Conversion

When it comes to search engine optimization, there are two primary components that lead a particular site to rank well for specific keywords: “onsite” SEO and “offsite” SEO. Both are important. Without solid onsite SEO (landing pages, internal linking, alt tags, depth of content, etc), any offsite SEO efforts you undertake are going to be minimized (best case) or completely wasted (worse case). But without offsite SEO efforts (aka link building), it’s not going to really matter how good your onsite SEO is — your site still won’t rank well without external links pointing back at your domain. Virtual Results helps our clients with both onsite and offsite SEO. Below are two charts from a client site showing the change in traffic and leads since we did some ONSITE SEO work (we haven’t done any off site work for them) a few months back.

Traffic is trending up and to the right.

Leads more than doubled. This chart doesn’t include phone calls either, just leads via the IDX.

Which direction are your traffic and leads trending? If they aren’t going up and to the right and you want world class real estate SEO help, let us know. We’re not hard to reach…

What is the true value of your website to your business? Sure, there is some branding value and consumers expect every professional to have a website — but if your website is not producing leads and clients for you, what’s the point?

We happen to know a thing or two about real estate websites from years of building websites that work and monitoring analytics on them, and are willing to give you a few pointers to those with a desire to improve their web presence. Without a solid underlying site structure to build upon, any off site SEO effort is going to be wasted.

If your website is not performing, and you want to better understand why, click here to get your free website critique courtesy of the team at Virtual Results!

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As I travel to seminars and speak to Realtors , I am running into a problem that I never actually considered. The REASON, I thought, that Realtors (in general) werent effective in realizing income on the Internet was that that they didn’t understand how. Understandable. All realtors should be as good at selling houses as the The Mayo Home Team, or at least that’s what a person expects when hiring one. Internet marketing is a whole cottage industry away from Real Estate. Perhaps they were trying, but just missing the mark. The actual problem, I now see, is more systemic than that.

Most Realtors dont know what they dont know.

The Idea that a Website is should be built to create REVENUE and not a brand? I didn’t know that.

The concept that I can create a website that APPEALS to my searchers and creates a DESIRE to self-identify? Really, I didnt know.

The theory that I can actually track my visitors progress through my site and see which parts they enjoy and which they dont? and that I should actually build the site THEY WANT? I didn’t know that I didn’t know that, either.

So, lets take the next couple of weeks and set a plan in action to learn what we need to know… and then we will learn that…

Make sense? Who knows…. stayed tuned.

Return on Investment-101

For most Realtors, Marketing is far and away their largest expense. I have had clients that invest anywhere from 10% to 90% of their Gross Commission Income on Marketing. This can be A LOT of money. One of my clients was spending upward of $500,000 a year on marketing when I found him, and with very little feedback on what was, and wasn’t working. “We want to be everywhere” was his motto. He knew he was profitable, he just didn’t know exactly why…
Return on Investment is quite simple, really. Your investment is the money spent on any advertising piece or marketing campaign. The return is the incremental, attestable Gross Commission Income that the advertising piece or marketing campaign creates.

Simple enough, huh? But how do you collect these numbers. This is the quandary. Tracking ROI can be a simple or complex procedure depending on the contact point(s) within your organization. If ALL phone calls and emails funnel through one initial point (you ) than recoding the SOURCE of those calls can be done with a bit of planning and execution. If you have a larger organization, however, with a support team in place, each person who handles initial calls or emails must be trained to ask the right questions, and record the proper response. But how do you determine WHERE those calls and emails are coming from? There are a variety of methods…
1. Simply ask. This is the least high tech and seemingly easiest. Simply ask each inbound call or email, where they saw the property or offer they are inquiring about. This method, however takes diligence, and support staff must be trained to ask the right questions until they get a proper answer. All responses must be aggregated each month.
2. Phone numbers. Some companies, and Realtors have phone numbers set up that all forward to their main line… these phone numbers can then be strategically placed amongst your marketing ads and programs. At the end of each month, you simply determine the volume of calls coming from each ad my matching the ad with the incoming phone bill. You must also determine the initial call for each client whom bought a home or listed with you.
3. Source Codes. A small source code can be placed on each ad or marketing piece. An alphanumeric code can be placed in a small box (that matches your theme) in the bottom right of your ads or marketing pieces. Each point of contact within your organization simply needs to ask, “I will be happy to answer any questions you may have. In order to better help, I would like to look at the same information you are looking at, would you please tell me the number in the purple box in the bottom right corner?
With any of these data gathering techniques, you will be able to create campaigns that differ, either slightly or greatly and use this information to make educated decisions on which publications, ads, marketing offers, or mailers are worth your investment and which are not…