Where the Heck is "Hacienda?"

Is your MLS like mine? There are 40+ named "areas" in my MLS that split up the coverage area. One is called "Hacienda," so I used it in the title. But, it could be any name, and it is part of the IDX display for searches. The average visitor to my real estate website doesn't have a clue about where Hacienda is, and my IDX isn't a mapped search, just a dropdown of names.

In a blog post about giving visitors what they want, a site visitor is quoted about her frustration with not being able to tell how far from town areas were, as well as other locational information. How does your site stack up? Even if it maps the search, are drive times a factor? When I lived in a large city, five miles could mean 10 minutes or 35 minutes depending on time of day. This is important information for relocating buyers.

It was a big project but, when I started my new site, I did a short descriptive post (WordPress for my site) about each area. In it I described the area briefly, and I gave distance and drive time from the center of town. I then built a Google map with each area as a map pin. If a site visitor wants to know about Hacienda, its location in relation to town, or other info, they can find out easily, as well as compare it on a map to other areas. I also placed a public map up on MS Live Maps with the areas pinned. These public maps actually bring me a site visitor now and then, as they searched for the areas by name on the map sites.

When a real estate professional tells you they are getting business from their website, it could be from visitors who left yours because they couldn't get the information they needed to make location decisions. These are free solutions to solve the problem.