family of four, after all.
Pricing. This is a fundamental variable in any
shopping experience, and a slider is the most effective way to make it work
within your app.
Those are just the fundamentals. A number of
other filters like the number of secondary rooms, available amenities, floor
space, and smart home features can greatly improve the interactivity of your
app. If you’re putting a particular emphasis on renting, additional filters
that cover policies like pets and smoking can be of great use as well.
Choosing
Only One Listing Type
The search filters only provide half of the
story for shoppers, and that’s why more in-depth listings are a necessary
component for any app. The two predominant visualizations in apps of these
types are maps and paneled lists, and most real estate apps that want to stay
competitive will make use of both, normally in conjunction with each other.
Listings allow your sellers or landlords to
put their best foot forward. Photos can make a huge difference when trying to
find a renter or buyer for a property, and that’s why it’s important to make
these options as interactive as possible. Setting standards for resolution,
size, and a format is critical here, as it creates a level of consistency with
your platform, and you’ll want to make sure that your retailers have access to
a simple interface that allows them to upload images easily, manage their
galleries, and edit the write up for their listings. On the other end of the
equation, the ability to like, bookmark, or favorite listings is a quality of
life component that may seem simple but is a practical necessity for apps like
these.
Maps might not offer the same dense level of
information as listings, but they help the user get a good frame of reference
for their prospective properties. Location is one of the biggest determinant
factors in the home shopping experience, and it shouldn’t be neglected.
Fortunately, the Google Maps API is easy to integrate into most platforms, and
there’s a decent level of customization that can be used to create your own
brand identity. Another advantage of implementing Google’s map function is that
it offers a street-level view, a useful choice for customers who don’t want to
rely on the listing galleries alone.
Used in conjunction with one another, these
two listing formats allow the users to shop how they want, and it essentially
creates two layers of immersion into the experience: a top-down view in the
form of the map and a more focused perspective in the form of the paneled
gallery.
Focusing
Exclusively on Buyers and Renters
If you’re a third party designing a real
estate app, it can be easy to look at the people trying to rent and buy a home
as your direct consumer. That would be a mistake. As the endpoint in the
transactional relationship, the owners and landlords will ultimately be the
consumers for your product, and appealing to them should be a top priority. You
should strongly consider putting a feature rich interface in for agents and
independent sellers.
Monetizing the option to place listings can be one of the best ways to keep your app in the black, but that means that you can’t lag behind the big names in the industry. A calendar constitutes the bare minimum here, and it should absolutely be a part of your infrastructure. If your agents and sellers can’t effectively share information on open houses and showings, your app could be dead on arrival. As with maps, there are a number of options that can be easily implemented via API here, from Google Calendar to Outlook.
But you should consider map functionality a
bare minimum here. Many sites offer priority advertising for premium customers,
and some even incorporate full-blown customer relationship management platforms
directly into their interface. Exactly how far you want to dig in here is going
to depend on the ambition of your app, but you should at least build your
application with the opportunity for expansion into CRM territory. Marketing
tools, landing page integration, and dynamic communications options like chat,
voice, and email are all reasonable goals to set for your app’s development
process.
In
Conclusion, Pace Yourself
Real estate apps may occupy a comparatively small part of the overall software marketplace, but they can be highly lucrative. As with any development cycle, coming in with a strong proof of concept and direct goals for development. By setting a blueprint from the start and determining how your app is differentiated from the variety of other services on the market, you can carve out your own unique niche. Just don’t neglect the fundamental necessities in pursuit of the next big thing.
Editor’s note: This sponsored post was provided by Victor Osadchiy.
Victor Osadchiy
Victor is a creative writer who formerly worked in the Ed Tech industry. By day, he’s a writer about app development for business. By night, he’s an online gamer and a big fan of Esports. You can find more posts by Victor on the Yalantis blog
The hype around voice search has been building up ever since it was introduced around a decade ago, from the time when users were required to dial in a number and verbally state their search queries.
Since then, various companies have made gigantic leaps in the development of voice-search, thanks to superior machine learning algorithms and the influx of data derived from search engines. Currently, the market for voice search has expanded into a multi-billion-dollar enterprise with the biggest players, including Amazon, Google, and Apple, all competing for a piece of the pie.
The profound impact voice search has on search engine optimization (SEO) means that it affects everybody and anybody on the internet. Professionals directly linked with the Internet, and digital marketing in particular, need to stay one step ahead of the curve to ensure they are ready when the tide changes.
