A nice addition to your website to encourage visits and revisits from prospects, past clients and search engines

Often times websites are created and change very little or only certain pages change.  There are many reasons for this:

1. We build it and forgot about it
2. We are driving visitors/traffic to our other sites (blogs and social media sites - important, yes, but if you have a website you want to make sure it's receiving traffic and directing traffic bank and forth to all your sites)
3. We simply don't have the time to update our sites

So here's your opportunity to regularly change the content on your website to encourage visitors (prospects and past clients) to visit again and again and again - you get the point.

As I mentioned in the title of this blog - you also want search engines visiting and revisiting your website and they will do that when you add fresh content to your site.

This can be accomplished by adding a "What's New" page to your website.  Here you are focused on updating and directing your visitors to important new content on your site and fulfilling their need for information.

 

The benefit of adding a "What's New" page is that you are primarily updating one area of your website and since you are adding links to the pages you want to direct them to - those pages are automatically updated and generating traffic.  Search engines love new content and if you are using keywords and optimizing this page you will benefit from having a page that is seen as being regularly updated and has the content that consumers are seeking.

While I don't encourage adding everything from the list - pick some key areas and see how they work - analyze your website visitor statistics and see where they're going.  Keep at it until you have the right content driving traffic - repeat traffic to your site.   Ideally you will want this "What's New" Page to be easily accessible from your Home page - appearing on your navigation bar so that it's easily found.  The key is not just mentioning what's new - take them there by including links to take them to those pages directly.

 

Here are some examples of things you might want to include in your "What's New" page of your website:

 

New, Featured Listings & Open Houses - whether it's a widget or a featured listing

MLS Search - why have them go elsewhere? - provide right there on your website.

Hot real estate tip or link (a good opportunity to share some link love with some of your local business owners)

Updates on Your Company

• Awards
• Community Involvement - show how you're involved in your community - link to a blog or social media site in which you've mentioned what you're doing.  Show it on your calendar of events.
• New Staff - link to a blog that you've written about this new staff member
• New Testimonial - Link it to your testimonial page

New Video - what a great way to show your prospects and clients new listings.  Most video tools have the ability to embed them into blogs and websites.  (who knows - they may even forward to someone that might be interested.)

Links to news articles about the real estate industry and your market - whether from your blog or a pdf file that they can print directly from your site.  Another way to show your expertise and the value of working with you. 

Calendar of Events and Community Events - a great way to show things going on in your community is to have a calendar that has dates highlighted to encourage them to explore and have them coming back to your site for this information.  Be sure to highlight what events you're involved in and take them to the blogs you've written about your community, events and new businesses you have highlighted. 

Newsletter Sign up another way to stay in front of your prospects and clients and show the value of your expertise and of working with you.

Your blog - Either feed your blog directly into your site or at least mention some of the most recent blogs you've done that you feel would be of interest to your visitors.  Encourage them to subscribe to your blog via the rss feed so that they are getting regular communication and content from you each time you update your blog or simply encourage them by providing relevant content.

 

A call to action asking them if they want to be notified when updates are made to your site - encouraging them to revisit your website when you add something new - a reminder if you will to visit again.

Social Media Engagement - Encourage them to interact with you on social media sites that you participate on.  Engaging with them in this fun way is a great way to build on your relationship and show them what you're involved in - maybe they'll see something in your stream and it will encourage them to ask you a question. Often customers may be thinking of something and won't reach out to you but if you put it out there they just might.

 

 

Visitors (prospects, past clients and search engines) may come to your site once, but to keep them coming back you need to have fresh and relevant content.  You need to provide solutions to their questions.  You need to provide information that means something to them - that fulfills their needs (WIIFM.)

 

How does your website stack up?  Are you seeing repeat visitors and are there key pages/content that drives traffic to your site?  Do you have a page like this that generates traffice?

What other suggestions for content to a "What's New" page would you include that would not only provide great content for your website visitors but also generate more traffic for your website?

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If it's not evident to you by now, consumers are very knowledgeable and computer savvy and are using the Internet to not only search for homes but for real estate agents and real estate professionals who they feel are like minded and can lead them to the results they are looking for.  

As we all know, there are only 24 hours in a day to get it all done...are you focusing on the right stuff to grow your business and meet your client's needs? Contact us today to get started!

Ready to take your Marketing to new levels? Anne Marie Malfi ~ Malfi Marketing Solutions.com ~ Copyright 2009

 

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