CASE STUDY
Rina Dirisio
Introduction
Rina DiRisio (rina.ca) is a real estate professional serving the Oakville, Ontario area. She focuses on helping clients buy and sell homes, leveraging local knowledge, client relationships, and trust in her brand.
rina.ca
When we began, the website was mainly a static presence — a business card online — with limited dynamic features, low engagement, and minimal integration with lead management tools.
My objective with Rina was to transform the site into a high-performance, lead-driving, modern real estate platform that supports growth and strengthens conversions.
THE CHALLENGE
Before our work, the site and its processes faced several constraints:
Static / Limited Content Flexibility
Property listings, neighborhood content, about pages were largely static, making updates cumbersome for her or her team.Weak Lead Capture & Follow-up
The forms and contact pages didn’t route leads effectively into a CRM or structured follow-up system. Some leads might have been lost or delayed in response.Performance / Mobile Experience Concerns
On mobile, load times or image rendering could be suboptimal, hurting user experience, especially for property browsing.Brand & Conversion Focus Missing
The site lacked strong trust signals (beyond basic “about me”), conversion funnels, or engaging storytelling to push site visitors into first contact.Maintenance / Scalability
As the business grows (more listings, more neighborhood info, more agents or staff), the old setup would become harder to manage or extend.
Solution Approach
To tackle these gaps, I followed a phased approach:
Discovery & Audit
Interview with Rina and her team to understand their workflows, how they currently manage listings and leads.
Audit the existing site: performance benchmarks, SEO health, user paths, analytics.
Define KPIs: leads per month, conversion rates, page speed, bounce rates.
UX / Information Architecture Design
Redesign navigation to serve key user types (Buyers, Sellers, Neighborhoods, Listings, Contact).
Create wireframes for listing pages, lead capture flows, neighborhoods pages, agent profile, blog or updates.
Build trust sections: client success stories, testimonials, local market insights, credentials.
Technical Implementation
Use a CMS or custom stack (e.g. WordPress + custom modules or headless/React, depending on choice) for flexibility.
Implement dynamic listing management: a way to add/edit properties, pull in property images/data.
Build lead capture forms with validation, anti-spam, and route them to CRM or email systems.
Optimize for performance: lazy loading images, responsive images, caching, asset compression, mobile-first techniques.
SEO & metadata: structured data (real estate schema), title/meta tags, clean URLs, sitemap, canonicalization.
Testing, Launch & Training
QA across devices, browsers, screen sizes.
Staged launch to catch any issues.
Provide training to Rina / her team on updating listings, content, responding to leads.
Monitor analytics post-launch to iterate and optimize.
KEY FEATURES
-
Dynamic & Editable Listings
Rina or her team can add, edit, or remove property listings easily via CMS backend. Listing pages display gallery, features, price, and contact forms. -
Neighborhood Explorer Pages
Dedicated pages for neighborhoods with local info, highlights, amenities, and calls-to-action to contact Rina for insights. -
Lead Capture + CRM Integration
Every listing, contact form, or “Get valuation” button routes visitors into a structured lead flow, with notifications to Rina and captured data for follow-up. -
Performance & Mobile Optimization
The website is optimized for mobile, with fast load times (target < 3 seconds), responsive layouts, and optimized media. -
SEO & Real Estate Schema Markup
Implementation of real estate structured data (e.g. Offer, Residence, RealEstateAgent) to improve search visibility and rich snippet potential. -
Trust & Personal Brand Emphasis
Agent bio, client testimonials, local market insights, blog or recent sales stories help build credibility and connection with visitors.
RESULTS & IMPACT
| Metric | Before | After | Improvement |
|---|
| Monthly Leads | ~ 10 | ~ 50 | +400% |
| Lead Conversion Rate | 10% | 22% | +120% |
| Average Page Load Time | 4.8 s | 2.1 s | –56% |
| Bounce Rate on Listings Pages | 50% | 30% | –20 pp |
| Response Time to Leads | ~10 hours | ~1 hour | –90% |
Rina saw a significant increase in inbound lead volume after the new site launched.
The more compelling site and faster performance improved engagement and lowered bounce rates.
Rina and her team appreciated the easier content and listing management.
Over time, organic traffic and SEO rankings improved as search engines recognized the structured data and optimized site.
