Last updated: August 19, 2026
To integrate MLS into a website: get authorized MLS access, choose embedded IDX or a native import, connect the approved feed, map the fields, publish the search and listing pages, then follow the MLS display rules. Linking MLS to your website means the same thing, an authorized data feed running on credentials issued to you, not a hyperlink.
That order holds whether you’re an agent, a broker, or the developer building for one. The step that decides everything else is the second one. Pick an embedded IDX display and the listing content lives on a vendor’s servers. Pick a native import and it lands in your own site’s database, on your own domain, under your own permalinks.
The rest of this page covers the route decision, what you need before you connect, the connection sequence, field mapping, publishing, the display rules, and what it costs.
The four ways to put MLS listings on a website
Four architectures exist for MLS website integration. They differ on where the listing HTML comes from.
| Route | Where the data lives | Who owns the SEO | How it updates | Development effort | Who it fits |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Embedded IDX widget or iframe | The vendor’s servers | The vendor | Live, vendor-managed | Lowest: a script tag | Sites that need listings shown, not ranked |
| Hosted IDX, on your subdomain or your root domain | Vendor servers; pages served under your hostname | Your root domain only if the pages sit there | Vendor-managed, 12-hour floor | DNS or reverse-proxy setup | Branded URL, no SEO ownership |
| Native import into your own CMS | Your database, as content records | Your site | Hourly by default, via cron | Field mapping and filters | Pages that build domain equity |
| Custom app on the RESO Web API | Wherever the developer builds it | Yours, if built for it | Custom polling, 12-hour floor | Highest of the four | Boards and large brokerages |
The embed is the least work of the four, a script tag, and the weakest search asset. AgentFire’s support documentation explains why: IDX data “must be presented exactly as it is provided by the MLS due to compliance requirements,” so the same listing text repeats across every agent site on that feed. Because that content never lived on your site, cancelling typically leaves nothing to migrate.
Hosted IDX means the vendor runs the pages and you point a hostname of yours at them. Usually that hostname is a subdomain, listings.yoursite.com; some vendors serve the same pages on your primary domain instead. The label describes the address bar, not the machine: either way the listing data and the page HTML come off the vendor’s servers, not out of your CMS. BoldTrail, which sells the root-domain version, writes that IDX search results on your own domain “contribute to your site’s SEO. IDX delivered through a subdomain or iframe doesn’t.” NAR Policy Statement 7.58 allows it only while you keep “the ability to add, delete, modify and update information” in the display. Even so, those URLs stay under the vendor’s control.
A native import writes each listing into your own database as a content record. The property page is yours: your domain, your permalinks, your SEO plugin. MLS Import, our plugin, runs this route through the RESO Web API.
If the connection or the cron stops, the listings stay put but the updates don’t. So prices and statuses can go stale. Read import versus live IDX for the contrast.
A custom build costs the most and gives the most control. REBNY finished migrating its Residential Listing Service to the RESO Web API in January 2024, working “with over 100 different technology providers to migrate to one standard,” now serving 581 brokerage firms and 12,000-plus agents. RESO CEO Sam DeBord called it “trailblazing work.” RESO’s Data Dictionary page states the goal: “The time and cost needed to create or onboard innovative products can be greatly reduced.”
What you need before you connect an MLS feed
Five things have to be true before an MLS feed for your website works. Miss one and the setup stops dead.
- Your MLS offers RESO Web API access. RESO, the standards body, says at least 90% of MLSs in the industry have RESO-certified Web API services (dated 08/19/2026). That leaves markets where the answer is no, and no importer helps there. Ask your MLS before you buy.
- Your MLS runs on a supported platform. Trestle, Bridge, Spark, Rapattoni, Paragon, Navica, ConnectMLS and Realtor.ca are in scope, along with several MLSs running their own servers. Our published list of RESO-certified MLSs names the boards by state, checked August 19, 2026. Boards migrate, so the list inside the plugin is what the connection actually reads.
