Real estate project websites have never been more important than they are today. This first impression of your project often determines if a prospect comes back or registers for more information.
But before these prospects even get to your website, they need to be able to find you. Search engine optimization (SEO) is an important component to a real estate marketing professional’s strategy. In many cases, home builders and developers turn the website optimization over to their web developers and/or an SEO company. This is okay, but it’s important to have an understanding of how you can make a difference and contribute positively to improving your position in search. It’s all about being on page 1 on search engines!
Jim Adams, CEO of NewHomesDirectory.com has written a book called ‘Little Black Book of SEO Secrets – Search Engine Optimization Made Simple’.
All the SEO tactics presented in his book have been accepted, endorsed, and recommended by all major search engines, and will stand the test of even the most discriminating human reviewer.
The book is all about how to get your website found on search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo and YouTube.
Not only does it cover the basics of what search engine marketing is, but it also covers:
- Keyword research
- Paid search vs organic search
- Website design and important elements that assist with search
- Developing compelling content
- How to hire a SEO company
Included are helpful tips as well as things that you should avoid. For example, having well thought out title tags on each webpage is an important part of a website strategy. But at the same time, it’s important to always avoid having pages with the same title tag, as well as just having your company name in the title tag. Read the book to learn why!
Jim has laid out the book in an easy to read, concise format that will get you on your way to understanding search and what you need to do to get your project website found!
To order his book, visit his profile page at www.jimadams.me
How to Improve Your Online Presence and Get Found Online...
If you want to sell more houses locally, it's likely your goal is to be at the top of the list for most online searches. John Jantsch from DuctTapeMarketing.com has recently written an article on 5 Ways to Get More from Local Search. Here are some of the highlights that we think you will benefit the most from.
Real estate project marketing goals must include a strong online presence today, when a majority of prospective homebuyers turn to the Internet first when beginning their search for a new home. By following these tips, you can look forward to receiving more traffic to your website and to your sales center.
Increase your online presence by customizing your website, individual landing pages, online content, online profiles on social media networks, and more.
- Localize Your Website - Take the time to review your website. Add geography based terms to your page titles, footers, URLs and keywords on your website.
- Create Individual Landing Pages - If your business serves more than one location or community, create individual pages that feature content exclusive to each of these communities. Add information about local community news and events, nearby facilities, schools, churches, etc. Remember to customize your meta-tag descriptions and keywords in the HTML for each individual page! Local SEO Specialist Dev Basu provides very helpful tips on How to Create Effective Local Business Landing Pages.
- Online Content - When adding videos, photos, whitepapers about your company on sites like YouTube, and Slideshare and Flickr, take the time to add localized descriptors, links, and filenames to your content information.
- Online Profiles - If you haven't already done so, create a business profile page on social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn. This blog article from SitePoint lists 20 Social Networking Sites for Business Professionals. Browse through to find those that suit you best.
- Get listed on Online Business Directories - Sign up with popular search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, AOL, Microsoft, and Ask.
- Tap into your Networks - Get your friends, associates, and happy customers to talk about you. LinkedIn offers testimonials and you can publish testimonials on your website. Create a Partners page where you feature and link to all the great people you work with from builders, developers, realtors, etc. Ask them to link back to your site.
In addition to the above, there are several real estate-specific directories that are worth exploring. These directories are typically focused on a specific location. There's been a lot of discussion regarding the importance of Craigslist and NewHomesDirectory.com is a directory service specifically for home builders. It positions itself well in the organic search rankings for keywords such as "New Homes San Diego" and "New Homes in Chicago" and their main objective is driving prospective purchasers to your project website.
A new home project website ultimately has one objective - to drive leads. A lot of time and effort goes into making sites attractive and appealing to a prospective buyer. The goal is to convey the message - "this is the place you want to live".
While visiting the website, the prospect hopefully will do one of three things - call the sales center, visit the sales center or sign-up to register for more information.
Since Lasso provides the real estate sales and marketing software for leading new home developers and sales and marketing agencies, we get to see many project websites and registration pages. Following are some suggestions to hopefully improve your website conversions and capture more interest in your project:
- Make it easy for the prospects to register - yes, this sounds basic, but surprisingly, there are some sites where a prospect may have to get to the 2nd or 3rd page to find the "register here" button or some sites where you really have to search to find the words "register here". Make it easy to find the registration page!
- Many companies like to have a Flash intro as you enter the site. This is fine and can be very effective; however, make it optional! Allow a prospective registrant to skip through the intro and get right to the information on your site (it's not a bad thing that they want to get right to the good stuff!) Make music optional!
- Keep your questions to a minimum. Limit the number of questions to a few basic qualifying questions - such as when they are planning on making a purchase? What price range? and, What size of home? More questions could turn someone off completing the form. (If you're using Lasso, you can us a Self Serve Registrant Update to ask further qualifying questions to your registrants after they have registered and the information gets automatically updated in Lasso!)
- When a registrant has hit the "submit" button after completing the form, ensure that the thank you page links back to the home page or the rest of the site. The registrant may still want to see more on your site.
- Keep your website up-to-date. If the most recent "news update" is from the Spring of 2007, visitors may not be enticed to register. Ensure that current news is posted along with an update of the units sold. Consider incorporating the inventory data from Lasso right on your website so you can show in real time what units are still available!
You've only got a short time to entice website visitors to sign up. Make it clear, simple and easy, and you'll be well on the way to higher conversion rates.
David Meerman Scott is a marketing strategist and the author of several business books with topics ranging from Viral Marketing, Public Relations, and Social Media. His latest book - World Wide Rave - focuses on creating triggers that get millions of people spreading your ideas and sharing your stories.
He is a leader of internet marketing. His site, webinknow, published the following post. His points pretty much sum up what's needed to build a good (or great) website. It's a competitive market and if you focus on a few of the items below and then expand from there, you're headed in the right direction.
Steps to a Great Ccontent-Focused Web Site
by David Meerman Scott
There are 14 steps here. You will have a terrific site if you do all the steps. But one of the great things about the Web is that you can build and grow continuously. So pick something and do it. Incremental improvement is better than stagnation.
- Articulate your goals
- Conduct a needs analysis
- Understand user demographics
- Create "personas" for each demographic
- Establish (or maintain) a site personality
- Develop appropriate "self-select paths" based on your personas
- Create a landing page for each persona
- Write for your personas, not for you
- Create content for all stages of the consideration cycle
- Offer multiple ways for visitors to express interest
- Photos, diagrams, charts & multi-media content tells your story
- Push content out via email and RSS
- Market your Web site
- Gather metrics for continual improvement
Have any suggestions or ideas of your own, please let us know.