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Real Estate, Pay Per Click and The Perfect Storm...!?

By Jim Willis

Real Estate Agent with Rose and Womble Realty

October 31, 2007 06:41 AM

What has happened to PPC in www.Google.com or for that matter www.yahoo.com ? That's the question and I think I might know part of the answer. A few months ago my traffic started dropping off in my key phrases ie virginia beach real estate, virginia beach homes for sale, virginia beach va real estate, chesapeake va real estate, norfolk va homes for sale, and on and on.

I was in early on with PPC and had good results (real good), with reasonable costs. Then more and more Realtors became aware of the advantage of ppc and 2 things happened. 1) the price per click went up dramatically if you wanted to stay in the top 3-4 positions of key phrases ie virginia beach real estate 2) This also diluted the marketplace with too many players. All this was happening about the time of the slowdown in the housing market.

A Perfect Storm!

Anyone have any additional thoughts on this?--I read in more than one post that studies had shown that organic searches received 85-90% of clicks, which left only 10-15% for ppc. I've been hooked on pay per click--what to do!!??

Jim from Va Beach

www.hrmls.com/jameswillis See All Homes for Sale in Virginia Beach and all surrounding areas of Va.

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Highland Beach Condos David Serle

RE/MAX Services - Highland Beach, FL

Boca Raton Agent David Serle

Hello Jim,

I hope you do not take this the wrong way as I just want to give you some constructive criticism. Your website is not very good. I would try a different website, but if you want to keep the website than try a few different things. One is to not make the website about you. Make it about the consumer. No one cares about Jim Willis. They care about what you can do for them. The pictures with you on the phone, and what not does not look good to consumers. Change your website to be more about the consumer. You also want to change your title tags to Virginia Beach Real Estate instead of your name. I am not touting my website, but it has been good for me. Check out my website www.searchpalmbeachhomes.com and you may take some ideas or not. You need to increase original content, and title tags, and you will show up on organic searches. ppc can be expensive, and it becomes hard to capture those clients. With the website the way it is now you may be throwing out your money to google and yahoo. I hope I was not too harsh, just trying to help you. Good luck.

Oct 31, 2007 07:07 AM

Leigh Brown

Leigh Brown & Associates, RE/MAX Executive - Charlotte, NC

CEO, Dream Maker - Charlotte, NC

What to do? BLOG and get that organic ranking higher. Consumers are learning that PPC is just that-paid-and they would rather have results that are more accurate. Read anything by Mary McKnight here to get some ideas.

Oct 31, 2007 07:23 AM

Lenn Harley

Lenn Harley, Homefinders.com, MD & VA Homes and Real Estate - Leesburg, VA

Real Estate Broker - Virginia & Maryland

Jim.

Give me permission to use that gorgous photo and I'll add you to the Homefinders.com Network page. No promises. There's not much business out there anywhere. But, I'll work on it.

I know I can trust you and that's 99% of what I look for in a referral agent.

Lenn

Oct 31, 2007 07:52 AM

Jim Willis

Rose and Womble Realty - Virginia Beach, VA

Knows Virginia Beach Area Real Estate

Lenn, you brightened my day already---use my photo as you will!

Nov 01, 2007 04:05 AM

Hi David,

Thanks for the input (or was that downput). I took a look at your website---really very nice---not the best, but nice. I wanted to take a look at your ranking in Google and Yahoo under the primary search phrases ie boca raton real estate, boca raton homes for sale, palm beach real estate, palm beach homes for sale, south florida real estate, south florida homes for sale.

The only place I found you ranked high in the organic results in either www.google.com or www.yahoo.com was boca raton homes for sale (with a different web site www.sunnybocaratonhomes.com---# 2!!) Maybe more specialized search phrases are more important in your area.

Thanks again,

Nov 01, 2007 04:36 AM

Jim, i was not putting you down, I was giving you advice. I have several keywords that I target, but I receive 700 visits a day on my website, and about 5 leads a day. I am not trying to tout myself, but last time I checked I was #3 on yahoo for boca raton homes, and #8 in google. You have to be creative. It is not the number of visits, but the number of clients you capture from your website. You said you did not receive business from your website, and I am telling you partly why. I wish you the best of luck. Did not to be rude, but I gave you honest feedback.

Nov 01, 2007 06:03 AM

I gave you advice, but do what you want with it. I do not care whether Jim WIllis does business, but this forum is designed to help one another. If you want to check out how you are doing go to this website. www.WeBuildPages.com. They are an SEO company, but they have a free tool where you enter your website, and keyword, and it will tell you where you rank in google, yahoo, how many backlings you have, and it will also show you the 10 highest ranked websites for the keyword. Good luck.

Nov 01, 2007 06:14 AM

David,

It's OK; thanks for your help!! It's appreciated!! I did not say I was not getting business on my site; I said in the last few months business had dropped off from my site; prior to that, the site had served me very well regarding leads and business.

My kindest Regards,

Jim

Nov 01, 2007 07:46 AM

Lu Kalaj

Vision Realty Centers - Brighton Township, MI

Thank you Jim about your comment. I'm learning alot in the blog world. I hope to connect with people I can learn from constantly. This an awesome learning tool. Have a great November Fall Month. Lu Kalaj

Nov 03, 2007 08:25 AM

Real Estate, Pay Per Click and The Perfect Storm...!?

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