keller williams & placester: setup...
TRANSCRIPT
Keller Williams & Placester: Setup Guide
I. Getting Started A. Front End vs. Back End B. Site Settings C. Madison Theme D. Madison Theme: Image Dimensions E. Adding Slideshow Images F. Adding Social Networks
II. IDX
A. IDX Integration B. Filtering your MLS Listings C. Featuring Listings on your Home Page
III. Custom Domains
A. How and Where to Purchase a Custom Domain B. Pointing your Custom Domain to your Placester Site
IV. Contacting Support
Getting Started
Your Account
What's Included
Your account will include IDX, a hosted website, a selection of pre-built templates that are ready to use and customer support. By default, your Placester account will be created with a blank site using the KW exclusive Madison theme.
Where do I log in?
To login to the back end of your Placester site, you'll need to access your MyKW account. Under the Technology tab, there will be a KW Websites option. Clicking this will take you directly to your Placester site dashboard.
Note: If you have not yet received your Placester website, you won’t be able to access it through myKW. Please wait for your welcome email from Keller Williams Corporate. If you have received your Placester site but are having trouble accessing it through myKW, please email support[email protected] for assistance.
Front End vs. Back End
The back end of your site is the administrative side where you can make changes. Only you will see the back end options. The front end is the live version of the site that your visitors will see. The back end looks similar to this:
Where should I start?
Clicking on your site title or the View Details option under the Sites tab will open the Site Details section of the panel:
You can use these options to edit pages and blog posts and add individual agents and testimonials, if you've created pages using those templates.
Site Settings
The Site Settings drop-down at the top of the panel is the main tool you'll be using to customize your site.
These options open slide-out panels where you can change themes, submit your IDX request, upload slideshow images, choose listings to feature on your homepage, and organize your menu.
Madison Theme
Keller Williams agents, brokerages and market centers have access to an exclusive Placester theme called Madison.
Your KW Placester site will be created with Madison as the selected theme by default, but if you ever want to change the theme (or change the color scheme used on Madison), go to Site Settings > Theme Selection.
The Theme Selection slide-out will open, and here you'll have several options to customize the look of your home page. First, you can select your theme. Madison will be selected by default, but you also have access to the other 6 Placester site designs. you can view what they look like here.
The next step is to select your color scheme. There are 7 color options for Madison. Once you've selected your color scheme, you can choose your page header option. You can select either the full color scheme (as in the image above) or the white header, which will use your selected color for text, buttons and accents.
The final option is to enter the statement that displays over your slideshow. By default, the statement will read "The Best Place to Find Your Home". You can enter your own text here to change this. Note that there is a limit of 60 characters for this option.
Site Settings > Site Info
Once you've selected your Madison theme options, navigate to Site Settings > Site Info.
Here, you can select your logo color. We've pre-loaded a white and red color logo option to all KW sites. The white option is designed for colored page headers, while the red can be used with white page headers. You also have the option to upload your own logo here to override the KW logo. You are be able to change your site title, tagline, select whether to display the logo, site title, or both, and upload a favicon. Note that the white logo displays on a gray background in this section; that is just for visual purposes so you can see it here. Only the white logo will display on the live site.
In the Contact Details and Office Details, you can add all of your relevant information. Adding your photo, email address and phone number under Contact Details will display that information in the site's header.
Featured Listings
The Madison theme displays 4 properties as Featured Listings on the homepage. To learn more about featuring listings, click here.
Madison examples
Below are two examples of Madison, using the blue color scheme.
Blue header:
White header:
The Madison theme also uses our Natural Language Search feature. This allows site visitors to freely type in the text box to search for homes. The autosuggest feature will suggest criteria based on what is being typed, as well as allowing visitors to search for keywords.
Natural Language Search
NLS is a new search feature made available by Placester. This allows you to freely type what you're looking for into the search box on your homepage and on listings search pages.
The search box auto-suggests search criteria based on what you're typing. In the example below, we're looking for 3 bed home in Austin, TX. You'll see that a price range is suggested in the drop down box; users can click this or continue entering their own criteria to search by. You can also switch between For Sale and For Rent at the end of white text entry bar.
