Purpose of Your Website

[Jnazareno]

My first and main website Phoenix Real Estate was kind of "all over the place". Lately though I have been narrowing it down. I will be doing some further 'narrowing' soon, because I am getting leads from all over The Valley Of The Sun and I mostly only work the NE Valley.

My second site - Paradise Valley Real Estate - is brand new so no real content yet but I have pages in the back office not released yet that need a bit more work. Not to mention the entire site needs my attention, but one day at a time. Its only focus is a small town where my office is located, Paradise Valley Arizona. Though I will focus on both buyers and sellers, again. I do own a URL for future use as a sellers only site, www ArizonaSellers com.

So much to do, so little time in a day!

good way to start your referral business...easier money with no liability
attached.

[SEO Jason]

a well optimized site isn't worth much if it doesn't convert. Content is key. The site needs to be well laid out, easy to use and offer everything that the consumer would want. People will still go to other sites but why make them have to by not offering everything they need on your site.

[Homesurfer]

I like what Fred Light said and what WheatWorks said.

Develop a target market. Have lots of unique content designed to appeal to your target market. Make your target market as narrow as possible, especially geographically. Make it "sticky". Have a reason for people to return. Structure the navigation properly. Have neat, clean, easy-to-browse/skim/read organized pages (most visitors won't "read" your site -- they skim).

Until you've handled all that, why worry about the search engines?

At www.realestateabc.com, we identified our target web visitor this way -- those interested in "agent-assisted residential owner-occupied real estate."

There is nothing on our site that does not fall within those parameters. Nothing about commercial real estate, investors, non-owner occupied, multi-units, FSBO, land contracts, flipping, rentals, renters, etc.

As for sites that exist just to generate referral income? I'm not in favor of them.

[judyo]

I have 4 web sites. 3 are very niche area oriented, focusing mainly on one town (Oak Lawn) or a combo of 6 very popular areas on my Orland Park site. My largest site, Cook County, focuses on a much wider area. I was told to create a site with a larger focus to get more traffic. I did not want to create a Chicago site since it's not the main town/area I work in & I truly feel my southwest suburban people would feel "alienated" by using a Chicago title on my site.

My problem is I'm somehow getting the traffic even though it's too new for Google position and I'd understand if it was coming from those I've given the url to. But most of my forms are being filled out by people in areas I wouldn't travel to sell to (Cook County is a large area including Chicago and surrounding suburbs).

If I got a prospect who was ready to buy/sell & I didn't work in their area I could certainly refer them but that isn't the reason for my site. Yet if I'm going to have a more general site (since I like highlighting those other niche areas but they are not the only areas I work in by any means) I don't know how else to handle it.

I list the southwest suburbs I work in on my home page but this does not stop people in areas over an hour away from filling out search requests (or requesting CMA's) that I then set up manually. IOW, I'm getting more action on my site from people out of my area than in my area on this particular site. I guess it's just something I have to deal with until I get my url out more in my market area via my new for sale signs, brochures, advertising, etc.

[kensmith]

Judy, you can always find a few agents to send those out of area requests to. I'm sure we can work something out for the NW suburbs .

[judyo]

Ken,

You know you're first on my list!

[Jade456]

Hah, Judy there are plenty of agents out there who would love to have your problem!!!! For us its finding more qualified personnel. Our site generates more leads than Jacqui and her current team can handle. I have 3 other urls that I'm going to develop. Right now I've tried to make our site the most comprehensive site for the Las Vegas valley. If its a new project, or an exisiting one, I try to have information on it. In the future I'll probably narrow it a little, but right now its working so I'll let sleeping dogs lie.