The Fast and Easy Way to Attract Visitors to Your Real Estate Website

Do you remember how proud and excited you were when your real estate website went “live”? There it was – your own little piece of virtual real estate right there on the internet for the whole world to see.You imagined hundreds of people signing up for your free newsletter, filling out inquiry forms or calling your toll-free number with questions.The only problem was (if you’re like most real estate professionals) that after weeks or months or even years your website was producing nothing for you.No leads.No customers.No commissions.

Maybe you’re fortunate enough to get some traffic to your website and maybe you’ve even captured some business as a result.If so, I commend you!But what real estate agent or broker wouldn’t like to see more qualified visitors making it to their website?Are you one of the thousands of real estate professionals who have a website that produces little or no benefit?If you are you’ll benefit from this short series of posts which starts today with our first tip!

Tip 1: Pay for Traffic with PPC (Pay Per Click) Advertising

Hard to swallow, I know. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve talked to who tell me that they have looked into PPC advertising and decided against it because they couldn’t afford it.I mean, who wants to pay for website visitors especially when the real estate business is so slow and money is so tight?Well, if I told you that you could limit your spending to a comfortable level and create an ad campaign that is focused to a specific geographical region and is so well written that only truly qualified prospects would click on it would that help belay your fears at least a little?

Here’s the deal… we’ll use Google AdWords as an example.

Use Geo-Targeted ads: Targeting your ads to limited geographic regions will immediately limit your exposure to worthless clicks. Geo-targeting allows you to tell Google “I only want my ad to appear to people who are searching for a real estate agent and are located in a specific zip code, city, state, region or country”. You get to define the geographical area.For example, you may represent properties in Miami Beach but you’re looking for prospects from Atlanta.That’s fine.Tell Google that you want your ads to show up in Atlanta only.You are in control.

Select Targeted Keywords:Keywords are the words that a person types into the search engine when they are searching for something.If you are selling condos in Miami, don’t pay for keywords like “Florida real estate”.Get specific!Try keywords like “Miami beach condos” or “Miami Oceanfront Condos”.The more specific your keywords the more targeted your prospects will be.

Write a Great Ad.Qualify prospects with very specific ad copy.Here’s an example of an ad that will only get clicked by qualified prospects:

Miami Beach Condominiums
Visit today if you are looking for
an Oceanfront Condo – $500,000 Plus

Place an ad like this and you should only get clicks from people looking to spend at least $500k for an oceanfront condo in Miami Beach.

Set a price you are willing to pay “per click”:Try something super low to start out with.Your ad doesn’t have to show up in the top position to be effective.Find out what the minimum bid is and give that a try – you’ll quickly find out how your ad performs at the lowest possible cost per click.

Set a Limit on Your Spending:Tell Google that you are only interested in spending $X.XX per day or month.Once you reach that amount your ads will stop showing.Google keeps great statistics for you so you’ll be able to tell if your ads are producing good leads.If your PPC ads are working for you then you can look at increasing your spend limit.

For information on how to set up a Google Adwords account visit https://adwords.google.com .

PPC ad programs are also available from Yahoo at https://searchmarketing.yahoo.com and MSN at https://adcenter.microsoft.com

Want to find out if you have what it takes to be a Real Estate Agent or Broker? About David GoldsteinDavid Goldstein is an Owner and Founding Partner of Colibri Real Estate, LLC. which operates online education providers Colibri Real Estate, Insurance License Express and License Tutor. Follow him on Twitter.