Real Estate! It's all about relationships. It's that common phrase we always hear and it's true.

It's almost certain that if you have and maintain positive relationships across your real estate business you will be highly successful.

Dwayne Smith, Digital Marketing Strategist at Showcase IDX

How do community pages fit into this equation?

Firstly, let’s get a rough, layman definition of the term “community page” or “neighborhood page”.

A community page or neighborhood page is a dedicated virtual page (web page or blog post) that provides needed and helpful information about a particular area (state, county, community or neighborhood) that educates and excites the reader about the area in mention.

These include:

We have briefly covered what is a community page and what you should include in one. 

Now let’s look at how they’re built, a suggested structure for community pages, and insights on how to gather the information through research.

The Structure of Community Pages

Start out by ranking what's most important to the area and community. 

Take your realtor hat off for a minute and step into your home-buyer shoes. Think about all the things that would make you and your family happy at your new home. 

Is it having a great school in your district for your kids?

Is it having low property taxes?

Is it having great entertainment and eateries in just walking distance?

Is it having great access to parks and trails for you and kids to enjoy?

It can be any one of these and many others, think it through, start with the most important thing first and then work your way down the list. 

Where To Find Information for your Community Page?

Start with what you know first, use your own knowledge of the area as the basis for your research. You are the hyper-local expert.

Leverage technology, even in universities they do it. Start on the internet.

Check out this 10-minute video on the granular elements.

Additionally, read this detailed article about using hot sheets and community pages to drive traffic for your real estate website. 

The detailed article gives an in depth look at how to research content for your community pages.

Here are some sites that provide a great starting point for your research:

1. Google
2. Yelp (for eateries and entertainment)
3. Bing (see what other sources you might find here that you didn’t find on google).
4. For Public School Information
5. For Private School Information 
6. For Health centers
7. For Hospitals
8. Zillow
9. Research for community focused blogs or local bloggers
10. Infuse yourself into the community and gather on the ground information.
    • Grab lunch at an eatery (grab a photo while their for your community page)
    • Enjoy a night out at the club (grab a photo their too)
    • Visit the churches and local community events 
11. Find your local library
12. Google Maps, Waze Maps, Apple Maps, Moovit 

Organizing Your Community Page

***Here’s a template I recommend, this is extensive but not universal and you don’t need to have every element***

{Name/Title}

{Introduction} short paragraph with some general details about the community.

{Listings} showcase 2-3 of the available homes in the community.

{Home Value Paragraph} short paragraph on the home values in the neighborhood.

{School District} short paragraph on the school districts that serve the neighborhood.

A section on the community and its elements.

• Food and Entertainment
• Notable Sites & Landmarks
• Traffic and Transportation
• Churches
• Parks and Recreation
• Health
• Libraries
• Community Organizations

Your Contact information

*** Include links, pictures or videos wherever you can***

Find a full example of a community page here.

How Do You Build Out The Community Page On Your WordPress Website?

We now know where to find all the information we need for our community pages. How do we put it all together?

Firstly, you want to ensure you are operating on a WordPress.org website. 

A WordPress website is the best solution for a real estate website and you want to ensure you are running on a secure and fully functional WordPress.org website that has a strong SEO framework, is mobile friendly and fast. 

You can learn more about why WordPress.org is the recommended platform for your real estate website by reading this article. 

Also see why we recommend these 11 Best WordPress Themes for Real Estate Websites.

Now that you have your WordPress website, you want to ensure you are using The Leading IDX Plugin For WordPress Websites.

• Start a 10-day trial
• Join a Live Demo

Already have a WordPress website? Great, you can download and install the plugin here.

Let's set up your new search in Showcase IDX admin panel.

You can access the Showcase IDX admin panel here.

Select your website > head to the search library in the top panel

After you’ve created your search, then you create the corresponding Hot sheet.

Now that we have the search and the corresponding hot sheet set up, you can grab the short code that's been generated to include the "open listings" from that area through your MLS data feed.

You will need to create a new page on your website for your community page.

Navigate your mouse to the left side panel on the backend of your wordpress website.

Hover on "pages" and then select "add new"

In this new document you can copy and paste all your information for your community page and format the page to suit your needs with your images and links.

Let's be certain that you:

• Include all your links
• Include all your images
  • when saving images use this format "name-keyword-.jpg"
• Use adequate spacing for readability
• Include a social image and targeted keywords for SEO purposes
• Publish your page
• Submit your community page URL to google so it can be indexed for search on the internet.

These steps are universal, however the layout and user interface may defer based on the theme that you use for your WordPress.org website.

If you had one of our certified partners or your own web developer assist you with developing your website, it may be best to reach out to them again for assistance with these sections.

You can find a list of our certified partners here.

Now show us what you've got!

We hope you now feel more equipped than ever to create community pages for your real estate website. Take some notes and try it out for yourself!

Make sure to leave a comment below if there was something that particularly helped you or if we missed something that you think should be included in community pages.