Driving Traffic to Your Web Site

While I am by no means a web tech geek I'm learning. For those who are looking to drive more buyers to their web sites, I thought I'd share some of what I have learned.

A web site is only as good as you drive traffic to it. Simply having a site does not mean people will find you when the competition for page placement on searches is fierce. You may eventually come up on a search but it could be at page 30 and by then most people have found someone else.

When I launched my Keller Williams web site the first thing I did was email everyone I could think of that it was up. Success! Everyone checked it out. But the next month my hits fell off by 75%. So what to do.

I contracted with Google Ad Words. It's pay per click. You give them search words and they will tag those words so that you come up sooner. You pay only when someone clicks to go to your site. You can set a monthly budget amount that is auto billed to your charge card. Voila! My numbers started going back up.

Then, a couple of months ago I attended the Howard Brinton Star Power Conference in New York City and learned alot more. Blog sites are now often driving more traffic to sites than pay per click and it's cheaper. And branded sites are not always better. So I started blogging on Active Rain and through Go Daddy I bought a new domain name and started blogging there too. http://www.victorialorusso.com. My hits keep growing. The key in blogging is to always reference words from your site and your link. Always include your URL.

I also learned that stealth sites are increasingly important. They are unbranded sites that offer buyers the chance to search for homes. They don't know who you are until they are prompted to fill out a form. I suggest you let them search without this first though. Many run at the site of that form. Once they have filled out the form, you add them to a drip campaign via email and send them your branded information with your website on it. Many people start searching for homes as much as 18 months before they are ready to purchase.

There are other options too. If you have deeper pockets, there are companies like Pro-Step marketing who will design your site for you and ensure top page placement. My Team site uses Pro-Step, Http://www.lorraineleonard.com. We alsways come up on the first page of most searches and recieve as many as 10 leads a day.

Choose an easy domain name and make sure you as well own your name. You can point multiple domain names to a single site. If someone does not remember your site name, they may try searching just your name.

Give them a reason to come back. Our Keller Williams office has just contracted with Wolfnet who will enhance our search solution for homes so that a buyer can save searches, favorite homes and search by map. We should be live in a weeks time. They also provide a back office solution where in you can see what the individual buyers are looking at and when, even from the competition.

Most of all, get the word out on everything you print or publish. And keep your site simple and fresh. Everytime you make changes, you increase your chances of being found.

Educate eachother. I teach a monthly class in our office and we all learn so much from eachother everytime!

http://www.homesoffairfieldcounty.com

Hope you found this helpful.