Why Is Voice Search Important For SEO in 2019?
Amit Singhal, the head of Google SERP ranking team stated in 2013, that “the destiny of Google’s search engine is to become that Star Trek computer.” If anything, that explains the direction voice search has taken in the last few years, and where it is headed in the years to come.
As a component of speech recognition technology, voice search uses voice commands to perform online searches. The core idea behind it was the facilitation of the consumer experience; people would find it more convenient to speak – and let the computer transcribe the search query – than manually typing it in.
This simplistic view has been expanded upon through the gradual growth in technology. Innovation, such as personal voice assistants have proven revelatory for voice search advancement, offering the much-needed personalization and customization when catering to users’ queries.
Voice Search Is the Future
Such developments were the reason why back in 2014, Andrew Ng – the Chief Scientist at Baidu – was confident enough to predict that by 2020, 50% of all searches would be conducted through voice search.
As of 2017, 41% of online adults were conducting at least one voice search a day and the numbers have only increased since then. Voice search has already become the fastest growing search type, and the trend’s trajectory doesn’t seem to be fading anytime soon in the foreseeable future.
By January 2018, 1 billion voice searches were being carried out a month. These numbers aren’t surprising as people look for faster, more efficient alternatives to typed searching. While people can only type about 40 words per minute, they can speak 150 in the same amount of time.
As a web professional, voice search adaptability is a necessary accessory for your toolkit as you prepare to take on 2019. 58% of consumers are already utilizing voice search features to find information on local businesses. As the number of voice searches increases, businesses need to implement sound SEO techniques to reap the benefits i.e. increased organic traffic.
How to Optimize Your Website for Voice Search
Does voice search have any benefits at all? For sure. Don’t take our word for it, ask Amazon. A study reported that the implementation of voice search technology on its eCommerce platform resulted in $1.8 billion of the tech giant’s revenue in the last year – a figure that is expected to reach $40 billion by 2022.
Let’s face it, creating an attractive and relevant website can be a real challenge so outsourcing web professionals can be a great solution. However, they also need to stay relevant and continually grow to be able to deliver a valuable service to their clients. Here are some of the ways web professionals can optimize a website to maximize results derived from voice searches:
Focus On Featured Snippets
Appearing at the top of SERPs, featured snippets aim to present a concise answer to a user query. With this feature, Google aims to present the most relevant content at the very top of the user’s search result for a smoother experience.
In addition to ensuring high-quality content that justifies its relevance and quality to the search engine, you can go a step further and include a brief summary of the crux of your content above the fold.
The average voice search result is about 29 words long, so keep that in mind when devising content summaries. Additionally, long-tail keywords are a prominent feature of the “snippet” and should be included for added visibility.
Include Long Tail Keywords Using Conversational Tone
When optimizing your site for voice searches, it is imperative to keep in mind that the way we speak is inherently different from the way we write.
While typed queries are very short and concise, conversational search queries make use of more words. This translates to the emphasis placed on long tail keywords, which sound natural, and are more likely to be used in voice searches.
This helps in traditional SEO, and keywords that contain multiple words face less competition and hold a higher chance to top the SERP rankings. It might require additional and extensive keyword research, but is well worth it.
Additionally, the easier your sentence reads – the better it is for your SEO. We speak less formally than we type, and that means reduced wordiness. In fact, a majority of the voice search software conform to 9Th-grade reading levels. You could be writing about genetic engineering, but it should be written in a way that makes it easier to comprehend.
Make Sure Your Page Loads Fast
The reason why people use voice search is a convenience, and what convenience does a slow loading speed provide?
Not only does Google’s algorithm tilt towards websites that load faster, and as a result, ensure optimal user satisfaction and reduced bounce rates; it also benefits the consumer.
This is basic on-site SEO in action, with a special emphasis on mobile responsiveness. With Google Mobilegeddon causing mobile-responsive sites to rank higher, it is vital that your website is compatible with smartphones as well.
Faster page-load speeds are achieved through the utilization of images that are optimized, compressed files, and website caching, to name a few. People already use voice search widely, and its acceptance will only grow drastically in the future.
Conclusions
Those who take voice search into account in their SEO strategy already have an edge over other players. Voice search operates by narrowing down results, only catering to the top three. Companies that capitalize on voice search integration early on will benefit from higher content visibility, which will only keep increasing.
