Why Having Fewer Website Pages Might Get You Better Digital Results
When it comes to building a solid search strategy (focused on SEO, AEO, and GEO), with the goal of bringing in leads, a lot of agents think that more is better when it comes to pages, content, and overall website structure.
Agents typically think that they should have pages for every neighborhood, every condo building, and every school that exists in their market in an attempt to try to cast the widest net possible and hoping something will stick.
After all, the more pages, the more content, the more traffic, the more leads, right?
In the distant past, it was an acceptable strategy that typically got results, but nowadays, it’s an outdated strategy that doesn’t work as part of a long-term digital strategy.
And while a lot of agents still take the approach of creating more pages because they think it will improve their search strategy, and bring in more leads as a result, the opposite is more likely to happen.
That’s because stats show that having a massive website with hundreds of thin, low-quality pages can hurt your lead generation strategy and your overall digital strategy. Even Google itself says that having thin content is a violation of their standards for identifying quality.
Quantity Often Does Not Equal Quality
When it comes to lead generation, more is rarely better. Most agents would prefer to get fewer, high-quality leads that are ready to transact, rather than a large quantity of leads that are less-engaged, not ready to transact, and outside of their preferred target audience.
The same goes when it comes to building website traffic through a lot of pages. As an agent, your goal shouldn’t just be to get traffic; it should be to get engaged, meaningful traffic that is interested in you, your brand, and your business, which a lot of pages rarely provides.
And the two are closely related. Smaller websites, with more targeted meaningful pages get better traffic, better engagement, and better leads.
A quantity over quality page website structure typically comes with a bunch of different problems and potential risks:
You Could Confuse Your Audience
Your website is the primary place for you to tell your audience who you are, what you do, how you do it, and how long you’ve been doing it, in a place where you have complete control of the messaging and overall experience.
But too many pages can easily make it overwhelming for your audience to figure that out, especially if it’s old, outdated, and no longer highlights what you currently do as part of your business.
More importantly, taking this approach makes it harder for Google, AI, LLMs, and your target audience to figure out what you’re actually an expert in and who they should recommend you to.
You Could Dilute Your Brand
When you have a website with 500 pages of generic, auto-generated IDX listings or thin neighborhood descriptions that haven’t been updated since 2018, you’re creating a bloated, overwhelming experience for your users.
More than that, the more pages you have about communities, neighborhoods and events, the more you start to look like a large informational travel website than an experienced, local real estate agent.
If someone lands on a page that doesn’t provide real value, they’ll leave quickly, which also tells search engines your site isn’t useful.
You Could Create a Maintenance Nightmare
If you have hundreds of pages of neighborhood stats, community events, market trends, or anything else of that nature, then it also means you have a lot of pages that are going to require a lot of continual work to remain up to date, accurate, and high-quality enough that they’re seen as valuable by search engines and people alike.
If your content is continually out of date, it means your digital strategy is out of date.
You Could Get Lower Quality Leads
Casting a wide, unfocused net often brings in leads that know nothing about you, aren’t loyal to your brand, and typically require a massive amount of work to convert.
Because of that, the majority of these people will require a massive amount of effort to turn into a deal, if they ever do at all.
That means you’ll be spending a lot of your time reaching out, trying to convince someone to take an action that they might not even be considering taking.
★ Want to learn more about how to plan the structure for a successful real estate website? Have a look at these posts:
- How Do You Know When It’s Time to Rebuild Your Real Estate Website?
- How to Prepare a Real Estate Website Project Brief (To Make Your Own Website Project Successful)
- Best Practices When Rebuilding an SEO Successful Real Estate Website
Creating Content With Purpose
By narrowing your focus and having fewer, more comprehensive pages, you can shift your real estate marketing strategy toward generating leads based on quality rather than quantity.
That means focusing on building concise, well-organized pages that clearly show your focus, your expertise, and your experience.
Ultimately, planning your website around having pages that actually provide value to your audience elevates your engagement rate, signals to search engines that your website is highly useful, and converts casual visitors into loyal clients who wouldn’t think about working with anyone else when the time comes for a real estate transaction.
★ If your website already has a lot of pages and content that is no longer inline with what you do, you should start with a content audit. Want to learn more about auditing your content strategy? Have a look at this post called: How (and Why) to Audit Your Real Estate Website’s Content.
★ Want to learn more about building a content strategy? Have a look at these posts:
- Creating a Content Strategy Based On Emotional Search Intent (To Get Better Leads)
- The Benefits of Building a Long-Form Real Estate Content Strategy
- Writing Successful Real Estate Content that Converts
- Creating a People-Powered, People-First Content Strategy
- Creating an Evergreen Real Estate Content Strategy
Better Planning, Better Pages, Better Leads
When it comes to planning a successful website that attracts the right people, creates engagement with them, and works towards having them reach out, quantity is never better than quality.
By creating a more streamlined, targeted marketing strategy, focused on less-but-more-meaningful pages, your strategy will continually prove your expertise to your audience, and get more conversions in the process.
Want to get better, more qualified leads and build your authority? Our Inbound Marketing Guide is a walkthrough of the overall philosophy of inbound marketing, why it’s effective, and how you can build it into your own real estate marketing strategy to get better marketing results.
