Exciting times for VR in advertising

World premiere after world premiere – with each passing day, the virtual world is becoming more real to us.

Criticism of digital avatars: “They take jobs away from people”

Of course, there are critics who say virtual people can never exist alongside real people. But there has always been criticism, at the beginning of a new technology. Bill Gates (Microsoft, founder) said the Internet will have no future. In fact, this technology giant, did not believe in the Internet. It is often like that when it comes to innovation.

There are first movers who believe in new ideas, projects and innovations and there are those who have to experience the future first.

Many take a critical view of VR, as described. In the past it was video games, currently it is “virtual networks” (social networks, example data scandal at Facebook) and in a few years, it will perhaps be virtual avatars, people, which are viewed critically.

Best Practice since 2019: Lil’ Miquela (Los Angeles, USA)

A little less than two years ago, the first digital avatar was created in Los Angeles. Meanwhile, millions of young people follow her (Lil’ Miquela) on Instagram. They, her followers, no longer perceive Miquela as a virtual person, but as part of their lives.

New competition from Japan and Europe

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Now there are two new teams active in the field of virtual avatars, one from Europe and one from Japan.

Special attention should be paid to the European project, active since 2021. Already there are several campaigns and the special feature: this VR team also develops virtual avatars for brands.

Therefore, today a “Closer Look” on Zoe and Ella, two virtual avatars from Europe. Tip. There is not much of these digital influencers, we have collected them all together for you here, in a clear list: Digital Avatars.

Examples: Advertising campaign, fashion show, VR presentation

How Virtual Reality can look like in advertising, we want to show here the first examples and best practice campaigns, from Europe.

Buffalo: Diversity Campaign with Ella Stoller – World Premiere

VR in fashion – The latest campaign, number 3 in 2021, released in March. Buffalo Shoes is one of the most renowned shoe manufacturers and shoe retailers that exist in Europe. The brand is known in all countries and has its headquarters in Germany and London.

Of course, as a market leader, you always have to be a trendsetter. So the very first campaign worldwide, on the topic of diversity, was created with a virtual model. The model in the campaign is called Ella (CM Models). You will also see her later in a completely new project, because in the meantime the development department has reached the point where she can dance, among other things, but also talk! Step by step, to the virtual human.

Source: Youtube / Buffalo

What gets people excited? In the end, it’s always about a great story. Just like there are great series that are remade season after season, just like there are Hollywood characters in movies that don’t exist in real life, yet everyone knows.

Here begins an entirely new story.

MarcCain: Fashion Show with Zoe Dvir (VR) – World Premiere

VR in the presentation – From a “virtual fashion show” has been heard more often, but virtual then always meant only that the fashion show is streamed and not presented live.

Since January 2021, the world is a completely new one! World premiere in Berlin, here begins a new level. 4 virtual models, 8 real models and one show. We come together for the first time both worlds. How beautiful?

Source: Youtube / MarcCain

Realtor: Ella Stoller – World Premiere

VR in real estate – Ella, as a virtual person, has various skills that are gradually being expanded (developed). A big step was the ability of speech, simply put! Eventually everything ends up being programmed, which means in the end it’s all one giant “app” – very, very simply put! The more it is taught, the better it gets. The developers can then set all sorts of parameters, not just on the avatar itself, and of course lighting, clothing and much more.

This is a new level, because this is no longer just about fashion, but about real estate, with a high value. Accordingly, the presentation must be extremely high-end and qualitative. The fact that a virtual person now presents the brand, the real estate portal and also individual properties is really a new step when it comes to presentation. Where is the future heading? Trade shows, interviews in fashion magazines?

Here is a very first small glimpse, a quick video screenshot in the evening, of the very first pulse that are online.

Virtual influencers: marketing and strategy

Virtual influencers, digital avatars, whatever you want to call this new category of “people,” they will leave a lasting footprint in advertising and marketing. Best practice projects, like from Los Angeles show that I can get millions of people interested in a virtual person, so much so that they actively follow him to get daily news.

The world of virtual influencers is small because the investment costs are extremely high. Entire teams work on writing codes, optimizing designs and so on. But there are a few who believe in it! Check out here the first, virtual people, avatars, models or influencers…. of the world at:

• Virtual influencers

Source : Zoe / CM Models

Objectives and strategies: Housing, construction, real estate & marketing

What are the goals and strategies of a social media marketing agency? Social media marketing carries the word social in itself, so there is a big focus on this marketing method in community maintenance.

