Short answer: Your licensed name (or your team name), your sponsoring broker's name, and the city and state of the broker's registered office, or else a direct link to the broker's website or digital platform. That's the core of Illinois's rule for digital advertising. The section I read doesn't mention a license number or the size of anything.
The rule is Illinois Administrative Code, Title 68, Section 1450.720, "Digital or Electronic Advertising and Communication," from the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR). I read it on 14 November 2026 on Cornell's Legal Information Institute, whose history note shows amendments effective 2 September 2016 and 23 February 2021. If IDFPR changed it after that, I couldn't see it there. This is a plain-English summary, not legal advice, and your broker's policy may be stricter.
What has to be on the page?
For an agent advertising services (subsection (e)) or a property (subsection (d)):
- Your name as licensed with the Division, or your team name if you're on a team.
- Your sponsoring broker's name.
- The broker's city and state (registered office), or a direct link to the broker's virtual office, website or digital platform.
- For a property ad: where the property is. If you aren't licensed in the state where it sits, the rule also asks you to list the jurisdictions where you are licensed.
- Direct links (subsection (j)): if you use a website or digital platform for advertising, you have to provide a direct link to the required disclosures about the sponsoring broker, and to the terms of any offers or inducements covered by Section 10-15(c) and (d) of the Real Estate License Act.
Does Illinois require my license number?
Not in this section. It asks for your name "as licensed with the Division" and doesn't list a number. Other rules or your broker's policy might, so confirm before you leave it off. Putting your number on the page is still a good idea: it's the one fact that lets a person, or an AI tool, match you to the state's public record.
What about a team name?
In an ad, the team name may be substituted for your own name (subsection (d)). In an electronic communication such as an email, it may be used in addition to your name (subsection (g)). Either way, the sponsoring broker's name still has to appear.
What about social media and email?
Subsections (f) and (g) apply the same items to the first electronic or digital communication with the public or another licensee: the broker's name and its city and state, or a direct link to its site. So an email signature that carries your name, your broker's name and a link to the broker's page covers it. Subsection (k) says a domain name, URL, username or social media handle doesn't by itself count as advertising.
What about listings and photos?
Subsection (h) says you may link to listing information held at another electronic location without approval, unless the owner of that location specifically requires consent, and the link can't mislead the public about who owns the listing. Subsection (a) defines scraping, which is copying another licensee's listing information and republishing it without written or electronic permission from the original listing licensee. Photos and feeds raise separate MLS and copyright questions that this rule doesn't answer, so check your MLS rules too.
Who keeps the site current?
Subsection (i): all licensees, including sponsoring brokers, have to review the advertising on their websites or digital platforms periodically and update it so it stays current and not misleading.
How many licensees does this touch?
On 14 November 2026, Swift Agent Sites' database held 72,883 Illinois real estate license records from the state's file (a count of reg_license rows for Illinois). That includes records that aren't active, and one person can hold more than one. You can look up an Illinois license on our Illinois license check; the data there is IDFPR's, published under the Open Database License.
A five-minute check for your own site
- Is your name on the page the way it appears on your license (or your team name, with the broker's name beside it)?
- Is your sponsoring broker's name on every page?
- Does the page give the broker's city and state, or a direct link to the broker's own site?
- If you run offers or inducements, is there a link to their terms?
- Does your email signature carry the same three things?
- When did you last read the whole site as a stranger would?
Check with IDFPR
The department's rules and the Real Estate License Act are at idfpr.illinois.gov. Ask IDFPR or your sponsoring broker if you aren't sure how a rule applies to a particular page.
A site that does the plain things also gives AI tools something to quote: your name, your broker, your market, all as text. If you want to see what a page shows a machine, our free site check does that. If you'd rather start with a free listing, the Swift Agent Network has one, with a paid tier at $29 a month or $290 a year.
Swift Agent Sites builds agent sites on your own domain, with hosting and https included, for $89 a month or $890 a year, with full network membership included. Your broker still signs off on what an Illinois site says.
Related:
- What's required on a real estate website?
- What does Arizona require on an Arizona real estate agent's website?
- What does California require on a California real estate agent's website?