Real Estate Website Marketing-Natural Search Engine Ranking
I think that over time my business as a real estate agent will shift more and more towards the online part. At least for finding new buyers. I saw stats that 70% of buyers start their search online.
I do business in a resort community (Aspen) and out of town buyers surely start their search online before the even get to town. Here is my thinking:
If they come to town there are about 20 main real estate offices. Between them they have an average of 20 agents. So chances that they walk into any office and I am doing floor duty at exactly that time are 1:400.
This ignore the chance of the out of town buyer meeting a real estate agent on the slopes or in a bar before they walk into a real estate office. So chances are probably no better than 1:500 for me to get a random buyer to make contact with me once they are in town.
Now to the online world.
First of all one has to be able to offer a visually pleasing site and then back up the good design with functionality. MLS search, new listing alerts etc... About 50% of users click on the first natural search result (1st position result). Then one also needs to know the top search query term. For me that is "Aspen Real Estate"
So if one were to be #1 on all search engines for that search term one can expect to capture 50% of the searchers. That is a 1:2 ratio. Sounds much better than 1:500.
So it has become clear to me that online is the way to capture people before they even get into town. I have read many books about SEO and online forums are filled with good advice. After about 2 1/2 years I am now featured on the first page for most of my search queries.
I have learned a lot during this time and am happy to share. Just wanted to lay out why I think real estate agents should focus much more on online than on any other form of advertising (print for example)