Dynamic page content is just the opposite of Static page content. Where Static page content can’t be changed by the viewer, it’s the purpose of dynamic pages to be changed by the viewer. Here are some good examples: 1. Quick Search tool 4.  Multimedia Virtual Tours, 2. Email New Listings 5.  Videos 3.  New Listing Alert 6.  Online Chat.

Because of the higher cost of many of these dynamic tools, websites that incorporate heavy use of “dynamic pages” can cost anywhere from $5,000 just to get you started with sites like these. Many of these sites will run between $20,000 and higher.

Dynamic pages are not only changeable by the viewer but are also frequently changed by the author, such as blog posts, comments and even multimedia presentations. The fact that the dynamic page changes much more frequently than the static page makes it a more interesting page for not only the typical viewer to read but also the major search engines as well.

Many dynamic pages can even react just to the mouse itself. For example in many cases if the mouse rolls over a portion of the page, more information can appear.

So why the public would be interested in dynamic website pages shouldn’t be a mystery.  It’s because it gives them the ability to “use” the site for their benefit. Whether it’s the ability to quickly look up a listing, get a new listing alert, view a multimedia presentation or video or even become engaged in an online chat, there is a world of tools and engaging actions that they can use.

One caution that should be added when talking about both “static” and “dynamic” website pages. The best website page should be a proper combination of both static and dynamic content. Too much text can make the page boring. Too much dynamic widgets will make that page invisible to the search engines. Like Goldilocks, make it just right.

There are many types of dynamic web pages. One of the most popular is Google Earth™. Most map websites are dynamic; users input the address they are traveling to, and the page returns with directions and a map to the location. When agents put this type of tool on their websites as a widget, it acts as a wonderful aid to their public. Whether it is to show them directions to their office, directions to the weekend’s open house or even a list of featured listings.

Another example of a dynamic web page is a search engine. Web site searches, where the user is looking for information on just one site, are also dynamic pages. Other examples include email websites, banking sites where users can access their personal financial information, and sites that base their information on location, such as a national weather page. Any website that offers information based on any data the user provides is a dynamic web page.

Dynamic web pages are often very simple, as far as their actual design. They offer a place for the user to type in data, and some information and basic graphics. After the user types in their data, this changes. The web page server accesses a database of information, searching for what the user has requested. Once the information is found, it is brought back to the web page, and displayed.

Creating a dynamic web page requires a certain level of previous programming experience. Having a basic understanding of a couple programming languages is essential. Javascript is a popular language to use for creating a dynamic web page. Creating a web page that interacts with users can be difficult, especially for beginners to web page design and programming. It requires understanding and being able to use complicated code, and can be difficult to work with if you do not have a lot of previous experience.

Creating a user-friendly dynamic web page may be challenging, but it provides a great way for website owners to better meet the needs of the public browsing their site. It allows people to find what they need in a quick and easy way, while keeping track of what information is being accessed, which give owners a way to access information about how their site is being used. Using this information, site owners can improve and expand their site in a way that benefits site visitors, increasing the success of the web site.

At heart, the Internet primarily still does exactly what it was first intended to do –- transfer information. The way it does it today however, is vastly different from how it did it about ten years ago. People don’t want to just read lines of text on the Internet; they want to interact with web pages and for it to be an ‘experience’.

Having dynamic pages on your website can make the difference between being “pretty” and having that WOW factor. Tools such as calculators, quick searches and even directions are now passé.

First we need to define what a “static” web page is. A “static” web page is any page in a website that’s stationary or fixed. In other words, the viewer can’t change anything on it. This is why when talking about your content pages such as your “About Me” page, your “Testimonials” page, your “Communities” pages or other such descriptive pages.
In addition, the text on many of your pages can “paint a picture” and thereby be engaging.

So what areas can you focus your content on? By using similar keyword phrases (a “keyword phrase” is a search term that is typed into the search engine) on several pages, you get multiple rankings on one search. For example, you may want to put your main keyword phrase of “Denver Luxury Homes” on the Homes page. But why not also embed it into the Business Climate, Communities, Cost of Living and Accommodations pages?

Remember that your visitor, when reaching your Home page, wants to read content of THEIR interest, not yours. So focus on why they might want to move to your area and the various amenities and benefits.

In our sample page you’ll notice that the client wanted to make sure their page got found under the keyword phrase of “Hamptons waterfront homes”. Note that this is an interior page that is always found on page 1 position 1 on Google because of its “keyword density”. In other words, it mentions the words “Hamptons waterfront homes” at least 7 times throughout the page. Other benefits to both the reader and to the major search engines is to provide the keyword phrase in both links and header formats.

