Hey James...my idea of conversion is my phone rings and it's a purchase ready buyer or ready to sell seller on the line.  What do you consider a conversion?

I had the same question, Shannon. Your thoughts, James? Biut a good point about not making assumptions about keywords.

Jeff

Keywords are key.  But, page rank and spidering are even more important.  Links are golden.  

Jeff and Shannon, I most certainly agree that a conversion would be when your phone rings, but it can also be defined as when someone fills out a contact form with their phone number so you can contact them. :)

Great info, thanks.

I am still working on my personal website. I can see traffic - a little, but it's only a month old. I don't have the conversions yet. The top area realtor in my market has a very playful website with trivia and lots of flash. I just want to convey my sincerity, but so far it's not converting.

Hi James - thanks for sharing this info and the links that you included.  I know this is an area I need to continue working on, and appreciate all the helpful posts I can read.

Thanks,
Ann

James,

Great post--we can always use information like that.  Thanks for sharing.

Don't give up on the basics, such as MyCity Real Estate or Real Estate MyCity - which produce the MOST traffic of any others..... 

Traffic is KING.  Conversion is only queen.   

My phone usually rings about 8 - 18 months after the visitor first visits my web site. 

Thanks, James.   Always informative when someone like yourself helps shed light on a tough topic.

Lonn, I most certainly wouldn't want anyone to give up on the traffic generators as they are excellent to keep people visiting your website.  My point is that overly concentrating on the biggest phrases doesn't necessarily give you the biggest impacts for your efforts. 

Expanding content and pay per click campaigns to cover words that have lower search volume can often to lead to higher conversion rates as there is less competition.

Thanks Bill, I am happy to contribute :)

Thank you for the tip. I track everything.  Helps me to know where to go.

That is some important information.  We need to take a look out our website and see what is happening.  Looks like we may have some homework this weekend.  Thanks for the tip.

Hey James,
I have been working on this specifically and have a few things in the works that should make my site a little more sticky in the next few days, once done if you would like, I will let you know its up and see what you think about it.

What I wanted to share is the last few weeks, after investing in a little better tracking mechanism, I found out that I rank in the top 3 of Yahoo for Central Florida MLS.

I noticed this after seeing an increase in traffic from those specific keywords..

I also make it a point, such as today to ask the clients that I do get into the car, how they found me, we had my clients son in the car, and he told me exactly the keywords he used 2 weeks ago, before making the trip from the UK..... and he said I was ranked first over there as well for those key words!!

Can't Brag yet, but I am learning! You are dead on, but do me a favor... can you restrict this from any other agents in the Orlando or Central Florida area....I like having some sort of edge....

James, very interesting post.  I like to know what is going on and if I'm productive.  I'll have to go over this again and gleen the nuggets.  Thanks!

James Bridges makes a very GREAT point that many people don't consider when blogging.  I see many people blogging for the wrong reason.  At the end, you want actual buyers buying from you.  Not how many times you end up in Google (although this is key too.)

A post like this excites me like you wouldn't believe as I have generated my income from online marketing.  Heck, my real estate brokerage company is named CondoLeaf.com.  But I still practice my SOI and referal business.

What James Bridges noted above, is that you should ensure your conversion rate.  I myself have Google Analytics all over my website.  You should ensure 3 to 5 goals that you want your online prospects to do.  For example, for them to submit a form with their contact information.  There are at least 4 ways you can do that on my website such as Schedule Showing, VIP alerts, Property Request Info, and New Register.  In essence, you want their contact information.  What good is traffic if they are just phantom visitors?

I'll stop because whatever I write now will be too long and will be ignored.  I'll be Subscribing to Your Blog, James.

SEO skills are always in need of improvement. Thanks for our post and the tips.

Thanks for the help James.

Duane Hosek in the Black Hills of South Dakota

Nice post James. This is all very helpful as I'm creating a new web site right now. Thanks for the keyword link as well.

Subscribed and watching. Thank you for sharing your information with Active Rain and little ol' me.

The more posts like yours the more I'll learn how to improve my personal site's hits.  Thanks!

James - this is wonderful information.  Thank you!

Very good and useful post, James. I've been working on this, and frankly, I have to do a little at a time. I continue to "tickle" my site working on page titles and metatags. I'm also looking for opportunities to create links within my site and with real estate professionals. I just got done adding a contest which I hope will bring people to the site and extend the time someone is on my website. 

For those of you out there still working on your websites and trying to come up to speed on this, my suggestion is to take it step by step or it will be overwhelming. I didn't know anything about Google Analytics until the day before yesterday when i saw it mentioned in another blog. You learn by doing. (or, of course, by hiring someone else.) Either way, it is good to be informed so that you can ask the right questions to get the job done right.

Great information,  I have received phone calls from a few obscure blogs that I wrote which did not get hardly any attention, but I got phone calls from potential clients, 3 of which I have shown homes to recently and am sending listings to every day and further talking with.  My most popular blogs, Nothing!!

James Boyer

Thanks for the good info James. Best wishes.

Very interesting how the nuances of keywords trigger a higher positioning on Google. Thank you for the tech tips.

Michael Lozar

Bellingham Mortgage Advisor 

Brady, it's definitely a great idea to ask customers how they found you once you are able to get them face to face as it gives you a true idea of what brought them to the table.  That is super helpful that they were able to tell you the phrase they used!

Marc, thank you for your post.  That is a great point.  In order to really get conversions, you must focus on your Calls to Action.  Having multiple Calls to Action as you suggest is definitely the way to make visitors become contacts!  We do focus on a few different ones, like search our MLS, get our HOT List, etc.  Thank you for contrbuting!

One of my goals for this year is to get continuous improvement on SEO.  As a newbie to AR, I really found your post helpful.  Thanks os much for sharing!

There's so much to learn! Thanks for the information.

I can always use information like that.  Thanks for sharing.