Social media marketing is so much more than just a sales channel, it is about people and targeted communication in a different form. Simpler, more image-based, more emotional. These are the core elements of every good social media channel. In addition there are modern methods.

Social media marketing mix: Multi-channel marketing

Did you know they’re allowed to repost all photos on Instagram? So why constantly produce your own expensive pictorial material when, for example, in the social network Instagram, you can also fall back on the pictorial material of third parties? On YouTube you can reach through playlist subscriptions, so you can already build through and timely collection of relevant videos followers and subscribers. On Facebook you can not only advertise within your own fanpage, of course you can also do it in groups. Social media marketing is so much more!

In addition to the now almost classical methods, there are of course the newer tools, as well as influencer marketing. The area of influencer marketing counts in particular on recommendation marketing by relevant persons for certain target groups. Every single recommendation in social networks reaches people who follow other people. As a result, the advertising aspect is much smaller. Influencer marketing in the real estate sector could, for example, accompany a person on YouTube in their search for an apartment, and at the end they make two or three videos in which they report on the search for an apartment, first on the Internet that they are desperate and finally found the solution through portal XY! Then our influencer takes the camera and accompanies his apartment inspection, a bit to video number 3, in which the apartment is completely furnished, with the matching keyword apartment furnishing. So we can also do search engine optimization within YouTube. Did you already know that?

The world of social media marketing is so diverse for real estate agents, real estate portals but also for more specific topics such as buying or selling a house.

Ultimately, a lot can be done, from channel construction to advertisements targeted at specific groups of people. But let’s first focus on the goals, what is it all about? In principle, social media marketing can be described in four steps.

Target range: Do you already know broker XY?

Our primary goal is reach, because without reach nobody will know about our product. Henry Ford already said: “For every dollar you invest in your product you have to have another one ready to make it known”. The more people we reach, the more we become fans of our channel. Because of the added value they get or because of new offers or also because of very exclusive offers.

Target community: added value instead of advertising for tenants / buyers

The second step is to build the community, collecting fans is not difficult, we invest 100.000 € in an advertisement and will be able to win 10.000 fans. 10 € for a fan? That’s a lot of money. After all, it’s not just about winning the fans once – we have to keep them. That’s why community building and targeted community management are among the core tasks of a social media manager, and of course of a social media agency.

Objectives Information: Regular interaction in social networks

The third step involves an editorial plan and the regular transmission of previously planned information. Our channels must not be filled with graphics and texts from the advertising department, they need individual content, i.e. content. The better our information, i.e. advertising content is packaged, the higher the values in the conversion, means the conversion of visitors to buyers, newsletter subscribers or even interested parties.

Target sale: Strategies for customer acquisition from tenants and buyers

In the fourth step we can now concentrate on sales, let different texts or graphics run against each other, in so-called A/B split tests. Through the targeted evaluation in monitoring, the opportunities and risks as well as the advantages and disadvantages of individual target groups can be identified. This allows many questions to be answered, for example:

• In which target group does our product sell best?
• What target group completes most newsletter subscriptions?
• Who asks at the end for a concrete inspection date for a housing advertisement?

Social Media Marketing Agency Services

Anyone who commissions a social media marketing agency for the first time naturally has a lot of questions! To give you an approximate idea of what a social media agency can do for you, here is an overview of the most important services. Social media marketing is advertising, a holistic concept for the dissemination of information about products or services. In the real estate sector, no matter whether broker or real estate portal, it is not different. Social media channels must be created holistically, they must be planned and, above all, they must interact regularly. It’s about social media content, that means daily postings, even several stories on Instagram a day, up to you the matching videos with added value on YouTube. Thus they create not only a channel for advertising content, but a platform for all those looking for a new home!

Take the wishes their community was and answer them questions, give them added value instead of thinking about marketing messages. Answer questions as well:

• How much does the square meter cost in Berlin or Frankfurt am Main?
• What tips are there for the apartment inspection?
• How do I leave a lasting impression on the new landlord when I am already at the apartment inspection?
• What defects do I have to consider?
• How do I discover black sheep in apartment advertisements?
• Must I pay the deposit for my new apartment immediately?
• When I move out, how long does it take until I get my deposit?

You can keep writing this list forever, because that’s what it’s all about! Added value for the community instead of advertising. The social media agency helps with the creation of the concept, but also with all strategies and methods, with advice, tips and ideas for creative content.