To understand why static pages are so powerful, we need to take a closer look at Google and their latest algorithm Google Panda. If you know what Google Panda is,  you can more easily get your website found at the top of the very highly coveted Google search pages. So let’s take a look at Google Panda.

Google’s new “Panda,” has sent shock waves through the Internet.
Before you can figure out what you need to change, it’s probably worth looking at what got devalued. There seems to be an emerging consensus. If a site’s pages are thin on content, or contain content that has been copied from elsewhere, chances are they lost some Google love. So what is Google looking to reward?
Here is a list of defining characteristics for “useful” content. These include the ability to
1. pass a human inspection;
2. not being a copy of another document, or
3. ad-heavy;
4. being well-linked externally;
5. being created by a brand with a distribution channel that goes beyond the search engines; and
6. not having “a 100% bounce rate followed by a click on a different search result for that same search query.”

Nevertheless, there are certain things you can do if the Panda took a swipe at your rankings. A telling quote from Google: “In addition, it’s important for webmasters to know that low quality content on part of a site can impact a site’s ranking as a whole…Removing low quality pages or moving them to a different domain could help your rankings for the higher quality content.”

The message for real estate agents is to be aware of congruence. If your viewer got to your website by searching for “Sacramento homes for sale” and your content is all about yourself, not only will you be ranked low, but your content if it is seen will be frustrating to your viewers as it doesn’t meet their request about “Sacramento homes for sale”.

The third thing you can do to help boost your website, according to is get involved in social media. This way, you’re interacting with customers and potential customers outside of search. That’s a good idea regardless of whether your rankings fell with the Panda update. With Facebook alone accounting for one out of every ten page views in the US, social networking and social media is one part of the Internet that is here to stay.

In summary, Google is now actually reading your content and asking itself “Is this site congruent”? You can answer this for yourself by looking at your domain name, website title and content. Simply said, if your keyword phrases are in each area, you’ll be deemed to be congruent. If not, you’ll be deemed to be incongruent and will pay the price with lower rankings.

The Featured Listings tool is pretty basic on most websites, but it’s a must-have tool for sellers and showcasing your listings. The trick is to do it in an interesting way. The Featured Listing is the best way to capture the viewer’s attention if you use photos of the home in a slide show that fades from one room shot to the next about every 4 to 5 seconds. These slide shows should be put on the left-hand side of the website with compelling graphics on the right.

We’ve talked about the value of decreasing the “bounce rate” of your website page. The Featured Listing section is a great way to grab their interest and then continue to build it by showcasing other similar Featured Listings below the slide show.

The whole idea of using the Featured Listing slide show is the grab the attention of the viewer so that they will stay longer and interest them in the property. Sellers love these as well, and they are a wonderful benefit to be able to demonstrate the value of the property.

Many agents have taken advantage of multimedia for their Featured Listings by building a page of “thumbnail” shots of the homes with a brief description of each home. When the viewer clicks on the home, a multimedia presentation plays on the home giving them shots of all major rooms, floor plan, room description and even video for many of the major areas of the home.

All agent websites should have a Featured Listings area. One of the major benefits is to be able to bring your notebook or notepad computer with you and hook up to the Internet wirelessly. The smart agent will showcase their current listings that are shown within the Featured Listings widget or slide show. If no ability to hook up to the Internet is available, the agent can “cache” the slide show in advance onto the hard drive simply by running the slide show in advance.

Let’s take a look at how the website and Featured Listing tools can assist both the agent in obtaining more listings as well as assist the public by giving to them more up-to-date marketing methods. The Featured Listing tool is the one major feature on the agent’s website that is meant for the seller. Here’s a possible presentation scenario.

First of all, most agents do a two-step approach to the listing process. That is, they first visit the home and the homeowner, take photos, measure and get all the pertinent details.

Now after going through this step, think of taking all those photos and uploading them to your Featured Listings slide show. Effective websites have an eye-catching slide show that should be for the Featured Listing. Each shot should be created in the proper aspect ratio, meaning that it’s not stretched to fit the slide show frame. In addition, each slide should play about 4-5 seconds, fade out and then fade in with the new slide. Use only 5-6 slides as most people get bored quickly.

As an extra touch for the more techy agent, you can add text to the bottom of each slide that fades out faster than the slide itself.

