About the Wordpress Plugun
With the purchase of the Wordpress Plugin Token, you can set up an additional WordPress website with btPRO to attach to your Agent, Team, Office or Company. This will also include a vanity domain if desired.
If you want to use the WordPress plugin, there are a few things you need to know, including some requirements for use.
Please Note: The WordPress Plugin is only compatible with wordpress.org and NOT wordpress.com.
Disclaimers
Custom Websites
Using the WordPress Plugin is committing to a 100% custom website. This means that there is no dedicated configuration support from Inside Real Estate. There are various technical aspects of getting your custom website up and running, designing it, and maintaining it. It is recommended you work with a 3rd party Wordpress expert if you are unfamiliar with this on your own.
What do the plugin and kvCORE WordPress token include?
The token purchase (required to connect your WordPress website to btPRO through the available plugin) grants you access to integrate your btPRO account with a custom WordPress website. Listing data becomes available for you to use on a WordPress site and leads captured automatically flow back into your CRM.
Website & Domain Hosting
In this and subsequent WordPress guides, you can use any domain or website host you want. This article will use GoDaddy to demonstrate the different concepts, as the general ideas and processes will be very similar regardless of which host you plan on using. It's generally a good idea to purchase your domain and website hosting from the same place because it will save you a lot of time configuring the connections between your domain name and your website host.
Please Note: The WordPress option is great for a single domain, such as an Agent or Office website. Under no circumstances should you consider using the WordPress token on your Company website without very careful planning. All of your Office, Team, and Agent websites are subdomains of your Company domain.
As such, following this guide to install WordPress on your Company domain will cause all of your Agent, Team, and Office websites to go OFFLINE. It is possible to use the WordPress plugin on a Company domain, however, it would require extensive and detailed planning to accomplish, and, depending on your unique configuration, it may not actually be possible.
Please request a consultation with the Professional Services team before proceeding if you are considering launching a WordPress site for your Company's domain.
Prerequisites
Domain Hosting
The first thing you'll need is a custom domain name. A domain is the website URL that people will use to access your site. Domains usually have a one-time setup fee as well as a monthly or yearly maintenance fee. If you fail to renew your domain name ownership by paying these recurring fees, your domain name could get sold to someone else and their website would display instead of yours.
Your chosen domain registrar will most likely have a domain name search function on their website where you can confirm your desired domain is available.
Begin by typing your desired domain into their search engine.
Click Search.
The Domain Registrar will tell you if a domain is available or not, followed by the costs of the domain. Generally speaking, ".com" is king. But, any short domain that uses ".io" or ".co" or anything that makes sense for a business is becoming more mainstream now.
Once you've confirmed it's available, purchase the domain through that registrar.
Web Hosting
The second item on your list will be web hosting. Usually, when you're purchasing a domain name you'll be selecting a website hosting package at the same time. Website hosting is essentially a piece of the Internet that you purchase space for your website to have a place to live in. You need to pay for storing the files that make up your custom website and providing access to it.
There are all kinds of ranges of website hosting options. For example https://www.godaddy.com/hosting/wordpress-hosting
Looking at the hosting options on GoDaddy there are options ranging from $7 to $25 per month. There are lots of included features like a free domain and Office365 Email Account.
You also have options elsewhere like: https://www.bluehost.com/special/wordpress
Which is best? It almost doesn't matter. You can certainly start with the cheapest package and go from there. If you're getting enough website visitors or if your WordPress professional recommends an upgrade for performance reasons, then you can easily address it in the future.
The majority of the hosts you may purchase services from make it easy to upgrade. And in most cases, you can designate an account 'Administrator' to let them handle those issues for you.
Mapbox
You must also set up a Mapbox account since you will need an 'Access Token' from them to use with the plugin. Please make sure to do this for successful installation and setup.
Purchasing the Wordpress Plugin Token
In order for you to use the plugin that you download, you will need a special token. This token is emailed to you after you purchase the WordPress plugin from the Marketplace.
To purchase the Wordpress Plugin Token navigate to the Marketplace using the main navigation on the left hand side. Click into the Wordpress Plugin tile and select 'Add to kvCORE' on the top left.