But where is the concrete advantage? A large part of Germany now watches video content on YouTube. Everybody is informed about what’s new, but the majority looks at already existing content. For example, many searches on YouTube will show you that videos have been online for five or six years. For example, if they manage to place their content and topics on the subject of real estate, it can sometimes happen that they get 100000 views and more over time. What’s the matter with you? Every year there are 100,000 Germans who change their flats, move, perhaps even move to Germany for the first time. Every year there are thousands of people looking for the same questions and here lies the magic of YouTube. YouTube is also pushed by the largest search engine in the world, especially because it belongs to the Google group. Contents that get a good placement here once, are permanent. They can use this, in cooperation with their social media agency, to permanently generate new visitors and thus new prospects for apartments and houses.

Let’s have a look at all contents of a social media agency at a glance. From the editorial plan to monitoring.

Editorial plan and conception for potential interested parties

The editorial plan is one of the basic strategies for a successful social media channel. Because what is particularly important in marketing is the regular publication of the content but the regular interaction with the fans. By planning content in advance, you save a lot of time in everyday business, allowing you to focus on other things, such as answering comments.

Editorial plans show the course of 30 to 90 days, here the postings are planned as well as the contents. For real estate companies that have their own Instagram channel, this could mean, for example, that more and more properties and apartments with warm backgrounds are posted alternately from early summer to late summer. So whether it’s the palm tree or the garden that’s about to blossom in summer, your social media channel is changing seasons, as is our environment. Of course, you will be a little more precise, you can specify which texts will be placed under the individual postings. Of course, different social networks can also be combined so that you have a multi-channel planning at the end. For example, a concept can look like this:

• At the beginning of the week photos appear on Instagram
• Parallel appears the first blog article, this is again shared on Facebook, because you can click here directly on the link of the posting and get to the website
• On Wednesday the same will be done, with the note that on Friday our new big YouTube video with the big article, 12. For your first apartment viewing appears
• On Friday appears punctually at 17 o’clock, with previous posting at 13 o’clock on Facebook and Instagram, now on YouTube the big video on the subject of apartment viewing

Creative ideas

This advance planning enables us to put four weeks on one production day for the production of the social media content. A specially booked influencer explains in YouTube videos simple questions about living, moving in and moving out. At the same time photos are produced for Instagram, Facebook and of course for the block. In one day the social media content is produced for a whole month. On Sunday the influencer will publish a little review by pointing out that the new article was published two days ago on real estate portal XY, “you have to have a look at it”!

This allows editorial plans to be combined with creative ideas in a meaningful way. Your fans will thank you! Because their social media channel obviously doesn’t aim to just advertise, they want to help for free! “How nice is that?” This is how the world of social media works. Of course, renowned social media agencies are about more than just creativity and planning, which is already four! When it comes to big and creative ideas, it is also possible to create links to the Pr machinery.

PR strategies (cross media marketing)

You have a social media shoot and perhaps a very special influencer, you should perhaps invite the press directly to it. Whether you’re a local newspaper or a national TV station, you can even get the media to report on the shooting if you package your shootings properly. However, this also brings new reach to brand placement, simply through clever planning. Photographer, make-up artist, influencer, photo studio, everything is booked anyway. But if you take care to book the right person for media use as an influencer at an early stage, you can even get press articles.

Here a small excursion into the topic online marketing or search engine optimization. A good social media agency should also inform you about this! Because backlinks can be generated by placing them in the press. Backlinks are references, i.e. links to other sites that refer to your real estate portal. The more backlinks you collect for your website, the more important they will be for search engines. This is why it is also worth working together with the social media agency in the field of public relations. Not only in the area of community care and management is the effort worthwhile, social media are also indispensable for cross-media work today.

After the planning comes the content creation. For Instagram, YouTube, Tik Tok but also Facebook and Pinterest there are different challenges.

Content creation

No matter which social network you choose for your marketing mix, each one has its own challenges, advantages and disadvantages.

Of course we could philosophize about which content is right for which network for a very long time, but in summary the following can be said: photo shootings, video productions and all other forms of content creation are always complex and therefore associated with high costs and prices. This is why it is worth investing so much time in planning that you have as little effort as possible on the day of production. Because, as in our example on the subject of goals, it’s about knowing what you’re doing. That sounds simple at first, but a lot of planning is involved when you are between community management, content creation and topics such as public relations or influencer marketing. The better the conception, the faster the production.