While it may seem ominous now, the future is clear: voice search will form the core of SEO, and preparing for it now will give you a competitive edge above others as they try to catch up in the coming years.
Editor’s note: this sponsored content was provided by Antonija Bozickovic.
Antonija is an internet marketing specialist at Point Visible, a marketing agency providing link building and digital marketing services. She has a great interest in digital marketing and a soft spot for graphic design. She’s never tired of searching for new inspirations, listening to her favorite music and creating digital illustrations.
Jekyll remains the most widely used static site generator. With Jekyll, you’ll typically work with content in Markdown, a lightweight markup language designed for text formatting. The Liquid templating engine is used to place this Markdown content into the HTML template, and to combine templates representing various parts of a page (say, header, footer and content) in a modular and re-usable manner. It also has support for Sass for those with a preference for CSS pre-processing, and it’ll play fine with libraries like Bootstrap. Also included with Jekyll is an HTTP server which can be used to easily deploy and test your static pages locally.
Importers is a feature which enable an existing site to be migrated to Jekyll with relative ease. For example, you can take an existing WordPress site as a starting point with Jekyll using one of the importers.
If you have a GitHub repository, you’re able to create a GitHub pages site for free using Jekyll. This can be a convenient way to give a polished landing page to your GitHub project.
The big downside of Jekyll – and this applies to most generators – is that it can seem complex at first and is a new technology to master.
You first need to install the Ruby DevKit or you will experience errors. If you are installing Ruby only for the purpose of running Jekyll, Portable Jekyll will give you a full working Jekyll install in less than 5 minutes.
Few easy steps:
To set up your site locally with Jekyll, follow these steps:
Create a local repository for your Jekyll site.
Install Jekyll using Bundler.
(optional): Generate Jekyll site files.
Build your local Jekyll site.
Keep your site up to date with the GitHub Pages gem.
Configure Jekyll.
Does Jekyll generate valid HTML?
Jekyll essentially a parser that converts plain text content written in a special formatting language called Markdown into HTML. These content blocks get inserted into one or more templates to build final output for a static page or a post. Markdown is a styling language used to prepare written content such as blog posts in Jekyll that can eventually be converted into HTML. Markdown allows user to focus on content by using an easy-to-read and easy-to-write plain text format, which can then be converted to valid HTML.
My experience working with Jekyll
Jekyll is widely used Static Generator. I tried working with Jekyll. I followed easy steps to install and run a Jekyll post locally. I first installed Ruby, then used the command prompt to get the desired Jekyll output locally.
Here are some screen captures to get an idea how the site look like. It is a simple blog post without any graphics.
I transferred all generated files and also post I created via FTP to a server. It didn’t give the desired output shown in above images. For example, the link to the CSS file appears to be broken upon transfer.
During my course of study as a Web Developer I tried many different CMS and installed different software, but working with Jekyll is little different. It has a bit of a learning curve and I think someone before working may need someone to have a little technical background. I am still trying to see what I need to change in the background code when it is transferred to a server. Clearly, something did not work properly.
These are my initial observations on using the tool. You may have different experiences and we look forward to your comments. The biggest issue with using any static generator is that you must generate the entire site each time you make updates (so all the links work). You would then need to transfer the appropriate files to the server each time. In my opinion, there are other tools (such as WordPress) which would seem to be more efficient (although less secure as they interact with a database).
Online buyers have many choices when it comes to products or services. If you’re an internet retailer, then you want every advantage to gain more sales. In that regard, video can be crucial to converting online traffic to revenue.
A Liveclicker survey of retailers noted a significant increase in average order value (AOV) on product pages that contained videos. As well, 57 % of retailers who used video witnessed a sales increase of 50 percent on their products.
This marketing trend is valuable intel to businesses and will continue to be strong in 2019. Whether the video is animated, featured in a header, or used for a sales campaign, the results from marketing with video have been shown to attract more revenue.
Here’s how video converts online visitors into paying customers.
1. The Video Hook
One of the most valuable steps to a video campaign that is going to generate online sales happens in those first few seconds. Folks are just not going to stick around without having their interest piqued. Like a well-written article, a video needs a solid hook.
The blender company, BlendTec, offers a unique hook that makes customers curious about their remarkable, sturdy kitchen blenders.
Following the hook, founder Tom Dickson proceeds to blend anything imaginable, including cameras, marbles, and even an iPhone playing the series’ intro. This innovative marketing strategy has resulted in viral videos, with millions of views and the lion’s share of the kitchen blender market.
