Stop Sending Traffic to Your Competition
By Ryan E. West

 

In this new internet there are a handful of super real estate sites we all submit our property listings such as Trulia, Zillow, Google, and Realtor.com.

These sites are great and they have done outstanding things for our business, but what happened to the good old days when home buyers and sellers would Google your city and actually come up with a realtor or agent site for that local area.

Our entire business is built around lead generation and client management, and I am not convinced that these super real estate sites have the agents or brokers best interest in mind. They are just compiling the largest database of homes so the home buyers can quickly search. The problem is that home buyers and sellers use to come to your site to do this and we would collect that basic information and then we can call these leads and hopefully grab a few clients.

So my point is that we still need to use these valuable super sites but do not forget about your individual agent site. This should be the catalyst of your online marketing. You should look for sites that drive traffic to your site specifically.

My view is that even if you are a individual agent or you own your own firm you should want to have a amazing real estate site. This is your site to stay with you as you expand your real estate career. I recommend you make your site reflect your specific name not your company, broker, or office. By branding your name you can take this site with you forever. It is important to offer as much content about your local community, schools, real estate, jobs, traffic, shopping, and of course housing.

I have had my individual real estate site for 5 years now. I have promoted it on all search engines, blogs, directories, and any service I found compelling. All the traffic comes directly to me. I collect all the leads, and in my opinion I have the best opportunity of acquiring the new client. Immediately when I client comes to my site I am notified on my cell and I call the client.

As we all know these internet leads can sometimes take 6 months or more to close, but that is a lot better than having no leads at all. Or by having your properties listed on Zillow.com and the home buyers just call the first name they find even for your listings.

So my recommendation is to find services, directories, forums, and more that link directly to your site and promote your personal web site. In today's internet it is hard to find as most site owners want to keep the traffic, buyers and sellers on their own site, even it is done by using the listings you submitted. So in closing it is important for agents to continually market and update their personal site. This is the life blood of your business and it is important for agents to not forget this.

To learn more about my views and a great ways to market please visit http://www.myhomesearches.com/joinournetwork.htm

Thanks,
Ryan E. West
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