Real Estate Website

by James Bridges on August 20, 2023

3 Tips to Converting Visitors To Leads on Your Real Estate Website

When your website is new, your first focus is generally on getting traffic to your website. After all, without traffic, it’s like having the most beautiful retail location in the middle of the Sahara desert. A nice store with no sales quickly goes out of business.

Traffic can occur quicker than many people realize. The search engines now quickly pick up the latest updates and pay per click ads can bring hungry new clients for pennies each day, but the real question becomes, what do you do with all of that traffic? Unlike a billboard along a major freeway, when you get traffic to your website it is important to convert that traffic into something of value and in the case of real estate that generally means a lead. Traffic is merely an expense and the lead is your reward for paying for all of that traffic!

Converting traffic on your real estate website isn’t as challenging as most people make it. Before trying a particular method, it’s important to think of yourself as one of your visitors. What would make you give up your valuable name, e-mail, and phone number?

Now that you are thinking about what would empower you to give your information online, here are some proven techniques to get leads out of that traffic pouring into your website:

Call to action – A call to action or a unique selling proposition is absolutely essential to get people to give up their information. Your call to action needs to easily communicate how submitting their information will save them time and money. Consider the following message “Stop driving all over town, access to ALL listings 24 hours a day”. This message saves the user valuable time by simply getting access to the entire inventory in your area. With so many apps (i.e. Redfin, Realtor, Zillow, etc.) making it easy for people to access listings you might want to be even more creative such as “Get Listings Before They Hit the Market” or “Receive Only Listings with Ocean Views”. Each market has different items that can pique the interest of local buyers, think about what your buyers crave most and craft your call to action around that.
Great content – Too often people drive traffic to websites that are light on content. Even with the most targeted landing pages there is the opportunity for a visitor to look at other pages on your website. A website that doesn’t have much to offer will result in the user leaving to find a better resource of information. Take the time to really dive deep into subjects from significant architects, builders, and even types of real estate (i.e. develop a niche report on raw land even) to show visitors your real estate website is a depth of useful information that they won’t find elsewhere.
Make it easy – When people are online they are a click away from another website. Give them the power to contact you in different ways easily. This means providing short contact forms, a phone number that is displayed on every page and even access to your social networks so they can reach out to you there. The easier it is for them to contact you the more leads you will be able to generate.

Existing Real Estate Website? Here’s Where to Look for Conversion Opportunities

If you have an existing real estate website, but you have struggled to get leads from it, here are a few key steps to help you find the quickest conversion opportunities.

Look at your website reporting tool and filter to a period of at least 3 months
Look at the pages (other than the home page) that have the highest volume of traffic
Look at each of those high volume traffic pages and ask yourself the following: Is it easy for people to contact me? Is there something compelling on the page that would make someone give me their information?

When you make converting leads on your website a focus you will turn that expense of traffic into a profit center of people ready to take action. With a good source of traffic and simple follow up you will be able to turn those real estate leads into transactions every month.

by James Bridges on August 19, 2023

Marketing Your Real Estate Website

As more and more real estate professionals get online, they are quickly realizing that you can’t just sign up for a website, pay $60 a month and then generate leads that turn into commissions. The reality is that a website merely gives you the opportunity to get in front of potential buyers and sellers, but it won’t do it on its own. It’s much like a car gives you the opportunity to drive to work, but you still have to drive it!

A real estate website is a powerful tool. It gives you a platform to communicate with a mass of strangers and allow them to learn more about the cities, neighborhoods, and real estate on their terms. You aren’t controlling how they learn, in fact with search engines; they may enter your website from many different pages and start their discovery of real estate from many different directions.

In order to make your website one that is profitable too, it is essential to market your website to those customers who are eagerly searching for information online. This doesn’t mean a blitz campaign of postcards, magazine ads, or sending out 10,000+ direct mail pieces about your new website. Marketing your real estate website can be very cost effective and productive when you have the right methods.

I invite you to consider the following methods as you are marketing your real estate website.

