he success of Internet marketing. There are other examples, but they all tie back to the same simple fact. If you distract people, they will be less likely to go where you want them to go, and to do what you want them to do.

Assess Your Website
Visit your home page and ask yourself, what is the most desirable action you want people to take?

Advanced Summary: For real estate professionals, this article gives advice on improving your real estate Internet marketing by minimizing distraction on your website. Because clutter and distraction are the enemies of Internet marketing.

On a real estate marketing website, the goal is usually to lead visitors down a certain path. You can't always control where people will go or what they will click on, but you can at least offer your preferred path and make it easy to follow. This sort of "action path" is an essential ingredient of real estate Internet marketing.

But when you overload your web pages with too many items, you end up dividing the reader's attention, creating unneeded distraction, and increasing the likelihood visitors will leave your real estate website altogether.

The Distraction Factor
I see this a lot on the home pages of real estate marketing websites. Often, agents will participate in real estate link-exchange programs that require them to put logos with outbound links onto their home pages. The only problem is, when you take this to the extreme, you dilute your own brand and invite unnecessary distraction.

You're also giving people plenty of things to click on that will take them away from your website. Is that the best strategy for a home page? Distraction is the enemy of real estate Internet marketing.

This is just one example of distraction reducing the success of Internet marketing. There are other examples, but they all tie back to the same simple fact. If you distract people, they will be less likely to go where you want them to go, and to do what you want them to do.

Assess Your Website
Visit your home page and ask yourself, what is the most desirable action you want people to take? W

control where people will go or what they will click on, but you can at least offer your preferred path and make it easy to follow. This sort of "action path" is an essential ingredient of real estate Internet marketing.

But when you overload your web pages with too many items, you end up dividing the reader's attention, creating unneeded distraction, and increasing the likelihood visitors will leave your real estate website altogether.

The Distraction Factor
I see this a lot on the home pages of real estate marketing websites. Often, agents will participate in real estate link-exchange programs that require them to put logos with outbound links onto their home pages. The only problem is, when you take this to the extreme, you dilute your own brand and invite unnecessary distraction.

You're also giving people plenty of things to click on that will take them away from your website. Is that the best strategy for a home page? Distraction is the enemy of real estate Internet marketing.

This is just one example of distraction reducing the success of Internet marketing. There are other examples, but they all tie back to the same simple fact. If you distract people, they will be less likely to go where you want them to go, and to do what you want them to do.

Assess Your Website
Visit your home page and ask yourself, what is the most desirable action you want people to take?

and increasing the likelihood visitors will leave your real estate website altogether.

The Distraction Factor
I see this a lot on the home pages of real estate marketing websites. Often, agents will participate in real estate link-exchange programs that require them to put logos with outbound links onto their home pages. The only problem is, when you take this to the extreme, you dilute your own brand and invite unnecessary distraction.

You're also giving people plenty of things to click on that will take them away from your website. Is that the best strategy for a home page? Distraction is the enemy of real estate Internet marketing.

This is just one example of distraction reducing the success of Internet marketing. There are other examples, but they all tie back to the same simple fact. If you distract people, they will be less likely to go where you want them to go, and to do what you want them to do.

Assess Your Website
Visit your home page and ask yourself, what is the most desirable action you want people to take?

when you take this to the extreme, you dilute your own brand and invite unnecessary distraction.

You're also giving people plenty of things to click on that will take them away from your website. Is that the best strategy for a home page? Distraction is the enemy of real estate Internet marketing.

This is just one example of distraction reducing the success of Internet marketing. There are other examples, but they all tie back to the same simple fact. If you distract people, they will be less likely to go where you want them to go, and to do what you want them to do.

Assess Your Website
Visit your home page and ask yourself, what is the most desirable action you want people to take?

he success of Internet marketing. There are other examples, but they all tie back to the same simple fact. If you distract people, they will be less likely to go where you want them to go, and to do what you want them to do.

Assess Your Website
Visit your home page and ask yourself, what is the most desirable action you want people to take? What is the second most desirable action? From a visual standpoint, does the placement and prominence of these two paths support their importance? Or do they battle for attention with a dozen or more distractions?

* You may republish this article online if you retain the author's byline and the active hyperlinks below. Copyright 2007, Brandon Cornett.