Clicking Search takes the user to the listings search page. Here, you'll see a map displaying icons for homes that match your search, and a list of those homes. At the top of the right hand column are the filters entered.
Another feature of NLS is the 'sliders'. You can click and drag the circles on each slider to change the criteria instantly.
Adding filters
Clicking More Filters at the top of the search results list opens additional filters to search by.
Changing Views and Sorting
There are two views for the properties on the search results page: List, and Tiles. You can switch between these two by clicking the icons at the top of the search column.
You can also change the sort criteria and direction. These settings appear below the filters and above the listings. You can sort by Price, Total Images, Beds, Baths and Year Built, and by ascending or descending (by clicking the arrow icon).
Map search
Another feature of Madison's NLS is the large map on the left of search result pages. You can zoom in to the map if you want to look for listings in a specific area, and click and drag around to view other results on the map. When you zoom in to a certain point on the map, the pins that display where the listings are will also display the price of those listings.
Madison Theme: Image Dimensions
Home Page Photo Dimensions
On the homepage of the Madison theme, you have the option of uploading a site logo, an agent profile photo, and up to five photos for your home page slideshow(see below).
The image dimensions for each photo are as follows: Site Logo: 225 pixels by 75 pixels tall Individual Agent Profile Photo*: 240 pixels wide by 240 pixels tall *(Be advised, it is a square image that's cropped into a circle. If its a tall profile image some of the agent might get cut off) You can update your site logo and agent profile photos by going to Site Settings > Site Info as show here. Home Page Slideshow Images: 1600 pixels wide by 500 pixels tall You can learn how to upload images to your slideshow here.
Agent Page Photo Dimensions
Another feature of the Madison theme, is the Agent Index page shown below.
Here, you can list any of your agents, including yourself, provide a small bio with all their agent information, and an agent photo. Individual Agent Profile Photo: 240 pixels wide by 240 pixels tall *(Be advised, it is a square image that's cropped into a circle. If its a tall profile image some of the agent might get cut off) You can add agents to this page logging onto the back-end of your account and going to the Agents tab as shown below.
Blog Image Dimensions
The Madison theme also features a new and improved blog format. The featured image will now be shown as a banner across the top of the blog post page as shown below.
You can learn more about creating your blog here. Blog post featured image dimensions: 1600 pixels wide by 500 pixels tall
Image dimensions for photos within pages/blog post: 720 pixels wide by 405 pixels tall
Adding Slideshow Images
Slideshow Images Specific to your Market
All of our website designs feature a home slideshow that can be customized with images of your own that are specific to your area or the types of homes you're focusing on. You can 1) upload your own images to replace all of the default images, 2) choose from our available sets of royalty-free images, or 3) do a combination of both.
Site Settings > Slideshow
To see your options, go to the Slideshow tab within Site Settings.
Home Slideshow Options
Placester provides several sets of home slideshow images to choose from, which are categorized by type. Scroll through to see your options and use the arrows to see the different images within each set.
If you find an image set that you like, click Select.
Uploading your Own Images
You might also find that you like certain images within the image sets but would like to swap some out for your own images. Or, perhaps you want to use only your custom images. If you select a slideshow such as Default, you'll find more advanced options to upload your own images to replace the existing ones.
You can also add a caption and link if you’d like to provide more information about the image and/or link to a related page directly from the home slideshow.
Pro Tip
Images should be at least 1600 pixels wide by 660 pixels tall. Need a free, easy cropping tool? Here’s one we recommend: http://pixlr.com/express/
You can learn more about cropping and resizing images here.
Adding Social Networks
Social Media Links
The social media links that you add will appear on the front end of your site in the header and footer. The design will look slightly different depending on which theme you're using, but generally will look something like this: Header
Footer
Site Settings > Social Networks
To add your social media accounts to your website, go to the Social Networks tab within the Site Settings menu.
Social Networks Slide Out
This will bring you to a screen where you add your personal or business social media accounts.
Finding your Social Media Links
To enter your social media accounts, go to each of your personal or business profile pages and look at the URL, or web address. Then, copy what comes after the backslash into the space provided. For example, let’s look at Placester’s social network account URLs:
The Facebook URL is https://www.facebook.com/Placester, so we’ll just need to enter “placester” in the Facebook space.
