How IDX/VOW Application Can Boost Your Real Estate Website Performance Compared to IFrames

Many Internet Data Exchange (IDX) and Virtual Office Website (VOW) vendors provide solutions in the form of iframes. But first of all, what are iframes? There are many reasons why you may prefer to embed an application rather than encapsulating in an iframe.

Better Integration with the Rest of the Website

The embedded application can communicate with the parent page using JavaScript and CSS, allowing for a seamless user experience.

This allows the embedded application to inherit the styles and functionality of the parent page, such as fonts, colors, and layout. This can help create a more consistent user experience and ensure that the embedded application fits in seamlessly with the rest of the page.

An iframe, on the other hand, often feels isolated from the rest of the site as a separate component.

In addition, embedding an IDX/VOW application allows for more direct interaction between the application and the real estate website. For example, a real estate website can be enhanced with visitor registration, booking listings and directly or indirectly communicating their interests with the realtor from any interaction points in the parent website, making it more fluent to capture leads from visitors.

Greater Control Over the Appearance and Behavior

With iframes, it can be more difficult to control the appearance and functionality of the embedded content.

When an application is embedded, it is possible to apply CSS styles to the external content directly from the parent page. This allows for greater control over the appearance of the external content, such as changing colors, fonts, and layout. Professional web designers often need to tweak how each component looks so the final product can feel more coherent.

Because the embedded application is loaded directly into the page’s Document Object Model (DOM), it is possible to manipulate how it functions based on specific needs of the real estate website.

In general, embedding an IDX listing or hosting a VOW website provides a better user experience to visitors of your real estate website. For many web developers and realtors it makes a better choice looking for a professional, clean real estate marketing website.

However there may still be some cases where iframes are a better choice, such as when embedding an application is not possible or technically difficult. Iframes provide a quick and easy solution where you don’t have to worry about interoperability or integrating with your existing brand. Therefore, both implementation options are viable for different scenarios.