Back in the day, I wanted it all. I obtained my real estate license, then my property/casualty insurance, then my life & health, and I was ready to get my mortgage broker license, as well. I wanted to OWN the transaction – and every transaction. Are you looking for a house in Kyle? I’m your man! Do you need a C-class multi w/ at least a 6 cap? Over here! And you know what my closing ration was? Neither did I, because I didn’t track it! I was too busy being the jack of all trades – and master of none.
Experienced agents have found their niche – residential or commercial aside, they’ve found their real niche: Downtown condos, specific areas, specific neighborhoods, specific lifestyles, and a host of other choices. You tend to gravitate towards what you like, or where you live. But while agents have gravitated towards their niches, most websites remain broad & sweeping.
What did I sell? Who knows…looks like all of Austin. If a searcher found this site, they get NO specific information on anything. They can search the MLS – but they can do that on ~3000 other Austin agent websites (thanks Jim Olenbush!) They might as well have landed on ripoff.com realtor.com and if they enter their contact info there, they’ve entered it everywhere.
Web surfers are getting more & more sophisticated with their searching. While you still get a ton of “city real estate” searches, you’re also seeing more & more “neighborhood real estate” searches. Those browsers know exactly what they’re looking for, and they know when they’ve found it.
Niche websites won’t get the same traffic as a “jack of all trades” website, but they’ll convert like crazy. I’m in the process of working on Life in Steiner Ranch – because I know the neighborhood like the back of my hand, like working it, and love selling it.
In my humble opinion, this website is pretty – I happen to be very good friends w/ my graphic designer, and give him enough business that he charges me hourly. But niche websites don’t need to be sleek/sexy/smooth & perform well in a wind tunnel test!
Check out what some of Blackwell’s agents threw together. This website isn’t ugly – but it’s just a modded WP theme! If they feed/water this website correctly (content & promotion,) they’ll get as much traffic as they need – and they’ll see AWESOME conversion.
Niche websites convert, and they convert into the traffic you want. If you like working a specific area/neighborhood, you should market to that…market.
If you’re not great w/ WP – just sign up for a basic wordpress or blogspot account & start typing away! This guy is just a resident of Steiner Ranch, and I hope he doesn’t get into real estate. I found that site because an on-site sales rep told me about it and said that everyone in the neighborhood is talking about it. If this guy soft-sold himself as the neighborhood agent/broker, he’d have more listings than he’d know what to do with!
Next up…Modding WP to a niche site for dummies (written by one.)
Jeff Brown says:
Eric — You wrote>Niche websites convert, and they convert into the traffic you want. If you like working a specific area/neighborhood, you should market to that…market.
Gee, sounds like you’re talking about a hyper-local approach. Very cool. 🙂
November 9, 2007 — 8:19 am
Brian Brady says:
Start guest writing on that Steiner Ranch guy’s weblog…yesterday.
November 9, 2007 — 9:00 am
Eric Bramlett says:
@Brian – absolutely…I’m going to start commenting on it & then see where it goes from there.
November 9, 2007 — 9:13 am
Eric Blackwell says:
@Jeff Brown–I, for one, am a HUGE fan of hyper locals.(And I am a fan of yours as you have been so positive on them). They drive relevant traffic and they help establish you as the market leader in an area. In the old days, postcards, an ad or two and some yard signs would do. Today a blog is extremely effective IMO for that to work. The two guys in my office are putting that to the test (just started it). Using a WP blog, they also rank for Locust Creek Homes (google that-grin-yeah I know it is not a competitive term). Notice the absence of Keyword stuffed text. They are just using that ranking to show builders in that area that they are serious. When a builder sees your site rank above theirs, that helps you in convincing them to market through you. Listings come easier that way.
Didn’t know that Bramlett was gonna put that example up there…but since he did, that’s kinda what I was referring to about search engine friendly without being over optimized. SEO and Blogs can have a synergistic effect IMO.
FTR–Next year’s Ryder Cup will be held here…my guess is that they will get more traffic from that as well.
November 9, 2007 — 1:35 pm
Trace says:
There is a very common sense and basic explanation for why niche related websites do well. If you are not focusing on specific or niche topics than you are probably touching on general or broad topics. In the mortgage world, this might mean that you are talking about topics on your website (using keywords like) “mortgage refinance”, “mortgage loans”, “home equity loans”, etc. The problem is that you will not rank well with such broad keyword terms / topics on your website because those are the most competitive terms and you are competing against firms like lowermybills.com with $80 million plus per year budgets and no matter how good your SEO skills are, you will not be successful in competing with these companies…which I refer to as the “heavy artillery”. If you are not ranking well, you will not generate traffic, and thus will not generate leads. The same applies to any other space such as Real Estate related keywords / topics.
Let’s say we take the keywords / topics used above and make them more specific or niche related. Now we’re working with “austin mortgage refinance”, “crockett county mortgage loans”, and “Lubbock home equity loans” instead of “mortgage refinance”, “mortgage loans”, and “home equity loans”. By being more specific in your topic / keywords, you have significantly reduced the number of people you are competing with in the search engines because just as you mentioned you were very general with your website (and not successful) so are many others that do not know better.
In search, an analogy to a dragon is often used to explain the difference between general / high traffic search terms and more specific search terms. The head of the dragon represents the general keyword / high traffic / high competition keyword terms like “real estate” or “mortgage refinance”, the rest of the keyword terms used by searchers are the tail of the dragon or are often referred to as the long part of the tail. Although specific or niche keywords (tail keywords) do not have the search volume that upper tier / high search keywords (head keywords) have since they are part of the tail, they make up most of the body of the dragon, in other words there are a LOT MORE of them. By going after the long part of the tail you may have words that get only 50 searches per day (instead of 50,000) but if you are in the top 10 in the search engine rankings you may still bring in 5 to 35 visitors to your website every day, depending on where you rank… for just that ONE search term….If your site is optimized for a range of related keyword terms, you may start to rank well for dozens or hundreds keyword terms and now you have significant traffic, and thus the ability to generate leads.
