dsIDXPress: Search Engine Friendly IDX
By Reggie · January 26, 2010
If you’re not already aware of Diverse Solutions….you should be. These guys have some serious cool factor and have been driving innovation with their dsSearchAgent Pro IDX for years now. Recently they unleashed a beta of a long awaited “indexable” IDX plug-in for WordPress. And today they’ve ripped off that BETA label!
What does this mean for you?
It means your real estate blog can now have the functionality of a highly custom site with search engine friendly IDX data. dsIDXPress is released with special introductory pricing of $99.95 setup and $29.95 a month. That is an introductory offer and will go up over time.
And for the most part the plug-in is compliant in all markets they cover with the exception of a couple of the more strict MLSs. If you have any questions or comments about compliance reach out to them here. Let’s take a look at a few ways to implement dsIDXPress.
Short code
If you’re not already familiar with shortcode, it’s worth taking some time to familiarize yourself with the concept. It was introduced in WordPress 2.5 and allows the blog author to include a small piece of content [shortcode] in a post or page to replicate what would usually be numerous lines of code. In the case of dsIDXPress the shortcode placed in your posts and pages is replaced with specific listings or groups of listings from your MLS. That’s right, no frames….actually pages from your site that get indexed by Google and the others. *C’mon deep crawl*. This also means that your real estate blog can now be sculpted to represent your market area in custom fashion. For example, take a look at a few options:
- Geographic: Create a page for each of the different areas in your market. Break them down into geographic levels that make sense: city, zip, community or tract. Here are a few different examples of how the shortcode could be displayed in a page:
[idx-listings city="Pleasanton" orderby="Price" orderdir="Price" count="15"]
[idx-listings zip="94566" orderby="Price" orderdir="DateAdded" count="15"]
[idx-listings community="Golden Oak" orderby="Price" orderdir="LastUpdated" count="15"]
[idx-listings tract="Willow Glen" orderby="Price" orderdir="DESC" count="15"]
- Listing Specific: This piece of shortcode uses the MLS number to display a configurable view of a property. Show just the basic property details or all data available. Included in the property display is a Google map that will also display in your RSS feed for subscribers.
Example: [idx-listing mlsnumber="AB454834" showall="true"]
Widgets
dsIDXPress comes with 3 widgets: Search, Area List and Property List. Each provides different levels of customization. The property list widget can display a crawl-able list of properties, map, and a detailed array of properties.
MyTechOpinion
It’s no secret that we at MyTechOpinion love WordPress. So much so that we partnered with Brian Gardner of AgentPress because he captured the essence of what a real estate agent require in a WordPress theme. Now we see the same in Diverse Solutions new dsIDXPress. We think they really nailed it with their plug-in. To start, it’s very easy to install and early adopters will likely see amazing results. Overtime it will become more important for real estate bloggers to sculpt their site to increase pagerank and facilitate a deeper index by Google. If you need help in that department, make sure you reach out to Chad of MyTechOpinion for a quote.
If you’re even slightly interested in learning more about dsIDXPress from this article let me give you the push. Go check it out….tell them Reggie from MyTechOpinion sent you.
Related Posts
- Great Real Estate Plug-In: The Secret Tool For Featuring Listings with WordPress
- The Trick To Adding Local Search To Your Website or Blog
- How Mapping Can Market Your Sales History
- AgentPress: The Ideal Theme for Real Estate Bloggers
- Are you missing lead generation opportunities with your IDX MLS search tool?
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I don’t like the application. What agents need for their websites is a full search function that can be embedded into a page on their site. Diverse already did this with their other products and they just give you an HTML code you can embed into your own pages. Right now this application is just a sidebar widget and doesn’t compare to the other search products they deliver for agent and broker sites.
Adam – while I understand what you are saying, I don’t agree. This plugin is much more than a sidebar widget. By it providing index-able pages for Google and other search engines you could potentially attract new search traffic with this fresh content. If it was me, I would use this plug-in to help with organic local search and use the dsSearchAgent Pro IDX for the search interface on the site.
–>Check out theseearly results from the Diverse Get Satisfaction page: http://community.dsidxpress.com/diversesolutions/topics/great_exposure_and_more_leads
It seems like just yesterday to get this type of integration you would need to spend lots of money on a custom site.
I have to say that i agree with Reggie. What’s missing from most, if not almost all agent level IDX solutions is the index-able results. Most agents have to spend time trying, in varying degrees of ‘clunkiness’, to integrate their providers iframe into their sites. The fact that this appears to get around this I would say is a huge step forward.
I for one will be giving it a whirl. Thanks for posting
I got DS for my wifes blog a long time ago, and I really like there services. The RSS feed is a must. Being that I’m a programmer I’ve been able to use her DS IDX solution in many cool ways. I like this new plugin, BUT… not sure if she will want to pay and extra $30/month over her DS monthly fee… Will it be included with a normal DS IDX solution?
@Adam – dsIDXpress isn’t meant to be a replacement for a full featured IDX but more of a supplement to. We wanted to give agents an easy way to 1. Insert area specific listings that are constantly being updated to relevant content on city/community/tract or zipcode specific pages 2. Provide indexable property listings on your domain. You don’t even need to use the sidebar widgets if you don’t want, just use the Live Listings shortcodes or link directly to the city / community / tract or zipcode property pages that are automatically enabled.
@Matt – The main difference for you, depending on how you implemented the RSS feed, would be that the listings are updated in real time, you wont have out of date listings as posts on your site anymore and no more development for future implementations when you want to add listings to new places on her site. dsIDXpress is not included with dsSearchAgent BUT if you already have our mapping IDX we are waiving the setup fee.
Reggie,
Thanks for sharing this stuff. I few people have been telling me about all sorts of plug-ins for wordpress that aid in getting searched. It is hard to figure out all of this stuff as I am not the most computer savvy person ever. Is this pretty simple to use? I need simplicity…
Is there someplace I can see an example in action?
Hey Gordon – We have a small demo site here at http://www.daniellecordova.com that you can see a few examples of what you can so with it. There are others out there that have really done some great stuff with dsIDXpress. I will try to find some of those and post them if you want.
Groovy. I’m totally diggin this granular indexable IDX plugin. I checked out some examples and can really see the power behind it. So, I guess I’ll need to convert over to the WordPress platform…that’ll keep the assistant busy
I use DS for my IDX but definately have to look into this. Unfortunately for Realtors who would use these tools we sell homes and don’t usually know the technical side of websites. I am jealous of the comment above where the husband works on the website for his wife realtor, and knows all about this stuff.
The challenge here lies in the Non Technical Agent..They suffer because of the lack of Technical basics..yet the more savy, can be ahead of the curve…Its a NEW form of Competition…I like that.. Game on.