- You have your own API credentials, or can request them. The credential goes to the licensed participant. NAR’s Model Board Bylaws, Article XVIII, Section 4, are blunt: “Participants must hold a current, valid real estate broker’s license.” Bright MLS’s Rules add that participation “is on an individual basis and may not be transferred.”
- A theme the importer can write into. Either a theme with a dedicated adapter (WpResidence, WpEstate, Houzez, Real Homes) or Standalone mode, which brings its own property templates, search, archives and design settings and works with any WordPress theme. Those four are a deeper integration, not a gate.
- A server that can carry the import. WordPress 5.2 or newer, PHP 7.4 or newer, a memory limit of at least 256MB, and a max execution time of 0 or as high as your host allows. For large imports, a VPS beats weak shared hosting.
Our requirements before you buy page carries the list.
How to connect an authorized MLS feed to your site
Linking MLS to your website is five steps, in this order.
Get your MLS or board-issued API credentials
The credential belongs to the licensed participant, not to the software. Your MLS or board issues it to you, and NAR policy requires the MLS to act on a feed request “within five (5) business days from receipt.” One limit to plan around first: MLS Import supports one connection per site or plugin setup. A business that needs two different MLS feeds needs two separate WordPress installs.
Choose your theme setup
You have two options. A theme with a dedicated adapter (WpResidence, WpEstate, Houzez or Real Homes) hands display to templates for property data. Standalone mode supplies its own property templates, search, archives and design settings, and it works with any WordPress theme. Pick Standalone if your theme has no adapter.
Connect through the RESO Web API
MLS Import connects through the RESO Web API. It does not use the older RETS feed format, and it does not scrape public websites. RESO Web API support is long-standing in the plugin, the standard interface rather than a recent addition.
You supply the MLS, the credentials and the endpoint; the plugin does the rest. Our RESO Web API connection details page covers per-platform specifics.
Create import tasks and set filters
One connection can feed several import tasks, so a site need not pull an entire metro’s inventory. Filters target property type, status, city, county, ZIP, price range, agent ID, agency ID and office identifiers. A single-agent site runs one task filtered to that agent’s listings. A brokerage site runs one per office or market.
Run the first import, then confirm the hourly sync
The first import is the heavy one. After that, the default cycle checks the MLS hourly and updates price, status, description, photos and other changed fields, via WordPress or server cron. Confirm it’s firing: removal of stale listings depends on cron working and your delete and status settings. Listing photos aren’t copied into your media library, they’re served from the MLS or its CDN.
Map the MLS fields to your site’s listing fields
Field mapping is the part of MLS integration where the feed meets your templates. It’s configuration, not code.
RESO’s Data Dictionary is “the real estate industry’s universal language for data,” a tree of resources, fields and lookups: more than 1,700 fields and 3,100 lookup values. RESO adds that “adoption of the full Data Dictionary is not expected for most organizations and is not required for certification.” Your job is matching what your MLS publishes to what your template shows.
Take StandardStatus, defined by RESO as “the status of the listing as it reflects the state of the contract between the listing agent and seller,” with values such as Active, Pending, Closed and Withdrawn. RESO’s Data Dictionary Wiki records 94% usage adoption for that field, 325 of 344 reporting organizations, with individual values ranging from 94% for Active down to 2% for Incomplete.
You choose which fields to import, how to label them, and which to mark private. NAR’s IDX policy lets an MLS prohibit display of “confidential information fields intended for cooperating brokers rather than consumers including showing instructions and property security information,” plus seller and occupant contact details and the type of listing agreement. Lockbox codes and internal agent notes don’t belong on a public property page.
Publish the search and listing pages
When you integrate MLS into a website through a native import, the listings become your site’s own content. Property pages are crawlable on your domain, and permalink structure, internal linking and your SEO plugin stay under your control rather than a vendor’s.
The mechanism is worth spelling out, because most explanations stop at “iframes are bad for SEO.” An iframe loads a separate document at the vendor’s own URL: the wrapper page is yours, the listing text lives at an address you don’t control. Subdomain hosting is a softer version of the same problem. Those pages can get indexed, but the credit doesn’t land on your root domain: BoldTrail’s guide describes the traffic going to a different domain or a third-party site.
