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Getting Started

Updated

 

Welcome to the Getting Started guide for your IDX Broker account! This is a great article to look through if you’re unsure about how to start using your account or just want to see an overview of some of the amazing features having an IDX Broker account gives you access to.

Note that your IDX Broker account is activated as soon as possible to provide you and any developers or designers you’re working with access to the IDX Broker tools and pages for integration purposes. With this in mind, your MLS approval may still be in progress and possibly require additional steps to be completed. Be sure to review any email messages you receive from approval@elmstreettechnology.com to ensure your MLS approval is completed as soon as possible.

For certain webhosts and webbuilders we have many articles specific to their hosting environment that will go over how to integrate IDX Broker into each platform or answers to questions commonly asked by clients using these services:

 

First steps and common questions

 

Show your listings with Featured IDs

For most MLSes, your IDX Broker account will be able to pull in listings where you’re the listing agent with our “Featured IDs” system. When you first start using your account it’s a good idea to double check whether the correct Featured IDs have been setup—to do this, navigate to Account > Featured IDs. 

On this page click on the “Agent ID(s)” button. You’ll then see the list of listing Agent IDs within our system for the Office ID set on your account. Make sure to choose the Agent IDs that match the listing agents you want to feature with your IDX Broker account. We have more details and screenshots for this process on our Featured IDs support page.
 

Why do I not recognize the agent IDs on this page or don’t see any agent IDs at all?

If you do not see the listing agent IDs you’re expecting to on this page there’s a few possibilities to consider. 

  • If it’s for a relatively new agent, they might need to first get a listing within the MLS for our system to present them as an option for you to select.
  • If you don’t recognize any of the names on the list or you’re not seeing any agent IDs at all, the office ID might need to be updated on your account. You’ll want to reach out to our Support team for assistance.
    • Note that some MLSes do not provide agent IDs or agent names to our system. More details on which MLSes are known to do this and some workarounds on how you can still show your listings on your site can be found in our “MLS Restricting Agent Name And ID” article.
 

Providing a search page to your visitors

With an IDX Broker account you get access to many useful pages and tools that are automatically created for you, including several types of search pages that you can link to from your site to enable your visitors to search through listings within your MLS. 

If you’re logged into your account, you can get a list of these pages by navigating to “Design > Website > Page Templates.” In the Page Templates section the name of each page you can link to will be on the left side under the “Page Title” column. You can right click and copy the link to any of these pages for use on your website.

The Advanced Search page is a particularly useful one to link to from your site as it provides the most search options to your visitors, allowing them to get results that match search criteria as specific or as general as they desire. Right click and copy the URL for the “Advanced Search” page, then start editing your site and create a link that uses that URL. Exactly how this is done can depend on where your site is hosted and what you’re using to edit your site. If you’re unsure how to make a link, you may want to reach out to the support of your webhost for advice or work with one of our developer partners who specialize in integrating IDX Broker into websites.

You can also click on the page name to open it in your browser for testing purposes; this will let you see how the search looks and functions for the visitors to your site.
 

Why does my search page not look like my site?

If the search page you’ve clicked on from your Page Templates section doesn’t look like the rest of your site, it’s likely that a new wrapper needs to be setup. A wrapper is a special page on your site that our system uses as a template, allowing for your search, search results, listing details pages and other features we provide for you to have the same look and feel as your website.
 

How do I setup a page to be a wrapper?

It’s best to setup a dynamic wrapper when possible so that any changes you make to your header and footer on your site are automatically pulled into our system. We have a great set of instructions on how to do this in our “Dynamic Wrapper Setup” article.

If you are using WordPress and are making use of our official IMPress plugin, it can automatically make a dynamic wrapper for you. Look through our “Automatically Create WordPress Dynamic Wrapper” article for more details on how to do this.

Alternatively, if you’re using GoDaddy’s webbuilder following the video and instructions on this page will also setup a dynamic wrapper for you automatically.

Finally, if you’re still having trouble setting up a wrapper for your site it’s always fine to reach out to our Support team for assistance.
 

How do I add a search bar to my site?

To add a search tool to your homepage or another part of your site, you’ll have to make use of a widget either from your IDX Broker account or through the WordPress IMPress plugin.

With a WordPress site using IMPress: you can use the Omnibar widget provided by our plugin to add a powerful search bar anywhere on your site you can place a widget. You can add it as a shortcode within a page using the examples we have in our WordPress Shortcodes article. There’s also advanced settings you can adjust for the Omnibar within the General Settings page of the IMPress plugin that you can read more about here.

For other sites: at this time, the other option available to embed a search form on your site would be to make use of the quick search widget. You can read more about how to use the ‘quick search’ widget and see some screenshots and instructions here.
 

Finding and using the Access Code

If your MLS approval is still in progress you’ll be asked to enter an ‘Access Code’ before you can see your search page. You can find the Access Code within your IDX Broker account under the HOME > Access Control section. On the ‘Access Control’ page click on the ‘Access Code’ tab to reveal the access code you will want to use while working on your site.

 

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Will I always need to enter an access code to use my IDX Broker pages?

No—Once the MLS approval process has completed for your IDX Broker account, the requirement for an access code to access your Advanced Search and other pages of your account will be removed. 

After entering your access code you’ll see your Advanced Search page with many different options that can be used together or by themselves to search the property listing information provided by the MLS feed on your account. Note the text in the URL bar of your browser—this is what you will want to copy and create a link to from your site so that your visitors can use your Advanced Search IDX Broker page.
 

Showing your listings on your site

To show your listings on your website, there are two main options built into your IDX Broker account: linking to one of your IDX Broker pages, or embedding the widgets provided by your account into your site. Additionally, if you are using IMPress for IDX Broker, our WordPress plugin, you can also make use of the WordPress widgets and shortcode options it provides to easily insert a showcase, a carousel and other functionality into your posts, pages, sidebar and other parts of WordPress.
 

