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Is the Listing Router an Effective Call to Action?

More buzz today as Listing Router hits the new ActiveBlogs...

Basically, Listing Router is just a call to action for your readers, right? It gives them the opporunity to search for homes, and if they type in your area on your page, then that person gets sent over to your IDX search.

So if we think about Listing Router as a call to action... how do we know if that's the best one, the most convincing way to persuade people to search for homes? Because - certainly - we want to present this call to action, this opportunity for our site visitors, in a way that convinces them to use that feature.

In fact, on my own real estate business site, I've been testing my own IDX search, trying different headlines to see which makes people stay and use the search longest. We had the original headline:

    Search Tucson Homes - Listings Provided by the Tucson MLS

and 3 different variations. So far, this is the winner:

    Tucson MLS Listings - Search for a Home or Land Here

which makes people use the search longer than they do with the original headline nearly 75% of the time.

The loser:

    Search the Tucson MLS Below

actually makes people leave FASTER than the original headline.

So I'm curious: is that Listing Router actually effective at driving people to your listing search? What percentage of your site visitors use it? Could it be made more effective with a different headline, a different placement, a different call to action? How does it perform compared to, say, a little quick search widget embedded in your post or sidebar? Can you take what's given, and find out what parts of it work or don't work, and then tweak it to make it better somehow? Can I make it more or less prominent, depending on the kind of information I'm providing in my blog alongside it? How do I differentiate mine from everyone elses?

Very curious.

What's your experience?

Posted by ARE-TEC IDX Solutions on 01/14/2009 04:51 PM

Comments (51)

Listing Router in the Technology and Tools Channel

listing router

Originally posted at: The ARE-TEC Blog: All Things IDX, Website, and Techno-geek: Is the Listing Router an Effective Call to Action?

Post is included in group: Lead Generation through community websites
Post is included in group: Internet Lead Generation-How Best To Capture Your Audience
Post is included in group: Getting and Working Internet Leads

51 Comments on Is the Listing Router an Effective Call to Action?

JAN

I wish I didn't have to leave a comment to monitor this comment stream. But I want to watch and this is only option I have. So...

Kelley - Good job of doing a little "Scientific Management" as our Harvard MBA CEO likes to say.

Wow, Kelly, those are great observations. I did not understand what AR is trying to tell me from the start. If they come to my blog or find me via a search engine, won't they use my home IDX search from there and bypass AR's listing router anyway, or is that what you just said, I feel dumb sometimes....

Jeff- you did the right thing as I am going to follow this stream also, it should be interesting....btw, were you or are you a Realtor? You seem to be simpatico and well tuned, is why I ask....

Lets see what folks say. I just started using Listing Router today.. so we will what happens!

Hey Kelley, What do you think about those cool icons that look oh so nice which serve as hyperlink buttons sending traffic to your IDX?

Paul

"100 Days to Change"

I have missed something..... What is Listing Router any way...

How does it work?

Jeanette Hemmer, Re/Max Plus Realty, Clarksville,Ar

I set it and forgot about it. Not sure how effective it is but I would love to hear if LR is driving traffic to other's sites.

Kelley - Interesting bit on how you went through the various ideas to come up with what made people stay longer. Its something I need to really work on and learn.

Kelley,

I think you have asked excellent questions. You are ahead of me on this because I have not had a chance to set up my new outside blog. I understand where you are coming from. I look forward to hearing what the Active Rain Gurus have to say.

Forgot to check the notify button...

The jury is still out on this. TIme will tell.

Unfortunately, AR has their own search call to action at the top of your page which directs your visitors to agents who pay JustListed for leads.

I did sign up for listing router in the beginning, but I have yet to see any results come from it. I don't know if the criticism and accusations have any truth to them, but I kinda doubt them.

Kelly, I'm leaving a comment to follow too, but my guess is it is too early to tell. Not sure how many are actually signed up yet. But, I know you test, test, test so it sounds like you hit the sweet spot for Tuscon Homes.ie. Search the Tuscon MLS Homes and Land.

Here are a few thoughts on the concept however, (you knew I couldn't keep quiet.)

Activerain has great results in the search engines. Depending on the key words people search under, in many area's the posts come up higher than the Big Guys.

