We are fully in 2017, which is a prime time to reflect on the climb IDX Broker took in 2016. It was a big year of transitions, growth, and increased software stability. Before we move forward into this year let’s see what features were released and gauge the growth that occurred in 2016.
Database Rebuild
This last year was exciting for us as we started the year with a focus on restructuring the core of how we process data. This rebuild resulted in more reliable data at faster intervals and a plan to roll out sold data to more markets.
Our primary focus coming into 2016 was on finishing the epic rebuild project. This makes the base of our service more stable and primed for growth, but we also added quite a few new features noticeable to clients.
Photo Gallery Page Dynamic SEO Settings
- For a long time now you have been able to customize some of the IDX pages to make them more search engine friendly. Unique content and even dynamic variables have helped your results and detail pages to rise the ranks in search engine results. Now we have also extended these SEO settings to the Photo Gallery page.
- This new functionality is similar to how the detail pages work. To add in some extra SEO to galleries, just visit this article to find out how to adjust your new settings.
Map Icons to Include Price
- Have you ever wanted to get a little more information from a single glance at an IDX map? Now you can. Our developers added an option for you to enable prices on the initial map view. Show the standard map pin, or choose property prices to give your visitors more information before they even select a property.
Upload Multiple Photos
- Uploading one photo at a time is outdated, so we changed it. Our modern interface allows you to upload multiple photos at once for your supplemental listings or to change featured listings.
New reCAPTCHA
- CAPTCHA is a good, easy way to reduce fraudulent attacks on your site and prevent spam from filling your in-box. We’ve updated our CAPTCHA to make it cleaner and easier for your visitors to use, while still blocking those robots.
- To reduce spam, just visit this article to find out how to add this to your contact forms.
Duplicate Widgets and Saved Links
- Save time by creating widgets or saved links once and duplicate the content while adjusting minute parameters to fit your needs.
- Duplicate Polygon widgets and saved links to avoid the tedious process of recreating polygon searches for multiple criteria.
IDX on SSL
IDX compatibility with secured sites got a lot of love in 2016. Making our widgets and pages work in both standard HTTP sites and those HTTPS sites secured with an SSL certificate is a project that we started in 2016. Our developers brought this capability to sites that maintain the standard idxbroker subdomain. In 2017 we hope to expand these efforts and have full SSL compatibility for all sites benefiting from IDX Broker service.
IMPress for IDX Broker WordPress Plugin
As over 60 percent of our clients use WordPress websites, it seems natural that we would make this union easier. In the last year there were great efforts to improve our plugin suite functionality and ease of use. Our WordPress plugins have added integration into WordPress forms and the ability to manage leads without ever leaving your WordPress dashboard. We also squashed some bugs, allowing greater compatibility for more website themes and web hosts.
IDX Broker is a pioneer in Real Estate property search technology and we are not going to slow down. We are putting resources into making our service more feature rich, stable, and user friendly this year. Be on the lookout for more exciting updates in 2017. We are always making the software work harder for you, so you can get out of the office, climb higher, and sell dreams.
