Things losers say: SEO doesn’t matter: How much traffic can you really get for ranking on the first page of Google for a prime term?
OK OK, only a retarded monkey would think SEO doesn’t matter. (Sorry to call out your mentally challenged peeps, Max).
But being on top of Google’s first page totally matters. In fact, I can prove it.
I write a lot about SEO, but what I don’t write about a lot are the results people get by using simple search engine optimization techniques. ROI on SEO is very easy to measure. You measure it in terms of positioning in Google for your prime terms and on the increase in traffic.
And, by virtue of those two simple things you WILL see more leads and if you are a good Realtor you will be able to convert those leads into dollars.
Read also: How to select the best possible keywords for real estate blogs
Remedial Learning: Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” (“organic” or “algorithmic“) search results for targeted keywords.
Plain Jane Explains: The stuff you do to your site to make it land on the first page of Google
How do you determine how valuable your keyword is?
Use a tool like KeywordDiscovery and you can very easily find out if the term you are targeting in the search engines will result in large volumes of traffic. To use the tool, simply register for a free account and you can enter in the term you are targeting and it will return the number of searches performed for that term.
Tool: Find the keywords you already rank for in Google
How to determine traffic per day for a given keyword:
Tool: KeywordDiscovery (register for the free account)
The next number that is important to you is how much traffic you can actually generate from landing on that first page of Google in any one of those top 10 positions.
How many clicks will you get when your site hits the first page of Google?
• Number 1 receives 42.1%
• Number 2 receives 11.9%
• Number 3 receives 8.5%
• Number 4 receives 6.1%
• Number 5 receives 4.9%
• Number 6 receives 4.1%
• Number 7 receives 3.4%
• Number 8 receives 3.0%
• Number 9 receives 2.8%
• Number 10 receives 3.0%
Now, do some simple math:
Traffic per day X percentage of clicks you will get for that position = actual traffic numbers.
Example:
Term: Long Beach Real Estate
KeywordDiscovery Traffic Value: 489 clicks/visitors
Percentage of traffic for that term for position 1 in Google: 42.1%
Total expected traffic for that term to site: 206 clicks/visitors
Viola! It is that simple… see, even a monkey can do it.
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I love Mary Mc Knight and you should, too. Her SEO webinars (which are free) should be a must for any weblogger.
Posted on Mar 18, 2008 by Brian Brady
Of course search placement matters (though I know, some have somehow claimed it does not – which is weird). The greatest blog / web site / page on the planet does no good if no one knows it is there.
High traffic terms aren’t the only ones that count though. I’ve found that while visits from folks using “Phoenix Real Estate”—a “highly desirable” search term—are certainly valuable, people searching for a term like “Subdivision real estate”, or “Subdivision realtor” are golden.
Traffic from these “localized” search terms seem to be more…. focused … for lack of a better term. People searching, for example, “Power Ranch real estate” seem to be of two flavors—home owners in Power Ranch looking to sell, and people looking to buy specifically in Power Ranch. I’ll take either variety ;)
Sure “Power Ranch Real Estate” has FAR fewer searches than “Phoenix Real Estate”. But the “conversion rate” of such long tail visitors is quite high. And it’s MUCH easier (and least in my market) to rank well for “Subdivision real estate” than it is for “Phoenix real estate”. As an example, on Sunday I wrote a post on Seville, a large Master Planned Community. Today (Tuesday) it is at #4 in Google for “Seville Real Estate” and “Seville real estate agent”, # 1 for “Seville home listings” and the link I put in that post to a listings gateway is #1 for “Seville listings”. Ranks well for many variations on these terms. And it did that within minutes (literally) of publishing the post.
Results? One listing appointment, and two buyers on auto-listings. In two days.
It works. A follow up post in a couple of weeks will likely entrench those search placements.
Great post Mary!
Posted on Mar 18, 2008 by Jay Thompson
Thanks Jay, I completely agree with you- you can qualify your traffic and improve lead to traffic ratio by focusing on more desirable terms like neighborhoods and smaller communities. They are easier to rank for and definitely drive in more qualified transaction readers.
Posted on Mar 19, 2008 by REBlogGirl
Mary – you’ve been a big help to me in the SEO area and like Brian said your FREE webinars are the best education going and you can’t beat the price – :) Thanks for continuing to share your knowledge – I’m seeing results!
Posted on Mar 20, 2008 by Cyndee Haydon