What's New: A Year of Updates

This is the first Avenue changelog, and it covers a full year rather than a single month. Because Avenue runs two generations of sites, it's organized by which one you're on: Classic sites first, then the updates that reached every site, then our newer sites — where most of this year's work landed.

Not sure which you're on? Email help@avenuehq.com and we'll tell you. Future entries will be shorter and land monthly.

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On Classic sites

Most newly built features this year went to our newer sites. Work on Classic focused on search visibility.

Getting found

IndexNow. Search engines are notified the moment a page on your site changes, instead of waiting to discover it on their own schedule. A price change or a new listing gets picked up in hours rather than days. Nothing to set up.

Canonical tags on listing pages. Listing pages now tell search engines which version is the original. Without this, near-identical listing pages compete with each other and split the ranking between them.

llms.txt. Your site now includes a file that lets AI search tools read and understand it. As more buyers start their search in an AI tool rather than a search box, this is what makes your site legible to them. It's live already.

Newsletters

Cleaner templates. Newsletter templates read more clearly, and signature images keep their original dimensions instead of stretching. Both apply automatically to newsletters you send from here on.

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On every Avenue site

These reached both Classic and newer sites, or were built into the listing feeds and lead handling that sit underneath both.

Listings

One filter set, everywhere. Property Type, Building Type, and Style now behave the same way across every MLS feed and everywhere listings appear, and property types display consistently. Consistent filters mean fewer visitors abandoning a search halfway through. See how filters work on a listings page.

Faster imports. Listings import automatically once your MLS agent ID is approved, rather than waiting on a manual step, and file names are preserved when you upload your own. There's nothing to do — it happens on approval.

Capturing leads, and knowing where they came from

Prompted lead forms on listings. A listing can ask a visitor for contact details at the right moment — after a few photos, say, rather than on the first click. It turns a casual browse into an actual lead instead of a bounce.

Where a lead really came from. Every lead now carries the country and IP address it came from, and UTM tracking runs across all lead forms. If you're selling homes in Calgary and a lead arrives from Belarus, that's worth knowing before you spend an afternoon following up. More on managing leads in your Contacts manager.

Analytics and pixel tracking. Google Analytics and the Meta Pixel connect from your dashboard settings, without a developer. Enter your IDs once and every form and page reports through them.

Safer, more complete forms. Forms can require a consent checkbox when collecting a phone number, require a phone number outright in pop-ups, and run reCaptcha to keep junk submissions out of your database. All three are options in your form settings.

Getting found

schema.org markup. Your site now describes itself to search engines in a structured way, including your testimonials. This is what lets a search result show stars and review counts instead of a plain blue link.

Link previews that render. When someone shares a page from your site, the preview image now includes its dimensions and displays correctly. Sitemap and footer sitemap issues were corrected at the same time.

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On our newer sites

Our newer sites run on a new Website Builder, built from sections. Most of this year's feature work landed here.

Visitors can pick up where they left off

Save a search, save a listing. Visitors can save a property search and return to it later instead of rebuilding filters every visit, and save individual listings to build a shortlist. A buyer who saves a search has told you exactly what they're looking for, which is better information than a name and an email address. Both are live, with nothing to set up.

Track your visitors, not just their visits Visitors can register and manage their profile, saved searches, and saved listings from a single dashboard. Registration turns an anonymous browser into a named contact in your database. Check that your Register page is linked in your navigation so people can actually find it.

A rebuilt search bar. The search bar has a cleaner layout, faster and more predictable filtering, and a dropdown that closes properly when a visitor clicks away. Visitors who find homes quickly stay on your site, and the ones who don't leave for a portal.

Map search that keeps up. Map search now keeps pace with what a visitor types, with live address autocomplete. A visitor waiting for the map to catch up is a visitor wondering whether the site is broken.

Filter saved searches by style. Saved searches can be narrowed by building style, so a visitor comparing options doesn't have to start over.

Listings

AI-powered search. Visitors can search listings in plain language — "3-bedroom condo near downtown" — instead of clicking through dropdowns. It's faster on mobile especially, where every filter costs a tap.

Status badges. Listings can show a status badge on the card itself. Visitors get the key fact — new, sold, open house — without clicking in.

Layout and loading. Single listings can display in grid view, listing sections support pagination for pages with a lot of inventory, and listing card images load as a visitor scrolls rather than all at once. The first two are options in your section settings; the third happens on its own.

Office filter. You can scope a listings section to a single office, so a brokerage page shows only the listings that belong to yours. This has been available on Classic for some time and is now on newer sites as well.

Building and changing your site

Card designer, with repeater. Build a card once — a feature, a stat, a step in your process — and repeat it as a row instead of building each one by hand. Find it in the "add section" menu under card layouts.