Summary: The basics of SEO involve 1) choosing the keywords or niches that you want to target such as “austin home loans” 2)creating one page of unique content on your website for each set of keywords you come up with (“austin real estate” and “Crockett County home loans” would both be two separate pages) 2) Optimizing each page for the specific keywords the page is built for by inserting the keywords in the meta tags, H1 tags, titles, page content, url, etc. 3) adding unique content on a regular basis. 4) building links to these pages…
That’s where wordpress comes in…. simply put wordpress has a huge community, continuous updates and upgrades, and it’s free! More importantly, it is simple to use, which means there is no excuse for not adding new articles and pages to your website on a regular basis. It is the future as far as we are concerned for the above reasons, but most important the usability factor. We feel so strongly about it that we are converting all of our existing websites to wordpress to create LeadPress…. If you are looking to start blogging or build your own website, wordpress is the way to go and “Blackwells Agents” website is a great example of what can be done with wordpress….
November 9, 2007 — 10:14 pm
Trace says:
Forgot to mention this blog is a great example of what wordpress can do as well…. 🙂
November 9, 2007 — 10:59 pm
Eric Bramlett says:
Trace –
Quite honestly, I prefer my websites to rank for “austin real estate,” “steiner ranch real estate,” “downtown austin condos,” etc… rather than “real estate,” or “condos.” The more specific the search term, the more qualified the traffic.
Great advice on the KW selection concepts you’ve illustrated & great explanation of the long-tail.
November 10, 2007 — 8:21 am
Trace says:
Eric: Putting technical keyword reasoning aside, your point is probably the most important. If you’re getting 1000 leads a day and none of them are targeted and not looking for what you offer than that doesn’t do you any good either. This is so important and as a mortgage guy, I tend to forget how important this is, especially how it relates to Real Estate sales…..
November 10, 2007 — 9:41 am
Wayne Long says:
Eric,
I absolutely agree. Niche markets and sites will convert at a much stronger pace than broad ranging sites. On my Google analytics it is really easy to follow. The more tightly focused the clients search – the longer he will spend on the site – and the more likely he is to contact me.
The only downside to a niche site is being able to put the money and time into building quality content and tools on a site with less traffic.
November 10, 2007 — 9:56 am
Jeff Brown says:
Wayne — You said, >The only downside to a niche site is being able to put the money and time into building quality content and tools on a site with less traffic.
I get what you’re saying, but view it this way.
My intent for the niche (hyper-local) site is to ensure the traffic is made up of as close to 100% of the residents of the target area as possible. That will then ensure my batting average will skyrocket.
I think you’ll agree, more business will ensue, bottom line, with a ‘niche’ site then with more general approaches. I think far more business will result from a niche site.
Your point on conversion rates (batting average) makes my day. 🙂
November 10, 2007 — 10:22 am
Eric Blackwell says:
Good conversation…
Simply put, I do both. I love using hyperlocals (niche sites/blogs) for what they are designed for–blowing up niches…and Jeff, your point about dominance and getting 100% is true.IMO, they can generate outstanding ROI and build your local authority to astronomical levels.
Additionally, though…I’d point out that ranking on page one for city real estata or city homes doesn’t suck and it does produce EXCELLENT ROI as well.
Since I have generated strong ROIs both ways, I cannot say do this or do that. Both work.
I don’t think going after the big terms is for everyone. I do think that oftentimes SEO folks tend to push that as the only way. It is not.
I also think that it is a matter of where you live and your competitive position as well…This may sound strange coming from an “SEO person”, but if I parachuted into a HIGHLY competitive market (like San Diego)and had to go up against the competition on page one there…hmmm…it would be MUCH better ROI to go after niche / hyperlocal type stuff. And I could make a good case that you never have any reason to go for San Diego real estate… But Wayne lives in Columbus Georgia…different animal.
Just like all real estate is local, I think all real estate marketing is local as well…whether the traffic comes from search engines or cross promotion…IMO it is all about the size of the folks that you have to go up against…grin. That’s why measuring twice and cutting once is a good idea…
November 10, 2007 — 11:06 am
Bill Gassett says:
I agree with your assessment of this subject. This is the principle behind what Russer aka Mr Internet teaches. Most Realtors just don’t want to believe this! Your comment about jack of all trades and master of none hits the nail on the head.
November 27, 2007 — 6:41 pm
Jim says:
Eric, I’ve looked through all MLS sales for this year in Austin and you don’t come up for any downtown deals, and your website’s been up for over a year. Probably because every other agent in Austin is trying to be the downtown expert and has a website like that too.
It’s not nice marketing that’s important, it’s going to areas where the agent saturation isn’t so high.
December 25, 2007 — 8:29 pm
Sapan Behar says:
You know, I’ve been thinking about going for a niche market (but on a bit of a broader scale, it is makes sense). Not just focusing on a specific neighbourhood (yes, I am Canadian and that is really the correct way to spell neighbo(u)rhood) because of the size of our population base.
February 5, 2008 — 1:35 pm
Rick Macosky says:
Great conversation! As REALTORS and independent contractors I think it’s only natural for us to learn about the Web and SEO. Who else is going to give your site the love and attention it needs better than you? I think no-one unless you have very deep pockets. Personally, I enjoy it very much.
March 22, 2008 — 9:54 pm