Real Estate Website Audit Checklist

Pull the top 25 organic landing pages from Google Search Console — typically the home page, neighborhood / city pages, and high-traffic listing-archive pages. Each needs a unique title under 60 characters and a meta description under 155. The common gotcha is duplicate templated titles across every neighborhood page.

Run the home page and a sample listing detail page through Google's Rich Results Test. Confirm RealEstateAgent or RealEstateOrganization schema on the brokerage page and Residence / SingleFamilyResidence on listing pages. Most IDX vendors (iHomefinder, IDX Broker, Showcase IDX) ship schema by default but theme conflicts often break it.

Name, address, and phone must match exactly between the website footer, contact page, GBP listing, and major citation sites (Zillow agent profile, Realtor.com profile, BBB). Suite-number and abbreviation mismatches kill local pack ranking.

Identify the IDX vendor in use (IDX Broker, Showcase IDX, iHomefinder, Realtyna, kvCORE / BoldTrail native, Real Geeks) and confirm the RETS / Web API refresh interval contracted with the MLS. Most MLSs require refresh at least every 12 hours; some require hourly. Stale listings on the public site are an MLS rules violation.

Pick ten random active listings on the site and compare price, status, photo count, and DOM against the MLS of record. Status drift (showing Active when MLS shows Pending or Closed) is the most damaging error — buyers call about a sold house and trust collapses.

Each MLS specifies the exact disclaimer language and attribution that must appear on listing detail pages — courtesy-of broker name, MLS source, last-updated timestamp, and copyright notice. Bright MLS, Stellar MLS, and CRMLS each have their own wording. Audit fines for non-compliant display run $250 to $5,000 per violation.

Test the home-page contact form, valuation / CMA request, listing-detail inquiry, neighborhood-guide opt-in, and any IDX registration gate. Use a tagged email like audit+formname@brokerage.com so you can trace where each lead lands. Capture a screenshot of the confirmation screen and the lead as it appears in the CRM.

In Follow Up Boss, kvCORE, Sierra, or BoomTown — confirm the lead arrived, the right round-robin or smart-routing rule fired, and the assigned agent received the SMS / email alert within 60 seconds. Orphaned leads sitting in an unassigned queue are the silent killer of paid lead-gen ROI.

Confirm the forced-registration trigger fires at the configured listing-view threshold and that new registrants land in the correct nurture campaign. Aggressive gating (registration on first listing view) hurts SEO and frustrates Zillow-trained buyers; loose gating leaves leads uncaptured. Check that TCPA consent language is present on any form that triggers SMS.

Search agent-written remarks on featured listings and neighborhood pages for terms like "family", "perfect for", "safe neighborhood", "walking distance to church", "adult community" (outside HOPA exemption), and demographic descriptors. These are Fair Housing Act red flags even when written innocently. Note that descriptions pulled from the MLS feed inherit the listing agent's wording — flag for the listing agent to correct at source.

State license law requires the brokerage's licensed name, license number, and equal housing logo to appear on every page — most commonly the footer. Team and agent pages need the agent's individual license number and the supervising broker's name. Florida, Texas, and California are particularly active on enforcement.

Cross-check the live agent roster against the brokerage roster in the state license portal. Departed agents still listed, active agents missing, and stale designations (REALTOR vs. agent, expired ABR / SRES) are common findings. Update headshots that violate brand standards (selfies, sunglasses) at the same time.

For each violation found, log the page URL, the offending element, the regulation cited (state license law section, FHA, MLS rule), and the responsible owner — site developer for footer issues, listing agent for descriptions, marketing coordinator for roster. Set a 5-business-day cure deadline; escalate unresolved items to the designated REALTOR.

Run the domain through SSL Labs and confirm an A or A+ rating, certificate expiry more than 30 days out, and HSTS enabled with a reasonable max-age. Mixed-content warnings on listing pages (image URLs served over http) are the most common finding and silently break browser trust.

The policy must disclose data collected by IDX registration, CRM tracking pixels, and any third-party analytics. CCPA requires a Do Not Sell link for California visitors; GDPR requires a lawful-basis statement and EU representative if marketing into the EU; TCPA requires explicit SMS-consent language anywhere a phone number is collected. Update the last-revised date when changes are made.

Wire fraud is the highest-severity threat to closing transactions — FBI IC3 reports billions in real-estate losses annually. The site should display a prominent warning advising clients to verify all wire instructions verbally using a known phone number, never relying on emailed PDFs or last-minute instruction changes. Place the warning on the contact page, agent bio pages, and any closing-resources content.

Use the ALTA-recommended wire fraud notice or the brokerage's E&O carrier's approved language. Place above the fold on contact and closing-info pages, and as a footer block on transactional email templates. Coordinate with the title companies the brokerage uses most often so client messaging is consistent.

Test the home page, top three neighborhood pages, and a sample listing detail page in PageSpeed Insights. Target LCP under 2.5s, INP under 200ms, CLS under 0.1. IDX-injected map tiles and high-resolution photo galleries are the typical culprits behind poor LCP on listing pages.

Run Screaming Frog or Sitebulb against the full domain. Common findings: expired listing detail URLs returning 404 instead of redirecting to search, redirect chains through old IDX vendor URLs, and orphaned neighborhood pages with no internal links. Export the issues list and ticket the high-priority fixes to the developer.

ADA Title III lawsuits against brokerage websites have surged — a search-form-only audit no longer covers exposure. Test home-page navigation, listing search, listing detail, and contact form with axe DevTools and a screen reader (NVDA or VoiceOver). Image alt text on listing photos, color contrast on CTAs, and keyboard navigation through the IDX search are the hot spots.

Compile findings into a single report scoped by section, severity, and owner. Walk the designated REALTOR through critical and high-severity items before circulating; route remediation tickets to the web developer, marketing coordinator, and individual agents as appropriate.