Premium Real Estate Wordpress Templates and SEO

[casper434]

Has anyone had any experience with premium real estate templates and SEO? Are their reviews in this regard? How does one get past the marketing and find out if they are SEO friendly?

[bronxpad]

Hello Brett, I'm a fellow Remax agent based in the Bronx NY. I have a site that I designed myself and then I added a Wordpress blog. I used one of the free templates by Bloggo and I added the free plug ins for seo, I use Yoast. It has worked very well for me. I don't know if you have an idx feed on your site, if you do check to see if there is a pluggin. I use idx broker and they have a free pluggin that works like a charm. I don't believe you need to pay for a theme since the free ones on Wordpress are customizable. Hope this helps. What's your URL?

[ZacharyRussell]

Brett,

I have did quite a bit of real estate websites, and SEO for those sites. I really recommend two themes that run off the genesis framework (they are relatively identical) http://www.studiopress.com/themes/agentpress and http://www.studiopress.com/themes/realpro you can click the demo button to see what they look like in action. The DSIDXpress plugin that is featured in this website is something I HIGHLY RECOMMEND. They charge something like a $99 set up fee and $30/month, but what it gives you is all of your local listings from the MLS naively on your website, meaning they can all be indexed by Google even if it isn't your listing. I have developed on this a lot, and I can give you more information if you would like.

Hope it helps,

Zach

[bronxpad]

I actually heard that diverse solutions which is owned by zillow isn't a good option for agents. I use idx broker which also has a pluggin for wordpress and I have domain control over it which is a must for seo purposes. Maybe I'm missing something which is very possible. In your opinion what makes diverse solutions better than IDX broker? Or are they similar or is IDX broker better? Thank you for your guidance.

[ZacharyRussell]

I think they are similar. I prefer the complete control over everything that Dsidxpress provides. Try out the free test plugin and see what you think.

[casper434]

In addition to studiopress themes any experience with Open House Premium by Buchmann Design?

[ZacharyRussell]

I haven't worked with that theme in specific. I specialize in Wordpress design and SEO, and id be more than happy to take a look at the theme for you, send over the link. One thing you want to ignore is any theme that claims build in SEO. In many cases the theme will restrict you. Ironically studio press has built in SEO, but it will be disabled with any SEO plugin, I tend to use the WordPress SEO by Yoast. If you have any more questions, let me know Zach

[casper434]

thanks Zach. http://themeforest.net/item/openhouse-real-estate-automotiv-car-dealership/full_screen_preview/104662

[ZacharyRussell]

Hey sorry for the late reply, I just got the email an hour ago saying that you got the website. Overall the theme doesn't look bad, It looks well documented and has good support. My experience with these more advanced looking themeforest themes, however, is that they sometimes require a certain learning curve to set up. I do not know how hard it is to set up, of course, because I haven't used it, but just be aware.

This theme also uses and alternate version of the DSIDXpress plugin, now it uses the plugin that I recommend, but be aware that this "custom" plugin won't have any support from Zillow if anything doesn't work right.

This is just some food for thought, I've set up a lot of WordPress sites, some from theme forest, a lot from the StudioPress genesis framework, and themes from another dozen different sites.

Let me know if you need help with anyhting else

Zach Russell

[casper434]

much appreciated Zach. thank you

[ZacharyRussell]

No problem, if you have any other questions, please feel free to contact me through private messages.