You can't get to the settlement table without a buyer or seller.

All of my business comes from my Internet advertising and being on the first page of Google SERP is fundamental. 

That's where I am and that's where I plan to stay. 

Lenn, I certainly agree that you can't get to the closing table without a buyer or seller.  Being first page of Google SERP is great, but you HAVE to convert and I think there is an over reliance on search engine placement over actual conversions.

85% of our business comes from the internet as well (the other 15% is referral from our internet consumers) so believe me I know the value of being on page 1 :)

I agree with Lenn, this market has be a challenge I could only image if I was on page 100 where I would be today. Business is good.

Frank,

Again, if you are converting you are doing good, but I am seeing alot of agents "talk the talk" who aren't "walking the walk".  Those who only talk traffic and not what they are actually producing are certainly missing the mark.

The point that the author is making is that agents focus too much on being in the top 10 and not enough on the actual conversion of the leads or traffic that they are getting. Many "top bloggers" do far less business than others in their city and in the end it is about helping buyers and sellers accomplish their goals not about where one ranks in the search results.

Well we are doing find and I love and very thankful for AR and what is has done for our business.

If you aren't closing any transactions from other sources, being high in the search engines will not likely increase the # of times you succeed in getting to closing.  It may only increase the # of times you fail :)

I like ARDELL's point on this one - I think there should be a good balance of both:)

The headline of the post is unfortunate because the real point is that regardless of the number of hits or leads you are getting we need to find ways to effectively convert them into buyers.  If you totally disregard the sensationalism the post makes some sense.

Ardell,

Thank you for your comment!  That is exactly what I am talking about!  I love being in the top 10 of Google, but we gotta have the skills to be closing with those leads.

You have a great point that, but like many have said being #1 or in the top 10 does matter and does make you more money than being on page 387,429 if you know how to convert that spot and the traffic into actual business... If you can't convert the only thing your doing is wasting your time and anyone looking at your site/blog/ whatever's time

Great post.  I  appreciate the helpful information

Perhaps the best blog I have read to date.  You are so true.  There agents who are ranked as the top bloggers in the city or state, but are not selling real estate.  I am using it as merely a branding tool, but will try to get some improvements to call to action, as my intent was not leads, but branding.  I will give it a try.

Again....the best blog I have read to date.  My only advice is to run a spell check before you throw it out; but, the content is powerful, very powerful.

Marketing and branding does help.

You have to close the deal, but it helps when there are those contacting you.

Google is another of many ways buyers and sellers communicate and learn about your services.

All the best and keep on blogging.

Bill

I agree with this, blogging should just be branding and a way to connect, you can be anywhere on searches and be busy or not.  Has more to do with your real connnections and how you connect once you get these leads.

Anna,

I completely agree about connecting with your leads. If you don't connect with them you have NO business and really that is the point to all of it.

Real estate is like water faucets... you must have as many as them running as possible to keep the bucket filled with the water.. (the leads)

Be Sure To Work On Your Scripts, etc.  I did 7 years of Telemarketing.. you may think scripts are stupid or whatever but take it from me... I rose to #3 at MBNA America Bank by perfecting scipts!  Always tweak your phone scripts to get the best results! It's all about converting!  Now I am applying what I learned at MBNA into my real estate career... I am so thankful I learned the most important aspect... converting!

Thanks,

Tom Davis

World Class Delaware Realtor

James,

That is a great reminder about the cold hard facts !!!  Some people may spend so much time blogging they have no time to service the leads... or converting the lead to a client !!  Great post.

The Somers - Philadelphia Real Estate

The reality is that the only thing that matters with our marketing is how many checks we deposit because of it. I OWN Google for my area yet only get about 15% to 20% of my business from the Internet. The biggest reason this is is because I am primarily a listing agent and most of the Internet business is buyer related. Also  I have been in my niche market area for 14 years and folks know me already. They don't need to find me on the Internet.

So I agree completely that clicks and visits mean nothing if you are not converting them to customer/clients. I don't want leads I want customers.

Having a mediocre website with lots of traffic is worthless.

Having a great website with no traffic is worthless.

It's a combination.  You need a high ranking site, but you need a site that offers value to a customer so they actually want to STAY on your site and hopefully utilize your services. You need to know how to convert them to sales.

It's a combination of many factors that make for success.

A someone who has 2-3 sites in the top 10 on Google for every major search keyword for my business (and I have been there since every days since the day Google began) and who has an unlisted phone number... I get virtually ALL of my business from Google and referrals.  A top rank is worth it's weight in gold - you just have to know how to use it!