Now for the coup de grace, you show up at the home owners property and go through your presentation, preferably on your computer. Then the last part of your presentation that demonstrates how you plan on marketing the home, you switch to your website which pops up with the owner’s home, playing various rooms fading from one shot to another. There is no better self-gratification or pride than seeing your home being shown online (or so it appears).

At this point in the presentation, you give the owner two options. You tell them that you would love to get started marketing their home tonight, or if they can’t make a decision tonight, you’ll have to take their home off the Featured Listing slide show as it would be false advertising.

Consider the contrast. Either I am able to go ahead with what appears to have been demonstrated as a very professional presentation with my home as THE featured home, or I say no and lose the ability to see my home as the featured listing to my neighbors and friends.

Plus there’s one other bonus. What you have created for the owner looks as if it took hours and hours to create. When in fact after you’ve done these for a while it probably only took minutes. The guilt factor is enormous and plays right into your hands.

But more than just a great listing tool, you now have a great marketing tool that is like a billboard working for the seller 24/7. With some of the communications buttons and links that we’ll be talking about later, your prospect will be able to simply click a button and either leave you a text message, voice mail or talk to you regarding the home.

Excellent examples of this widget can be found at DeerValleySpecialist.com as well as PhoenixHomes.com. Both are not only excellent examples of professional websites, but also how to lead the viewer from lead to sale.

The more important and interactive method of providing access to the listing data is the use of the “Subscribe to New Listings” or “New Listing Alerts” widget. Think of this as an automated version of the “Search the MLS” feature. Instead of having to type the search parameters in over and over again, the buyer can do it just once and the program will email daily updates for new listings or price changes. And while your competition is scratching their heads wondering how to get the buyer’s information, this is a tool that the buyer will WANT to provide their information. Why? Because it’s to their benefit!

The root of the “New Listings Alerts” widget (tool) is the IDX (Internet Data Exchange) service of which it’s a part. Many IDX services have this and the “Quick Search” widget, but many do not. Before purchasing an IDX service, you should make sure to find out all you can about what services they offer and get recommendations from those who are using their service.

The “Subscribe to New Listings” or “New Listings Alerts” is an incredible benefit to your buyers. It also protects them from unscrupulous real estate agents who call and misrepresent properties just to get the buyer to see a property. It also gives them the information directly from the MLS instead of second-hand.

Real estate agents need to become educated as to sharing their services (which means their listing data as well) rather than trying to keep it proprietary. What do you think it tells a buyer that you’ll share the MLS listings with them, but ONLY if they give you their name and email information. This creates a brick wall between you and the viewer, as they don’t want to work with agents until they’re ready.

That’s why the “New Listing Alerts” is so powerful. You’re offering a service first, and then as part of that service, it’s their option to give you their information. This not only works to the agent’s benefit but also to the public’s benefit as well. They are building a trust with the agent based upon a mutual benefit.

The only reason why this feature/widget might not work is if there is no IDX service. No problem. You can also do this manually, like the old days by checking the MLS on a daily basis for them.

Let’s break down the “Search the MLS” feature and demonstrate why it’s so popular and the amazing number of people that are misusing it. First of all, I recently did a Google search for “Subscribe to New Listings” (with the quote marks, meaning an exact search) and received over 1.4 million results. The same search without the quotes (meaning a general search) brought up 166 million results. Bottom line? There’s a TON of people using this feature.

Even when you parse out the fact that the word “listings” can mean more than real estate, the general term for the most part is used for real estate. So far, we’ve established that a large number of people are using this feature. Are you? The real question is, are you using it correctly?

After perusing through dozens of these results, and seeing hundreds used wrong in my line of work, I’ve come to the conclusion that agents just don’t get it. They don’t think like a buyer, they only think for themselves. What they want. So let’s take a look at how agents that use this feature properly, make between $50,000 to $100,000 of passive income . . . just from their website.

Step 1. You must have either an IDX system that has this widget, or purchase a 3rd party IDX, or decide to do this manually each day. Obviously having an IDX company that will continually update these searches is far preferable.

Step 2. Once you’ve decided which tool or widget you’re going to use, you’re going to need to make sure that it can be modified to work as follows. Instead of asking for the buyer’s name, phone and email first, you must make sure that you ask for their property parameters first. This is imperative and I can’t stress it enough. If you ask for their personal information BEFORE you show them what you’re going to be delivering them, you’ve lost them.