The Twitter URL is https://www.twitter.com/placester, so we’ll just need to enter “placester” in the Twitter space.
The Pinterest URL is https://www.pinterest.com/placester, so we’ll just need to enter “placester” in the Pinterest space.
LinkedIn's system is slightly different to most of the other social networks. When you first login and click Profile, it usually takes you to a profile that you can edit. Beneath your picture on this page, you'll see your public profile link; click that (or copy and paste it in your
browser address bar), to get to your public profile. Once there, copy everything after the .com part of the address - it should look something like /pub/your-name/12/3ab/456.
Google Plus
The Google Plus URL is https://plus.google.com/+Placester/posts, so we’ll need to enter “+Placester/posts” in the Google Plus space.
YouTube
The Youtube URL is https://www.youtube.com/user/PlacesterInc, so we’ll need to enter “user/PlacesterInc” in the Google Plus space.
The Instagram URL is https://instagram.com/placester/, so we'll just need to enter "placester" in the Instagram space.
Entering your Social Networks
Now that we know the endings to the URLs, we can add them to the Social Networks slide out. Just type in what comes after the slash.
Once you’ve filled in the blanks for your accounts, click Save.
Don't Have All of These Accounts?
You don’t have to use every social media account. If you’re just getting started, you can add them one at a time as you become more active and learn more about the leads you generate from them. We’d recommend Facebook and Twitter to start, as they are the two most popular social media sites. If you leave an account blank, the icon won’t appear on the front end of your site. In the above example, where we only entered Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter links, the front end will look like this:
LinkedIn and Google+ links will not be included, since we didn’t fill them out.
IDX
IDX Integration
As part of the PlacesterKW partnership, all associate and market center accounts will automatically be given access to the Keller Williams Listing Service. In addition to KWLS, your local MLS data will be integrated to your account. In most cases, the IDX approval process is being handled by your Broker at the office level as allowed by each MLS. As long as the IDX approval process has been completed prior to launch, you can expect the MLS data to be activated on your account upon loggingin for the first time. Brokers and agents will be notified by Placester if further action is needed to complete the approval process for a particular MLS. At this time, Placester sites integrate with one MLS per site, so you’ll have the option to choose between KWLS and your local MLS for your site.
Checking Status of IDX Approval
If you have any questions about your IDX integration, please reach out to Placester Support at support[email protected], or 800-713-8068.
Filtering your MLS Listings
Narrowing Down your Listings
Once your IDX integration is complete, all of the listings from your entire MLS will appear on your site. Many users have certain areas within the MLS that they’d like to focus on. Or, they might be limiting their sales to certain property types or prices.
You can narrow down the listings to be displayed across your entire site under the Global Filters tab within Site Settings.
Site Settings > Global Filters
Global Filters Slide Out
Within the Global Filters slide out, you’ll see three tabs, which will allow you to set the search criteria that will find just the listings that you'd like to filter down to on your site. You can choose between: Displaying all listings on your site Filtering your listings to automatically update based on search criteria you save (recommended) Manually selecting specific listings to narrow the site down to By default, the global filters will be set to display all of the listings on your site.
Filtered Listings
The Filtered Listings tab will allow you to add criteria for your site to automatically search through your MLS and display only those listings that match your criteria.
To start adding filters to search by, click the dropdown menu next to Add Search Criteria. Let's say you wanted to filter by zip code. Scroll down the list to the Location section and select Zip, then click Add.
This will create a field into which you can start typing your zip code(s). When you start typing, you'll see some suggestions. Keep typing until you see the zip you want to filter by and click on it in the suggestion box.
Repeat this step as many times as necessary, then click Search. Once the search is complete, the Search Results box will display only listings from the zip(s) specified.
Once you've added all the criteria you want, scroll to the bottom of the pane and click Save to apply your filters to your site.
Adding Multiple Filters
Add as many filters as you’d like in the same way by selecting the appropriate filter category from the "Add Search Criteria" drop down. Once they’ve all been added, click Search to see your results. You can add a combination of different types of filters. See the example below, where the site is narrowed down to a few zip codes, with a maximum of 3 beds, minimum of 1 bath and a maximum price of $800,000. This has narrowed the total number of listings down to 214 listings after clicking Search.