All of life is about balance - and I agree "You can have the great results in your market and even be flooded with traffic, but if you aren't getting people to give you their information you have a BIG problem."  For those who are number 1 or 2 AND are getting the leads and converting them - you undoubtedly are where we all want to be. Congratulations!

Well it's all about being able to convert those leads you attract into actual Buyers or Sellers and then into a commission.

Good post and best of luck to you in growing your business.

Carole

Glad to see so much activity on the post, great feedback from all points of view.

Bill - Thanks for the kind words, yes maybe the title is a bit sensational, but glad it brought you by for a read :)

Chris - I couldn't agree more,  Especially with the point, "if you can't convert the only thing your doing is wasting your time".  I think sometimes people put effort in for efforts sake without thinking about the point of conversion.

Tim - Thanks for the catch (and the accolades), I did run spell check and found 2 errors.  We too have run into "top bloggers" who don't do much business and it always brings a bit of a smile :).  I think your branding will work well as well, and mixed with some calls to action you will get more leads along the way.

Tom - That is great work to get that high at a big company like MBNA.  I think scripts are one of THE most valuable and often overlooked skills for real estate professionals.  We helped our team get better at scripts by recording what worked so they could learn quicker so I am a HUGE believer in the power of really knowing your scripts.

Bill - Totally agreed.  I think helping people who have contacted you is the best way to do business.  That way I am always working "warm" calls because they are the ones who initiated the contact.

Christopher and Stephanie - Thank you! Yes, sometimes the cold hard facts ruffle some feathers, but I thought I would share my insight, thanks for your comment. I like blogging, just like many do, but we have to make the time to service our clients.

Bryant - I like your opening sentence! "The reality is that the only thing that matters with our marketing is how many checks we deposit because of it".  It's so true.  We must hold our marketing accountable to generate a return no matter if that is web, magazine ads, or any other medium.

Fred - Great point, I do agree that you need "need a site that offers value to a customer".  I think often in the new on-line world we sometimes forget that our websites and blogs must be destinations that customers will want to look through and read through.  Providing that kind of value (with calls to action) will lead them to contact you to become (hopefully) a great customer.

Kathleen - Yes we should all strive to be #1 and #2 while converting at the same time.  That really does provide the optimum flood of business that we all like to have. 

Carole - Thank you very much, I hope your converting is going well as well :)

Yes, being in the Google top 10 means nothing, you have to be better than number 10....

Great post - a thousand people may know you sell real estate but if you are not convierting them to customers you are not making money.

Good blog. 

We need to be seen and once seen by a potenital client be able convinice them we are the person or company they need.  Both are easier said than done.  Advertising and selling skils must be continually honed to a fine edge to allow us to cut through changing market conditions.

Great Post.  I agree.  I just like to come up on the first page if someone is looking for me specifically by my name. 

Great reminders. Knowing several of the Realtors on page 1 for my area and also knowing that they are having an extremely hard time getting buyers to buy and deals to stick tells me that we need to get back to basics. SEO and ranking is important but doing what Realtors should be doing best is what it's all about.

I agree with Frank  and Jodi you need to be better than number 10 and have system in place to turn those leads into closings.

James, I hate to break it to you and me but Matt Cutts has no idea we exist.

Google placement in the top 3 positions on a page one search is valuable if you want traffic, for specific long tails or short heads, on your blog. Positions 4-10 get 1/3 of the available traffic to this search.

As for making money, if Google adsense is not part of the game plan then do what many well placed blogs do-sell sidebar space for advertsiing revenues.

You can't tell me that a sought after keyword(s) that you are completely SEO'd and optimized on would not turn revenue.

I have a _hitty little real estate blog that sits on a subdomain--not even my own host and I receive 5-10 offers per month. The offers are from companies or entrepreneurs that want to advertise in my sidebar on certain pages that are capturing top 3 placement in Google searches for their desired keyword(s).

As Stephan Spencer stated in his keynote "SEO Mistakes Most Bloggers Make" to WordCamp 2008 San Francisco-one of the biggest mistakes you can make is to not own your blog domain. You lose control and you can not monetize it outside of lead gen purposes.

dean

You make good points, and conversion and closing are definitely the most important items.  However, first you have to have leads to convert and close.

ARDELL is right it is a balance of both.  However, being in the top ten of Google is excellent way of getting a listing which is important.  I am listing coordinator so I could be biased.

A lot of good responses, but like christine just stated, you have to have the lead.  Bottom line, you need a website that holds the people there so they don't go wandering off, and to capture them, then conversion, so its like saying which came first the chicken or the egg?  All are equally important, in progression, to get to closing.

