It's a large real estate agency, and the company depends on a steady stream of leads. The website is classy, with delightful graphic elements and layout. There is well-written copy, designed to both entice the reader and search engine spiders. The website was obviously done by a professional and probably cost a bit of money.

Only the website missing something -- an easily found address and phone number!

While researching realtor websites a few months, we came across a suprisingly large number of real estate websites where the contact information was buried. Some websites put their contact information on a Contact or About Us page. Even worse, a few had their contact information enbedded in an image. Search engines don't read text in images. Users can't copy and paste from an image if they want to copy your address to, say, a mapping program.

It's like putting a sign above your office building and forgetting to unlock the door.

Don't bury your most important information. Contact information should be in the footer of every page and preferably higher on the website's home page. Each individual listing should have associated contact information. Real estate is one of the few types of websites where an interested customer is actually likely to pick up a phone and call rather than email you.

Sometimes, with everything that goes into creating and marketing a website, the simplest things are left behind. Don't let it happen to you!

S.R. Daley is the web developer for http://www.myrealtyfeed.com, a service that allows real estate professionals to create, maintain and promote multiple RSS feeds with a simple web interface.

This article may be republished without changing the content and the bio box.