What is your customer’s pain? – Think about this one before you do anything. In your local market what is the biggest problem for your customers? Is it finding the neighborhood with the right schools? Is it finding a neighborhood with a big enough lot to build a larger home? Is it finding that first investment property that will put them on the path to passive income freedom? Write down these pains as you can then focus on solving these pains through your website.
Search engine marketing – Getting to the top of the search engines should be a part of every online marketing plan, but it needs to have focus and as the search engines have gotten more sophisticated it should embrace change. Especially when you are just starting out, try to focus on just 2-5 top keywords in your market that you want to get to the top in. With a small focus like this you will be able to write better content and really meet the needs of your consumers and the search engines at the same time. That focus will require a content plan that involves everything from rich long form content, videos, infographics and even a focused local niche report but when you do that you can have a site that dominates.
Pay Per click marketing – When you want results quickly have the same focus with your pay per click ads as that of your search engine marketing. Having a small focus will keep your costs down and when you show up organically at the same time you dramatically increase your chances of getting customers to your website. Whether you are managing your account yourself or having an agency do it, keep your ads and ad copy focused on resolving your customer’s pain.
Technical Details – While you didn’t get into real estate to become an online marketer you will have to understand what is needed for your real estate website when you want to have success online. It is important to have a high-level understanding of key components such as optimum load times, real estate meta tags, XML sitemaps, mobile experience and more to help you engage the right staff to make sure it is completed as necessary.
Social Networks – Marketing your website through your social network will expose your website to an entirely different group of people. Be careful not to self promote (yes it’s a difficult balance between expert/influencer and self promotion) as your marketing on these networks should focus on giving answers to those pain points. You can provide “status updates” and direct people to key pages on your website which will certainly get the conversation going and help people focus on your website as always having the right answer.

Marketing your real estate website is much more than just “getting exposure”. Whether you implement just 1 method above, all 4, or even some additional techniques, the focus of all of your marketing efforts should be to generate leads for your business.

by James Bridges on August 12, 2023

Creating Real Estate Website Content That Visitors Crave

When you take time to look through a few different local real estate websites, keep track of what you find on each site. Do you find access to the MLS, a page on buyers, a page on sellers, and maybe even the awards the agent has earned? Beyond those basics what else is on the website that would actually enable you to learn more about the real estate in that area?

In order to differentiate your real estate website from the 1000’s of others just in your city, it takes being different. This doesn’t require a movie, or a video of you as a “talking agent” on your website. Being different online means offering a unique value to the visitor that they can’t find on other websites. You can certainly already be different with information that you already know.

Essential Elements to Help Your Real Estate Website Stand Out

It can be challenging to focus on building your website when you just want to get out and do real estate. Unfortunately, you won’t likely have too many people to help with their real estate goals if your online presence isn’t decidedly different. It can get easy to be distracted with your social media presence (i.e. Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, etc.); however, a website is still one of the most powerful hubs to act as a point of conversion.

Consider the following tips for creating website content that visitors will crave and search engines will love.

Neighborhood Information – Write up information about the neighborhoods in which you operate every day. Share your unique perspective about what it’s like to walk the streets and how it feels to live in that neighborhood. It doesn’t have to be flowery, just share about the neighborhood as if you were speaking to someone new to the neighborhood. This will probably require more than 1 page and that is ok, just keep writing and putting it up online! You might even expand your neighborhood information to a real estate market niche report to demonstrate your extremely detailed knowledge. The more information you can put up, the more you will be perceived as an expert.
Detailed Home Information – Many neighborhoods across the USA have specific floor plans and models of homes. Take time to share about the different models that are available and what is appealing (or not) about each one. Documenting the names of the models, sq ft, and even how many of a particular model might exist in a neighborhood will have you standing apart from the competition.
Condo and HOA information – When you have condos in the areas that you service it’s a great opportunity to create unique content. Writing up information like the property management company, floor plans, and about the amenities will allow a website visitor to discover if the complex is right for them, just by reading your information.

Don’t Forget the Details of Your Real Estate Website

Creating your real estate website might seem overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. Along with writing quality content there are a couple of key details that you will want to complete to give your website the best opportunity for success.