Step 3. Have a nice long “advanced” search form for them to fill out. The longer it is, the more they’ll be invested they’ll be in the outcome. It’s rather like fishing. The more you can set the hook, the more likely you’ve got them invested in the process.

Step 4. Okay, now that you’ve got them to fill out this form with everything that they want, now it’s your turn. Remember in the old Colombo shows with Peter Faulk when he’d get to the door at the end of the show? Remember what he’d say? He’d say “Oh, by the way”. And you knew he had the bad guy. By the same token, after they’ve filled in their search parameters, your form will then (and only then) basically say “Oh by the way, if you want me to keep you updated with all the new properties as they come available, I’ll need your name, phone number and of course your email address”.

This is like Search the MLS on steroids. Getting their info is no problem.

The agent has the responsibility to not only be fair to the public, but to their competing agents and broker as well.

Websites are currently becoming one of the most successful means of marketing, communication and sharing of resources. Unfortunately most agents only think about themselves and not about the concerns of the buyers and/or seller. Most agent websites are a shrine unto themselves. The old saying is so true with websites: “Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care”. Remembering this one statement will give agents and their clients the biggest win-win.

If you provide your clients with what they want first, they’ll willingly take what you want them to see. So take a look at your Home page and look at it from the perspective of the buyer. Ask yourself if this is information that YOU would be interested in reading.

In this section, we’ll be talking about all the major incentives and features that your buyer will want to see on your website. I’ll be drawing from websites that I oversee all over the country whose owners earn between $50,000 to $100,000 per year just from their website as passive income.

One of the most important features that make up compelling websites is the “Subscribe to New Listings” or “New Listings Alert” widget. This feature is an invitation for the buyer to fill in a form of the parameters they’d like to use as their preferred home. Then as homes that meet these parameters come available, the buyer gets an email. Another similar feature used however mainly for sellers is the Featured Listing.

We’ll also discuss the kind of pages that you create in your website. Are you creating “static” or “dynamic” pages, and what’s the difference? And of course a discussion of websites wouldn’t be complete without video tours.

When deciding to either upgrade or begin a new website, you need to answer one very important question. Are you going to build a website, or are you going to build a blog site that looks like a website? The first has the backbone of HTML code and can be built from either a template site or as a custom format.

The blog site format typically has a WordPress backbone and can look like a plain old blog site or can be misconstrued to be a website. The question then comes, if you’re using a framework to make it look like a website, why not just create it as a website. Good question. And there is a very good answer for this. In fact there are some very good answers. Let’s take a look at some of the differences between websites and blog sites first.

Ease of navigation – A website would normally contain an index or menu, repeated on every page, listing all the available pages. Most blog sites, however, are usually navigated from one page to another or from links within posts to other related posts. Generally a blog will have a sidebar in which recent posts are listed as well as an archive where you can see the posts for any given month. A blog will also have categories, which differentiate between the types or topics of posts. This being said, the blog site can navigate exactly the same as the website.

Ease of updating. Appending a page to a website would commonly necessitate some knowledge of HTML (hypertext markup language) and the need for some sort of webcoding software. Blogs ordinarily have a content management system which pretty much does everything for you, apart from actually typing the posts. The software will organize everything for you and will automatically update your archive, etc.

User-friendliness. Making a blog attention-getting and easy to use is fairly simple because there are a lot of templates readily available, plus plugins and widgets. In general they have an easy to use comment facility. A website can generally only be revised by its owner, so the browsing experience isn’t interrupted by rubbish.

The choice is your choice and yours alone but there are times when blogs are better for your business and times when a website is the only way to go. Are you trying to create one landing page that will rank well and from which you can funnel all of the traffic you generate to other pages for the products you’re promoting? Or, do you want people to come back often and check frequently for updates to your site while it’s quickly climbing to the top of the search engine heap in your chosen keywords?

Once you have the answer to that question you’ll know, without a doubt, if a website that is static or a blog that is always being updated and added to is a more appropriate choice for your business.

The most useful mashup is the use of combining the  functionality of the IDX listing addresses with the Google mapping tool. This is probably the best of all real estate mashup tools. When doing a Map Search, after the search parameters are input, the map pops up with small balloons/pins indicating where each of the resulting matches can be found.

Now click on any of the balloons and a brief description will show as well as along the right-hand side of the map, the highlighted listing will show. If you didn’t click on the MLS# link from the pop-up, you can click on it in the highlighted listing on the right to see full listing details. It wasn’t that long ago that this technology wasn’t even thought of.

