All About the Real Estate Industry on the Internet

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Real Estate on The Net

Search Engine Evolution Continues

As the web continues to grow there is an on going competition for visitor traffic. The players are the search engines, the portals (companies providing Internet access) and the big companies selling web services. Each of these companies are trying to outdo the others and provide services or elements that attract visitors. The visitor counts are $$$.

It is going to become progressively more expensive to promote your real estate website. This increase in costs will likely keep pace with the income realized from your web business activity. Whether you are paying for search engine placement services, paying for a link on a directory or just spending more time promoting your website yourself, it is going to cost more.

Websites Not Generating Business for REALTORS

There are thousands of Realtors with websites that are not producing any business. Many of these sites have been created by companies that specialize in real estate websites. Others have been created by high priced webmasters. What is wrong with this picture?

We have had conversations with REALTORS who have purchased three to four websites each from a different company. These Realtors figured they would cover all bases and see which of these companies performed the best for them. All the websites failed to generate significant business for the REALTORS.

Over the past six months we have had over 300 requests for free critiques of websites. More than 85% of the sites we reviewed where not set up to be promoted on the search engines. Fully 66% did not show up on the top five pages of the search engines at all. Many were not even submitted to the search engines.

We have reviewed the offerings of most of the companies that are specializing in real estate websites. Many of these companies have impressive literature and an excellent sales presentation. The literature includes testimonials from their clients that say they are getting good results. The websites offered are attractive and have the appropriate content. Many include "search engine submission" as a part of their offering. Then, you ask, why aren't these websites producing results?

The one thing we saw as missing from the literature and the company websites was an indication that the company monitored the performance of the websites that they produced. There are several ways of checking on the visitor traffic and the "exposure" that a website has. Yet, none of these companies indicated that they were even aware of these resources.

Assuming that these companies have the best of intentions, we have examined their work closely and can only think that they just don't realize that they are failing to provide for the promotional requirements involved in Internet Marketing. Many of the website designs do not include any of the formatting that is necessary for a website to earn high rankings on the search engines. In several cases the company recommends that the REALTOR submit the site to the search engines but, this is pointless when the website is not designed to earn a high ranking. There are several companies that say they cannot guarantee search engine placement and this is an indication of their lack of knowledge of search engines.

We tell prospective clients to ask our competition to show them the results they are getting for their clients. We provide reports** on search engine positions and visitor traffic for each of our clients. This is a necessary part of the task of promoting a website. One must have these reports as a measure of the effectiveness of the website. If a company does not have this kind of information they are seriously failing their clients. This is the old "buyer beware" scenario.

**Note:Mail from our readers has asked about the reports, so here is some info and examples.

There is software that allows us to automatically run hundreds of searches on the search engines and create a report that details the page positions that a website has on the search engines.  This same software (by Web Position) provides helpful information on improving your pages so they earn higher positions.  [Example Report]

Your website is hosted on a server that utilizes special "hosting" software.  While there are different versions of this software, they each produce a "log" of the visitor activity on the website.   Most companies offering hosting provide some kind report utilizing these logs.   There is also software that is designed to analyze the logs and produce reports.   This software (by Web Trends or Maximized Software) provides details on the visitor traffic.  You can learn how many visitors have come from each search engine, what keywords the searchers used to find you and what the traffic was on each page of your website. The reports also tell you what other domains (or websites) are sending you visitors via links.  These other websites are called referrers, ie. they refer visitors to your website, and you can have a referrer report that tells you how many visitors came from each of these domains. [Example Report]

Glenn Weilbacher
GAW Associates, Inc
www.gawassoc.com
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Are Realtors Making Money on the Net?

Thinking about a web site? Is it worth it? What can you expect if you go "on line"? What will it cost? Many Realtors are considering a presence on the web. Some have set up home pages on AOL and others have subscribed to free home pages on one of the many sites that offer such. The more serious and knowledgeable have acquired their own domain and have a full web site up.

The first step in making money on the web is getting exposure and most of the free sites and home pages will not give you that.   These sites are not promoted on the search engines as independent sites and they don't get the traffic.  Even a unique domain and multi-page web site will not do it for you if the site is not set up properly and does not achieve at least a few page one positions on the search engines.

But what is really happening up there in that virtual world? Well, we at GAW Associates are currently managing more than 140 real estate web sites and have the advantage of considerable feedback from a large group of Realtors. Some Realtors are doing very well and expect to close transactions totaling more than two million dollars from the web this year. A few will close substantially more.

The Realtors who are making money on the web have a serious presence on the Internet. They have top positions on the search engines and have listed their sites with a number of the directories. They are typically experiencing a visitor count of between 5 and 10 visitors per day. Some are seeing more. The most active Realtors are in markets that are experiencing considerable growth. Most of these are in the western states or states like Florida. There are hot spots all over the country where new industry is pulling in people seeking employment. If your market is quite don't expect to greatly expand your business with activity from the web.

