Real Estate Marketing Blog

Real Estate Optimization Myth #7

The Continuing Series: Real Estate Optimization Myths:
If you just get rankings and Traffic you will be Successful

Refer to SEO Myth #8 for an in depth reason why high SERPs and Traffic are not be all and end all to your success on line.

In short, the idea is to get more sales. A Search ranking is but one possibility for visitors. Lots of search rankings are lots more possibilities for visitors. Underline possibility.

I have had plenty of number one phrases in the engines that have not produced traffic. Seemingly great competitive phrases. And I have had lots of traffic that produced nothing as far as leads.

So I have found it more useful to look at traffic as a percentage of leads or as a ratio.

I call this the "Tootsie Roll Pop metric". You remember those commercials right? " How many licks to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop?"

Well, think of your lead machine from the Tootsie Roll Pop Ratio: "How many visitors does it take you to get to a lead"?

Look at your trend over the past year. We have noticed that it is taking more licks (visitors) to get to a buyer or seller lead of late. Is it the market, the holidays, or both?

This is much more useful a metric than tracking weather your site ranks for a bunch of search phrases or not.

1. PageRank & Metatags are everything
2. A top ten position will solve all your sales problems
3. SEO is metatag manipulation
4. Content is King
5. The engines love blogs more than regular webpages
6. Get ranked for the top 20 most voluminous words and you will be successful
7. If you just get rankings and Traffic you will be Successful
8. SEO is the single most important action  you can do for your website
9. Its all about more links!
10. There are magical shortcuts to getting SEO traffic

Big Money

I just caught an interesting post on Business Week:

While the top quarter or so is making good money, there's a huge army of Realtors at the bottom who would make more money with a full-time job at McDonald's. Nearly a third earned under $25,000 in 2004, according to a National Association of Realtors study. Here's the complete breakdown of the 2004 survey:

Real Estate SEO Myth #8

So my new year resolution is to finish this post out ;-)

The 10 Myths about Real Estate SEO Continued:
#8  SEO is the single most important action you can do for your website.

Years ago I wrote an Ebook called the 5 steps to Online Real Estate Success.

The whole premise of the book was that your online success cannot come from just a high Search Engine Results Page/Position (SERP). As I have kiddingly quipped, "A high SERP and 50 Cents will get you a cup of coffee".

The idea of the book was that you have to start with the end in mind? So why have a web site or presence at all? Instead of following the herd, ask yourself that question.

The Ultimate Goal of a Website?

To get a lead? Or better yet a sale? Or how about an ongoing flow of business for years to come!

So where does that on line generated sale come from? Good Follow up.

On the Illusion of Bubbles

One out of every 115 people, and if you deduct kids, one out of every 85 adults in the U.S. is now licensed to sell real estate.

So we have an over abundance of agents. Walk your dog around the block and you are sure to run into a few competitors. Or are they?

Just because you have an over abunddance of realty licensees does not mean they are transacting. In fact, most of them are noise in the way of your deal.

On the Bubble Meisters

I cannot figure out why these blogs on a real estate bubble have cropped up all over the web.

Its almost like they are invested in a big real estate bust. But why? Are they secretely hoping real estate falls so people put their money in stock? Are they shills put out by Shearson Lehman or Merrill Lynch?

Who are these guys? And why are they hell bent on proving real estate is a bust?

Newspapers Are the Preferred Medium for Affluent Empty Nesters

This reminds me of the conflicting health information that is out there. Eggs are bad, then they are good for you type thing. More importantly, I think it shows the diversity of niches that an agent can target. However, before you  jump back into that cholesterol rich newspaper ad campaign, the subhead of the report says:

Newspapers & Internet Dominate Media Interests Of Empty Nesters

From Media Audit:

The seventeen million empty nesters in the 87 markets surveyed regularly by The Media Audit are 45 or older and very affluent, indexing about 100 points above the market average of 100 in almost every income category beyond $50,000.

Annual household income categories and indexes are:

• $50,000 - $74,999, index 221
• $75,000 - $99,999, index 202
• $100,000 - $149,999, index 196
• $150,000 or more, index 179

Bob Jordan, president of International Demographics, Inc., notes that "The media habits of the affluent empty nesters are dominated by newspapers and the Internet." According to the report, more than 27 percent spend an hour or more each day reading a newspaper (index 159) and 38.7 percent spend 430 minutes or more each week on the Internet (index 107). Radio, television and direct mail all index at less than 100 with the affluent empty nesters.

Almost one fifth of the people who plan on spending more than $30,000 for their next automobile are affluent empty nesters, 50% more than the average. And those who ate out at least four times during the last two weeks (at a sit-down restaurant) also index at 152.