Real Estate Website Meta Tags – Once meta tags used to be the prime way a search engine knew about a page and while they don’t serve that purpose any longer they still can help the search engines to have a better idea about each page.
XML Sitemap – While it sounds technical (and it is a little) an XML sitemap can help Google and other search engines to have a greater visibility to the pages of your site.
Optimized Images – While download speeds are blazing you still want to be cognizant of mobile users. Use free tools such as compression.io to put up great looking images that are optimized for web delivery.

When you take the time to focus on content that isn’t readily available online you will find that you have plenty to share. Don’t assume that people really “know” about their own neighborhood. Put yourself in the shoes of someone who is new to the area and share the most common of details.

Your real estate website, armed with fresh and compelling content, will become a true resource for people searching online for information about the neighborhoods in which you operate. It may take time to develop each page but it will live on for as long as you have your website and it can work for you 24 hours a day.

by James Bridges on August 6, 2023

Real Estate Website Marketing – How to Get Noticed and Get Leads

The fanciest real estate website won’t generate a single lead for you when you don’t market it. Think about building the most amazing storefront in the middle of a desert….it will look nice, but where are the customers? Many real estate agents and businesses invest real dollars building a great web presence, but they don’t consider the aspect of bringing visitors to their new website.

Your website can be one of the MOST amazingly affordable lead generation machines to have in your real estate business when you use the right methods. For most real estate agents a website is no more than a fancy business card, and that is where the first change has to happen.

What is your website really about?

Most real estate websites speak about the agent’s awards, accomplishments, and how they help buyers and sellers. Often this is the entire first page of the website. It’s a long drawn out discussion on the agent and means very little to anyone other than the real estate agent themselves.

In fact, any stranger who lands on one of these websites can be instantly turned off because they are only seeing someone bragging about awards that mean absolutely nothing to them! The first step to getting results from your website involves moving the focus away from you and to the customer.

Customer focused websites

Focusing your website on the customer means quickly providing them the information they are looking for. It may sound obvious, but there are two main types of customers that visit your real estate site. They are:

Buyers
Sellers

With this in mind the information you write should focus on serving these groups as quickly and easily as possible. Here are a couple of ideas on what information to provide to each of these segments.

Buyers

Yes buyers are looking for listings online, but the reality is that they can find that information anywhere! With apps from Realtor, Redfin, and Zillow listings are a commodity and won’t differentiate your website from the sea of other “real estate” websites. In order to be found by the search engines and your next potential buyer you will need to provide information that is unique.

Consider providing them the information they can’t find anywhere else…your knowledge, even consider crafting a detail local real estate report in addition to writing up pages online. Write up information about the neighborhoods that you operate in, the quiet parts of the neighborhood, the architecture options and put that unique information online. Sharing the smallest of details (quiet streets, popular floor plans, etc) will ensure that your website meets the buyer’s needs and stands out above all others. The information that you have has taken years to acquire and isn’t easily found online; this is the information that people are out there craving for.

Sellers

Sellers are certainly looking for their home value online and yet they still need help at the end of the day to list their home. Provide sellers with more information than just a simple home valuation tool. Put together information that mentions how to prepare their home for sale to achieve maximum value. Don’t use some canned information, provide your perspective and what works in your area. Writing your own words and sharing it will come across as more personal and get the sellers to really engage on your website.

For sellers, be as transparent as possible and update your site often to reflect the current market conditions. Let potential sellers know when homes are going for over list price, when they take longer to sell, and the average time it takes to sell a home in your market. The more transparency you provide into the actual market conditions vs. “it’s always a great time to sell” will help you build trust with sellers that you haven’t even met yet.

Calls to Action

Even before you can think about driving some serious traffic to your real estate website, consider how you will empower people to contact you. Putting up powerful content is a good thing but you must also ensure that a visitor (remember a total stranger) feels compelled to reach out and contact you for help with their real estate needs.

There are a variety of calls to action that you could use on any page of your website. Consider the following guidelines when crafting yours:

It should be on every page (2-3 times)
It needs to be specific
It should be easy for the customer to act on
It should be easy to find on any page

There are generally just 7 Calls to Action that are working at any one point in time. One that you could use for buyers would be:

Get the Hottest Listings in “Your Neighborhood” Before They Hit the Market

Make that call to action a simple link that allows them to fill out a quick form to get more listings from you. When you put this on every page you will start getting leads.