While interactive mashups with MLS data can get a little expensive, you can certainly add your own Google Map mashup for your own listings, office or other purposes. Here is a little about what you’d be doing and the steps to take:

The great thing about the Google Maps program is that you can use it in just about any way you want. If you can envision a certain tool in your mind, you can find a way to create it through a real estate mashup using Google Maps. I’ve seen web developers do some pretty amazing things with this tool, but I won’t go too far into web development weeds. Instead, I’ll show you how to use this program to create a simple real estate mashup for your website, one that shows the location of your listed properties.

Before I get to the steps involved in this process, let me give you a basic overview of what you’re going to do. To create a mashup for your real estate website using the Google Maps program, you’ll sign in to your Google account, go to their maps application, enter data for your mapping points (your property listings, in this scenario), and then embed the resulting map onto your website for your site visitors to use.

Now let’s walk through the steps involved in creating a real estate mashup with Google Maps and publishing it onto your website.

Step 1 – Sign in to your Google account. What’s a Google account? Well if you use AdWords, Analytics, Gmail, or any other Google application, you would log in with the same information you use to access those programs. If necessary, sign up for an account. It’s free.

Step 2 – Once you have successfully logged in to your Google account, visit their maps program. It can be found at maps.google.com.

Step 3 – Click on the “My Maps” link at the top of the page.

Step 4 – If you’re creating a new real estate mashup from scratch, click on the button that says “Create new map.”

Step 5 – Give your map a title and description in the fields provided.

Step 6 – Now you’re ready to add the items you want to show up in your map. Within the context of a real estate mashup, this usually means putting the addresses for your property listings, open houses, maybe your office location, etc. You can do this in several ways. One way is to use the “placemark” tool.

Step 7 – I recommend zooming the map in as much as possible when adding a placemark. This allows you to put the icon exactly where you want it. It will then stay in place as you click and drag, or zoom in and out. That way, when your website visitors zoom the map in, they will see an accurate location for each item.

Step 8 – When you add a placemark, you can also include notes. You can enter the property address, a description and more. In fact, the placemark notes work like miniature web pages. You can put HTML code into the notes, which means you can add pictures of the property, hyperlinks and more. This is the information people will see when they click on a certain placemark.

Step 9 – When you’re done, be sure to save the map with a descriptive name. Your saved maps will always be there for you, so you can edit / update them as you wish.

Step 10 – To publish the map / mashup onto your real estate website, you would simply click on the link that says “link” and copy the HTML code provided. Paste the HTML code onto the web page where you want the map to appear.

Before the you can even build your website, you need to know who your target audience is. This goes hand in hand with your real estate SEO, or Search Engine Optimization. Is it buyers, sellers, or both? While the answer is both, the better answer is primarily buyers with some features for sellers. Why? Because it’s the buyer that originates the transaction, and it’s the buyer that is doing most of the searching on the Internet.

This being said, the next question is what is the most effective and responsible tool to implement on the website. NAR again gives us the answer here. In study after study, they show that the number one thing that buyers are looking for are properties. Following this is information about communities. The bottom line that most buyers are looking for is “Search the MLS” or “Search All Properties”.

This being said, it’s no longer enough to just deliver a long list of properties that meet the requirements of the public’s request. Nowadays the broker must provide much more to be competitive and to garner trust and confidence from the public. As has been shown with the UAR website, map searches with pinpoint listings, school districts, zip codes, shopping and more are a part of what the public can now demand.

The easiest way to provide this feature for the buyer is to be able to use your local MLS data in the form of IDX (Internet Data Exchange). Most Boards have different 3rd party IDX companies that can access their database of listings to be shown in full detail. In fact, the data can be set up such that all the company’s listings are shown with full detail and all other company listings with full detail except no listing contact information.

IDX is a tool that must be available to all brokers as it includes much more than just a search of the MLS. Various IDX tools can also show just the broker’s listings, do a Quick Search and even do a “Subscribe to New Listings” as mention in the Agent section.

With IDX, the broker never has to go in to manually add, delete or modify listings in any way. The IDX tool does this for the broker automatically as these changes occur. Thus it’s the ultimate in interactive tools for the broker to have at their fingertips.

It should also be stressed that because all listings taken whether by the broker’s agents or themselves are their ultimate responsibility. Because of this, IDX may also be used by the broker’s agents, but only with the broker’s authority. All information that goes out to the public with regard to all listings taken by the broker is their responsibility to be correct. So when listings are taken by the agent, brokers must make sure that all information can be verified and correct as they are responsible to the Board and the Division should there be mistakes down the road.