Linking to an IDX Broker page

The first and usually easiest way is to add links to the pages we generate for you within the account under Design > Website > Page Templates section. Under the “Results Pages” category you’ll find pages like “Featured” and “Sold/Pending” that will already be setup to show your featured, active listings or the sold and pending listings associated with your account. In the same way as creating a link to your Advanced Search page, from your website you can link to your Featured or other results page to show your listings to your visitors
 

Why am I not seeing any or unfamiliar listings on my Featured Listings page?

If you’re not seeing the listings you expect on your Featured Listings or other pages within your account, you’ll want to double check and ensure your Featured IDs are setup correctly . If the agent IDs look accurate but it still seems like you’re missing or are seeing the wrong listings, note the listings and their MLS listing numbers and reach out to Support and we’ll be happy to help look into why this is happening and determine what needs to be adjusted.

 

Creating a predefined search with a Saved Link to easily show specific kinds of listings

Many of our clients make use of the Saved Link feature to provide predefined results pages from any of the search criteria available through your feed. These are great for featuring specific communities, neighborhoods, islands, or targeted local areas through a user- and seo-friendly URL. Check out our “Saved Link - Creation” page to watch a step-by-step video on how to create one as well as screenshots and other tips on all the options that are available!
 

Embedding widgets

The second option would be to make use of widgets to embed listing data directly on your site. Widgets are tiny snippets of code generated from within your account that you copy and paste into one of your pages to provide listing information, market reports and other functionality. Similar to saved links, when you’re using a listings showcase or carousel you can predefine what types of listings should be shown within the widget to ensure you have the most relevant properties displayed on your site. 

Read about all the different types of available widgets and how to create your own: “Creating & Managing Widgets” has great step-by-step instructions and screenshots to guide you through each part of the process!
 

Using IMPress for IDX Broker with WordPress

IMPress makes it really easy to insert information from your IDX Broker account into your WordPress site! With the plugin installed, you’ll see new widgets available when you’re editing a widget area of your theme like the IMPress Property Carousel or the Omnibar Search. Examples of these widgets are available on our “IMPress Widgets” page; you can take a look at our “Shortcodes - IMPress for IDX Broker Plugin” article as well to see how to add these widgets through WordPress shortcodes.
 

Next steps

Once you have a handle of the above, you’ll want to start diving into the more advanced features and settings available to you with your IDX Broker account.
 

Customizing your Advanced Search page by adding, removing and rearranging fields

The Advanced Search page provided by your account is pre-configured with fields that will be sufficient for many visitors of your site to perform a satisfactory search of the listings that are available through your account. But if it seems like a certain field is missing, there are certain fields you want to hide or set a default value for or you want to adjust how the fields are arranged you’ll want to look into our “Advanced Search Fields Layout” article that walks you through how to make changes like these.
 

Learn how to manage leads and lead registration within your account

As more and more visitors interact with your site and your IDX pages, you’ll see leads start to be generated from people registering with your account to keep track of their saved searches, saved properties or from submitting contact and other forms to express their interest in specific properties. 

You can review these leads and adjust many different lead registration settings from within your IDX Broker account!   

“Lead Management Overview” will go over the basics on how to manage and review the information associated with each lead, while "Request or Force Registration"  will walk you through configuring exactly when a visitor should be asked or forced to register before continuing use of your site.
 

Enabling HTTPS on your IDX Broker account

If your website is already loading securely over HTTPS with an SSL Certificate, you’ll want to enable HTTPS on your IDX Broker account as well to ensure your widgets and IDX pages load properly. Use the information on “Enable HTTPS or SSL on Your IDX Site” to see how to toggle this important setting!
 

Adding your own CSS and making Category or Page-specific wrappers

Many of our clients add their own CSS or have their designer or developer add CSS to their IDX Broker account to restyle their IDX search and other pages without having to make changes on their actual website. Check our our “Custom CSS” article for more details on how to do this. Just keep in mind that the IDX Broker Support team cannot provide technical support for custom CSS; you would want to work with a web designer or developer if you’re having trouble with this.

It’s also possible to setup category and page-specific wrappers within your account; for example, you could create a wrapper page on your site with more space that would only be used for displaying search results in a more comfortable format for your visitors. Read more about this feature in our “Category and Page Wrappers” article!
 

Setup a subdomain of your website for your IDX Pages

By default, your IDX Broker pages are served from a subdomain of idxbroker.com. This is perfectly functional, but it’s possible to serve your pages through a subdomain of your website’s domain, like listings.example.com, instead if you like, which can help create a more consistent experience for your visitors. Read through our “Setting Up a Custom Domain” article for a video and written guide, examples of how to perform this setup on the most common hosting services and answers to common questions about this feature.
 

Limit your available city, county or postal code list 

If you only work in a specific area of your region or the feed on your account is providing listings outside of your focus, you can create and set a custom city, county or postal code list on your account to limit what options are available to your visitors. Look over our “Custom City Lists” page for more details!
 

Submit a sitemap of your IDX pages to Google 

Your account also generates an XML sitemap that is particularly useful for increasing the search coverage of your IDX pages, making it easier for people using a search engine like Google to find your listings. Follow our steps on how to “Submit an XML Sitemap to Google” to ensure your pages are as easy to find as possible!
 

Reach out to a Developer Partner for custom integrations or enhancements

If you have a unique need or want a professionally created custom integration or website for your brokerage you’ll want to take a look at our list of developer partners! Use the search and filter on the left side to find a partner who specializes in what you’re looking for, then click on their logo to jump to their website, review what they offer and see how to get in touch.

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