Learn how to generate real estate leads online by creating compelling content on your website.…and easy-to-use software tools to beat your competition.
If you are a Realtor®, like me, you are probably tired of throwing your money away with online advertising on Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com, or even Google.
You really want to generate your own clients by now. Generate real estate online and help them buy or sell real estate.
Do you want a shortcut to generate more clients than your competition and have a life?
If so, then let me tell you about my shortcuts to real estate success online stories.
Back in the early 2000s, I wanted to take advantage of the internet for real estate. But I didn’t know where to start.
I was not a programmer. I had no knowledge of search engine optimization also known as SEO. I knew this was going to be big, really big. But I didn’t know where to start.
I knew having a real estate website was the first step but I wanted the website to make money. If your website is not making money, then read on.
One “Book” that Helped Me Dominate the Search Engines & Generate Real Estate Leads for a Team of 12 Agents
You can rank above big-name portals like Zillow, Trulia, and Realtor.com online for target markets. You just have to think outside the box and use some SEO wisdom and software as I have over the years to create a shortcut.
- The first book I read was in 2003 called Search Engine Optimization Made Easy by Brad Callen (it’s $5.00. You can get a copy on Amazon.com). It’s not techy or complicated.
I read the book. Applied the basics and focused my efforts on target marketing.
How I Used Target Marketing to Generate Real Estate Leads Online
I learned this in 2004. I was at a real estate convention and met a marketing guy who was helping real estate agents dominate online.
Our main real estate website, www.RedWagonTeam.com, was ranked number 1 on all 3 major search engines for thousands of terms like “southern California real estate” and “southern California homes” but it was not focused enough.
I was a marketing major in college and I forgot about target marketing.
My focus before the real estate convention was on dominating all of Southern California online. I discovered that was way too big. Oh my. So many cities to cover.
At the real estate class I attended, my competition was there and they were target marketing. Their focus was on Long Beach homes, Long Beach condos, and condo buildings. They were target focused and my main website was casting too big of a net.
I was thinking too big.
After the conference, I went to back to work at creating target markets. Making content changes and figuring out what visitors truly want when they land on my website.
And, online consumers want more than just listings when they visit your website.
Speak To Your Audience in Your Content for the Target Phrase & Win Clients
I changed our main website to focus more on Long Beach homes, Long Beach condos and smaller targets. I changed the language of the each page to speak to the visitor for the target market. I’m still working on this daily.
First-time buyers for condos have a different language than people buying mansions. The way they speak, their focus, the language they talk to one another. It becomes a psychological way of crafting the page to appeal or answer what the buyer is thinking when they visit the page.
When someone lands on a page of your website, they are asking themselves a lot of questions:
- What’s in it for me?
- What do I need to know?
- Does this page give me the information I need to make decisions?
- How do I navigate around to find what I’m looking for?
- What do I do next?
- Is the website professional looking
- at the list of questions that goes on from there?
Content is King Online
People are asking questions and getting answers on the internet every day. Your website needs to speak to them and give them exactly what they are looking for.
When they land on the page for condos or townhomes for a community, I have seconds in which to convey to them what the page is all about. I want them to spend time on the page.
Learn about condos in the Sea Glass Community
- Where is the Sea Glass community located
- How close is shopping, schools and your job to this condo
- What is the market trends in pricing for Sea Glass
- and so on…more content than anyone else has…and it has to be engaging…not boring.
My leads soared.
At one point, I was generating over 600 leads a month online with no pay-per-click account, no advertising on Zillow. There was no Zillow at the time.
I created pages for condominiums like Marina Pacifica condos, Aqua Towers, Seabridge condos, etc.
Targeting smaller more focused keyword phrases gets you the low hanging fruit. If only 30 people are searching for Long Beach pool homes, I want to be number 1 for that or as close to number 1 as possible.
It’s all about target marketing and creating unique, compelling content online to win the game.
SEO Software Tools That I Used to Give Us a Competitive Advantage for Real Estate Lead Generation
When it comes to carving out a target market online and a niche online as a real estate professional, you need an edge. A shortcut to getting to your goal of online dominance.
Here is what I did.
I use SEO Software tools for all of my real estate websites:
RankIQ – costs $49.00 per month. It was built to help bloggers and local businesses generate traffic by writing content that has low competition. It is easier to rank for low-competition keywords than your main keyword or phrase. This tool saves me hours of research. Check out the video on the benefits of using it. I use this product daily.
LuckyOrange.com – costs $20 per month. I use them for just 1 month at a time. This software tracks mouse movements by mobile, tablet, and computer on your website. It records the movements for you to watch later. It shows you where people click the most.
I used luckyorange.com software to find a flaw in a vendor’s IDX property search product. The consumers were entering $300,000 in for the price range and then would click search. They got no results.
The comma was blocking the search results. I sent a video of the problem that I discovered to the support staff for the IDX product that I was using on my websites. The vendor corrected the problem and the consumers were able to use the property search tools.
Check out a new FREE product by Microsoft called Clarity. It is similar to Luckyorange and it gives me insights into how people use the content on my website empire. Plus, it’s free.
Spyfu.com to spy on your competitors. Yep. I said spy on your competitors. You can see what your competition is bidding on for pay-per-click (also known as PPC) advertising.
You can discover what your business competitors rank for in search engines. Then, use that information to improve your website. This tool is $39 per month. It will save you time.
- Test drive it
- Enter a competitor’s website and click Search
- Perhaps you will find a keyword idea that makes this tool invaluable to you.
You will discover what they are not bidding on and possible phrases to bid on or create content around. The low hanging fruit or untapped phrases could be a better lead generating for you on a content page or advertisement that you run online.
Sample Tutorial from SpyFu Training
Check out a new FREE product by Microsoft called Clarity. It is similar to Luckyorange and it gives me insights into how people use the content on my website empire. Plus, it’s free.
Spyfu.com to spy on your competitors. Yep. I said spy on your competitors. You can see what your competition is bidding on for pay-per-click (also known as PPC) advertising.
You can discover what your business competitors rank for in search engines. Then, use that information to improve your website. This tool is $39 per month. It will save you time.
- Test drive it
- Enter a competitor’s website and click Search
- Perhaps you will find a keyword idea that makes this tool invaluable to you.
You will discover what they are not bidding on and possible phrases to bid on or create content around. The low hanging fruit or untapped phrases could be a better lead generating for you on a content page or advertisement that you run online.
Sample Tutorial from SpyFu Training
Research Keywords Tools
Take back your clients online that you are losing to your competitors.
Note: some of the links in this blog post that go to other websites, may pay us a commission.