Design can heavily effect the site’s success. The reason why a viewer will stay on your website is primarily content. But with a pleasing and professional design, it will force the viewer to look just a little bit longer than they originally would have to see where the content is. This affects the site’s success.

Websites rise or fall depending upon content. If brokers never show the viewer good content, you’ve lost them. The content and design must dove tail one with another.

The interesting thing is that Good content can make up for poor design. This is where many brokers fall short. If the viewer is engaged in reading compelling content, they won’t care what the site looks like.  Focus on content first, and then build your design around your content. All that glitz and glamour won’t make any difference if there’s no interesting content to read. Know what you have to say, and then figure out a way to show what you want to say.

Content is where the broker has the opportunity to make their website “sticky”. In other words, if their website is interesting enough in the content that they’re delivering, their viewer will stick to it long enough to look around. Good content also builds a good bond between the broker and viewer. The better the content, the better the chances of gaining the viewer’s trust and confidence.

Actually, it’s content that tells the public whether you’re just trying to “hook” them for YOUR means, or if you’re offering valid information for THEIR means. Too often as we’ll explain later agents feel that their website should be an extension of them, their goals, their resume and basically how wonderful they are.

What the public really wants to know is what is it about your location that should cause them to want to move or relocate there. What are the features and benefits of the various communities? Tell them a little about the arts, libraries, sports and climate. In other words, give them a reason to want to move there. You must always ask yourself this question. What would the buyer think if they saw my website?

Content is everything. You must educate the public and make them feel that you care about what they’re interested in. You can’t do this by starting out telling them about how wonderful you’re. All of that kind of information should go on the About Me page. It’s interesting, but I often get together with what I call my “web warriors”. These are agents that make $50,000 to $100,000 or more just from their websites. Each of them like to compare notes with each other’s website. One of the more interesting questions that always comes up is which is the least viewed page on your website. Almost to a person, what always comes up is the “About Me” page.

The agent has the responsibility to not only be fair to the public, but to their competing agents and broker as well. This means that the agent should not attempt to create a “stealth” website that does not show theirs or the brokers name and/or brand.

Websites are currently becoming one of the most successful means of marketing, communication and sharing of resources. Unfortunately most agents only think about themselves and not about the concerns of the buyers and/or seller. Most agent websites are a shrine unto themselves. The old saying is so true with websites: “Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care”. Remembering this one statement will give agents and their clients the biggest win-win.

If you provide your clients with what they want first, they’ll willingly take what you want them to see. So take a look at your Home page and look at it from the perspective of the buyer. Ask yourself if this is information that YOU would be interested in reading.

In this section, we’ll be talking about all the major incentives and features that your buyer will want to see on your website. I’ll be drawing from websites that I oversee all over the country whose owners earn between $50,000 to $100,000 per year just from their website as passive income.

One of the most important features that make up compelling websites is the “Subscribe to New Listings” or “New Listings Alert” widget. This feature is an invitation for the buyer to fill in a form of the parameters they’d like to use as their preferred home. Then as homes that meet these parameters come available, the buyer gets an email. Another similar feature used however mainly for sellers is the Featured Listing.

We’ll also discuss the kind of pages that you create in your website. Are you creating “static” or “dynamic” pages, and what’s the difference? And of course a discussion of websites wouldn’t be complete without video tours.

The most useful mashup to the broker is the use of combining the  functionality of the IDX listing addresses with the Google mapping tool. A great example of this is used in the UAR website. When doing a Map Search, after the search parameters are input, the map pops up with small balloons/pins indicating where each of the resulting matches can be found. These can also be very helpful in your real estate seo.

Now click on any of the balloons and a brief description will show as well as along the right-hand side of the map, the highlighted listing will show. If you didn’t click on the MLS# link from the pop-up, you can click on it in the highlighted listing on the right to see full listing details. It wasn’t that long ago that this technology wasn’t even thought of.

While interactive mashups with MLS data can get a little expensive, you can certainly add your own Google Map mashup for your own listings, office or other purposes. Here is a little about what you’d be doing and the steps to take:

The great thing about the Google Maps program is that you can use it in just about any way you want. If you can envision a certain tool in your mind, you can find a way to create it through a real estate mashup using Google Maps. I’ve seen web developers do some pretty amazing things with this tool, but I won’t go too far into web development weeds. Instead, I’ll show you how to use this program to create a simple real estate mashup for your website, one that shows the location of your listed properties.