Other findings from the report include:

• 35% (index 123) of the affluent empty nesters plan to take an ocean cruise during the next 2-3 years
• 33.9% (index 130) visited a gambling casino at least once during the past year
• More than 37% (index 114) made five or more purchases on the Internet during the past year
• 20.1% (index 114) made 12 or more purchases on the Internet.
• Approximately 62.8% (index 104) spend $100 or more weekly at the supermarket
• 33.6 percent (index 100) spend $150 or more there.

Merry Christmas!

A Real Merry Christmas!

Prices Up, Volume Down

Do you love news that says buy now? Tired of the bottom feeders?

Well, the bottom has already passed and prices keep going up.

.. while home sales are down sharply from last year's hyperventilating pace, the sales rate in November would be right about the average if you look back over the past 18 years

Granted it isn't 2005, but as this article shows, home prices in L.A. have inched higher, even though there is less volume.

So it appears that a prediction of a soft landing was right. This is great sales fodder for your buyers sitting on the fence. Thanks to http://www.therealestatebloggers.com for the heads up. As one of the commentors points out that he thought he sold at the top and the condo he sold keeps going up.

A New Traffic Generator

I just posted a new video for you to check out.

I discuss a few problems that I see with technology today as it relates to time.

I also give you a great way to to leverage actions you are already taking to create a massive traffic surge.

#9 of Real Estate SEO Myths

#9 of the:

The 10 Myths about Real Estate SEO

1. PageRank & Metatags are everything
2. A top ten position will solve all your sales problems
3. SEO is metatag manipulation
4. Content is King
5. The engines love blogs more than regular webpages
6. Get ranked for the top 20 most voluminous words and you will be successful
7. If you just get rankings and Traffic you will be Successful
8. SEO is the single most important action  you can do for your website
9. Its all about more links!
10. There are magical shortcuts to getting SEO traffic

It all about the links.

Yes and No. After a judicious use of SEO optimizing on your keyword rich pages, its all about links.

Actually it depends on the engine. As far as Google is concerned it is about your Title Tag and your Links. A link is weighted by its reputation (anchor text or in human language meaning what your link says; click here or city home for sale), and contrary to popular disinformation, Page Rank. The other engines tend to put more weight into what is on the page.

So if you want to go after all engines you have to get content on many pages and link from many sources.

Links can come from other sites recognizing your great content, it can come from link trades, others in blog rolls and or posts, directories and syndication.

Link Sources

1. Great Content-This is really what you would like. In the competitive word of real estate this is easier than you might think. The vast majority of Realtors who create content say very little about their local market and issues. Instead, they attempt to pontificate on the matters beyond any economic benefit that they might receive.

I see blog posts and articles all the time that offer advice on SEO written by a Realtor. I see generalized attempts at discussing national Realty issues without illustrating its local impact on the person that would want to "employ" the writer.

2. Link Trades-This is a losing battle as Google's algo forces you to continue trading, and when you stop, any benefit is lost. Besides that it really uglifies a site.

Link trades can still work though. Just do them thru content swaps. If you want a link, offer an article for a link back. The article is a benefit to the page so the search engine will see this as natural. You can also do three way trades where A links to B who links to C. But those kind of things give me a headache!

3. Directories-Get your site into the directories. They are a source of many 1 way links. There are many real estate directories.

4. Articles. Articles are the secret weapon amongst online marketers for easy one way links. They are natural because they are original content.

Just don't post a bunch of what I call "real estate drivel". You know the crud that was out pre-internet back when I was in the business. Stuff like, "It is a great time to refi when...", "When to Go Fixed VS ARM". This stuff has been beaten to death and you more than likely will not do the subject justice.

Write about your market. You can take those same topics above and write about them and how they apply to your market. That would be a winner.We run a new Article Directory just for real estate. You can submit your article for free. And we are working on getting the inbound links and Page Rank high so your site will benefit from our link equity!

6. Others- I would not do this justice without listing other great sources for lower impact links like blog commenting, forums, and social bookmarking sites like Fark , real estate bookmarks and My Favorite Real Estate. Don't forget to make sure that you write something of value when commenting as it can be a terrific way to get visitors to follow your link over to find out more about your business.

So links are a HUGE part of your traffic program, but be careful on how you spend your time linking. Many are being led into spending all their time in Social Networks but it is only a start and a very small part of a larger puzzle. Some bloggers just spend time commenting on other sites and blog rolling (trading).

So get links, but get a variety of links not just to your main page, but also internally with a variety of keyword anchor texts.

The 10 Myths about Real Estate SEO