Spring Cleaning for your Website

 April 28, 2015

If your website is over six months or year old, it’s time for spring cleaning. Websites tend to gets cluttered because we often update them in a hurry. As a real estate professional you know you’re short on time and it’s awfully easy to make web changes that, down the road, you want to remove or change. It’s not surprising websites need tidying up from time to time.

Here are some tips to help you get started spring cleaning your website.

Take some time

Find an hour or so that you can look at your website with fresh eyes. It might make sense to do this from home where you’re less likely to be interrupted if that’s true. You can always take your laptop to a library or coffee shop.

You want to look at your website, page by page, with this fresh eyes as possible. You don’t have to make any design decisions right now – just note what looks cluttered, what looks confusing, or what you’d like to change just because.

Make a list

I like to take pencil and paper because I don’t want to make any changes without looking at the whole. I find it works better if I make a list of what I want to change before I actually go in and start making the changes.

Think about your site as a whole and about the individual components as well. For example:

  • Do you still like the colors?
  • Do you need a new picture of yourself?
  • Is the contact information still super easy to find? Could you make it more attractive as well is more accessible?
  • Have you discovered some new piece of information you’d like to offer your visitors?

Jot down anything you’d like to change and move on to the next page. Of course some things you don’t have much control over. Your multiple listings are displayed automatically. About all you can change there is the location on your site, but that may be worth doing. You may want a new theme or new pictures or to add a new neighborhood.

Any and all of these can make your site have more pizzazz or be more useful for potential clients.

When to make the changes

It’s important that you make the actual changes at a time when you’re not likely to be interrupted or distracted. It could be that you want to set aside several 30 minute or 45 minute sessions over the next few days. On the other hand, some people like to get it all done in a long session. It’s up to you of course.

It probably makes sense to make changes only on one page at a time, working from your list and double checking everything before you publish. This will keep you organized and that’s particularly important if your website has grown to have many pages.

Not exactly like a house

Making sure your website looks great two or three times a year isn’t exactly like doing the spring cleaning on a house, but it is important. After all your website represents you to the whole world. It’s pretty easy to make sure it’s up-to-date and looks good.

By the way, if you see something on your site you don’t know how to change, get some help. Our customer service is excellent and so are our help sections. In some instances it can make a great deal of sense to hire someone to do the changes you want. If you’re looking for a professional to hire, ask your office mates or even your kids.

In other words do what it takes to make your website represents you well.

If you’ve got questions about making changes, ask them here in comments and I’ll get an answer for you.

real esate


Anne Wayman

By Anne Wayman

Before Anne Wayman became a writer she sold real estate in Southern California. She worked with her father who learned the business from his father. Not surprisingly she learned a few things along the way. Since then, she has been freelance writing for over 30 years – she is a grandmother, loves cats and writes about a wide variety of topics including real estate.