In many cases, the most effective real estate marketing strategy to generating website traffic can be traced back to SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and PPC (Pay Per Click). At their very roots, the purpose of both SEO and PPC is to convert search engine traffic into visitors to your website.  This is accomplished through optimizing your site content and your PPC ads with targeted keywords specific to the real estate industry.  The goal is to discover the most effective keywords that will light a fire under your real estate marketing strategy and get your website in front of as many people as possible.

While the success of both depends on the keywords you choose, there are some things to keep in mind when conducting your research:

Search Volume
In your SEO research, you want to target the keywords with the highest search volume.  With PPC keywords, search volume is not as important.

The reason:
You don’t have to pay each time your website appears in search results via your SEO efforts. You DO have to pay each time someone clicks on your PPC ad.  Therefore it makes sense that you don’t want it to show up in 1,000,000 searches per month. So instead of choosing a broad keyword like "real estate" which has a very high search volume, you would be better off choosing a more targeted set of keywords that have maybe the second or third most traffic.

Keyword Focus
When researching keywords for your SEO campaign, you want to find those with a broad focus, while you want to find more narrow and specific keywords for your PPC campaign.

The reason:
With your SEO efforts, you want keywords that cover many different streams of incoming traffic.  You want your website to appear in front of as many people as possible.  With PPC, you want to target specific keywords that relate to exactly what type of customer you are targeting.  For example, if you specialize in selling condos in Denver and you choose “homes for sale” for your PPC campaign keyword, you will likely end up having to pay for people searching for other types of properties in other locations around the country. Those clicks will be irrelevant because that isn't your target market. A much more targeted keyword like “townhomes for sale in Denver” will get your name in front of a group who IS looking for your type of properties. Again, cost per click is a huge determining factor.

Motivations
People conduct searches for a whole variety of different reasons.  Your job as a real estate professional is to discover these reasons, and how you can leverage them into maximum profit for your business.  Is someone simply browsing for more information on the mortgage process, or are they looking to refinance their home?  When deciding on PPC campaign keywords, you want to focus on those that will bring in buyers, not browsers.  For example, someone searching for “mortgage” is less likely to become a customer than someone who searches for “how can I refinance my home?”.

While there are certainly many more deciding factors when it comes to keyword research, the items mentioned above are a good starting point.  In the end, it’s NOT a matter of deciding whether to pursue SEO or PPC in your real estate marketing strategy, it’s a matter of effectively using them both in tandem, to maximize your search engine traffic.