Other website+PPC vs. REW w/IDX Organic Only

[RonnieG]

I think it is pretty safe and fair to say, that in order to generate the same new visitor traffic counts that a basic REW website with REW IDX does, vs. any template website (including REW's) with a 3rd party IFramed IDX, would take a significant PPC and/or other lead generation investment. I have established this by my own personal experience and stats. Without disclosing specific costs, which will vary, and after:

a) Most recent 4 months with REW+IDX and organic only,
vs.
b) Previous 8 months with REW with IFramed 3rd party IDX and AdWords PPC+Organic, where the IDX included multi-agent team support similar to REW CMS2,

and with no REW SEO work in either environment, I think I now have enough Google Analytics stats to make some very broad generalizations on a vs b, as follows:

• Average time on site: 100% increase.
• Google Organic Visits: 800% increase.
• Yahoo Organic Visits: 400% increase.
• MSN Organic Visits: 400% increase.
• Live Organic Visits: 400% increase.
• New/Unique Visitors / Month: About equal. (incl. PPC traffic)
• Direct traffic, representing primarily return visitors: 200% increase.
• Bounce Rate: a=40%, b=50%. Pretty much what you would expect.

Cost analysis:
Assuming no further improvements in organic visitors, and no further SEO work (Ha!):

• 3 year cost per visitor a = 28% of b.
• 5 year cost per visitor a = 23% of b.

Cost per Transaction and ROI:

Since registered visitors and conversion rates are very site, agent and follow-up process dependent, I think the only thing that could be said here is that if your lead follow-up processes and resulting conversion rates do not change, then your ROI should follow the 3 and 5 year numbers above. Basically, you should see a 400% ROI on your REW+REW IDX investment, vs any other website and 3rd party IFramed IDX plus PPC required to generate the same traffic counts.

Other Factors / Considerations:

• My own monthly PPC investment was fairly moderate. Any additional monthly PPC investment could impact cost factors and ROI significantly.
• REW SEO would probably improve long term ROI significantly, especially with some of the most common search terms. See last bullet point below.
• The stats tell me that in initial $10k or more investment in REW SEO services would be more than paid for by the basic 3 year cost savings. The SEO initial investment cost is intimidating, and could be prohibitive for many agents, but from what I have seen, it is easily justifiable based on the long term benefits.
• If you do not already have a strong lead management system, including drip email campaigns and other lead follow-up systems, then the REW IDX and CMS2 functionality could improve your conversion rates significantly. I have not factored this into any of the ROI numbers.
• If you are not comfortable with developing your own website content and/or just don't have the time or skill sets, you will invest more to develop a strong web presence in your market. However, this is also true of any other website hosting service, so I consider this to be a neutral factor.
• PPC is still a great way to supplement your organic traffic, especially as you build on organic traffic counts in the first 6-10 months. Currently, the overlap between my organic traffic keywords and traffic from PPC keywords that I was was targeting is minimal. Basically, all of my organic traffic is now from more obscure "long tail" keyword phrases, and the traffic from most of the common keyword phrases that I was previously getting PPC traffic from dropped to almost zero. This is a "good news - bad news" situation.

[MikeNY]

Nice report.

You know I never did PPC, my SEO guy was so against it and almost felt as if it was not worth the cost when you can do much better with a good SEO plan. I am not sure if there is any guideline when you consider someone needs PPC. I look at the agents in my town who buy all the Yahoo, Google, etc PPC spots and have ZERO organic search results and they do not have impressive sales volumes so it makes me think that they are wasting money and maybe I don't need it. I have even read that 75%+ of web site leads don't even click the sponsored ads section.

I am always looking for more ways to increase my web site visits but I don't know if I "need" PPC so to say so I wonder if it is worth the cost.

[RonnieG]

...I look at the agents in my town who buy all the Yahoo, Google, etc PPC spots and have ZERO organic search results....

That's exactly the point!

You need to spend money on a strong, SEO friendly website, and at least some time and money long term for ongoing SEO efforts, or spend it on PPC, or some balance between the two. PPC is especially effective in those initial 6-10 months that it takes for any new website to have strong enough SERPs to generate sufficient traffic to make PPC unnecessary. This is especially true if the website does not have an integrated IDX, and depends on IFramed IDX. I see a few, but very few, strong AA and P2A websites for that reason.

Lead conversion is another matter entirely. You cannot blame (or credit) poor conversion on the fact that someone uses PPC. They probably wouldn't convert many organic leads either, if they had them! They could also be making one of the most common and disastrous mistakes I see with many PPC campaigns - sending visitors to their home page instead of an internal landing page specifically targeting the user's search term that triggered the PPC ad.

You would also not expect my site to get many organic leads, if you look only at the common / most used search terms in my major market area. There are only a few that I am consistently in #1-3 positions. That's because I have intentionally optimized most of my site for more obscure terms and specific long tails, and for very specific niche communities. You could enter dozens of the most common search terms, and never see me on page 1-3. But add one specific word to the phrase (which I will not share here), and I am consistently in spots #1-3 for a dozen or more local communities, and those searches generate lots more quality traffic than you would imagine.

[Puyallup Agent]

Nkce post Ron. I appreciate how you broke it down.

My original Point 2 site paid for my REW site plus seo.
Rew site paid for my second one and then some.
Now I'm reaping the benefits.

Probably should invest in a custom at this point with a REW idx.

[jamesww]

I appreciate the time you put into this post as I myself am all about the numbers.

[Malok]

But add one specific word to the phrase (which I will not share here), and I am consistently in spots #1-3 for a dozen or more local communities, and those searches generate lots more quality traffic than you would imagine.

Will you be sharing it at the REW conference?

[RonnieG]

Will you be sharing it at the REW conference?

Probably, since we will be looking at some Google Analytics on my site as part of the presentation.

[David Abernathy]

thanks for sharing - looking forward to your session.

[Daniel Gaitan]

You can't beat free(organic). Then again nothing is ever free(hosting, template, etc.).

[ahmed09]

Almost felt as if it was not worth the cost when you can do much better with a good SEO plan. I am not sure if there is any guideline when you consider someone needs PPC. I look at the agents in my town who buy all the Yahoo, Google, etc PPC spots and have ZERO organic search results and they do not have impressive sales volumes so it makes me.