Drupal Web Site Design, SEO and Database Design | Metro Manhattan Office Space, Inc.

Overview

www.nyc-office-space-leader.com is commercial real estate web site operated by a New York City based real estate broker. The site is used primarily for lead generation.

Global Objectives:

1. Refocusing the site on specific actions for the end-user: browse, search, contact.
2. Reducing the number of clicks by streamlining the whole process for visitors.
3. Improve search engine ranking and quantity and quality of visitor traffic.

Furthermore, the site should be focused around three tasks--and only three
tasks--for the visitors:

1. Browse our listings
2. Fill out this form to search our MLS
3. Fill out this form to get expert assistance

The project includes eleven tasks designed to achieve the above objectives. Those tasks are listed below:

1. Landing Pages

Neighborhood and property types (see home page menus) constitute landing pages. Each landing page is to display featured listings and other listings (see enclosed mock up). Featured Listings have photos. Both property types are to have a property detail page.

A. Complete landing page redesign (navigation menus, masthead, customer contact panel and geo-coding of listings). See enclosed mock up. See http://dev.nyc-officespace-leader.com/browse/grand-central.

B. Each landing page is to display a map showing location of each featured property and other property. Longitude and latitude for properties are to be acquired from the building database (see item #6).

If neighborhood landing pages do not display a minimum number of listings, the map should display listings from adjacent neighborhoods.

C. Create unique icons for office, loft, law firm, medical, art gallery, retail space (plus others). These icons will differentiate these categories from office space, which constitute 80% of all listings. The icons are to be small and discrete.

Icons are to be placed next to each featured and other property (on the landing pages) and on each property detail pages.

D. Add addresses of the largest buildings in each submarket at the bottom of each neighborhood landing page.

E. Add list of corresponding zip codes to the bottom of each neighborhood landing page.

F. Place local news feeds at the bottom of each landing page. The purpose of the feeds is to add dynamic content and thereby improve SEO.

1. Navigation Menus/Masthead

A. Redesign navigation/menus masthead per enclosed mock up.

B. Consolidate info/faq pages under “Commercial Real Estate FAQ” menu item.

D. Add personalized video to appear at the top of Masthead (see mock up).

E. Add customer contact contact panel. Panel to have icons for the phone number, email contact form, Twitter and LinkedIn. Set up Twitter and LinkedIn.

F. Install new navigation menu on Mr. Office Space search result page. This page is proxy page residing on the Yale Robbins server. It shows search results to visitors. Since it is somewhat narrower than our standard page, it may need customized navigation.

G. Add a link a link at the top of the masthead allowing landlords to display their space. When the link is clicked landlords will be directed to a page that allows them to list their space. Since this is link is experimental it should be possible to remove.

1. Home Page

A. Redesign and reformat homepage with improved navigation, masthead and contact panel per enclosed mock up.

1. Google Analytics

A. Restructure paths and implement Google Analytics for all neighborhood and property landing pages.

Example: Change to: http://nyc-officespace-leader.com/grand-central to:
http://nyc-officespace-leader.com/browse/grand-central
Change to: http://www.nyc-officespace-leader.com/commercial-loft-space to:
http://www.nyc-officespace-leader.com/browse/commercial-loft-space

B. Set up Google analytics or an alternative tracking method to evaluate customer behavior and conversion rates for visitors who enter the Mr. Office Space proxy page versus visitors who remain on the primary site. Determine if using the Mr. Office Space database improves customer engagement and conversion.

1. Property Detail Pages

A. Redesign layout for the featured property detail pages and regular
property detail pages (See www.nyc-officespace-leader.com/Midtown-West-Below-Market-Sublease). The two property categories differ in that featured listings have photos and more elaborate descriptions.

B. Set up automated listing IDs for the paths of the property detail pages. Paths for properties should be numeric or numeric plus component of address, neighborhood and/or type of space. Set up Drupal taxonomy to automatically generate page description, page title and keywords tags for all property detail pages.

C. Reconcile featured properties and other properties so that other properties all have a corresponding detail page (see www.nyc-officespace-leader.com/Midtown-West-Below-Market-Sublease) like featured properties have. The database reconciliation of both listing categories has been partly completed but needs to be finished. Major components of the PHP programming are done.