2. Video Length: The Short and Long Game
Online shoppers make quick decisions. For them, there is great value in a short video that highlights the product in a simple and clear fashion. However, some shoppers may bite on a longer video when contemplating how their lifestyle fits with the company’s mission, brand, and products.
Short for Sales
Short, short, short. For sales, it’s often best for the video to come in under two minutes.
Video software company Wistia reports that two minutes is often what companies need to shoot for. Videos that sneak past the two-minute mark show a significant drop-in engagement.
For short videos, a good strategy is to be concise. Be clear on message. Don’t try to do too much. Though the business or retailer wants a sale, the mission is just as important to feature as the product. Even in a short video, the customer is buying into the company as much as the product itself.
Long for Brand
While short is often essential to sales, that is not always the case for engaging customers with your brand, which is why long-form videos have their merits.
Businesses interested in showcasing their brand or a particular message may not be able to do that visually in 120 seconds. It may be necessary to craft a longer narrative. In that case, you want careful planning and a proper budget.
Longer videos can result in more shares and views, which is the result of a 2017 study by Wochit, a leader in video platform. More shares and more views can ultimately lead to more revenue. Paul’s Boots and Patagonia are great examples of using the long-form video to attract consumers and reinforce their brand.
In their “Worn Wear” video, Patagonia takes the viewer and/or potential customer on a journey of experience and aspiration. With breathtaking outdoor scenes and rich stories about rugged individuals who care about the earth, their video is targeted directly at these interested consumers, and even new ones, who want the same journey, lifestyle (and that awesome outdoor wear!). You may be surprised at how quickly the twenty-eight minutes passes.
3. Videos Can Be Fun (and “Quality” is Negotiable)
BlendTec’s “Will it blend?” series were not high-quality at the onset, and they didn’t need to be. For videos showcased on social media sites, small businesses in particular can get away with off-the-cuff, down-to-earth feel of a low-rez video. And this is what BlendTec did in the mid-2000s.
Many SMEs can have a lot of success like BlendTec by crafting fun videos that don’t require a large budget. Small businesses can shoot on cell phones without expensive light kits or a boom mic and DAT recorder taking in the sound.
An often overlooked part of the video equation is the value of knowing which web hosts can handle large amounts of traffic. Whether you end up with a flashy, high-dollar mini-movie or a low budget infomercial, you need a host and plan with the computing resources available to push it out to viewers quickly and without fuss.
Even low quality videos are an enormous bandwidth drain. If yours don’t load fast enough, thanks to a below-average host, expect potential viewers to click away as fast as they arrived, leaving all your video efforts to amount to squat. The bottom line is that all hosts are not created equal so exert some effort to find a good one.
4. Video Creation and Editing
Given the video capabilities of phones (the 2015 feature film Tangerine was shot on an iPhone), marketing videos can be created in-house with a decent look.
Also, with the ease of some basic video-editing software like Lightwork or DSVC, these videos can be edited with ease.
A small business does not necessarily have to hire a media company to shoot video though it is recommended if there is a budget for it.
Most iterations of the iPhone produce extraordinary video quality. As well, Apple offers their iMovie software, where you can edit on phone or Mac.
Offering free and paid versions, Magisto is another type of software that allows for shooting with a phone and editing within its interface. Magisto specifically targets users wanting to upload social media videos.
With a solid marketing strategy, video creation allows businesses, small and large, to grow revenue and gain more online sales. For large firms, this can be more high-quality videos or storied films about their brand and products. But even small business can get in on the game with video by grabbing more average order value (AOV) simply by posting product videos with heart and humor.
A static site is a collection of pages contained in basic HTML files. A static site generator is a compromise between using a hand-coded static site and a full CMS. You generate an HTML-only website using raw data such as Markdown files and templates. The resulting build is transferred to your live web server.
An Introduction to Static Site Generators article was published a few years ago. The basic concept has remained constant. It explains the popularity of static site generator. It also help people of all skill levels understand exactly what static site generators are, acknowledge their advantages, and understand if their limitations are a deal-breaker or if, on the contrary, they can be overcome.
How static sites work?
The proposition of a static site is to shift the heavy load from the moment visitor’s request the content to the moment content actually changes. Using a news kiosk metaphor, think of a scenario where it’s the news agencies who call the kiosk whenever something newsworthy happens.
If you earn a living – or even just spending money – selling stuff online as an affiliate, you should be concerned about cookies.