Submitting to the search engines

Once you have put up some great content it is essential to let the search engines know what you are up to. Submitting your website to the search engines gives you the opportunity to be found and receive a flood of traffic. As part of submitting your site to search engines you will need to create a sitemap. Search engines rely specifically on an XML sitemap for awareness of the pages that are present on your site. Try to avoid any “automatic submission” software and simply go to the 3 major search engines and submit your web address.

For starters go to:

Google – For Google you will submit your site via Google Search Console. Google search console will give you insights into the keywords that drive impressions and clicks to your site.
Yahoo and Bing – For Yahoo and Bing you can leverage Bing Webmaster Tools to make your site visible to the search engines. Bing fully recognizes the superiority of Google in the land of search engines and allows an instant import of your sitemap if you are already verified with Google.

Submitting to each of these search engines will give you the first opportunity to start getting some great free traffic. The best part is that submitting your website address to these search engines is free.

Pay Per Click Marketing

Many people look at pay per click marketing as an expense, however it can actually be one of the best ways to get targeted traffic that generates leads that turn into clients. Pay per click marketing allows you to advertise on select keywords on different search engines so you can choose just the most targeted traffic to visit your website.

Driving targeted traffic with pay per click can be done in as little as 45 minutes. When you follow some basic tips it will help you to save money and get the best traffic possible. Here are just three ways to ensure your pay per click marketing jumps off to a great start:

Don’t direct ads to your homepage – Send them to a page (preferably a focused landing page) that matches up to what they were searching for instead.
Don’t pay for the top spot – Stay away from the top position on pay per click and you will save a fortune and still get great traffic.
Set a daily budget – When you set a monthly budget you could go through your entire budget in a matter of days. Setting a daily budget allows you to get targeted traffic each and every day.

Pay per click marketing can be implemented across a variety of platforms. In the “early days” of the internet pay per click (PPC) was thought of as simply Google and Bing paid ads; however, as platforms have expanded this form of advertising has become available throughout many different channels. When you launch pay per click marketing you can do that across not only the search engines, you can also implement paid ads on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Reddit and more. Driving traffic on a PPC basis gives you the best opportunity to transform initial interest into a lead.

Real Estate Marketing Can Help Your Business

I invite you to consider real estate website marketing as a way to get daily traffic, daily leads, and increase your business. Take some time to implement the simple methods here and you will start noticing leads pouring through your website in just a few weeks.

by James Bridges on July 25, 2023

7 Tips to Increase Traffic To Your Real Estate Website

Getting a flood of visitors to your website won’t happen by accident and it won’t happen by hoping for people to find your site either. Traffic is the lifeblood of any website and the reality is that you can’t have too much traffic!

Although there are many services that sell bursts of traffic this traffic is generally low quality and won’t result in leads for your business. The real key is to develop a steady stream of targeted traffic that is composed of website visitors who are interested in real estate and when they come to your site will feel compelled to take action.

Having targeted visitors come to your website, ready to contact you, means having a balanced approach. Here are different techniques to get that flood of visitors who can’t wait to contact you.