Social networks life as well as the classic format advertising of regularity. The more often the viewer sees our product, the more likely he is to fall back on it. No matter whether it is a supermarket, a certain product in the assortment or also the apartment search. Those who place their name in the minds of people have regular presence.

Advertising and Advertisements

Perhaps they are social media managers in a larger advertising portal and have not yet had any contact with the subject of re-targeting and advertisements. Briefly explained, maybe you have already looked for a notebook and the next days and weeks you have seen everywhere, no matter if you were on news portals like Spiegel or Welt or also your favourite block, again and again the advertisement for the notebook. This is exactly how advertising and ad management works, of course, in real estate and apartments. For example, you can explicitly send advertisements for Berlin to a Berlin group. It gets even better! If, for example, you offer real estate in Frankfurt am Main, you can send your advertisements specifically to people who live in Frankfurt am Main, are between 18 and 25 years old and single. For all those who have small housing units in good locations, rent them out to young self-employed people, this ad will be worth a lot! Especially in relation to a classic advertisement in a newspaper or real estate newspaper. The losses are much lower because the target group is much more accurate. This helps him not only in the creation of advertisements but of course also in reporting and monitoring.

Reporting and Monitoring

Reporting and monitoring deals with the targeted evaluation of campaigns. It can be about simple things, like posting an influencer for our brand:

• How much reach does she have this posting?
• How many Likes did the posting get?
• How many dislikes were there in relation?
• How many comments did the posting have?

When it comes to advertisements, it naturally becomes even more complex when it comes to monitoring and reporting. Here it goes for example polls like:

• Which campaigns group from our splittest has performed better?
• Which products are profitable and thus predestined for re-targeting?
• How many campaigns can we run Split Testings without straining the advertising budget?

The discipline therefore deals with the evaluation of different strategies. By evaluating the strategies, one can discard individual concepts and focus on others. This allows social media to appear and improve performance in social media. After all, it’s all about making money.

Consulting and agency

Do you have questions about Social Media Marketing? With the advice of our social media agency you always have the right answers to your questions. Whether it’s about instagram marketing, YouTube content creation, Facebook ads, Pinterest search engine optimization or the outlined reaching of young people through social media networks like Tik Tok. We have the right concepts and strategies to promote them as real estate agents or real estate portals. Contact us now, we are looking forward to your e-mail and your call.

Real estate: Helpful links

• Luxury estate agent – Lukinski Property
• Capital investments – FIV Magazine
• Capital investment real estate – FIV Magazine
• Capital investment real estate Interview – FIV Magazine
• Building society savings agreement – FIV Magazine
• Does real estates makes sense as investment? – Real Estates AO

Adverts and presentation with WordPress

WordPress Themes are ready-made internet pages that can be edited and individualized by settings. Important is, if you have never worked with a content management system or WordPress system, you should not start directly with a real estate portal. The functionalities are relatively complex and elaborate. Accordingly, you should have sufficient previous experience. But enough small talk, let’s take a look at the main features of a real estate feed. At the end I have my toplist and recommendation for real estate WordPress themes.

Translation into languages

For many users, it is first of all important that the topic is also translated into several languages. Not everyone is proficient in English and with technical terms, especially in the real estate sector, it can quickly take a lot of time to constantly translate individual words. Therefore, when choosing a theme, you should already make sure that the theme already contains a translation or a translation if you don’t feel so confident with the English language.

Very few themes are translated, usually you have to create this translation yourself. My tip, for all those who are looking for a translation, create an extra language file in your plugin folder, you can edit it with a program like PoEdit.

Pre Made Homepage – Pre made website

The layout of a website, which has different elements and formatting and design can take a lot of time. Therefore, many of the WordPress templates offer directly finished pages as layout. You can easily put these on your own page as a demo with a one click installation. Already you have a nicely designed start page or even a clearly arranged page with all team members.

The pages are usually built with Page Builder.

One Click Importer – insert demo example for learning

For all those who have not yet built 20, 50 or 100 WordPress pages, this demo content is really worth a lot! Here you can see how the author of the team, its structure, the elements and the embedding work. You can also have a look at the extra menu items, for example the new real estate advertisements. Here you can directly see by several examples how the information is structured and where which data is entered or how a finished real estate advertisement would look like on your site.