However, many times the consumer is really looking for a house, land etc..

They may quickly glance and then move on.

However, if the Search Homes is there, I believe we will have satisfied their needs and they will have an opportunity to find homes instead of just let's say a market report or restaurant review etc...

The bounce rate should be lower.

Now after I have tested it, I will let you know but I haven't signed up yet. Been sick.

I have discovered that AR is a complicated site! I don't understand how the listing router works either....... there doesn't seem to be information easy to find. All I can find is that I have a credit toward the listing router.

That is interesting that those little words make a difference

Well I too am clueless and am examining different new IDX solutions. I am curious to see what others say.

Curious if your systems works with my MLS...

For anyone wondering about ARE-TEC that wants to ask a agent who's using it - feel free to ask away (email would be best). I'm a huge fan of ARE-TEC and I haven't even begun to scratch the surface.

WE linked ours up and can't tell anything is happening. Not working well for us.

Like Jeff, I am leaving a comment as well to monitor the feedbacks. I must say that I haven't been on the rain at all lately and every time I come back there is something new! I feel so *outdated*

cheers,

Cindy ;)

I am getting some hits via the listing router which I signed up for on day 2 or so, but I do not know how many of those are converting into leads. I have 2 buyers call me while on my IDX site and tell me I found you on Active Rain so I know it is working - just not to what degree.

I don't think the format on AR is as effective as it could be, but that is probably because AR didn't want to make it too obvious to start with so it wouldn't offend some members. I have always gotten good hits off my "Search for Homes" buttons on my sidebar and I LOVE the way the community sponsors on Localism are getting rewarded.

I am planning to start tracking each source that hits my idx link by using separate static landing pages with different permalinks on my "other" blog so that I can track exactly where each lead is coming from. But I am waiting on my new IDX :) (ps my board is freaking a little - but I will have that resolved soon) before I set that up.

Kelly, Like most of the others, I am interested in tracking this too. I am curious to know how big a your sample size was. A large sample gives more validity to your results.

Thanks for the post, we are all interested to try things out and check back for results.

Michelle,

I would love you to put up a post on how to create the landing pages to track your idx leads coming from different sources. I agree that this would be a perfect thing to do. I am not sure how to do it, however.

Is there even a way to track which hit come from the listing router with something like Google Analytics? I didnt see a method to measure so I rasticly scaled back my claimed cities.

Further I havnt got many listing credits no matter how hard I try at providing material of wide appeal so I currently can not justify the $0.86 per click I was being charged.

I also wish to note that driving people to my IDX has not a very effective lead capture approach, my main source of capture is from my Top Producer market Snapshot page at www.mapleride-realestate.ca . I subscribe to the carrot or stick principle. Here is what you get if you give me your contact info with a glorious sample (carrot) and nothing is what you get if you dont (stick).

Too many lookyloos sufing real estate at 86 cents a pop with no capture is not money well spent :(

Thoughtful post, Kelley. There's always room in your sidebar here on AR to place your own calls to action. Also, have you tried checking out Google Trends to see what search terms are most effective?

I really have no idea but am watching this thread to see what transpires.

Include me on the list of "Not really understanding list router". I've read all the comments, and will check the below box to be notified of other comments.

Hi Kelly...I'm parking also although I'm beginning to wonder why.

I am so confused. I really need to hire someone that does all this "thinking" for me.

Kate

I just recently posted about listing router and if anybody has received results. Since Nov we have only had 7 clicks (for a few areas). But I can't track if they have lead to anything or not, which in my opinion is critical. From our IDX I can see where people come from all the way to the actual post that lead them to our site. We have quite exceptional back end system, including for tracking. But I have not seen anything that I can say came from the listing router. So for now, we have suspended our campaigns for the listing router. ~Rita

I too signed up for Listing Router with a couple neighborhoods in our area. I havent been able to identify any leads that have come as a result of this. Having said this I am certainly getting traction from my blog posts, which are pulling me up sometimes on the first page on google. This part is very encouraging. I have also sponsored communities but am not sure what that exactly does for me.

Does anyone know how the localism sponsorship improves your search rankings, etc?

