Do you get clients from your property site?

Inspired by a pod cast from the American real estate blogger Tim O’Keefe, I want to echo some of his comments on the subject of “Why have a real estate website“.
 
As a property company operating in this very competitive business, does your website actually work and what is its purpose?

Simple really, capture clients data, so that you can build a relationship with them, with the ultimate aim of selling them a property. Many companies forget this and create complicated sites that are too difficult to navigate for the end user and as such are turning away interested clients.
 
As markets slow and get more competitive, it is harder to close a sale. You should be trying to capture as many clients as possible for now and the future. Buyers are getting much more Internet savvy with a wealth of free information for research, they are not going to fall for the BS that has been bounded about in the past. Make sure your website echo’s this, make it useful and less of the “We are No1″ rubbish.

So how to capture and test data successfully…
 
Do you give something away in return for client’s details, if not why not? This exchange significantly increases your chances of a client trusting you with their personal details. It works try it!!

I have talked to many real estate website owners, who are totally obsessed with getting good rankings, but have had bad experiences with SEO companies. Many companies don’t really know what to expect from SEO and as such are getting exploited by the knowledge gap. I hear comments like “Yes I know about Meta tags and links”. Well if that is your attitude you are going to get taken for a ride and receive very few clients.
 
We all want to be sold to, it is part of life and like the real estate industry, and the web-marketing world is full of companies that will guarantee you this and that. Problem is can these companies really guarantee anything in this fast moving market?

Some useful questions you may want to ask yourself, as you need to understand your site and how others use it.

Do you test your advertising through different means?

If you do an ad campaign you can track it by using different website addresses, use telephone software that tracks calls from ads.

Do you have statistics software, if so do you know what to do with it?

There are many free site statistics software programs out there that can give you all that information. My favourite is the new Google analytics package, which is free, downside is that it is oversubscribed and you have to wait to get accepted into the program (request an invitation). IMO it is worth the wait!

Point is you need to start using your site to its maximum potential and as such you need to understand your clients better, offer them something unique and capture the information.
 
This is only half way there, as you then need to work with that information and sell properties to prospective clients, but that post is for another day!