How do I get more Business from my Real Estate site?

Attracting more traffic to your site, as I indicated in my article ‘How Do I get my Real Estate Website Found?’ will increase your business. Once visitors arrive at your site, you need to keep them there. How do you do that? Provide what your ideal user would want to find when they get there. If they find what they want on your site, they will be more likely to stay and to contact you.

Once you get visitors to your site, find a way to engage them. A little question on the front page – a survey with just one or two questions – it can be something fun, silly or serious – anything to allow them to interact with you. Ideas: ’Please tell me what city you visited my site from’, a comment form, a contest, something related to a local sports team… anything to get them to engage with you and give you their e-mail address. You now have a live lead!

Once they engage and send you their e-mail address, you have an opportunity to follow up. And it’s easy – you thank them for their involvement in whatever it was they responded to, and then ask if you can help with their real estate needs. You might want to respond with a personal note, or, depending on your volume of leads, you may want to use an auto-responder, or use a combination depending on your availability. One way or another, you now have a contact you can work with.

The content of your site should reflect the type of customer you are trying to attract. If you deal, or prefer to deal with first time buyers, seniors, cottagers…, your site content should interest, inform and engage those vistors. Again, if they find engaging content on your site, they will stay and your chances of having them contanct you are greatly increased.

There is no doubt that the majority of visitors to your site will be looking for listings. Give them what they want. Put your current listings on the front page of your website, or make sure the visitor can access the listings with one click and make that link the most visible thing on the page. If visitors have to search for the link to your listings, they are going to be more inclined to leave the site and find one where the listings are readily available.

The bottom line is, give the users what they want, and find a way to engage them, before they leave. Your website is like any other form of advertsing. They have to see it, get your message, and contact you for it to be effective.