If you are considering developing a web site, STOP! Too many have spent a small fortune to create a site on a unique domain (their own domain) only to find that they are not getting much action. Many have stroked their ego's with beautiful web sites only to learn that the search engines don't rate the site for beauty and the serious prospects that you want to hear from will not wait for your fancy graphics to down load. Some of our most productive "web sites" are single page sites that contain exactly what is necessary and no more. Often we tell a prospect too much as happens when one oversells. We have had Realtors remove listings from sites and double their activity by doing so.

The cost of a presence on the web includes not only the creation of the site but, monthly hosting, regular re-submissions to the search engines as well as frequent changes in the keywording and content of the page. If you have someone create your web pages and set up a domain for you the cost will range from $200 to $800.  If you require custom graphics or need a large office site these figures can grow to more than $2,000.  An average per page cost for a large site can run $75.  Many are paying more than $100 per month to maintain a site.  You don't have to.  If you do some of the work your self you can get by with $25, or less, per month.  AOL Prime host charges a very high $99 per month for hosting and the use of their software but little else.  The Realtors on our network are paying $35 to $50 per month for a complete hosting/maintenance program that includes maintaining a top position on the engines.  So, it will cost an individual Realtor $200 to $500. to establish a productive web presence.  The monthly maintenance, hosting and promotion will cost $35 to $50.  If you regularly have listings uploaded, it will cost an average of $15 per listing.  This is if you have someone doing it for you.   You save by doing it yourself but, that requires time and the necessary software.

We provide considerable information about web sites and search engines in this news letter. Take advantage of this. A productive web presence includes both a web site and a promotional plan. So examine what we offer you here as it provides a knowledge base that is very helpful as you consider how to approach the web.

You can make money on the web. But, it will be proportionate to your success in the real world. If you are in an active market with many new families moving in you can expect to do quite well. As with all else, there is competition and you must place your web site in a competitive position. If all your competition is ahead of you on the search engines you will only get an occasional lead. Next year will see a doubling in the number of households on the net. I shouldn't have to tell you what this means…….

Realtors Losing Money on Websites

We continue to get E-Mails from Realtors who have paid hundreds of dollars for a website that does not produce. If only we could broadcast a warning to all those Realtors who are just coming up on the Internet. The most beautiful website in the world does nothing for you if it does not attract visitors. The design of the site must include specialized content that the search engines react to and the website positions on the search results must be constantly monitored. Please, if you are considering a new website Print This List of Questions to ask your prospective web designer so that you can be sure that your site will produce business for you.

Visitor Counts, "Hits" 500? 1200? 2000? What's Real?

We all have heard the Realtor talking about his website.  "My website had 1500 hits this week.".....  or "last month I had 3000 visitors to my site."....   Unfortunately these Realtors have been misled or they misunderstand the stats on their websites.  Website logs record each "hit" on a file within the website.  This means it counts each time a graphic image is open, each tine a page file is called for and so forth.  As a result, the opening of a single page can cause the log to record 5, 10, 15 or more "hits".  This from one visitor opening one page.  As this same visitor opens other pages within the website he creates a record that may run up to 50, 100 or more "hits". 

When a website log is properly analyzed by the software used for this purpose all of a sudden the 1500 hits become 80 visitors.  We manage more than 200 real estate websites and can tell you that no individual Realtor website has more than 600 to 800 visitors a month.   It is only the most successful of Realtor sites that achieve these figures.   The average site produces 150 to 250 visitors.

I get many visitors to my website but, few inquiries. What can I do to attract more inquiries?

Think of your website as if it is a sales brochure. Your purpose is to "sell" the reader convincing them that they want to do business with you. Communicate with your reader telling them how you fill their needs. Offer information that requires them to e-mail you. This can be demographic info or some kind of special information on communities in your market and can be automatically sent to them with an auto-responder.

Do I have to spend the money for my own domain name?

There are benefits to having your own domain name. At the same time there is a downside. A domain name is an address and if you have your own it is usually short and identifiable as yours as in www.sallysmith.com. The greatest benefit is that it looks good on your business card and in your advertising. On the downside, a unique domain can be considerably more expensive than a website hosted on someone else's domain. It costs more to host, more to maintain and more to promote.

Top Internet Realtors are Selling Four to Eight Million a Year

The top Realtors on the Internet are achieving sales of between four and eight millions dollars a year.  How are they doing this?  What are their secrets? [Read this article]

How Much Competition is There on the Net?

Look at these figures complied for many of the large metro markets. [Look at Study]

Our Web Site....   www.gawassoc.com