Top-level domains, including NAR’s new .realestate, build credibility among real estate professionals
For real estate professionals finding leads online, two critical factors are being easy to find and looking legitimate once those leads land on your webpage.
One way to tackle both of those to-dos, and more, is to utilize specialized top-level domains (TLDs). A TLD is the name for the ending of a URL—think .com, .org and .net. In recent years, customized TLDs have entered the real estate sphere through the Internet Corporation for Assigned Numbers and Names (ICANN). One of those TLDs is .realtor™, which the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) has been offering to active REALTOR® members since 2014. In September, NAR launched a pre-sale so that REALTORS® can secure a secondary TLD: .realestate.
Why are these TLDs useful to real estate professionals? It’s all about the image, according to Attorney Kurt Pritz, former ICANN senior vice president and a leader in internet policy development and the domain name industry.
“How do you want to portray yourself on the web to show people who you are?” asks Pritz. “You can use customized domain name endings as a big clue for what you do, who you are and your degree of professionalism.”
For real estate agents, your degree of professionalism is key in an industry where potential clients are exposed to dozens (or more) agents in your area and deciding who to work with. According to NAR, nearly nine out of 10 buyers use the internet in their home-search process. The strength of your web presence can bolster or break a potential client’s decision. These domains help to build an online space where buyers and sellers can find credible and professional real estate resources and services that stand out from less credible competitors.
When a consumer is searching online, says Pritz, “.realtor™ is an automatic signifier that you’re going to get an honest-to-goodness REALTOR® on the other end of that website, whereas with other TLDs like .net, you may not be so sure. The same goes with .realestate; it provides a way to show what your business is about.”
While .realtor™ serves to add credibility to your individual online presence, .realestate helps support everything you do, by allowing the chance to purchase domains connected to the term “real estate.” For example, if you do business in an area called Springfield, the URL springfield.realestate instantly communicates what you do and says a lot more about your business than springfield.com.
Take advantage of the opportunity to be first to get the .realestate web addresses that support your business. Through November 16, REALTORS® with an active .realtor™ domain can gain exclusive access to purchase .realestate web addresses before the TLD becomes available to the public on November 26.
For more information, please visit www.get.realestate/RIS.
Zoe Eisenberg is RISMedia’s senior content editor. Email her your real estate news ideas at zoe@rismedia.com. For the latest real estate news and trends, bookmark RISMedia.com.