Are you James AND Joseph?

Hey James, thanks for posting an issue that made us all think a little bit today. Great topic!

Deborah,

Yes we are James and Joseph :)  We were just in your neck of the woods not too long ago :)

James Johnson - Converting is absolutely essential.  Whether over e-mail or phone, gotta get them in the door.

Carol - Thanks for the comment. I certainly want to show up 1st when people search for my name as well :)

Kelli - You are right on!  Being top in the rankings is great, but sometimes we forget those practical phone skills and forget that we really need to help people with their goals in order to make money :)

Dean- I had a sinking feeling that Matt Cutts didn't know we exist :).  I do think it is a great idea to monetize websites and blogs using adsense.  We use it on our real estate websites and it offsets 30% of our monthly budget that we spend on pay per click so it's a nice trade.

Christine - Yes you certainly do have to have leads to be able to convert and close.  Getting your website to effectively generate leads should always be a focus, but I see many people doing nothing with those leads :( . Putting systems in place that allow you to effectively respond and convert is the other half of the battle.

Paul - Yep, Christine is on point with getting the lead.  I appreciate your comments, and I just wanted to spark the idea that getting the lead is not where it ends, but is just a portion of the process. I am thankful for our leads each month because they give us that opportunity to convert.

Aaron - Thanks for comment!  I am glad I could get some conversation going.  It looks like everyone who stopped by to comment has really come to share the common thread that lead generating is good, and we have to keep the focus on converting as well.

I cannot wait until I work my way to the the first page of Google!  As we say every day, "It is in the numbers!"  Secondly, you are right, it is in the conversion of the leads to business!  My office stresses scripts, so that thoughts and words flow like water.

I think the title is misleading because it does mean something, it means you get a lead to convert. Without the traffic your website can't generate leads for you to convert. So as everyone knows it is a numbers game and being number one has a huge impact on traffic. whether you can convert those leads is another story so the title is not true. being number 1 on google is porven to mean alot.

It is the start and without the start your lead conversion skill in your analogy would also mean nothing. I would sya being number one on google isn't everything.

I agree with the misleading title.  You have to be seen to get the lead.  Of course it is on the agent to get the commission, but there is not commission without the first step of being seen.

Having good SERP, with a sticky blog or website will make them come back, it is up to a real, live person to convert them and make them clients. 42% of all my closings this year are from blogging and my Search site.

Some agents don't need to ever blog, if they are established and have kept up with their cients. I personally try to do both. Past clients, bread and butter, leads>clients>new and future business.

There is a guy in my area, whose wife works his site ALL the time, he has converted nothing from being on page one of Google for great search terms, a combination of bad site, and not having the skills to convert the ones that do visit.

Sharon - Yes getting to page 1 is a great feeling.  Working from the page 3 or 4 to get to those top spots sure feels good.  Keep up the good work to get there and you certainly will :).

Robert and Ross - Thanks for the comments.  As far as my title being misleading, I can't really agree. One of the goals of a good blog post title is to get you to click :), so it's doing it's job there.  The only thing that could have been added would be an "if..." at the end of the post because the post is that it means nothing IF you aren't going to do anything with the leads, traffic etc. 

Once can be #1 all day long.. if they don't convert the leads to sales.... What does it matter to be #1...

Getting SEO is not easy and it can easily eat up valuable time that s/be spent developing leads you have.  I think many of our tech savvy realtors get lost in what they s/be doing and easily fall prey to feeling busy if they're in front of their pc blogging etc.  

Clearly developing that retationship is where our business comes from - Thanks for reminding us!

I must admit that getting a good rank on google is a good ego booster.  You are right that you have to build relationships and actually close leads for all of that seo work to matter.

I disagree as I think you need to be there. You have to get the leads to close them. Being seen is a very very important part of beiing on the internet.  

I find one of the most important things in converting a lead to a closing is to respond quickly.  I can't tell you who many times it has made the difference.  People are really impressed.

Funny thing is, I got a lot more leads in which I got them and closed them as well until I read about SEO stuff and started linking my sights and getting domain names for my blogs...I am not the sharpest computer guru in the shed I'll admit, but something happened to my leads????  I wish I could just go back to they way things were....

I know this has been a three step process for me. It took a lot of hard work to get to page 1, then I started getting leads, then I started to figure out how to convert. Internet works and it will only get bigger & better.

ugh.  here's yet another example of a helpful, insightful post here on AR that managed to offend some people and ruffle the feathers of others.  I'm not even sure some people managed to read past the headline. Maybe you should have called this "Being the top ten in google means nothing - if you have a crappy website or you poor sale skills and can't close a deal, or you show up in the top ten for keywords which no one will search under..."