You will need to fill in your Broker of Record info, payment info, and billing info on the following form. After submitting it, you'll see a confirmation and an email will be delivered to you from 'kvcore@insiderealestate.com.'
The subject will be "kvCORE WordPress token [for websiteurl.com]".
You will need this token after you complete the WordPress plugin installation.
Please Note: You will not be able to purchase Google PPC Advertising through Inside Real Estate when using the WordPress Plugin.
Installation
This setup process will be different from host to host. But generally speaking, you should be able to follow the three below steps. This setup guide is intended for those who are technically inclined and are somewhat familiar with hosting and websites but may never have set up a WordPress installation before.
Install WordPress
WordPress Plugin Wizard
Install kvCORE WordPress Plugin
Please Note: If you require assistance you should contact your website host's support service. As mentioned previously, this is a generalized guide using a basic GoDaddy account. Most technical details will vary from one host or hosting package to the next so if you have made it this far and are not feeling confident, you should seek professional WordPress assistance.
Install WordPress
Please Note: If you purchased a managed WordPress hosting package, you likely can skip the Install WordPress Step
Almost all web hosts have what's called a 'cPanel' or 'CPanel Admin'. You'll need to access this cpanel which will contain many different tools and shortcuts for managing the different aspects of your hosting account.
Within the list of options, you'll have a Marketplace or Web Applications section that will contain a WordPress option. Once you find it, open it and follow the instructions or buttons to complete the installation.
(generic GoDaddy Hosting Panel Shown)
Installation Options
Most of the default options your host defines should be left as-is, like automatic updates, security settings, etc...there are only a couple of specific considerations you should make:
1. Domain and Location
Two of the options you'll have for configuring your WordPress site are its domain and location. You want to make sure that your domain is the one you would like to use, but the location is optional.
Generally speaking, if your website has no other purpose than to be your real estate search website, then you should install WordPress into the root directory, leaving any folder or directory field BLANK.
The only time to specify a directory is when you will have a home page that is not real estate search related which is possible, but rare.
Having a home page means that visitors would need to access the /homes/ directory on your website before being able to search; they would need to click something before getting to the search tools. Consider this decision very carefully because the more clicks you put in the way, the less leads you will generate. Use your default btPRO website as a guide as it's designed to generate the most leads possible.
2. Website Title & Tagline
The Website Title & Tagline is what will be seen by website visitors if they bookmark your site or if you share your site on social media platforms, like Facebook. You should define what your website is as concisely as possible since this will correlate with the number of leads you will generate.
After filling out the basic WordPress configuration form, you will then be redirected to your WordPress installation.
Your WordPress control panel is always located at the /wp-admin/ directory within the directory you chose to install. For example:
http://yourcustomwebsite.com/directory(Optional)/wp-admin/
Immediately after installation, you should be able to click on the wp-admin link or a get started button of some kind. This will take you to the WordPress Setup Wizard.
WordPress Setup Wizard
The first time you load /wp-admin/ you'll be presented with a setup wizard.
After clicking 'Start Wizard' you need to fill out all of your contact information. Please be as complete and as accurate as possible, as it will help with your website's ranking and relevance.
Remember to link all your social media accounts!
Theme Selection
When selecting a theme, DO NOT choose a theme with a sidebar! You can see a sidebar theme in the screenshot below with an 'X' as an example. A sidebar is a left-hand navigation menu and if you choose a theme with this left-hand navigation, your listing search and display pages will not look right.
Choose any of the other available themes to continue; the 'Lyrical' theme was chosen for this example.
After choosing a theme, please wait for the WordPress app to configure it.
After the install is complete, depending on your host, there may be an instructional tutorial. We recommend you follow it to get more familiar with the WordPress site editor.
When you are ready, close the control panel to access the WordPress Dashboard by clicking the 'X' in the top left corner.
The first thing you will need to do in /wp-admin/ is run an update on the default plugins. To do so, click on the Plugins tab to the left.
Filter out the plugins that need updates.
Select all of the filtered plugins and apply the update action.
kvCore Plugin Installation
Now you'll install the plugin.
