All SEO Traffic is Not Created Equal
Copyright 2006 Tim OKeefe
Did you know that your website can rank number 1 for the phrase
"Your City Real Estate", and still be a miserable failure? Read
on....
So the telemarketer calls you, and you being the internet
expert, the conversation goes something like this:
"SEO" Telemarketer: Do you know that we can get your website
onto the top twenty of the search engines?
You: Why not the Top Ten?
"SEO" Telemarketer: OK the top ten.
You: And?..
"SEO" Telemarketer: We will get you in the top ten.
You: Sooo?...
"SEO" Telemarketer: You will get a bunch of traffic.
You: And that means to meeeee??....
"SEO" Telemarketer: You will get leads.
You: Do you even own a website kid? I want sales!
Somehow the SEO industry has done a job of making Realtors start
at the beginning instead of having the end in mind.
Of course you are concerned about your bottom line. But since
that kid can't control your ability to get leads and convert
them to a sale. He has to draw you in on the assumption that
traffic equates to leads and sales. That is a big assumption.
The SEO industry has done a great job of proliferating the
notion that being number whatever for a few BIG phrases will
make your business. In fact, it takes a wide range of keywords
to cause you to have traffic.
Here is a little exercise for you to try: Sit down and write all
the localities in your marketplace. OK.
Now write down all the real estate words you can think of.
If you carried this exercise out to its fruition, then you would
have over a thousand real estate phrases that relate to your
marketplace.
This is part one of getting more buyer and seller leads.
So, we want to represent your marketplace (thru keywords) onto
WebPages that serve to get your visitor to opt into your
listings and/or newsletter.
Thus, part two, is optimizing your pages to cause you to get
visitors to convert to registered leads. I have coined this as
Lead Optimization.
What is Your Outcome?
More Traffic? More Positions? More Leads? or More Sales?
Depending where you start out in this scenario will leave you
with possibly unwanted results. Someone who tells us he wants to
be number one for "City Real Estate", will get tremendously
different results than the person who tells us to get him more
sales.
By at least starting out with your stated goal that you want
more leads, it forces an SEO Company like mine to adjust our
strategy to make it so that we cause you to get as far as we can
take you. That is to get you more leads instead of just more
traffic.
In fact, it is rare that I will take on a new client that has
not stated his or her goal as more lead generation.