Real estate management software or plugin

The core of every WordPress installation are the various extensions that extend the content management system with blog function to an online shop, a real estate portal or even a social media platform. Would you have thought that this is possible with WordPress? Exactly that, makes it the most popular CMS in the world! Let’s have a look at which plugin functions are essential for you as a realtor.

Front-End – Property Management

If you like to work directly from the website and don’t want to deal with a purely informative back-end, you should make sure that the topic also has a front-end editing function for the properties. This means that all advertisements can be edited directly on the website with a simple push of a button. This means that you don’t have to switch to the back end first, but can, so to speak, view the results directly live.

Front-End – Submission of new properties

For brokers, the front-end or back-end editing function as administrator of the site is sufficient. However, if you want to build your real estate site into a large real estate portal, you must also give other brokers the opportunity to place their advertisements. For this purpose, there is a user management with which new agents can register. These are accepted and activated automatically or manually. They get the possibility to place their own real estate advertisements, to edit them or to delete them. So you can invite different realtors to present their houses, apartments or plots of land on your platform.

Integrated live news system (communication)

If you think modern, you should also have a functioning messaging system. Do you know websites where you have a small chat window or speech bubble at the bottom left or right? This is exactly the point. Users and visitors can contact our team and our brokers directly. Without detours and without telephone calls, simply via the browser.

Your employees can start communicating immediately or process the request a little later. Likewise, you can create ready-made message modules in this messaging system, e.g. on standard questions. But let’s get back to the basic question, which property much is best for WordPress?

E-Mail notification and saved search

Notifications and saved searches for already registered users are an important tool to get you back on their site. Returning users are very important, not only for search engine optimization, but also for your sales. The more often you can reactivate users, the more traffic you will have on your website and the more sales you will be able to generate. With extensions that allow you to receive e-mail notifications, e.g. when new ads for a certain area in Berlin or even when a property has been taken off the market, you are even more interactive and interesting as a platform. You should also enable your users to save searches, so that useful e-mail notification functions can be directly linked to them. Most real estate themes already have such user management on board.

Login and real estate comparisons

The purchase of a property is a major investment. But renting an apartment and paying the rent deposit is also a lot of money for most citizens. Therefore it is worthwhile to offer a comparison function as a real estate portal but also as an individual broker. With this function, your users can easily save individual property listings and compare them later. Just like you know it from online shops like Amazon, where you can compare several products with each other.

Payment system for brokers (external)

Directly integrated payment systems make it possible that if you build a portal with several brokers, amounts for real estate advertisements can be collected directly. With different payment providers, from credit card to Paypal and of course the classic bank transfer. Through the integrated payment system, you can save a lot of effort in the invoicing, as well as the administration of customers.

Important functions: Search and localization

In addition to these features, there are of course many other ways to make users a comfortable visit to their properties clean. These include, for example, the auto-complete function in the search field.

Autocomplete in the search field

If you are looking for something, just like with search engines, you need auto-completion. Then you enter e.g. a spelling mistake, if in theory no search result would be available. If you give a suitable suggestion for the search query in advance, we can avoid many mistakes and thus minimize the previously mentioned jump rate.

Search by radius (km) and geolocation

It is particularly important to consider regional aspects when searching for apartments and condominiums, for purchase or rent. Regional aspects are especially important when it comes to investing in a property in which you want to live longer. In order to display only those offers that are relevant, the search should also include a slider for the number of kilometres. This allows you to directly select an urban area and filter only objects in the vicinity. This makes the search process much easier for our users.

Advanced search: construction type, property, etc.

Of course, almost all themes have integrated the additional information, so that I can leave a user in the search directly, whether he wants to see only advertisements with a balcony or with a fitted kitchen. You can set all these filters and parameters in your back-end, depending on the properties of a single property.

Performance: Pagespeed & Search engine optimization

Last but not least you should always think about the performance of your own website. The better and more structured the site is, the faster it loads, the higher it will be ranked in the search engines. In Germany, the search engine Google is most important, followed by Telekom, Yahoo or other platforms. Therefore, pay a little attention to the performance of your potential new website.

SEO and search engine – optimization of the real estate page

The term SEO comes from Search Engine Optimization. Search Engine Optimization is English and means search engine optimization. But why is search engine optimization so important?

Search engine optimization constantly brings new leads, i.e. customers who, for example, buy a product or subscribe to a certain list or newsletter. The more visitors we have on a website, the higher the chance that we will make good deals. Search engine optimization costs in relation to permanent advertising, only a one-time investment. Advertising that is optimized for clicks costs with every single click or sometimes also with every impression. That is why many companies put their money on search engine optimization. You should do the same with your new real estate project!

