Enhancing Property Listings with TLDs: A Strategy for Real Estate and Rental Platforms

For platforms, websites, and rental owners dedicated to property listings, the start of 2024 has sparked a wave of innovation in marketing strategies. This has been seen across all subsets, from short-term rental accommodations (think Airbnb and Vrbo) to commercial property listings and traditional real estate offerings (like Zillow or Realtor.com.) And with a crowded market at play, having that strategic advantage is a must.

One emerging opportunity lies in utilizing personalized top-level domains (TLDs), like .rentals or .house for property websites. In fact, according to a third-party survey by Nacho Industries, 96% of real estate and vacation rental owners would prefer to share a link to their property listing that is more branded or customized to the property.¹

Market research agrees that professional and memorable digital identities are in demand, signaling a shift toward more sophisticated online platforms. Read on to discover the benefits and ease of integrating unique TLDs into your platform to strengthen your branding and boost customer engagement.

The Digital Marketing Landscape in Real Estate 

In industries traditionally dominated by billboards, flyers, and word-of-mouth advertising, how important is digital marketing? According to one survey, the answer is “very important,” as rated by 76% of real estate and rental professionals.²

Digital marketing has changed how long- and short-term rental and real estate owners showcase and market their properties. You can’t sell what customers can’t see, and in today’s world, being seen means being online. Having a digital marketing strategy—including enhanced listings, social media, and personal branding—is crucial for standing out against growing competition.

The Rise of Custom TLDs in Property Marketing

As mentioned, being seen is an essential first step, but how you’re seen is what can secure a sale. Custom TLDs contribute to this by sharpening your professional image, allowing you to share listing links that are short, memorable, and relevant to your platform. Rather than a string of random letters and numbers, imagine your platform or your property’s name followed by a memorable TLD such as:

• .house
• .rentals
• .estate
• .properties

With more than a third of rental property owners and real estate platforms seeking better ways to share listings,² custom TLDs like the above are gaining traction for their simple shareability and professionalism. 

This trend is supported by the movement of significant realtor affiliations and platforms such as Compass, RE/MAX, and Coldwell Banker—indicating a widespread shift towards innovations like custom TLDs to market properties more effectively.

What Are the Benefits of Offering Custom TLDs for Property Listings?

Market research suggests custom TLDs address many rental property owner and rental platform challenges (and preferences). Here are just a few benefits personalized domains offer:

Improved Branding

With customized domain extensions, you can enhance the branding of your listings with creative and memorable names, that reflect the property’s unique characteristics while standing out to visitors. 
For instance, which of the following listings would customers likely think of as more personal? 

• listing.com/gF6uLPkc5wLAeMQep318083391?source_
• luxuryretreats.rentals

Personalized marketing means more than addressing a potential buyer by name; it means delivering relevant, customized content to improve their experience, like the second example. By leveraging custom TLDs, you build an on-brand image and present yourself as a modern platform or property listing from the very first impression.

Increased Shareability

For most listing sites, a standard “shareable” link often translates to a long, tangled mess of random letters and numbers that consume several lines of space on desktop and mobile views. 

Notably, less than 20% of real estate professionals and property owners feel that long links are acceptable. In fact, the majority state that they look “unprofessional” and desire cleaner sharing options.

A custom TLD like citycenter.apartments cuts the confusion and simplifies sharing across digital channels like email, social media, and SMS messaging. Unlike long, complicated URLs, a custom TLD is concise enough to fit in print on business cards and flyers and simple enough for someone to type into a search without error. 

Reflecting on current behaviors, a significant portion of respondents share their property listings through emails (58%), text messages (52%), and social posts (60%),¹ showing the importance of easily shareable and memorable links. By incorporating custom TLDs, property owners not only enhance the professional image of their listings but also make sharing across digital platforms more straightforward and effective. With custom TLDs, sharing becomes not just a necessity but a seamless part of engaging potential clients, streamlining access to digital content—no matter when or where potential customers might see it.

Professional Appearance

Personalized TLDs, like elegantestates.agency, instantly communicates sophistication and uplifts your listing’s professional image. With a custom domain extension, you signal to your customers’ potential buyers or renters that the property is of high quality and that the sellers are serious and professional. 

This polished appearance can significantly influence a customer's perception and decision-making process. Consider this: The average customer forms an opinion about a website in approximately 0.05 seconds,² and a TLD is one of the first things they see and remember.

Establishing a strong initial impression through a professional domain name is crucial—it’s potentially the deciding factor in keeping a potential buyer engaged or losing a sale.