Digital cookies are the behind-the-scenes gizmo that credits you with a sale generated by a web page visitor. What you may not realize is that it is entirely possible for a clever hacker to hijack those cookies and end up with a sale that should have been credited to your account.
We’re talking big money. Shawn Hogan drew the attention of the FBI when he redirected around $28 million from rightful affiliates to his own account over the course of a few years.
To protect your cookies, it’s time to get serious about cybersecurity. It’s time to learn what cookies are, how they get hijacked, and what you can do minimize the risk.
Understanding Cookies
A cookie is a small packet of data that a web server transfers to a browser when someone visits a web page. Think of it as a message that originates with the server and is received by the visitor. Unless the visitor has blocked cookies, that data downloads onto the system and makes it easier for the page to load the next time the visitor returns.
That’s the main purpose of cookies: to make visiting a page simpler by ensuring it loads a little faster. It also helps the owner of the page have a better idea of how many visitors the page generates, if there are return visitors, and in general keep up with traffic patterns.
As it relates to affiliates, those cookies also make it easier for you to get credit when a consumer purchases something via your page.
How Can They Be Hijacked?
Cookies are dead simple, which may be why they are often overlooked as a means of committing a crime. All it really takes is for a hacker to seize the cookie and make a minor alteration.
The next time a visitor lands on your page the cookie ensures that the hacker’s content loads. In most cases, it will be an almost perfect mirror of the original page. What’s different is the packet of information downloaded for the session is not original. It’s been altered. That sets the stage for the hacker to control what happens next.
What Does this Mean For Affiliates?
Why would cookie hijacking matter to an affiliate? After all, doesn’t the visitor use the URL to get to the right place and make a sale? What does the cookie have to do with it anyway?
The thing to remember is that the cookies make loading the order page easier. If you alter the data in the cookie so that the affiliate ID is no longer the same, the credit for that order is redirected to another source. That’s because the cookie is often stored in the raw URL for the session. Alter the cookie by changing the affiliate ID and the end user doesn’t really notice anything.
In other words, it appears that the consumer is placing the order with you, but it’s actually being placed with someone different. You never get credit for the sale and certainly don’t receive a commission. That makes this little malfeasance a form of affiliate fraud.
How Do You Know If Your Affiliate Cookies are Hijacked?
Cookie hijacking is difficult to spot. In fact, it would be almost impossible to detect when it happens during a live session. Whether the session hijacking is active or passive, you only have a chance of identifying the damage once it’s done.
One sign that something is not right has to do with the performance of the web page. If it begins to function erratically for no apparent reason, that could mean something has been altered. Alternatively, the page shutting down can be an indication something has been changed. At this juncture, you may want to check the cookies related to the page closely and see if the affiliate ID or even some other aspect of the cookie code is not as it should be.
If your affiliate partner emails or texts you when individual sales occur, compare that information to the commission report. If they don’t match, and there’s no evidence of returns or canceled orders, someone else is ending up with your commissions.
Are There Ways to Prevent Hijacks?
Preventing a hijack is actually simpler on the visitor side. If the page visitor has up to date malware and antivirus software, the protections in those programs will likely spot that something was changed during a session. This gives the individual the opportunity to end the session before completing a transaction. The problem is the high rate of old malware and antivirus software in use.
Your affiliate can provide some support in terms of preventing cookie-jacking. Depending on how the servers download cookies and what sort of security is used for your customized affiliate page, it may be possible to prevent hacking software from modifying the cookies and the session ID that’s generated.
Create Your Own Encrypted Internet Connection
It’s not as complicated as it sounds. The concept of a virtual private network or VPN is coming into its own and likely will become an indispensable component of internet connections before too much more time has passed.
A VPN works in conjunction with your ISP. It is a separate service that encrypts the data that flows between your device and the internet. You don’t have to be a cryptographer to realize that encryption makes it harder for a hacker to complete his task. The extra ten or so bucks a month is money well-spent.
Make sure your affiliate pages use HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) rather than HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP). Doing so adds another layer of protection by scrambling the code that’s shared between the originating server and the recipient
The Bottom Line
You don’t devote time and energy to building a business only to have someone else steal sales as certainly as if they reached over and grabbed twenty bucks from your wallet. Make it a point to educate yourself about online security. Subscribe to a blog or two. You don’t have to be a techie to stay updated on the latest threats and keep solid malware protection in place.