Pay per click: Pay per click traffic is one of the quickest ways to get traffic to your website. Controlling your traffic at the keyword level ensures that you send only the most motivated of people to your website. Instead of competing on the most expensive words, consider words that are focused on the neighborhoods that you enjoy doing business in which are usually much more affordable than larger words targeted on your city. Remember there are many sources of pay per click traffic from Google, Bing, Facebook, Reddit and more. Find a few key sources and implement campaigns to drive targeted traffic.
Create a sitemap: While this is a small task that is tactical in nature it can really help both search engines and your visitors. Creating a sitemap (both HTML and XML) will allow the search engines to discover as much as possible about your website. When the search engine understands more of the pages on your site it will be able to send people to the deepest pages on your site.
Sharing links on your Social Platforms: Building a network of people on your social network whether it be Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube,Twitter, or one of the other networks provides the opportunity for you to share the new pages that you create. When you create a new neighborhood page, city page, or other page on your site sharing a link through your status updates will drive quick traffic to your new information. Yes, even for video sites, you might record a video about the new area and then in the description of the video provide a link to your new local area page.
Content Marketing: Create high-quality and informative content on your website regularly. This can include blog posts, articles, videos, and infographics related to real estate trends, buying tips, market updates, and local community events. Engaging content not only attracts organic traffic through search engines but also encourages visitors to stay on your website longer, increasing the likelihood of lead generation.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO):Implementing effective SEO strategies will enhance your website’s ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs). Research and optimize your content with relevant keywords, meta tags, and descriptions. Additionally, build high-quality backlinks from reputable websites within the real estate niche to improve your website’s authority and credibility in the eyes of search engines.
Email Marketing: Leverage email marketing to keep in touch with potential clients and nurture existing leads. Create a newsletter or email campaign that provides valuable insights, market updates, specialized niche market reports, and exclusive property listings. A well-crafted email campaign can drive traffic back to your website and encourage repeat visits.
Collaborate with Local Partners: Establish relationships with other local businesses, out of area real estate agents, and industry influencers. Collaborate on joint marketing efforts, guest blog posts, or co-hosted events. By tapping into each other’s networks, you can cross-promote and reach a broader audience, driving traffic to both websites.

Taking a balanced approach of targeting paid traffic, organic traffic, and traffic through your social network will bring visitors to your website every day. One of the best methods to increase your traffic consistently is to continue with the balanced methods above.

by James Bridges on July 23, 2023

4 Simple Steps For Effective Real Estate Marketing Online

Any type of real estate marketing is expensive, when it doesn’t produce results. Of course if you put out marketing that had a cost of $1,000 and it returned a commission of $20,000 then suddenly that $1,000 marketing expense is looking like a good deal. Many of the frustrations for real estate professionals revolve around how leads from their marketing efforts are poor and that they aren’t closing any sales from any of their lead generation activities. Unfortunately this usually results in ditching marketing all together and hoping a new customer will “appear”.

Instead of just hope, you might consider starting with an online marketing strategy that will generate low cost leads. When you start your online real estate marketing efforts there are a myriad of choices available to you. Just a fraction of choices would include paid advertising on Google, Yahoo, BING, Facebook, Reddit, Instagram, etc. In the field of paid online advertising each system works differently and allows quite a bit of flexibility for the advertiser. With this flexibility though comes the opportunity to waste your money quite easily and be stuck in that same viscous cycle.

Consider the following methods when starting your online advertising:

Set a Budget – Too often real estate professionals jump into their online marketing efforts with no idea of how much they want to spend. Getting started online means understanding there will be a time needed to uncover how it all works and setting a budget that will allow you to succeed. A good rule of thumb to start with is don’t spend any more than 7% of what your average commission would be on your advertising. When you consider that if you spent just 7% to get a 1 transaction you would be in good shape, especially when you could repeat that month after month! Remember, when you first start you are going to have to look at some of your marketing as an investment in your learning. Understand what you are learning within your budget, make adjustments, and then make those dollars work hard for you when you determine what is working best within your local market.
Set a Goal – Sounds crazy, but I invite you to consider that your online real estate marketing efforts can have results from your very first month. Holding your money accountable and setting a goal for a specific number of transactions that you would like to achieve will help you to keep your money accountable and provide you with some focus at the same time. A goal for transactions is your ultimate goal, but to keep your energy going in the right direction, consider setting leading goals such as Leads, Conversations, and Appointments. Tracking all of that will get you to see the “waterfall” of what it takes to go from Lead to a Closed Transaction.
Focus on Leads – Creating ads online (and even your SEO efforts) should all be focused on generating leads. When you have people requesting information from you, either via phone or e-mail, each day it gives you the opportunity to convert those leads into fresh appointments. Don’t think that you need to “brand” yourself or “get the word out”, rather consider focusing on providing value to your online visitors and compel them to contact you for help. With so many sites offering “listings” consider shaping your expertise in a more unique fashion such as a local home buyers report. You can develop a report that is deep with your information that helps people to understand what is not offered on online searches such as which streets might be busier than others, where more homes have been renovated lately, where certain architectural styles or builders have developed and much more. Make your report an incredible source of YOUR information and let people provide their information to retrieve it.
Be Specific – Too often real estate professionals (and many business owners for that matter) take very little time in their ad creation and where they will direct their ads. Take time to consider what people are searching on and direct them to pages within your website that will quickly give them the information they are looking for. This will keep your costs low and keep the leads flowing.