Memorability and Ease of Access

Generic URLs do little to distinguish property listings in a crowded market. And while link shorteners can help, they still result in addresses that are far too long, littered with dashes and hyphens that are impossible to remember. In fact, a common challenge that 40% of some real estate and rental professionals noted about their platform was customers forgetting which listing they liked among a sea of options.¹

Custom TLDs, such as beachfrontviews.villas, make property listings far more memorable and impactful—facilitating word-of-mouth marketing and improving your customers’ user experience by making your listings easier to find.

Integrating Custom TLDs Into Your Real Estate Platform

For all of the advantages that custom TLDs offer, integrating them into your platform is surprisingly simple. For the best results, consider the following if you’re looking to incorporate customized TLDs into your platform’s offerings:

#1. Assess Your Capability and Needs

Begin by evaluating your platform's infrastructure to understand how a domain-selling service can be integrated and identify any technical preparations that need to be made.

For example, Identity Digital offers two solutions for seamless integration:

• API Integration – This method directly links your real estate or rental platform with a domain registry, allowing direct access to custom TLDs. An API allows for seamless integration, enabling your customers to find and register domains quickly and easily.

• iFrame Integration – With an iFrame integration, you only need a small code snippet to embed domain registry access into your platform. This integration offers a fast, straightforward way for you and your customers to start setting up unique TLDs without a heavy technical lift. 

When assessing your options, it’s also important to consider your customer base—the property developers, owners, and rental operators who regularly use your platform. By matching a domain resale integration that meets their needs as well as your own, you set your platform up for success in the real estate space.

#2. Partnering with a Registry

A domain registry provides access to specific domains, such as .condos, .house, .villas, .rentals, and more. Ensure that your chosen registry carries the specific TLDs you wish to resell or use, especially those relevant to the real estate and rental industry. 

It’s also essential to make sure that your registry equips its domains with proven security frameworks to protect your platform, your customers, and their potential customers from online threats such as hacking, phishing, and spoofing. 

#3. Develop Guides and Resources

After settling on a registry, the next step is to create detailed guides and resources for your customers to educate themselves about the strategic advantages of utilizing custom domain names. Highlight how these domains can elevate their properties' online visibility, underscore the uniqueness of their offerings, and ultimately enhance their digital marketing efforts.

Educating your clients on these advantages empowers them to make informed decisions that can transform their digital identities, driving more attention to their listings.

#4. Implement the Infrastructure with Identity Digital

Having laid the foundation, you must establish a seamless domain infrastructure. Integrating backend systems, DNS management, and customer support can seem complex, but partnering with Identity Digital transforms it into a straightforward process. Identity Digital’s services help ensure: 

• Easy management of domain purchases through an advanced platform.
• Access to user-friendly DNS tools for quick and easy domain management for you and your users.
• Expert help whenever you need it, making domain management hassle-free.

Partnering with Identity Digital means focusing less on technical setup and more on leveraging TLDs to enhance your property listings. Identity Digital makes the process accessible, enabling you to efficiently establish and manage your online presence.

#5. Launch and Promote

Once your infrastructure is in place, the final step is rolling out the custom TLD service to your network. Promote this new offering through your marketing channels, emphasizing its benefits for enhancing online property listings. Consider introducing promotional pricing or bundled deals to encourage early customer adoption, underscoring the value custom TLDs add to their property’s digital presence.

Elevating Property Listing Platforms with Custom TLDs From Identity Digital

From these data-driven insights, it’s clear that the marketing strategy behind property listings must constantly evolve. As competition grows, rental property owners and real estate platforms must leverage strategies that provide a competitive edge, such as offering custom TLDs.

Identity Digital manages a vast portfolio of unique TLDs tailored for the real estate industry, allowing you to elevate your platform’s or property listing’s online presence and service offerings. This, in turn, sets you and your customers apart from the competition. For platforms that have not yet explored domain reselling, partnering with Identity Digital opens up new avenues for revenue growth, enhanced market reach, and unmatched online visibility.

Ready to elevate your real estate platform or vacation rental property with custom TLDs? By partnering with Identity Digital, you unlock a world of possibilities for your digital identity. Enhance your listings, stand out in the competitive market, and offer unique value to your customers. 

Take advantage of becoming a domain reseller—get in touch with the Identity Digital team today! 

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Sources: 

1. Forbes. You And Your Business Have 7 Seconds To Make A First Impression: Here's How To Succeed. https://www.forbes.com/sites/serenitygibbons/2018/06/19/you-have-7-seconds-to-make-a-first-impression-heres-how-to-succeed/?sh=4434ad8456c2‍
2. Nacho Industries. Real Estate & Vacation Rental Market. 2023 Research Report