Pagespeed – loading time of the Internet page

The last important point before we come to the concrete recommendations is the page speed. Pagespeed is the English term for the loading time of an Internet page. The shorter the loading time, especially in relation to the competition and also with application, the better it is for your website and the more positive it is for the search engine ranking. With Pagespeed you can achieve this by optimizing scripts such as HTML, Java but also CSS, as well as by compressing image files.

WordPress Theme recommendation

After you have learned a lot about search engine optimization but also about advertising real estate on WordPress, I would like to recommend some real estate WordPress themes! You can easily buy themes for a very fair price on the biggest platform in the world. With a few clicks you have installed the themes. Have fun and good luck!

Theme 1 – MyHome by TangibleDesign

Rating of MyHome on Themeforest:

• $59 – price
• 5 stars (168 ratings)
• 2,400 Sales
• WordPress Theme – Download

Theme 2 – Houzez by favethemes

Current rating from Houzez on Themeforest:

• $59 – price
• 5 stars (828 ratings)
• 11,900 Sales
• WordPress Theme – Download

Theme 3 – Reality by inwavethemesThemes

The reviews of Residence Properties WordPress Theme on Themeforest:

• $49 – price
• 5 stars (62 ratings)
• 781 Sales
• WordPress Theme – Download

Theme 4 – Residence by WpEstate

Residence reviews on Themeforest:

• $59 – price
• 5 stars (1,000+ ratings)
• 13,100 Sales
• WordPress Theme – Download

Theme 5 – Realtyspace by codefactory47

The ratings from Realtyspace:

• $59 – price
• 5 stars (202 ratings)
• 3,110 Sales
• WordPress Theme – Download

Theme 6 – Findeo by purethemes

Current rating from Findeo on Themeforest:

• $59 – price
• 5 stars (80 ratings)
• 870 sales
• WordPress Theme – Download

Theme 7 – Benaa by G5Themes

Rating of Benaa Real Estate WordPress Theme for brokers on Themeforest:

• $60 – price
• 5 stars (20 ratings)
• 441 Sales
• WordPress Theme – Download

Theme 8 – casaRoyal by Fantasy

Opinions and reviews on casaRoyal:

• $49 – price
• 5 stars (7 ratings)
• 105 Sales
• WordPress Theme – Download

Theme 9 – Hometown by LeafThemes

Hometown reviews on Themeforest:

• $59 – price
• 4.5 stars (111 ratings)
• 1,600 Sales
• WordPress Theme – Download

Theme 10 – Real Estate 7 by contempoinc

Current valuations of Real Estate 7 on Themeforest:

• $59 – price
• 5 stars (506 ratings)
• 6,400 Sales
• WordPress Theme – Download

Real estate: Helpful links

• Luxury estate agent – Lukinski Property
• Capital investments – FIV Magazine
• Capital investment real estate – FIV Magazine
• Capital investment real estate Interview – FIV Magazine
• Building society savings agreement – FIV Magazine
• Does real estates makes sense as investment? – Real Estates AO

[shortcode variables slug=”adsense”]

Many sites fail because the visitors they attract do not feel 100% comfortable. This may be due to the fact that the images are not compressed and a page takes 30 or 40 seconds to load. Especially in rural areas, where there is no fast internet connection, loading photos with a large file size and maybe an additional video can quickly paralyze the computer. Of course, you don’t wait forever but simply switch to another page. You must prevent this termination!

There are several ways to reduce the abort rate. You can find some important information and videos in my blog or on my YouTube channel.

Today we will take a special look at the topic of compression and inclusion with aspects of search engine optimization.

Selection of the camera format with 4:3 or 16:9?

Before we can even begin to build our site, we need to make sure that any real estate elements output through our WordPress themes are well formatted. This means that the CSS of the WordPress theme is written so that every photo, no matter how it is uploaded, is always output correctly. In practice, however, this may not work, because you may also take portrait photos, for example. Portraits in photos are then automatically centered in the middle and thus do not show the image section you originally intended for the project. Another important point is that sliders are often used in individual property listings. Again, this is again designed to a certain size, so that they are played correctly on all devices, from notebook to desktop to tablet or smartphone.

So how do we guarantee a good function?

For every new real estate advertisement and every new photo of an apartment or house, there must be a uniform format. All photos will be cropped to this format before they are imported into the WordPress system.

