In the early times of AR I used to post blogging and SEO tips quiet often. Since then, I've kept most my ideas to myself though none of them are/were ground breaking.

Today I've decided to share one tip that has really served me well and generated highly targeted real estate leads. Back in 2007, when redesigning our site into a WP blogsite, I had the epiphany to create landing pages for Boeing Relocation and Navy Relocation. Knowing that the barrier to entry wasn’t high, I took time and effort to get the pages to rank high for those terms. As a result, I've sold more homes to current and relocating Boeing employees and Navy Chiefs than I ever thought possible.

While people from across the Nation seek employment or received a transfer for orders it is only natural to search for homes in that area. The one detail which stands out through the years is: When relo-ing to a new area, people necessarily don’t know the surrounding cities and the variety housing opportunities. The results are search queries that combine employer name and the word relocation – pretty straight forward.

That is single reason why it is imperative to build relocation landing pages for large and/or unique area employers. Who doesn’t like to piggyback off the 800lb gorilla? It’s easier to take ride then do it all your self.

Taking my own advice, I’ve started building a landing page which targets the term hospitals in Everett. Why? The shear number of hospitals in Everett and employees can make moderate to high income – oh – and they have to be on call so location is a big deal. So what are the steps to building an effective landing page?

1. Keyword Research

I can be cheap, I’ll admit it yet I do like to use good tools and my favorite is Google Adwords tool. The tool is free and returns basic information needed to determine the highest priority term. It takes time to filter and review the results though it is very much worth the time. Originally, I was going to target a different term yet it would only deliver less than 1,000 queries – the rate of return would have been minimal.

For example: hospitals in Everett returns 14,800 search queries a month. If I only capture 20% market share for the query then it will translate into 2,960 highly targeted page views from people who may register for property alerts and want to set appointments to see homes.

2. Page Construction

None of my landing pages are even remotely close to being the holy grail of landing page architecture yet they do the intended job. Here are four items that I’ve focused on for page construction:

- Pictures: Pictures of Boeing are extremely hard to get and the Navy has big guns they point at you if you get to close. So with each precautions must be taken and some good vantage points can be captured. With the hospital page it will be much easier as there aren’t top secret building plants or equipped with 50 caliber machine guns. Not having to deal with either makes for a stress free work environment. Today is so sunny so it is picture time in about 30 minutes.
- Intro Text: Writing descriptive text for what people are search for with the goal of solving their problem, finding a home near work. While writing the text I keep in mind that people who are on call need to be in close proximity for late night calls. After reviewing the current verbiage I definitely can do a better job in this department.
- Header Tags: In WP, header tags are created using < h1 >, < h2 >, and < h3 > ‘s (extra spaces have been added to make the code appear). This builds natural hierarchy on pages in which search engines can easily navigate and organize information. As my own in-house SEO this part is painful as it means a lot of data mining and content organizing. Dirty work.
- Creating a usable list complete with the various medical centers, their addresses (helps with natural keyword density), and website links. Even though I’m sending out a lot of one way links to the hospital’s websites, the value for the consumer is there. More dirty work.

3. Off-Site SEO

As you probably have noticed there are links in this post to the page in which I’m trying to rank – currently sitting at the top of page 2 after three days of work. To generate links to the page, I’ve been blogging about the page around the interwebs on blogs I either own or am apart of. In addition to blog posts, I’ll be creating static links on other networks/sites for to increase the rankings – I get good results doing this. One of the pit falls of link building I see is: doing so much link building that the page’s link graph looks highly unnatural. Outsourcing link building can lead to an unnatural link graph and cause harmful results which then all previous attempts at good on-site SEO has been for not. Take your time and be patient as link building isn’t a one time activity yet a reoccurring action that should be thought out.

- It’s also crossed my mind for some PPC advertising on the page to get it some quick results but I’m going to noodle over that for a bit.

Relocation pages should be a resource as they are a real estate lead capture page. I get a better result when it appears I’m a human being more so than a sale man. Take a look at your site and see if there are gaps in the SEO, a market that is not currently being served, and where tweaks can be made to improve rankings. It is competitive market place online and every wants to be a player. It’s harder to stay at the once there because everyone is gunning for you. Believe me I know first hand.

Two weeks ago I received a phone from a buyer looking to move into a 55+ community in the Bothell area. The call came from an postie published in July of 2009 on a mobile I once had listed. It was a little awkward at first to tell the gentlemen on the phone it was off the market and apologize on having an outdated ad running online.

Thinking fast and remembering my training, LOL I sound like a Jedi but I'm definitely no Jedi, I asked "if he would mind me looking for something similar and email on over?" and to my delight he did. Sending him a some properties I ended showing two, writing one up, arrange and inspection, deliver the purchase and sale to escrow, and boom closes tomorrow. Two weeks and 3 days from start to finish and getting another closing under my belt.

2011 has been much better for me in real estate because I actually have been training a lot more. I attend class hosted by our MLS, title & escrow companies, agents in my office, and my managing broker on topics of title clouds, road maintenance agreements, real estate statistics, listing presentations, buyer scripts, and have a pretty decent followup campaign/strategy. In the past I worked on getting leads but there was a lot I didn't know after the initial procurement.

Sharpening a variety of skills is critical in my opinion and it makes me excited what I will know and learn through 2012. With that said, I had a discussion with a real estate broker who is thinking about joining our office. Nice guy but it contemplating retiring and/or joining a team as buyers agent. I was asked to share my lead generation strategy. As a online marketer you always get people's eyes to glaze over when the subjects of SEO, social media marketing, and lead conversion come up. This geek guy's eye's light up but I do understand not everyone wants to create business that way.

I walked out of the conversion wondering: When in my career is it okay to be comfortable? My conclusion is never. But your young and outgoing and all that shit! Yada yada same old same old. The real estate brokers I have the pleasure of working around would tend to agree with me that age has no barring on level success you want just the amount of effort you're willing to put in. I like effort as it makes me feel like I'm actually doing something rather than just sitting around waiting for the phone to ring - I do wait for the phone to ring just usually I'm doing something else while I sit and wait.

Real estate has been the most pleasant of work environment at time but thankfully I am not one of the many who had to get out of the business. It was a struggle but I honestly believe that, now being the business I've ever been, if I survived the last four years I can survive anything. Hard work, determination, and perseverance are the building blocks to a great career no matter the profession. Well I've rambled enough about what I've been doing - what about you?

 

 

 

Getting started in real estate in 2005, I have seen quite a bit change in our local area as well as the national economy. You're probably thinking, Toby you got in the business at the wrong time. A few years ago I would have a agreed with but not now. Weathering the real estate storm has been challenging and thought provoking at the same time. To put food on the table, roof over my head, and keep gas in the truck, I have had to change how I conduct business, pay attention to my attitude (daily basis), and find ways to reach out to consumers.

In my next attempt to conform - I hate video's with me in them if they are not funny - and get on the video band wagon. Here is my first attempt at a commercial. Originally designed for my Facebook fan page, I'll use it in other advertising mediums to build my business. I think the video came out well and would be interested in hearing feedback on it. Thanks and enjoy the show!