Real estate is an extremely competitive field and is getting even more competitive online. Keeping your costs low for your online marketing efforts will keep leads coming in, new appointments each week, and a steady flow of closings going each and every month.

by James Bridges on April 6, 2023

Real Estate Buyers – Give Them What They Crave

Doing lead generation online gives you the opportunity to get the type of business that you really want. Yes, you can have a pool of buyers to work with, in the neighborhoods you know best, all year long. Keep in mind there are many companies out there that will sell you “real estate leads” and even some that break it down into buyer leads and seller leads, but shouldn’t you be able to do it on your own as well?

Absolutely!

The nice part about the many different tools and systems available online is that it allows anyone to do their own marketing for their real estate business. With a few simple steps, an understanding of what the market needs, and some motivation you can be on your way to generating the leads you have always wanted.

Let’s look at how you can start generating your own real estate buyer leads:

Content that buyers crave – Home buyers are searching every minute of the day for information on real estate in specific neighborhoods. Write up information on the neighborhoods that you operate in every day and let them know what it’s like to live there. Don’t borrow canned information; write up your own perspective of the neighborhoods and streets. When you take the time to share information about your area from your perspective your readers will feel your passion and feel compelled to contact you. You will want to attack your real estate content with the aspect that when someone starts to go through your content they will be thinking “wow, this person knows EVERYTHING about the area”. Create a balanced set of content from written content, videos and even audio (i.e. maybe a podcast) that speaks to the unique offerings of your market. Think about all the conversations you have had with buyers over the years in your car and start documenting your expertise.
Buyer tools – As buyers are enjoying your niche neighborhood content, they will want to be able to learn even more. Their need for more information will lead them to need a way to search for listings and to find out how much their new home will cost. Provide an MLS search tool on your website so they can easily find the real estate in the neighborhood that they have fallen in love with. Let them see what their mortgage would cost by providing them with mortgage calculator tools. Even as you provide these tools on your website, we all know that the multitude of apps (i.e. Zillow, Redfin, Realtor) make it incredibly easy to see what is available on the market which means your content needs to be so robust that they know there is far more to buying a home than just a simple listing.
Buyer focused ads – Getting targeted buyer leads means having ads focused on their needs. Create pay per click ads (on Google, Facebook, and MSN) that gives the buyers an opportunity to discover more about the neighborhoods and search for properties. You can keep the cost of your ads down by focusing on smaller neighborhoods, rather than bigger cities (and this is a great way to bring people deeper into your website). The big benefit here is you will also get buyers who are looking in a small area and generally purchase much faster.

Generating real estate buyer leads does take an investment in time and a small amount of money. When you consider that after you create a page about a neighborhood that the page will live on for as long as you have your website, it’s really not too much time at all.

If you want to generate 100’s of buyer leads each and every month, you can simply keep creating more content and creating more pay per click ads while keeping track of which lead sources are leading to the greatest volume of appointments and transactions. Taking this approach will prevent you from ever having to purchase real estate leads from a service, because now you know how to do it yourself!

by James Bridges on April 1, 2023

Real Estate Marketing Online: 5 Tips to Climb To The Top of The Search Engines

Creating a real estate website that is a destination for potential clients is a rewarding experience. You get to put together powerful tools and great content for anyone interested in your neighborhoods to view.

Of course, if you put together all of this great information and no one views it, then it isn’t much fun. In fact, it can be downright frustrating to slave away and have no one visit your website! An effective online real estate marketing strategy will have you at the top of the search engines to help you maximize the visitors to your website.

