What Should My Slideshow Captions and Links Be?
This article goes over ways you can make your website stand out from the competition by updating your homepage slideshow with great caption content and embedded URL links.
How does creating slideshow captions and links benefit a website?
Your website's homepage is the first digital interaction the bulk of your audience will have with you. It is crucial to grab visitors attention immediately, so leveraging brief, clean copy and embedded custom URL links goes a step further. By taking advantage of the slideshow captions, you are proving that your website offers every detail they would want and need to know about your brand.
What should my captions be?
Your slideshow captions should grab attention and be relevant to your images and services. Having an image of a great home should be matched with a caption about the home, or similar homes. Something like "Find your dream home" or "Move in to a beautiful home" is a better match to an image of a house than "Search local listings" (although that still makes sense for the services you offer). If you operate in a part of the country with great landscapes, a caption for an image of that might be "Enjoy splendid local scenery" or "Experience natural beauty".
There’s no reason to hold back – let buyers know what a great house they are looking at by detailing its amenities. This could include elaboration on a stone or brick exterior, Mediterranean or contemporary style, or large green gardens with automatic sprinklers. But it can also be about marble baths, roof decks, floor to ceiling windows, wine room and a gym. Rich photo captions are a great way to drive traffic to your listing. Think about adding the words "beautiful" or "gorgeous" to photo captions, since those sell 15 percent faster. Actually, the difference between describing the rooms in a home as “beautiful” versus “move-in condition” is about $12,500 on a $250,000 home.
Google and other search engines have a special image search function. By including a keyword specific to local area to information about the rooms and amenities, your property listing is much more likely to show up in buyers’ searches. Think of the easy one like name of the city, and those often neglected in captions, like nearby nature parks or sand beaches. Corona Del Mar in the City of Newport Beach at the foot of the San Joaquin Hills, spectacular views, shopping, night life, great seafood. They all sound great!
Which type of links should be used?
There are 2 types of links you can use in your slideshow: internal and outbound links. Internal links will take the site visitor to another page within your site
Internal links: Internal links allow you to direct site visitors to certain pages on your site. You could use the a slideshow image to link to a featured listings page, your blog page or local area profiles.
You can also display a new featured listing - if you have a listing you want to give additional attention, adding a high quality photo of the listing with an embedded URL to the MLS listing within your site will do the trick. Also, by frequently change listing photos on your website’s homepage to keep it fresh and ensure it features the most attractive homes
You could also try showcasing local attractions and points of interest. Take photos of the best restaurants, stores, and other venues in your market. By adding a URL which links to an area page which matches the image is a clever way to draw attention and target the right leads.
Outbound Links: Since SEO is all about getting people to visit your site, having outbound links which leave your website is just as important to inbound links. These resources that provide further help and valued context, will result in building a strong branding persona and search engine ranking.
Link to a Market Report - By uploading a preview image of a market report within your slideshow pages, you can share relevant information with homebuyers.
Listing videos are great to share with visitors, as are video testimonials from happy customers. If you have a YouTube channel with great video content, a slideshow image with a link is a great place to advertise that - it will be one of the first things visitors to your site see.
Need more help?
If you have additional questions about managing your slideshow, let our support team know at support@placester.com.