1. Building Database for Property Detail Pages and Geo-Coding

The building database will automatically fill in the fields that pertain to buildings in the listing detail pages. The completed fields below pertain to buildings:

Property Details
Address: West 38th Street Condition:
Cross Streets: Sixth & Seventh Avenues Heating & Cooling:
Submarket: Garment District Kitchen:
Size: Bathrooms:
Suite: Views:
Base Rent: Work Letter:
Monthly Rent: Building Size: 47,000 SF
Electricity: Building Class: B
Misc. Monthly: Number of Floors: 9
Lease Type: Attended Lobby:
Lease Term: Elevator Access:
Ideal Use: Year Built: 1908
Updated: Available:

The database will be provided in a CSV format (see enclosed sample for Chelsea) and will contain information for all Manhattan buildings.

The database contains fields for building address, cross street, longitude, latitude, building location, building class, year built, rentable building area, number of stories, building name, market name as well as latitude and longitude (to be used for geo-coding).

The implementation of the database should allow the user to find duplicates and correct errors. It should also allow for the occasional over ride entries in the property detail fields if the database has a mistake.

NOTE: Building information is distinct from listing information. Building information is static. A building never changes location or sizes. Listings for individual spaces change constantly and do not constitute part of this database. Listings will be entered in manually.

1. Title, Description and Keyword Tags for Property Detail Pages

Drupal modules that enable the automatic completion of the above tags should be set up.

1. Domain Name Transfer

Transfer domain to www.metro-manhattan.com from www.nyc-officespace-leader.com.

Change domain in such a manner so as to reduce negative impact on search engine ranking. Transfer to be done in a manner that retains PR and ranking of existing domain (as much as possible). Assess SEO impact before implementing the transfer.

1. Visitor Information Form

Visitors are to be required to complete a visitor information form if they want to view more than five featured (or other) listings. The form is to be identical to the form visitors complete to access the master database (Mr. Office Space). If a visitor has completed a visitor form to view the master database they should not be required to submit it again to view featured or other properties. If a visitor has completed a visitor form to view the featured and other properties they should not be required to submit it again to view the master database (Mr. Office Space).

The site administrator is to be allowed to adjust the number of featured and other properties that a visitor can view before being obliged to complete a visitor form.

1. Add Data Scraping Module to Scan Commercial Real Estate Sites for Property Listings

A. Add data scraping module to acquire real estate listings from specific commercial real estate web sites. The acquired data is to be used to populate the featured and other listings in the landing pages.

B. The user is to have the ability to select which of the acquired listings will be displayed in the landing pages.

C. Building database data is to be appended to these listings to complete the property detail page fields and to determine geo-coding.

D. The user is to have the ability to modify the appearance of these listings in the landing pages and the property detail pages. The user is to have the ability to upgrade these listings to Featured Listings (add photos and descriptions).

E. The data scraping module interface is to indicate if a listing has been removed from a commercial real estate site (where we acquire listings), allowing the user the choice of removing that space from the site thereby keeping the listings current.

F. The data scraping module interface is to have the capacity to determine if a new listing has been added to a commercial real estate site (where listings are acquired) or if a listing that we are currently displaying has been eliminated. Lists of new properties are to appear in an admin area. The administrator is to be able to select which spaces are to be added as featured and other listings or which spaces are to be removed.

G. The data scraping module is to acquire listings from certain types of buildings (loft buildings, medical buildings, showroom buildings) and to use that data to populate listings in the types of space landing pages (loft, medical, showroom etcetera…). The user is to be able to specify which addresses are loft, medical and showroom space.

H. The data scraping module is to operate from a different ip address. Under no circumstances is it to be possible to trace the data scraping module back to our site.

I. A sample of about a dozen potential commercial real estate sites for data scraping are enclosed in an attached spread sheet.

1. Visitor Reports

A. Currently only the property search form data gets recorded in this report. The report should be modified so it records all inquiries sent from any listing detail page or any other form completed on the site.