TIP: If you're not starting in the Plugins section, navigate to the Plugins tab on the left of the /wp-admin/ section.
Click Add New at the top.
On the far right-hand side, search for kvCORE.
Then install it from the tile that appears from your search.
Once it's complete you'll see the install report on your screen. Click 'Activate Plugin' when you see the button.
That's it! Your kvCORE plugin is installed.
Setup
After installing the Plugin, click on kvCORE in the left-hand navigation.
This will bring you to the setup page.
First, paste your kvCORE Authorization Token from the email you received from Inside Real Estate into the appropriate field and click Submit.
After doing so your interface will update to reveal some new tabs to work with.
Next, paste the Mapbox Access Token into its field and click Submit again.
Note: The Mapbox access token can be found on your Account page in the center.
Finally, you'll click the 'Run' button for the page builder which populates all of our default pages.
You'll see a small loading animation running to the right of the button and after a few seconds, you will see all our default pages that the kvCORE Plugin auto-populates. You can click on the IDX Pages tab at the top to manage them.
When you create your own pages you can set them here so all of the different built-in buttons and links take visitors to your custom pages.
Finally, in completing the initial setup of your plugin, you must make a critical decision on registration.
Click on the Lead Registration tab.
It is recommended is that you enable lead registration on your site. Not doing so will result in a significant reduction of leads generated. Every facet of btPRO is designed to increase your bottom line and requiring users to register, resulting in more leads, is the main piece of that successful puzzle.
Registration
Off - Never ask anyone to register
Required - Visitors must register as leads when attempting to access listing photos or other site actions. Or when the conditions of 'Property Views' or 'Image Views' are met, such as a certain number of clicks on your website.
Optional - Prompt visitors to register when the conditions are met (same as 'Required' above), but allow them to dismiss the registration prompt.
When enabling lead registration, you'll need to set a couple of additional items:
Property Views - Set a number (0 for unlimited)
Image Views - Set a number (0 for unlimited)
Click on the Social tab at the top.
The fields on this page are connectors that will enable your site to give visitors an option to sign in with their social media accounts instead of typing in their email addresses to register.
For each option you want to give people, you must set up the connection.
The steps are generally as follows:
Sign up for the developer portal for the social media outlet, or access it if you already have a portal.
Create or select an API for third-party registration requests.
Paste in the 'Callback URL' and obtain the 'oAuth Client ID' and 'API Secret Key' from the social media outlet's API.
Custom Scripts
When it comes to WordPress, generally speaking, you are looking for WordPress Plugins to accomplish pretty much any function. If it's Google Analytics, a Facebook Conversion Pixel, Custom Chat, SEO tools, etc. Anything and everything comes in the form of a WordPress Plugin.
However, in some cases, you may need your own entirely custom script for what you're trying to accomplish. You can inject such scripts into the body of any of the kvCORE Plugin pages using the scripts tab. You cannot enter scripts into the header of the page using this tab.
Select the page you want this script to live on. You can add scripts to other pages separately.
Add or create your script in the JavaScript box.
Click Submit to save.
Add additional scripts to other pages by clicking the + button. It will add a new row below the script at the top of the page.
As you add additional scripts you may minimize this row with the arrow button.
Page Setup
Before you can get into the customization aspect of the WordPress site itself, you'll need to go through and configure a few things on your pages.
All of your pages are set up by default when you first clicked that 'Run' button. You can change the pages at any time, such as if you design a completely custom page in the future. However, we need to go through and configure the default pages first.
Click on the 'Pages' tab on the left.
On the Pages tab, mouse over a kvCORE IDX Page and click 'Edit.'
On the bottom right we need to make sure the layouts for our kvCORE IDX Pages have no sidebar, so click on 'Custom' layout and select the 'Full Width' option.
Do this for all kvCORE IDX Pages.
TIP: You must create your own Privacy Policy Page.
Set Default Agent
Access an Agent's Profile (or your profile) in kvCORE.
Once you are viewing the profile, copy the Agent ID at the end of the URL in the top address bar.
Go back to /wp-admin/ and click on the IDX Page Options tab.
