I agree with something that Kelcey said in this forum. SEO is important.
But the best SEO in the world will do one thing: drive traffic to your website.
Not enough.
If he visits, and doesn't tell you who he is, that visit is useless.
So your website must have several incentives, or offers.
The basic one (the reason most people visit a real estate website) is to search for properties on the MLS.
What I know from recent reports and statistics, is that the market sales momentum is with the first time buyer.
So, I've been targeting some new products on my website to appeal to that visitor. Things like a free Home Buyer's eBook to help him save $5,000 or more on his home purchase.
And, knowing that he's looking for a bargain, I'm producing a free list of Cincinnati foreclosure properties that he can get delivered 1-2x per week just by registering.
Gotta be creative, ya know? Gotta stay one up on the lead aggregators, who spend a small fortune for advertising, then pimp their leads to any/every Realtor that they can screw for a couple bucks.
Does that sound cynical? I guess it is, having spent probably $2,000 in the last year on lousy leads from lead aggregators, and having only 2 sales from it. Not bad, huh? Now count in the hundreds of hours I spent chasing the junk leads.... and all of a sudden that ROI isn't smelling so sweet.
What I'm finding is that with a little SEO, a little Pay-per-click advertising, and some creative thought about how to get conversions, I can get the same number of leads month-in, month-out that I was getting from the aggregators... except they're higher quality, and they cost me a fraction of what I was paying last year.
Stay tuned... I've already started monetizing the Cincinnati Real Estate Blog, and I'm about to start the same thing with my website.
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