Getting more eyeballs to view your real estate website doesn’t take a monster budget when you know how to climb to the top of the search engines. These aren’t “tricks” to get to the top, just solid methods that will get you to the top and have a stream of traffic coming to view your website.

Apply each of these tips to get to the top of the search engines fast.

Optimize Your Page Titles – Page titles are one of the biggest ways that you can improve your search engine rankings. Your page titles should be unique to each and every page on your website. For optimum results your keyword will be at the beginning of the page title and will incorporate the keyword that you are focusing on for that page. Don’t go crazy and stuff a bunch of keywords in the title, just make sure it uses the keyword in a clear and easy to read sentence.
Create Two Sitemaps – A sitemap is a list of the pages that are located on your website. It may sound simple (and it is) yet many real estate websites are missing this key element. Creating a simple HTML sitemap that lists all of your pages is just one type of sitemap. Creating an XML sitemap will allow the search engines to learn even more about each and every page that is on your website, giving your website the best chance to be found when someone is searching.
Consistent Content – You wouldn’t diet for one day and say “man I can’t believe I haven’t lost any weight” but many people will put up a website and then wonder why they aren’t getting any visitors. The search engines (and your next buyer or seller) want to see that your website is consistently updated with fresh content. Remember there are many different forms of content from evergreen (for example information on historical architects in your neighborhoods) to more event driven information (for example how interest rate moves have impacted inventory). Take the time to create a content calendar as that will keep you on track with consistently updating your website to attract search engines and potential customers.
Variety of Content – It would be nice if all we had to do was write content, but that isn’t the reality anymore. To get to the top of the search engines take the time to create video content, written content (pages, PDF reports, social media updates), images (photography and graphics), audio, and watch search engines start pushing your site to the top because you truly are a destination for local and unique information.
Anchor Text – Anchor text is the text that is used when creating a hyperlink on your website. Creating Anchor Text that clearly defines what the document that you are linking to is about will help the search engines attribute some keyword value to that page. For example when you take the time to link the word “San Diego Homes” vs. “Click Here” you are letting the search engine know the page is about “San Diego Homes” giving you an opportunity to rank for that keyword phrase.

Some of these methods can take more time than others, but the key is to take the time to do them. Getting to the top of the search engines is like running an endurance race…it takes consistent effort over a period of time. In fact as you are creating new pages you will be able to make quick work of the Page Titles and Anchor Text on each page. Simple changes often have some of the best results so go back through your website and start applying these methods and start seeing your website at the top.

by James Bridges on February 28, 2023

What is the Focus of your Real Estate Advertising?

In any business advertising is looked at as a key component to generate new business. When someone starts an ad campaign (whether it be TV, Online, or Print) you might hear them say “I have to get the word out”. The striking part about that statement is it doesn’t imply any direct result in sales. This could be because of the definition of “advertising”. Consider the following definition:

Advertising (noun): The activity of attracting public attention to a product or business, as by paid announcements in the print, broadcast, or electronic media.

With this definition of advertising in place, it’s no wonder so many real estate professionals spend money on advertising and get absolutely no business! In the above most simple definition there isn’t any consideration for what that advertising shall do other than to bring “public attention”. In real estate we have very few funds to invest, so every dollar we spend on advertising must result in sales.

I invite you to consider a different definition of Advertising:

Advertising (noun) : The activity of attracting public attention to a product or business, as by paid announcements in the print, broadcast, or electronic media that shall result in leads and closed business.

With this definition in place you can allow yourself to make very different on which forms of advertising you choose for your real estate business. Every form of advertising needs to not just pay for itself*, it needs to generate business for you!

Now, let’s look at some common forms of advertising and how you can determine if you should be using it for your business.

Magazine Ads – Magazine ads can be very effective. Before placing an ad, ask the advertiser how many calls the average agent receives from an ad. The entire point of launching a magazine ad is to get calls that you can turn into business. You don’t care about the circulation, the readership, etc., just how many calls should you expect!
Online Paid Advertising – Online advertising takes many forms from PPC (pay per click), display ads, social media ads, video ads, and more.. When you are examining pay per click ads take into consideration the following. How many clicks will it take to get a lead? When you know this number then you can quickly calculate what your cost per lead is and determine if you want to start with online advertising.
Postcards – Before sending out thousands of postcards take the time to understand what response rate you should expect. Your real estate coach might already be able to tell you what to expect, but if you don’t have a coach, send out just a few hundred postcards and track the number of calls you receive. When you don’t receive any calls, it means your advertising didn’t work, so you may need to change your marketing message, where you are mailing etc., but don’t send that postcard out again if you didn’t see any results!