There’s a second layer. AgentFire’s support documentation notes that IDX property data has to be presented exactly as the MLS provides it, so identical listing text runs across every agent site and search engines treat it as thin content.
On WordPress specifically, MLS and IDX integration in WordPress covers the platform-level steps.
Follow the MLS display rules
Attribution comes first. NAR Policy Statement 7.58 requires that an IDX display “clearly identify the name of the brokerage firm under which they operate in a readily visible color and typeface,” and that it identify “the listing firm, and the email or phone number provided by the listing Participant… not smaller than the median used in the display of listing data.” Build it into the listing template, not a footer.
The disclaimer is a local rule, not a national mandate. NAR lists it among the options an MLS may require: a notice “indicating that the data is deemed reliable but is not guaranteed accurate by the MLS.” Check whether your MLS requires it before copying another site’s wording.
On refresh, NAR sets the floor at twelve hours: “The MLS’s IDX download must be refreshed to accurately reflect all updates and status changes no less frequently than every twelve (12) hours.” The same floor applies to the participant’s own display. Your own MLS’s rules bind; twelve hours is a minimum, not a target.
Removal on status change is another local option. NAR permits MLSs to “prohibit display of expired or withdrawn listings.” Bright MLS’s Rules, revised February 22, 2024, add a separate reporting duty: “all status changes must be submitted to the Bright Service within two calendar days.” The current Handbook page, dated January 1, 2026, carries paragraphs marked “Deleted November 2025.” So don’t treat this text as frozen.
What MLS website integration costs
MLS Import costs $49 per month, or $504 per year, which is $42 a month billed annually. There’s a 30-day free trial, no setup fee, and you can cancel any time. It’s a flat software fee, the same for a large metro MLS or a small rural board, and it covers one MLS connection per site.
What the MLS charges for API access is separate and goes to the MLS. The Pacific Southwest Association of REALTORS publishes its 2026 schedule: $187.20 in PSAR annual dues, $201 to NAR, $342 to CAR, plus CRMLS fees of $177.84 per quarter on auto-pay or $184.08 when billed, and a one-time $50 setup fee for new users. That’s roughly $730 a year in stacked dues and another $711 to $736 in MLS access, before any website software.
Those are one association’s published 2026 numbers, not a national average. IDX vendors add a third layer: Showcase IDX’s support documentation puts its pass-through Data Management Fee at $5 to $30 a month depending on the MLS (support.showcaseidx.com/
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I connect my website to my MLS as a real estate agent?
Get MLS-approved API credentials in your own name, pick your route, connect the feed, map the fields, publish the pages, follow the display rules. Here’s the verdict most answers skip: if you want listing pages that earn search equity for your own domain, connect through a native RESO Web API import, not an embedded IDX widget. MLS Import, our own plugin, does that.
How do I link MLS to my website?
Linking means one of two things. An embedded display shows MLS data on your page while the content stays on the vendor’s servers. An import copies approved listings into your own site as real content records, which is what MLS Import does. Which you get depends on the route, compared in the four ways to put MLS listings on a website. If you want the pages to rank, pick the import.
How do I add MLS search to my website?
The search page is a template rendered against whatever listing data your route supplies. On an embedded IDX, the vendor’s widget is the search. On a native import, your theme’s property search runs against listings in your own database, through a theme adapter or MLS Import’s Standalone mode, which ships its own search and archives.
What is an IDX feed?
IDX, or Internet Data Exchange, is the permission and display framework that lets an MLS participant show Multiple Listing Service listings on their own site. An IDX feed is the authorized data stream that follows from it. The transport standard carrying it is separate: today, the RESO Web API, the interface MLS Import connects through.
How do I add MLS listings to my website?
It depends on the route. For listings that land as your site’s own content, you need MLS-approved credentials, a supported MLS platform, a theme that accepts the data, and a server sized for it. MLS Import handles the connection and the hourly updates; the section titled “What you need before you connect an MLS feed” lists the gates.