Real Estate Website Traffic - SEM
What is search engine marketing (SEM)? and why it’s important for getting ahead of your competition in real estate marketing.
1. Sponsored (paid) listings are a great way to get fast visibility on the major search engines. Also called pay-per-click, (PPC) sponsored listings are those that show up at the top of search engines such as Google in a blue box or in a column along the right side of the page. These results are clearly labeled “Sponsored listings.” The more popular the keyword, the more paid listings come up.
2. Lead tracking can help your real estate business become stronger by attracting quality leads. Lead tracking brings both short- and long-term benefits to your company - giving you instant access to information about each sales prospect while also helping to streamline and manage the sales process.
3. Email marketing is the icing on the SEM cake - it impresses your prospects by allowing you to send them valuable information on the market and it helps you to stay fresh in their minds.
4. Third-party SEM providers can take the mystery and work out of effective marketing. If you do not have the time to do a comprehensive SEM campaign, or you simply want to spend less time on the Internet and more time with your customers, you can go through a third-party provider to run your SEM campaign for you.
But before you start your campaign, you have some work to do.
Targeting your customers
Most likely, you know yourself and your business pretty well. But have you ever sat down and wrote out lists of words and phrases that other people might use to describe you? Probably not - but now is the time to do it.
Even if you’re using a third-party provider, you need to know who your potential customers are to a T. What are they looking for and why would they want to use you to help them buy or sell their home?
All aspects of real estate search engine marketing - sponsored listings, lead tracking, and email marketing - rely on keywords in one way or another to work.
Keywords are key to SEM
What are keywords, and where should they go in your site? Keywords are simply, well, key words that determine which category your site will be listed under in search engines and directories. In terms of sponsored listings, the keywords you choose to bid on will determine where your ads show up.
You have to figure out what words and phrases home buyers and sellers are potentially going to use to find you, determine which are the most important to your business, then use them accordingly.
Your website will attract more hits if you spend some time doing this seemingly mundane, but extremely important, job. There are just a few simple guidelines for an effective keyword plan, but they do take some time to do well.
Brainstorming your Keywords
Take an hour or so to sit down and write every single imaginable word that someone might use to find your real estate service.