*Maybe Some Ads Don’t Have to Pay for Themselves?

The concept of having ads pay for themselves is largely what direct response marketing is all about. You put in $X into your marketing and you get 5-10X that money back. When you think of advertising in this manner then there is no limit to the amount we can spend because it keeps bringing in revenue, but what if we stopped getting those returns?

In some instances you might need to launch an awareness campaign to drive more people to your direct response marketing efforts. This can occur when you launch a new product or in the case of real estate; maybe there is a new real estate development or even a new loan program that you need people to be aware of. Awareness campaigns can be very helpful but it is important to put tracking and target metrics on these types of campaigns to ensure they are truly worthy of your hard earned dollars.

Regardless of what form of advertising you choose, it is important to hold that advertising accountable for results. Every piece of real estate advertising that you launch should help you to close more business.

by James Bridges on February 12, 2023

How To Choose a Real Estate Website Vendor

One of the most powerful tools for your online real estate marketing is that of a website. With a website you have a great deal of control on the look and feel, content, and page layouts. Building up a powerful real estate website takes time and money. Most real estate agents stay with the same website vendor for years because it can be challenging to move all of the content you have created. Since you are going to be investing time, money, and it is challenging to move should your needs change, it’s important to take some time before committing to a specific vendor.

Every real estate agent has different needs and choosing the right company to help you with your website will take a combination of understanding your needs and what will give you the most success online. Here are some key features to consider before you make a switch or sign up with a new company.

What kind of support is offered? – Technical support can vary wildly between companies. Take time to evaluate the operating hours to see if it will work within your schedule. If you only have time to work on your website in the evenings, then you may want to consider a company who has technical support open past 5pm. When you call the companies ask if you can speak to one of their tech support representatives and ask them questions you have had before to see how they would help you.
How often are they updating their product? – Web technologies change and they change quickly. Ask them about how they update their product to maintain their competitive edge online. Some website vendors out there have been using outdated technology and only the real estate agents have suffered. Dig deeper and find out what new features they will be adding over the coming year so you can see who has their eyes on the changing marketplace.
What is the startup program and costs? – The first few weeks of having your new website can make a huge impact on your long term success. When you consider that you will have this website for years it’s important to start off with a training program that will set you in the right direction. Find out if they give you someone to help you create your basic pages to start off and ask if there are any online tutorials that you can follow.
What Integrations are Available? – Integrations of 3rd party applications with your website are essential to get the most out of any platform. Implementing reporting tools such as Google Analytics, texting ability from your site (i.e Twilio), Email optins, or even leveraging the power of social integrations such as Facebook, Instagram, and more can help you to generate more leads from your website.
How fast do their sites load? – Now this is a “loaded” question that can be difficult to get an answer to. If you ask the pre-sales staff and they direct you to engineering they might say “it depends” and they would be correct as if you load up huge images then you could slow the site down, but that doesn’t give them a pass on sharing the performance of their baseline templates. Any website will have to load a certain amount of files to operate and you want to ensure that you won’t be victim to a poorly structured template. Ask them to run their basic template on PageSpeed insights (or rather you can run it) so you can see the performance metrics.

There are many different great real estate website vendors out there. Each one offers something unique and the real key is to find one that you feel comfortable you can work with and who will provide a good foundation for you to succeed with online.

No matter whom you choose your ultimate success will be determined by the plan of action you put in place to increase your rankings, get more traffic, get leads, and convert those leads into business. After getting down to your final selection take time to plan how you will be updating your website each and every month as that will help you generate business monthly. Remember, just like a car, a website won’t drive itself (ok cars are getting close to self driving) which means understanding the features available from your website vendor is just one step into your ultimate success online.