Websites for commercial real estate firms, built for how they are used

The site is a verification step more often than a discovery one

Most visitors already know who you are and are checking whether you are what they were told.

The common sequence is a call, an email or a referral, followed by somebody looking the firm up. They are answering a short list of questions: is this real, who are these people, do they actually work in my market, and have they done this before.

That should determine what is easy to find. Who the brokers are and what they cover, what the firm actually does, where it operates, and evidence of activity in the relevant submarket.

It also means the home page has a narrower job than a consumer site's. It is not persuading a stranger from nothing. It is confirming an impression somebody already formed on a phone call.

The failure mode is a site that reads as generic. A firm whose home page could describe any brokerage in any city gives a checker nothing, and the check ends ambiguously.

Currency matters disproportionately here. A site whose most recent anything is two years old suggests a firm that is not busy, which is the opposite of the impression the check is meant to produce.

Listing pages exist so a broker can send a link

Availability pages on a brokerage site are not competing for search traffic, they are a document that gets emailed.

The realistic use of a listing page is a broker sending it to somebody specific, or a prospect opening it from a portal referral. It is a shareable document rather than a landing page.

That changes what it needs. Everything a recipient wants without asking: size, availability, terms as far as they can be stated, floor plans, operating expenses where appropriate, parking, access and a named contact.

The link has to survive being forwarded. It goes to a colleague, a committee or an executive who never spoke to anybody, so it should make sense with no context and no covering explanation.

It also has to work on a phone, because a large share of these are opened between meetings. Heavy plan documents that will not load are a common and avoidable failure.

Expired listings need handling. A brokerage site accumulates dead pages quickly, and pointing them at current availability in the same submarket is better than leaving them or removing them silently.

Research is the only reason anybody comes back

Nothing else on a brokerage site rewards a second visit, which makes market material the entire retention mechanism.

Service pages are read once. Broker pages are read once. Listings are read when relevant. Market commentary is the only thing that gives somebody a reason to return, and returning is what keeps a firm in mind.

It should therefore be structured as a body of work rather than a blog. Organized by submarket and product type, easy to navigate, with older pieces still reachable so the record of your view is visible.

Publishing on a predictable schedule matters more than length. People form habits around reliability, and an irregular series does not become part of anybody's routine.

Make it easy to subscribe, since email is how this audience actually consumes. A quarterly note that arrives is worth more than a page somebody has to remember to visit.

Sourcing is the credibility. Figures should say where they came from, whether from your own transactions or from data you have the right to publish, and this is one of the few contexts where a reader will check.

It is read on a phone between meetings

The working day in this industry is spent in cars and buildings, and the site is opened in the gaps.

Brokers, tenants and owners are looking at your site from parking garages, elevators and lobbies, on connections that are often poor. Weight and speed matter more than the desk-based assumption suggests.

The specific failure is document handling. Large plan files and marketing packages that were built for print will not open usefully on a phone, and that is exactly where they are being opened.

Phone numbers should be tappable, addresses should open in a map, and contacting a specific broker should take one action rather than a form.

Test on an actual phone on a mobile connection rather than on office wifi. Sites in this industry are commonly designed on large screens for an audience that is rarely at one.

Large photography is the usual weight problem. Building imagery matters here and it needs to be sized for the conditions the site is actually used in.

Email is where this industry lives, and the site has to serve it

Most of what a brokerage sends travels by email, and the website's job is often to be the thing at the end of a link.

Deal flow, availability, market notes and introductions all move by email in this business. The website is frequently the destination rather than the origin.

That makes link quality a design consideration. Pages should have stable addresses that do not break, and they should preview sensibly when pasted into a message.

Distribution lists are the practical asset. A brokerage's list of owners, tenants and other brokers is worth more than its search rankings, and the site's job includes growing that list.

Keep the subscribe path simple and honest about what will arrive and how often. This audience is guarded with contact details and responds badly to anything that feels like a capture mechanism.

Anything sent to a list has commercial email obligations attached, including how people unsubscribe, which is worth confirming with your own counsel rather than assuming a platform handles it.

Submarket coverage is what makes the site specific

The structure above suits any brokerage. What it should say does not travel.

Which submarkets you cover, what product types you work in, and what is actually happening in them is the substance a checker is looking for, and it is local by definition.

We publish that a market at a time, because content pitched at a whole metro speaks to neither a downtown tower nor a suburban flex park.

If your market is covered, that is the more specific read. If not, the structure above is where to start, and we are glad to look at your site with you.