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A website is a necessity for any business in this internet age. Real estate agents are not immune from it. 87% of people in the US and 93% in Canada use internet to get the information they need. A well designed website can provide valuable information to potential home buyers. It also allows real estate agents to build good reputation with customers and generate leads. However, just setting up a website and hoping that it will attract potential home buyers is not going to work. “Build it and they will come” is never a good strategy, especially in the digital land.
You need to first understand how potential buyers find a website and take steps to build yours that will align with their approach. While there are multiple ways in which visitors could land on a website, few of them stand out.
- Many times visitors already know which website they want to visit. They know your website address when you publicize it via multiple channels.
- Many people turn to Google or other search engine to find a website by typing a query of what they are looking for. For example, type a search query real estate website in St Albert, AB and see what turns up. While there are number of search engines available Google is the most dominant and well-known search engine that majority of people turn to.
- People also come to know about your website via social media when businesses interact with them via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or any other social media channel.
As you can see your goal should be to stay in front of potential home buyers so that when they are ready do to research your website is the first one that comes in their mind. You need to consider several approaches to be effective at this.
Offline Marketing
Make sure your website is mentioned in any communication you have with others. This includes business cards, stationary, email signature, billboards and so on. The more people come to know about your website the better the chances of them going to your website when they are ready to do so. You should also make sure the name of the website is easy to remember. Having a catchy and easy to remember name such as the one for real estate website in the Yaletown neighborhood can help bring more visitors to your site.
Google Search Engine
Google is the most widely used search engine when people are looking for information. If you can land on the first page of their search results you can get large number of leads from people searching for the information. Now, landing on the first page is not easy, but there are ways in which you can improve your search engine ranking by understanding how Google search engine works. Here are several suggestions to keep in mind as you are building your website.
- Make sure the content on your website is relevant to what people are searching for. This will increase your chances that Google will show your content before everyone else’s.
- Aim to get number of backlinks from well reputed sites. Google considers you to be an authority on your subject when other websites are linking to yours.
- Ensure there are no technical issues that prevent people from reaching and navigating your website easily.
- Make sure you have compelling content on your website so that the visitors stick around long thus improving your click through rate
- Use relevant keywords and articles on the website. Google considers them in the ranking
- Post frequent updates to the website. If the website is stale and has not been updated in a long time Google pushes it down in the search ranking.
Social Media
In addition to attracting visitors through search engine you can also increase the visibility and reputation of your website and business by becoming more active on social media. If you can post relevant articles and answer people’s questions regarding home buying you can establish yourself as an authority, which in turn will attract those people on your website. Make sure you follow best practices for social media when interacting with others.
As you can see there are multiple ways in which you can attract visitors to your website. You need to have comprehensive well rounded approach to be successful on the web with your real estate business.