Kelley: I have not started my lisitng router yet. I need to set up and see.. I will follow this thread too and see what happens

I am interested to see if there is anyone out there who truly understands the listing router system and has had any success with it. I get the concept, but I, like most, signed up, I click on it occasionally, and quickly lose interest because I just don't fully grasp what's going on.

Is this a free AR tool or a pay-per-click? I wasn't sure after reading things...I don't think it's free

I have had some activity, and I had some credit from other people pages click throughs but it must disappear when the billing is done. I think I had 3 or 4 click credits last month. (AR guys - if you are watching this post, please give us a permanent total per month of the credits, so I can track!). Below is my screen shot of historical activity, not huge traffic but another little piece of the pie. I did take my links out of the screen shot so you cannot click on them :) Michelle De listing router history

That's 31 click through from the paid campaigns - who knows how many from the free ones (which annoys me)?

It is free for your pages, but it cost you if someone is on a blog from Michigan or anywhere outside "your" market area decides to search in your area. I have two paid campaigns set up and 10 free ones. I work a lot of smaller markets that I just don't want to commit to spending this money on yet so I am paying for the top 2/largest market areas I work.

I always wait a few weeks to listen to the concerns and let the bugs get worked out before I jump in. I want to see proof of results. Good question though.....

I started listing router a couple of weeks after it came out and have had 13 "routed" to my IDX site. Salem, OR is a town of 150,000 people so I thought that was pretty good since these are our rainy months and tend to be slow.

Listing router is too new for any conclusive data. I have people that lurk for 6 months before contacting me. It's part of the internet shift.

Unless they are going to do some sort of custom form for each area, there really isn't a way to have anything other than a Search for Homes call to action. They do need to encompass a nation here. I don't think there is much they can do about that.

Do I like the placement? Does it jump out? Eh...I think that could be improved, but not sure they can do much about the terminology. Maybe a flashing disco ball that says "over here, hey...you...you with the mouse...click over here...Houses...c'mon..." well, not really, but you get the idea.

This is a great thought provoking post...and I have to say that I love Melina's comment...too funny!!!

JAN

I am also suspending my interest in the listing router for now. But, I have no doubt that admins. of aware of AR'er not so hot response to the service.

Thank you for this insightful tip. I have yet to implement the idx feature but it certainly seems worthwhile!

I just went and read more about this and am still as confused as I was. Would love to know in plain language what this does and does not do.

Morning Kelly, terrific post and your analysis is very helpful. I see a huge amount of confusion over ListingRouter. The early results aren't very promising are they ?

Listing Router seems to be a big ball of confusion to so many on here. I know that the AR guys have several posts explaining things, but I think that until several people start touting how much response they're getting from it, most will not give it a try.

I think the listing router has to be done in the right way to make it more of a call to action, make there more incentive, just by sitting there its not going to magically bring customers.

Hi Kelley - I don't think I would have thought about the wording that would draw more to the router. I think you little study shows that it does make a difference. It would be interesting to see if there are others who've done what you have, and to see their results. I haven't done any paid ones, but did set up a number of the free ones for the areas I cover.

Ann

BudgetCPCJan 2009Dec 2008Nov 2008

New Philadelphia, PA		$50.00	$0.84	3	$2.52	5	$4.20	3	$2.52
Philadelphia, PA		$100.00	$0.84	29	$24.36	32	$26.88	10	$8.40

Am getting some decent traffic (I presume) from the above stats. Really have no idea as I dont have anything to compare it to ?

JAN

kelley,

Thanks for the post. Great information here and interesting dialogs.

APR

Kelley - Your question is so astute and insightful. Excellent.

APR

I feel that Listing Router is like gambling. I write a post it goes to page one of Google, sometimes at the top and then with the lovely listing router someone is directed to another persons website...Great...I have totally opted out of all listing router activities and stopped the gambling. What is your consensus since you wrote this? I would be interested in what you think.

Click throughs are costing me about double what I pay for AdWords so I am not sure if Listing Router is a good value. They are both a gamble but AdWords gives you better odds. I would like to see lower minimum bids to make LR more palatable.

Jane - We never really got an answer here, did we? :) I don't advertise as an agent here, so I don't use Listing Router. I get the point of potentially making some $$ by sending people to other agent sites, but I'd rather have a custom link to my search that is fabulous at capturing the traffic I want. But I'm kind of a control freak like that.

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