Once there, scroll down to 'Default Listing Agent ID' and paste in the ID.
Any listing that is not an agency-owned listing will display the generic agent information in the Your Agent section of the listing details.
Reference Information
Title - The name of the page for various WordPress Settings.
Slug - The actual path to the page in the URL.
Shortcode - The page has no inherent design that you customize through this interface. It uses what are known as 'Shortcodes' which are widgets. For more information on Shortcodes, please review this article.)
Default Page Settings
Agent
Title: Agent
Slug: agent
Shortcode: [kvcoreidx_agent_profile]
Market Report
Title: Market Report
Slug: market-report
Shortcode: [kvcoreidx_market_report]
Offices
Title: Offices
Slug: offices
Shortcode: [kvcoreidx_offices]
Profile
Title: Profile
Slug: profile
Shortcode: [kvcoreidx_leads]
Properties
Title: Properties
Slug: properties
Shortcode(s): [kvcoreidx_search][kvcoreidx_listings]
Listing Detail
Title: Property
Slug: property
Shortcode: [kvcoreidx_listing_detail_page]
Manual Listings (Exclusives)
Title: Exclusives
Slug: exclusives
Shortcode: [kvcoreidx_listings exclusives="1"]
Manual Listing Detail
Title: Exclusive
Slug: exclusive
Shortcode: [kvcoreidx_listing_detail_page exclusive="1"]
Roster
Title: Roster
Slug: roster
Shortcode: [kvcoreidx_team]
Terms Of Use
Title: Terms Of Use
Slug: terms-of-use
Shortcode: N/A
Valuation Report
Title: Valuation Report
Slug: valuation-report
Shortcode: [kvcoreidx_valuation_report]
Privacy Policy
Title: Our Privacy Policy
Slug: our-privacy-policy
Shortcode: N/A
Sell
Title: Sell
Slug: sell
Shortcode: [kvcoreidx_valuation_pdf_search][kvcoreidx_valuation_pdf]
See ALL SHORTCODES here.
Customizing Your WordPress Site
If you haven't yet purchased, installed, and/or set up the WordPress Plugin, please review these guides first.
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER
The WordPress plugin is designed with customization in mind. In order to take advantage of this level of functionality, however, you must have a working knowledge of and be adept in markup languages.
If you are not familiar with markup languages, you must seek professional assistance in order to achieve your desired results.
Our Support Team cannot assist you with WordPress. We recommend contacting a knowledgeable professional to design exactly what you seek.
This guide is only intended to guide those who may be familiar with markup languages, but not WordPress, or those professionals seeking to know what our recommended best practices are for customizing the plugin.
Customization Options
If you're new to WordPress, but not new to HTML/CSS this section is for you.
The CSS file that dictates the style of the various classes used by the plugin is baked into the installed plugin.
The most basic way to customize the plugin components is with colors. These are controlled on the 'Branding & Colors' tab in the plugin settings.
All of the different colored components are listed on this page and you can modify them at will.
At the top of this tab, you may also change the "cards & filter design" which controls how a user interacts with a listing when they mouse over it. The rollover action reveals buttons such as 'save' or 'similar listings.' At this time there are two variants to choose from.
To change the CSS properties of the various plugin components, you will have to override those CSS classes with your own versions of them using the !important override.
Those classes are all pre-appended with "kv-."
This can be done in one of two ways.
First, you could create a custom WordPress theme that has those classes defined in it.
Or you can use the Global CSS editor which is accessible whenever you're viewing your WordPress site in editor mode:
WordPress Menus
(If you are new to WordPress)
You may recall from our setup guide that the various IDX Pages were all generated by the plugin and you had to change the layout of them in order for them to display properly. Once those pages are generated, you can add them to menus in WordPress.
Start by navigating to Appearance on the left and then click Menus.
You will see the default menus in WordPress which do not contain any of the new pages that were added by the plugin.
When viewing the Menus control panel, you can see the pages that you can add to it on the left.
You can add or remove any items within WordPress to your menus.
If you have any questions or need assistance, please reach out to Customer Support via the blue chat bubble to the right or by emailing prosupport@insiderealestate.com!