Real estate agents often ask us if they should have an IDX listing feed on their website. The short answer is no. Agents love automatic listing feeds such as IDX because they can quickly and easily access the majority of listings from your MLS board. Although IDX Canada is considered a standard function, many agents consider it a luxury.
Real estate agents only want IDX listings for their websites because everyone else has it so they believe they also need it.
It is expensive to create a great experience
Who is really using IDX listings well? It's all the major players like Zillow and Realtor.com. What do these companies have in common? These are large companies with huge budgets and large teams that have invested heavily in creating something unique that looks great. Are you a fan of all the beautiful listings and real-time search results? It's not cheap to build. Agents know that the best way to make an IDX feed more user-friendly is to have a large budget and do extensive work. These are two things agents don't want. Agents will be forced to choose a templated IDX solution that is less expensive than the ones offered by larger companies.
It can be restrictive
Technically, plugins that automatically list feeds to the internet aren't available in all areas. Different feeds may be used in different areas and cities. This means that you might not have certain features depending on your location. You should also ensure that your automatic listing feeds are supported in all real estate boards you belong to. If you're involved in multiple real estate boards, incorporating IDX can be difficult.
It won't help SEO
It is possible that your IDX feed design will have a negative impact on SEO. Most of the IDX feeds used by many agents are often templated and hosted on a subdomain (like listings.yourdomain.com), which does not positively affect your SEO in any way. Real estate giants such as Zillow or Realtor.com will always be more authoritative than smaller websites with a templated IDX feeder. It doesn't matter if everyone uses the same templated IDXfeed (most people do). This is because there will be too many websites that are more authoritative and bigger than you.
An organic or custom IDX solution is required to positively impact your SEO. This can be costly for smaller agents. In many cases, you will find that the cost of creating an organic IDX feed is more worthwhile than other digital strategies like content development and paid search.
Why use an automatic listing feed?
The IDX listing feeds are useful for users, but not essential. It is unlikely that someone will search Google for your website and find an IDX listing.
It's nice to have, as I mentioned earlier. It's a nice tool to have.
Are there any benefits?
It can be beneficial to include if an agent is dedicated to creating a great process for their IDX listing feeds and search. Agents can view a lot of data with the majority of out-of-the box IDX plugins. This includes what they've searched for, when they searched and what properties they saved.
Few agents know where to find that information or how to access it. If you have a process for how to use the information, you could be able to give your lead follow-up strategy an advantage.
Last but not least, if you are an agent with a few listings it can be attractive to include IDX listings on the website. This gives the impression that you have listings even if you don't.
The bottom line
While IDX listing feeds can be useful for users who decide to search online, they will not help them drive traffic to your site as part of a Google Search. Unless you have a clearly defined process around how you'll use any user information an IDX plugin can provide, it's not worth having.
All of these factors are important to consider, and you should also take into account the fact that these services can be expensive. Many times, money spent on automatic listing feeds can be better spent elsewhere in your digital strategy. These places will have a higher ROI and help you improve your business.