The Filtered Listings tab uses an automatic process to update, so every time a new listing in the MLS matches the criteria you set, it will be added to the search results on your site.
Specific Listings
The Specific Listings tab gives you the opportunity to manually search for listings and add them to your site. The search options are the same as on the Filtered Listings tab, but the selection process is different. Once you've added all the search criteria you want, you need to select a listing from the Search Results box and click Add to add it the Selected listings box; these listings will be the ones that appear on your site. Pro tip: multi-select by holding down the command key (on Mac) or control key (on PC) while clicking individual listings.
Once you've selected the listings you want to display on your site, click Save.
If you want to remove a listing, select it in the Selected Listings box and click Remove. This method requires you to manually add new listings from the MLS every time you want them to appear on your site, so you just repeat the steps above and look through the pages of found listings to add the new ones.
Location Filters
For location filters, the most specific ones will override the more general ones. For example, let's say I added two city filters: Boston and Cambridge. If I then decide to add filters for neighborhoods that are just within Boston, such as Back Bay and Beacon Hill, the city of Cambridge will no longer be featured anywhere on the site since the neighborhood filters are more specific and have narrowed the site down to only the city that includes those neighborhoods, which is Boston.
Featuring Listings on your Home Page
Featured Listings
Each of our designs allows you to manually select listings to feature on your home page. Many agents have their own listings or office listings that they want to highlight, and this is a great way to do so. First, go to Site Settings to find the Featured Listings tab.
Site Settings > Featured Listings
Featured Listings Slide Out
Within the Featured Listings slide out, you’ll see two tabs, which offer different options for selecting your Featured Listings. The first tab you'll see is Filtered Listings.
Filtered Listings
The Filtered Listings tab will allow you to add criteria for your site to automatically search through your MLS and display only those listings that match your criteria. To start adding filters to search by, click the dropdown menu next to Add Search Criteria. Let's say you wanted to filter by Zip code. Scroll down the list to the Location section and select Zip, then click Add.
This will create a field into which you can start typing your Zip code(s). When you start typing, you'll see some suggestions. Keep typing until you see the zip you want to filter by and click on it in the suggestion box.
Repeat this step as many times as necessary, then click Search. Once the search is complete, the Search Results box will display only listings from the zip(s) specified.
Once you've added all the criteria you want, scroll to the bottom of the pane and click Save to apply your filters to your site’s featured listings.
Adding Multiple Filters
Add as many filters as you’d like in the same way by selecting the appropriate filter category from the "Add Search Criteria" drop down. Once they’ve all been added, click Search to see your results. You can add a combination of different types of filters. See the example below, where the site is narrowed down to a few zip codes, with a maximum of 3 beds, minimum of 1 bath and a maximum price of $800,000. This has narrowed the total number of listings down to 214 listings after clicking Search.
The Filtered Listings tab uses an automatic process to update, so every time a new listing in the MLS matches the criteria you set, it will be added to the search results on your site.
Specific Listings
The Specific Listings tab gives you the opportunity to manually search for listings and add them to your site.
The search options are the same as on the Filtered Listings tab, but the selection process is different. Once you've added all the search criteria you want, you need to select a listing from the Search Results box and click Add to add it the Selected listings box; these listings will be the ones that appear on your site. The Specific Listings tab gives you the opportunity to manually search for listings and add them to your site’s home page. The search options are the same as on the Filtered Listings tab, but the selection process is different. Once you've added all the search criteria you want, you need to select a listing from the Search Results box and click Add to add it the Selected listings box; these listings will be the ones that appear on your site.
Pro tip: multi-select by holding down the command key (on Mac) or control key (on PC) while clicking individual listings.
Once you've selected the listings you want to display on your home page, click Save.
If you want to remove a listing, select it in the Selected Listings box and click Remove. This method requires you to manually add new listings from the MLS every time you want them to appear on your site, so you just repeat the steps above and look through the pages of found listings to add the new ones.
Inactive Featured Listings
If a listing you've selected to feature becomes inactive, it will automatically be removed from your home page. If you’d like to modify the featured properties in the meantime, you can always return to this screen.
