I've gotten all sorts of opinions on this and I'd like the opinions of others, including real estate agents.

I'm looking to launch a mortgage and home equity loan website. I work as a loan officer. I've been doing some prelimary research on various keywords such as "state + mortage company" or "state + home loans" or "state + bad equity loans" and such. Most of the sites that show up are either affiliate link directories or large national lead generation companies that decide to have a subdirectory dedicated to a state or region.

In my opinion, I think there is opportunity for me to launch a site that focuses on various niche mortgage services and rank well for them. I've always personally thought that website prospects like to deal with a personal mortage broker as opposed to some large lead generation company.

But other people have said that it might be hard to get good rankings for the site because most of the mortgage companies that dominate the SERPS have enough money to fork out for SEO work. I don't need to be #1 to make money from the site. I just know that I need to place well enough and have good website usability (which most of these sites don't have) and get good conversation rates with the visitors.

What are your opinions on this? Can anyone here recommend a website of a local mortgage company that ranks well within the SERPS and also has good functionality to the site?

Thanks.

It is not that difficult to beat out the large directories and national sites as typically even if they have good seo's they are working on generic larger terms such as "mortgage" or mortgage providers etc thus their linking campaigns reflect this, and very rarely actually go after "area + kw" with their anchor text and backlinks. Thus if you have that exact phrase (Combinations of the phrase, dont just bioler plate them) then you can do much better locally with much less resources.

__________________
Want to save up to 50% off Real estate webmasters product websites & common upgrades? Check out my latest blog post regarding our end of the year sale.

Have a look at this client website: http://www.pamortgagenow.com/ 11 months old and number 1 for state + mortgage and many more.

You can get to the top if you do the right things as far as on page and off page SEO.

__________________

nice job Opp!

__________________
Want to save up to 50% off Real estate webmasters product websites & common upgrades? Check out my latest blog post regarding our end of the year sale.

Thanks

__________________

That's kinda what I need for California....

__________________
Search Homes for Sale in SAN DIEGO and other San Diego Real Estate via the San Diego MLS.

We're here till 7:00 PM EST, give me a call!

John

__________________

Hey Thanks John,.
I have got someone working on it already and was really just giving them a nudge.... (some guy named SEO-Guy)

__________________
Search Homes for Sale in SAN DIEGO and other San Diego Real Estate via the San Diego MLS.

Well then you'll be there in less time!

__________________

lol we still havent even finished building the thing heh - Opp we should talk link exchange once I get it live. This is what we have so far http://www.real-estate-optimization....gage/homepage/

__________________
Want to save up to 50% off Real estate webmasters product websites & common upgrades? Check out my latest blog post regarding our end of the year sale.