How to create online listings that drive sales

The internet allows you to reach out to customers from around the world if your online listings grab a website viewer’s attention. Here’s how.

There is an art to building an online listing. Like any art, it takes a degree of creative flair and imagination. Some people might have that eye and mind, others do not.

If you consider yourself one of the latter, there is no need to despair. A few simple rules may help you to create the perfect online listing and potentially generate enquiries from all over the world.

The nature of your product

There are all manner of online listings and the approach may vary from one type of product to another. When it comes to listings of residential homes, independent estate agent Paramount Properties offers a helpful illustration of how an eye-catching and effective listings might look.

Searchable

It is all very well to compile a long list of products you want to showcase, but unless your customers are able to navigate their way through your list and search for the particular examples that interest them, all your efforts are likely to be in vain.

In the world of property marketing, therefore, a listing typically allows potential customers to filter their search terms according to such factors as new or pre loved homes, homes for rent and those for sale, a price range and the particular location of the properties in question.

Compare

When discussing the key to creating an effective online listing, the website Female First gives the reminder that imitation is the best form of flattery.

Feel free to borrow others’ ideas and learn any useful lessons from those who have gone before – borrowed ideas may prove just as effective in driving sales as your own. Do not, however, rip off other people’s websites – you could face legal action for breach of copyright.

Showcase

Showcase every single item in your listing. If it is worth including, it is worth showing off to its full potential – and that means plenty of good, professionally taken and presented photographs.

When searching for somewhere as important and as valuable as a home, people want to see what the place really looks like before pursuing their interest any further.

Key words

The search filters and terms you offer potential customers may be perfectly evident, but embedded in your descriptions of properties there may also be search engine friendly key words. These pick up on the search terms any visitor to your website might have been using.

Key words represent one of the most effective ways of attracting potential customers to your online listing in the first place.

Update

Visitors to your website are likely to find nothing more annoying and frustrating than finding your listing out of date. It is important to ensure that all the information you include in your listing is reviewed on a regular basis and updated where necessary.

The actual timing of when you choose to release your updated listings might be critical, too.