It's true, the big box sites are who your target audience thinks of when they want to search for properties online. But these macro sites dont know the local market like you do. They don't understand the nuances of how your target audience wants to search based on their needs. You do.

By leveraging the IDX tools to organize the data into a much more comprehensive presentation, you make it clear to your target audience that you understand their needs.

For example, if an area is best searched by lifestyle (as opposed to just price and size) you can place a widget offering search options like Golf properties, Lake properties, Horse properties, Condos, etc.

Also, if you are dedicated to showcasing the communities that you specialize in, you'd me remiss to not include listings along with your write up, pictures, videos, stats, etc.

So although they might not be coming to the site to start a search, they will stay on the site because of it.

We work with all the big IDX Companies such as: 
iHomefinder.com
IDXBroker.com
ShowcaseIDX.com
FlexMLS
Diverse Solutions
and more.

Pricing falls between $50/month to $100/month (for an agent website) depending on the level of services you include in the subscription. Brokers can expect to pay more depending in the number of agents on the roster.

Most IDX companies will charge a setup fee of around $100, and there could be an addititional fee from your web developer to integrate it for your needs. For example, if you have 20 communities that all need to showcase listings on their respective page, this will require some manual work, done at an hourly rate, to sort it all out.

Around half of all the MLS Boards have a fee called "Pass-Thru" which is tacked on to the monthly subscription. This fee ranges from $1/month to $30/month (I'm looking at you NWMLS).

It can. But usually it doesn't.

It doesn't because most people don't put in the work it takes to make a difference. If you are just flipping on an IDX, offering simple searches, simple results, and your featured properties, then you're not setting yourself apart from anyone else getting indexed into the search engines.

How can an IDX website for Realtors improve your SEO?

• Make sure listings are directly under your domain – not framed.
• Create pages unique to your target audience's needs and display active listings for those parameters.
• Create landing pages for all the different lifestyle and price searches for those unique needs, and display active listings for those parameters.
• Publish blog posts with active listings, and link from those posts to the above mentioned landing pages when appropriate.
• Use your chosen keywords or terms in Title tags & permalinks.
• Use different terms and keywords on different types of IDX pages.
• Social share buttons let consumers, and YOU share listings in social media.
• Shared listings create valuable backlinks to your site.