What are the advantages?

• Same layout on all pages and individual pages
• Compressed photos for fast loading times
• Search engine optimized file names

The more similar the elements are, the higher the quality of a website. High quality websites are a guarantee and for us there are good sales. Therefore you should pay attention to such details from the very beginning. Once you have established such a template in your company, your employees or yourself can fall back on it at any time. This will save you a lot of time and personnel costs afterwards and will lead to higher sales. Your website will also be better rated by the search engines, as the time spent on your website usually increases when the design elements are perfectly suited. That is why we focus on the creation of the advertisement.

Each photo camera has in principle two formats with which you can take pictures. You can easily change this in the settings, no matter if Canon, Sony or other camera manufacturers. It is important to decide only for one format. Which format comes from the camera is usually not that important. What is important is that it is now correctly entered in the Photoshop template.

Video Tutorial – How it works

Photoshop file template

Now that we have learned all the important things about the reason for the optimization, we can take a closer look at the Photoshop template. Of course, as always, this template is available for free download, for real estate agents, advertising agencies and media managers.

Both Photoshop files are already set to a smaller format, with a maximum width of 1920 and 2000 pixels respectively. So your photos are still large enough for a visitor to view them on the computer at full resolution. Just download the Photoshop file.

Free download: Photoshop template for brokers

• Download – Photoshop template – camera format 3:4 ( ZIP file)
• Download – Photoshop template – camera format 16:9 ( ZIP file)

Insert in Photoshop

After you have taken the pictures, all you have to do is drag the pictures from the memory card to your computer. To do this, simply insert your SD Memory Card into the appropriate slot of your computer or card reader. A file folder will already open and from there you can drag the pictures into your Photoshop file. Proceed as follows:

• • Activate card reader or insert SD card directly into the computer
  • Open folder with image files and make selection

Reduction of the images with shortcut

Since all your images are in the same format, as you can see in the tutorial video, you can zoom in or out all your images at the same time. To do this, select all layers, start with the first one and press the mouse on the last layer while holding down the Shift key. In the following step press Ctrl+T to get to the transformation model. This sounds complex at first, but it is actually quite simple, to enlarge or reduce the images. Always make sure that you only drag the images at the edges, not at the sides. To do this, always press the Shift key. This will enlarge or reduce the images proportionally. The format is not distorted. Here once again summarized

• • Confirm with Enter to place the images
  • If all images are stored, select the layers and press Ctrl+T

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• Now scale the images in size while holding down the Shift key

Compressed saving for web and devices

Now we come to saving the images for our real estate ad. Here comes the clou, save your photos always compressed. While a photo in the same format without compression still loosely 1.5 MB, we can compress it by 60 to 80%, maybe even from 200 to 300 KB.

To do this, simply select File in Photoshop and Save for Web and Devices in Photoshop under the Cloud version. Here you only need to make the following settings

• Output – JPEG
• Compression Quality – 50%

The next step is about assigning the file name, here too you can do a little bit to optimize your rankings.

Search engine optimized file names naming

When you assign a file name, be careful not to use the file name formatting of your camera. Cameras only output numbered images, so they cannot describe what emotions an image reflects or what objects or locations are hidden in it. That’s why we rename our images and name them instead of the standard output:

• • DCIM45592.JPEG

We do this with all photos of our current property and vary the individual files depending on what is shown in the picture. The prefix with the respective real estate object, location and district remains the same.

Insert in WordPress

We did it! Now we have prepared our new real estate homepage perfectly and have not only a beautiful WordPress theme but also perfect pictures that look the same on every page. Instead of landscape and portrait format we only use landscape pictures and of course all are compressed and optimized by the file name for the search engine.
learn

SEO: Video Tips

Learn search engine optimization and software! Whenever there is some time in the evening in the agency, I make explanatory videos about social media marketing, Photoshop but also search engine optimization. A few free SEO Life Hacks on our agency. What does a good SEO optimization cost? Nothing, if you do it yourself! As I have already shown in my Youtube channel and in many blog posts, you can build your own big sites especially with WordPress, even whole online shops with strong performance.

Real estate: Helpful links

• Luxury estate agent – Lukinski Property
• Capital investments – FIV Magazine
• Capital investment real estate – FIV Magazine
• Capital investment real estate Interview – FIV Magazine
• Building society savings agreement – FIV Magazine
• Does real estates makes sense as investment? – Real Estates AO