Location Filters
For location filters, the most specific filters will override the more general filters. For example, let's say I added two city filters: Boston and Cambridge. If I then decide to add filters for neighborhoods that are just within Boston, such as Back Bay and Beacon Hill, the city of Cambridge will no longer be featured anywhere on the site since the neighborhood filters are more specific and have narrowed the site down to only the city that includes those neighborhoods, which is Boston.
Custom Domains
How and Where to Purchase a Custom Domain
Your Temporary Placester Subdomain
Your Placester site will be created a KW subdomain. This domain is based on the Keller Williams email address they’ve provided to Placester. So, if your email address is [email protected], your default subdomain will be agentname.kw.com.
Users with Existing Domains
Many of our users already own domains from sites such as GoDaddy.com. If that's the case, it's easy to point your custom domain to your Placester website. Learn more about doing so here.
Buying a New Domain
Other users might have had a domain provided by their company in the past. Or, some users are first-time website owners and have never owned a domain. If that's the case for you, you'll want to purchase a new domain. This isn't something that is provided directly through Placester. Instead, you can purchase a domain elsewhere and then point it to your Placester site.
Recommended Domain Registrars
If you're looking to purchase a new domain, these are some domain registrars we recommend: GoDaddy Hover Bluehost Enom.com Namecheap.com Name.com
What You Need from Your Domain Registrar
No matter which domain registrar you choose, just be sure that you'll have access to the DNS settings (both the A-Record and CName) once the domain is purchased - that's what needs to be adjusted to point the domain to your Placester site. We've found that some domain registrars, such as 1and1.com, do not allow you to change both the A-Record and CName, making it impossible to map a domain to a Placester site through 1and1. Or, HostGator and other providers charge additional fees to give you access to the DNS settings.
Our Favorite Registrars
GoDaddy and Hover are definitely our preferred registrars. They provide a simple setup and access to all of the settings you'll need at low prices.
Choosing Your Domain Name
You can check if a domain name you're interested in is available here. Not sure how to choose a domain name? Check out this article from our Marketing Academy that will give you some tips.
Pointing your Custom Domain to your Placester Site
If you have a custom domain that you want to use for your Placester site, you can substitute it for your standard siteX.myrealestateplatform.com web address. This article will outline the general steps for domain mapping with any domain registrar. Or, find articles specific to certain popular domain registrars here.
Changing the DNS Settings within your Domain Registrar
To take care of domain mapping, you’ll need to log into your DNS management platform and change the A-Record and the CName. These can usually be found within the Domain Name Systems (DNS) section or the DNS Zone File.
A-Record:
Points to the IP Address 184.169.141.142 Host should be @ or * depending on the registrar
CNAME:
Points to domains.myrealestateplatform.com Host should be www
Once you’ve completed these settings, log in at placester.com to access the back end of your site and complete the final step for domain mapping.
Site Settings > Custom Domain
This will bring you to the Custom Domain slide out.
Custom Domain Slide Out
Within the custom domain slide out, add the custom domain that you're looking to use. Use only lowercase letters, and be sure to include “www” when adding in your URL. Example: www.placester.com
Click Add Domain, then click Save.
Troubleshooting
If you've made all of these changes and are finding that your site still isn't loading, here are some potential causes: Caching: You have a cached copy of the site on your browser. Try clearing your cache, using a new browser or testing the site on a mobile device. Propagation: DNS adjustments take longer to propagate with certain domain registrars. We like to test and make sure everything has propagated using www.WhatsMyDNS.com. Errors in Site Settings > Custom Domain: make sure that you included the www before the custom domain and you didn't use any capital letters. Otherwise, the site will not load.
Pro Tip: DNS Tools
Here are some DNS tools that we recommend: Use WhoIs.com to find out where a domain is registered and the status of a domain Use WhatsMyDNS.net to check the current DNS records of a domain
Pro Tip: Purchasing a Custom Domain
Don’t have a Custom URL yet? We recommend purchasing from sites such as GoDaddy.com and Hover.com, which offer simple DNS management tools. You can find out more about this here.
Contacting Support
If you have any questions about your Placester website, please reach out to Placester’s dedicated KW Support at [email protected] or call 800-713-8068. If you have any questions about the myKW platform, eEdge, or any non-Placester services, please contact [email protected] or call 512-306-7191.