Every web savvy real estate agent wants a website that dominates the local market. With hard work and patience, many agents make it happen, only to find that this holy grail can raise as many challenges as it solves. The biggest concern most agents face at this point is how to drive business from a steady stream of web traffic – thousands of home buyers and sellers may browse their site every day, only to call someone else when its time to negotiate a deal. Even more frustrating, methods that once converted a high percentage of web users into clients may be less effective in today’s ever-changing online realty world.
Generating business and client leads is not a new challenge for online agents. But the rules of the game are shifting as more websites compete for user attention. In the past, top ranked sites were able to convert users to clients with search tools and custom technology, but that isn’t always the case anymore.
Two major developments in the online real estate community have changed this: search engine optimization (SEO), and the proliferation of high profile national real estate sites. SEO has allowed many sites to dominate search...