Carousel height, links, and text overlays. Carousels have a configurable height, clickable slides, and text over the image. A slide that links somewhere sends people toward a listing or a contact form rather than cycling past. Existing carousels keep working as they are. How to edit any content block.

Video headers and richer banners. Banner sections can play video instead of showing a static image, and support an image above the text. A short clip at the top of your homepage holds attention longer than a photo does.

Scrolling text. A marquee-style band scrolls bold, oversized type across the page. Use it for the numbers you want noticed: homes sold, years in the market, average days on market.

Home evaluation and home finder. Two sections that let a visitor request a home value estimate or describe what they're looking for. Both trade something useful back to the visitor in exchange for a lead.

Logo showcase. A scrolling strip for brokerage marks, board affiliations, and partner badges. Add it from the "add section" menu, upload your logos, and it runs on its own after that.

Mortgage calculator. A calculator widget, or a dedicated calculator page if you'd rather it stand alone. It keeps a buyer's financing questions on your site instead of sending them to a bank's.

Testimonials manager. Testimonials have a dedicated screen under Testimonials in your dashboard sidebar, with pagination on testimonial sections if you have a lot of them. Client proof changes more minds on a real estate site than anything else you write. See how the Testimonials manager works.

Custom contact forms. Build a form with any number of field types, set a confirmation message, and choose whether a submission redirects somewhere afterward. Ask for exactly what you need instead of a generic name-and-email box.

Custom code, header and footer. You can add custom code to your footer and custom scripts to your header — for a chat widget, an extra tracking snippet, or anything else that has to live there.

Free sites publish with real listings. A free Avenue site can launch with real MLS listings, not placeholder content. It's a real site at the free tier, not a preview of one.

Smaller editor improvements. Scroll animations, a redesigned callout component, a sticky section toolbar that follows you down the page, an "add section" menu grouped by category, more widgets allowed on rentals pages, and an editable default subdomain. None of these change what your site can do, but together they take a noticeable amount of friction out of editing it.

Writing your content

AI copywriter. An AI copywriter is built into the site editor. Give it a rough idea for a section, and it drafts real copy inline — no blank page, no waiting on anyone else for a paragraph. Look for the AI icon while editing any text block.

Blog, from your dashboard. You can publish blog posts directly, draft them with AI help, and list recent posts on other pages with a blog list section. Regular content is one of the more reliable ways to stay visible in search and stay in front of past clients. Blog publishing has been on Classic for some time; this brings newer sites in line.

Making it look like yours

Template library and theme switching. Start from a template built for real estate rather than a blank page, and change your theme from the builder at any time without starting over. Themes carry through to your subpages, and theme selection now happens during setup in place of the old moodboard step.

Navigation, your way. Four nav link styles, a hamburger menu on the left or the right, and a centered header layout. Your navigation is the first thing a visitor reads, so it should look like the rest of your brand. More on managing pages and navigation.

Colors, icons, and logos. Icons match your palette instead of the default set, maps pick up your brand styling, and your logo has room to display larger in both the header and banner. See how colors and styles work across your site.

Seven new fonts. Bebas Neue, Prata, Jakarta Sans, Aboreto, Outfit, Jost, and Arsenal are all available now — more room to look like your brand instead of a template.

Custom lead bubble text. The "Contact Us" text on your lead bubble can be changed to whatever you'd actually say.

Getting found

Meta tags and headings. Your site now outputs canonical and social meta tags, and banner sections carry proper H1 headings. These are the basics search engines look for first, and they're handled without setup on your end.

Agent schema you can override. The agent details your site reports to search engines can be edited, so what appears in a search result matches how you present yourself elsewhere.

Redirects, under your control. Manage your own redirects, with bulk import and export if you're moving a lot of pages at once. This has been available on Classic and is now on newer sites too. Find it under Redirects in your dashboard.

Speed

Faster pages, without you doing anything. Images load faster and appear as a visitor scrolls to them, banner images are prioritized so the top of the page renders first, and favicon files are capped in size. Nothing to turn on — it's already running.

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Coming soon

Three things are in beta right now. There's nothing to turn on yet — each one gets its own entry here, with setup steps, once it's open to everyone.

• ChatGPT Ads [beta] — putting your listings and services in front of buyers who are searching inside ChatGPT.
• Sitewalk [beta] — Avenue's SEO tool. It shows how clients find you on Google and AI search, surfaces the searches you can actually win in your market, and flags what's helping or holding your site back, then turns that into a plan — with help on hand if you want it executed for you.
• Email Marketing [beta] — campaigns sent to your database from your account. Follow-ups and more are moving into that same account next, so more of what you do to stay in front of clients runs from one place.

A lot of what's above is active on our newer sites only. If you're interested in migrating, contact us at help@avenuehq.com.

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