Fullerton Homes for Sale, Brea Homes for Sale, Fullerton Real Estate for Sale, Brea Real Estate for Sale

I think people intrinsically know this, right?

Beats not ranking, but you know what they say, "Those who cant rank, complain...."

James- It depends on what you are ranking for, what keywords. If they are keywords no one searches for, then you are wasting your time.

70% of our business comes from our ranking on page one of google where the sellers find our blog. Then they read our AR blog and they pick up the phone to call us and ask us to list their home. SO the conversion rate for that is 100% and we close the deals. We get at least  2 listings every week just from our AR blog. The others we get from referrals and our expired listing mailing program. No calls. They call us.

Since we don't work with buyers it is the sellers we have a conversation with and it works for us so the top of google is where I plan to stay. With over 35 listings in this market we are in Florida- that is considered to be a great inventory.

So do we convert our consumers who call us from our AR blog, well, our AR blog does the converting for us and by the time they call, there is no conversion we need to do, they did it themselves.:)

we are not number 1 yet, but am focused on getting there. conversion right now is not what we'd like... because most buyers that come out to look are just plain scared. Some aren't though, and some do listen and overcome it, and that is where conversion comes.

Smart that you wrote that book. Does about as much as anytrhing could to distinguish you as an expert in your market.

best

James, this is great information. The one thing that floors me when it comes to real esttae is how excited agents including myself get over generating leads when the only thing that leads to anything is connecting with and setting appointments with those leads. Great post!

Yes, Yes and Yes... But, the first measurement after search engine position is traffic conversion to leads. That is accomplished via the presentation and content of the website. Everyone talks about branding but over 80% of the buyers on the Internet do not want to talk to a Realtor. They want to view listings and do not want to be pestered by a salesperson. The trick is to offer the buyer want he wants in a way that is non-threatening. We are achieving a 10% to 15% conversion rate on visitor traffic. Our older "traditional sites are only achieving a 2% to 3% rate. Of the leads we are generating 25% to 35% are serious buyers and by inncubating these buyers our Realtors are making sales every month.

Like most people commenting have said, and I can agree, it is a combination of all your efforts that help make you successful. Being first isn't everything, but it definitely helps. Thanks for the post, it's generated a lot of contemplation.

Roland - Right on target!  Gotta do something with that number 1 spot to make it worth all the work to get there.

Marcia - Yes it certainly can eat up valuable time and I think it can pull away our focus at times. Many of us like working on or websites and blog, but we have to keep it in a good block of time, so like you said we can keep those relationships going.  I am happy to have helped remind.

Bob - Yes I would say those who can't rank complain.  In your neck of the woods, San Diego (our hometown) there is plenty of competiton so getting to those top spots feels good and gives you the opportunity to really do something with those leads.

Deanna - Absolutely, making SEO matter means hitting our targets for helping buyers and seller s :)

Eric - I am not saying NOT to be there, but I am saying the over emphasis on being there is what is preventing many people from hitting their actual goals of helping buyers and sellers.

Michelle Chamberlin - Thank you!  I coudn't agree more.  I do think some people commented without reading the post :) 

Dave - Actually no, I don't think people intrinsically know this.  The desire to be on the first page is so overwhelming for many that it becomes their end goal.  Rather it should be A goal along the way to helping buyers and sellers.

Nestor and Katerina - First, great working on getting that many listings!  Second, I would say you aren't giving yourself enough credit on the conversion.  There would be many real estate professionals who don't have a good understanding of what to say to a seller to get them to list when they call directly (crazy I know, but I have seen it) so I would say you are making your AR blog, your own online presence and powerful phone skills to get that conversion.

Gary - Thank you for the kind words.  After running our team here in Long Beach with an online strategy for over 5 years we kept getting asked how we did it, so we wrote the book to help others.  I hope you like it and that it can help your business.

Jason - Yes sometimes we all get a bit excited over the lead generation.  Keeping that focus is good, but it has to be complimented with the focus on conversion.

Glenn - Excellent point.  Converting that shy visitor to an actual lead is the first point of conversion to focus on.  Hitting conversion rates of 10-15% you are on your way to internet marketing hall of fame so keep up those numbers.

Brian - Thanks for the comment.  You are right it does help to be number 1 and I certainly value the top spots we are on because it gives us those chances for conversion.

great post. our site is in the top 10. but we notice that is we are in the top five the traffic increases signifcantly. You have to do mutiple things to be found out there