What is it that we all want to achieve with our websites? Traffic and, most importantly, leads. Getting a lot of traffic directed to your site will only happen one of 2 ways:
- You truly have a unique product or service that EVERYONE is searching for, which is unlikely in the real estate realm
- You put in some work to create the traffic you desire.
There are many ways to create immediate jumps or spikes in traffic and that can be costly. But are these visitors really interested in your proposition of value? Will they return to your website to search for real estate or information? Your goal is to create a mass amount of traffic of visitors who not only want to do business with you, but are motivated and willing to work with you. Here are a few ways that you can increase your traffic, it is then your job to focus on conversion.
1. Offline marketing – Lots of realtors forget this crucial piece of the puzzle when focusing their marketing online. Does your email signature have your website, your blog, or link to your niche? Does your signs, , business cards, neighborhood mailers, riders have your website on them? This is a crucial piece. Lots of online traffic comes from these offline efforts
2. Provide something of value – Buyers come to search for property. Sellers want information on how to sell their homes. Verify that these major pieces of the puzzle are there and grow from there. Also, there should be some sort of registration on your website…just how far will you let them go before it is required?
3. Site map – Create one for your site. This will allow the search engines to better understand your site and the pages within so that you can be indexed.
4. PPC, or pay per click- This is one of the easiest ways to get traffic. You can specifically target the audience you are after. It may be pricey to get ‘homes for sale in East Baton Rouge’ (for example). But, it may be much easier to target a hot neighborhood or area of town with those keywords. It would be a lot more specific and a less expensive, yet targeting movtivated buyers or sellers
5. Social Media sites – who has not been hearing how critical social media sites are becoming?They are everywhere. Ning, Facebook, twitter, active rain, linkedin, etc. I highly encourage you to use these sites to your advantage. Post links to your blog or your website, let everyone know when you put up an interesting blog, added a listing to your page, etc.
Attacking with a balanced and well thought out plan is key to success when marketing online. You will need a consistent and steady amount of traffic to get the leads, convert the leads into appointments, and then taking these appointments to the closing table!
Tim Houk
