LEADCRITICIncrease Your Websites Traffic for FREE!
Filed Under: Mortgage & Real Estate, SEO
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Ever so often I write posts about Search Engine and Internet Marketing subjects and typically they become the least popular posts. I find this little baffling. Is it because people can not see the value in the Internet? Is it because they simply hire a 3rd party to handle the subject or is it they just don’t know what they can do to improve their rankings and increase traffic to their website?
I am going to give a few tips on how to improve your rankings for free and in your spare time. Well almost free and it may take a little more than your spare time, but it will be completely worth it.
First don’t think that these tips are going to give you instant traffic and search engine rankings. These types of things take time. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) or Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is no longer about keyword stuffing or meta descriptions (If you don’t know what I am talking about don’t worry). SEO and SEM tactics are reverting more and more back to marketing 101 strategies. Here are simple tips.
1. Start a blog- Yes, I know this may sound painful and time consuming and well, it can be, but it doesn’t have to be. The reason for the blog is to train Google to come back to your site over and over. If you don’t change the content on your site Google will not come back. Google looks for relevant up to date content on websites. To find out when Google was last at your site search your domain name. Once the results pop up you should see your website listed in the #1 position. If it is not listed, it means that Google has not visited your site yet. Under the description you will see a link that says “Cached”. Click on that link. At the top of the page you will see when the last time Google had been to your site. Here is an example of this blog. According to this link Google came to this site yesterday. I am training Google to visit my site every day by posting topics on a daily bases. In the beginning you will not need to post everyday. I would start out weekly. You will want to check to see if Google has visited your site frequently. Once you notice that Google has visited your site you will want to write another post. You can follow this trend until Google is coming to your site every other day or so.
Your blog topics will want to be specific to your location. If you are in Dallas
2. Get into the Google’s Onebox- This is the key to your success. With these tips your goal is to optimize your website for local search results and Google Local Business is a great place to get started.
3. Build Links- Links are still considered by Google and the other search engines when ranking sites. They scrutinize the links more carefully these days so I don’t recommend buying into a link farm. The key to building links will be in your content. Write articles and submit them to the major news and social sites.
Digg
Reddit
Netscape
Delicious
Stumbleupon
Shoutwire
Check out this link to find out more. When submitting articles to these sites you will not have stay on topic. Meaning you don’t have to write about mortgages. The goal here is to get people to visit your site and possible link to it. It is not to generate a sale. These links that you will gain will be priceless in the success of your website. The one problem is that these links will not last forever. Some may last a long time, but most will disappear in a month or they will lose their value. So this will be an ongoing strategy.
4. Join the major business directories- This is where the cost may come into play. Join DMOZ, Yahoo, Superpages, etc. Search engines use these directories for their local search results and it is very important to be in them.
5. Get in the Google Base- This is where you can submit products and services to Google. These are then made searchable to people. I have used it and in one month received up to 90k impressions, which is a ton, for free! Experiment with the different categories and find the one that delivers the most impressions on your ad and stick with it.
The main goal is to write content for specific region and capitalize on the search engines new focus on local search. I can almost guarantee you that if you followed these tips you would triple your traffic in as little as 6 months, maybe even more. Read a few blogs about blogging to get you going. A good one to check out is ProBlogger. Darren Rowse has a ton of tips to get you started.
My last tip is to have fun with this and not to take it to serious and also be patient and realize that this is going to take your business where you never thought it would go.Good luck and if you need clarification or want further tips or have questions feel free to email me or better yet join the Forum and ask your questions there.
If I missed anything which I know I did, I will follow up with another post.
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Paul Knag | Jun 16, 2007 | Reply
Managing lead buying and associated ROI and organic search engine optimization are areas of expertise not necessarily tied together. I think most of the audience of this blog is not tasked with this as part of their overall job, that may be why you are not getting a response.
Something for discussion, then perhaps, could be using lead vendors versus direct/exclusive lead generation.
If exclusive leads are your thing, SEO and PPC are skills you may need. Are companies able to get ROI on SEM investment? What is the reason that many mortgage companies invest primarily or only in leads when it comes to internet marketing budget?
Lead Critic | Jun 16, 2007 | Reply
Paul,
I think you may be right. I come from a Marketing background and have a passion for Internet Marketing and lead generation.
You absolutely can receive ROI from SEM, but you do need the know-how, and I believe that is why most brokers rely on the simplicity of buying leads. However, I do believe every owner, CEO, and broker should want to know how to drive traffic to there website. If they don’t they will be left in the dust by people who do have the know-how.
Bill Rice | Jun 17, 2007 | Reply
Here is another critical reason to include these skills in your toolbox, even if it is not in your job description–purchased “lead splash.” I call it lead splash because it reminds me of my kids playing in the pool. It seems that as much water lands outside of the pool as in.
You need to create effective buckets (landing pages and web properties) to catch these splash-outs. Once a lead provider captures a consumer and calls or emails start pouring in they often enter a state of confusion, overwhelm, or skepticism. The next step often is to look for your company on the Web. If they can’t find you–you’re done. If you are ABC Mortgage and a search for “ABC Mortgage” lands you on the 4th page of a Google query or worse the number 1 result is your only bad Better Business Bureau claim–you’re done. If you have a web site that looks like a 13 year olds mySpace page–you’re done. If your website or landing pages do not have any content that addresses the borrower’s current need(s)–you’re done.
If you are a lead buyer, SEM should be an important part of your contact and conversion strategy.
ajiny | Jun 20, 2007 | Reply
I think that most lenders buy leads simply because it is easiest and they do not have the experience or knowledge to run their own campaigns.
Also, it would seem to me that lenders who need filters on their leads are attracted to the lead providers because they can slice and dice what they want. On your own site you can design the advertising to attract what you want but in the end whoever comes there comes there.
One other advantage in my mind is getting away from the “have 4+ lenders compete for you” mentality of most lead generating sites. We all know we are in a hyper-competitive industry but quality and service still count for something.
Can you imagine Macys buying leads from a site that marketed solely on the basis of cutthroat pricing and sold the leads to the Gap and A&S, etc.?
In an earlier post Morisight mentioned that their leads generated on their own site had a conversion rate several times that of purchased leads. I don’t think a well run SEM campaign costs 3 times the cost of most “decent” leads from a provider.
Lead Critic | Jun 20, 2007 | Reply
ajiny,
From my experience leads generated on our site convert better, obviously right, but the price per acquisition does vary depending on the campaign. I don’t think Morinsight said that an SEM campaign would cost 3 times as much as a decent lead provider. From my findings SEM CPA can run any where between $35 to $125. Again, it all depends on the campaign.
So yes conversions are higher, but cost does not necessarily have to be higher as well.
ajiny | Jun 20, 2007 | Reply
I agree! My experiences are probably more limited than yours, but I think the ROI for well done internal generation of leads is far better than buying leads. I just think most lenders don’t expend the time or effort to acquire the required knowledge and skillset.
In any event we are continually moving in that direction. I think there are also intangible benefits such as having better control over your marketing and better morale for sales staff who can achieve a higher close rate.