A Message from Kathleen:  If you read Sam’s last post here about how he quadrupled his Internet leads, you’ll know about the changes he made to his website that had such amazing results.  Now, he’s back to let us know how that increase in leads has translated into business.  And, you’ll see some of my comments in italics.

I put a call to action on every page of my Austin real estate website in the top right corner.  It contains a link to an MLS map search, my contact information, a link to email me, and a link to my blog.

I did that at the very end of November, and immediately started getting more calls, emails and registrations on my site than ever before.  Since I started tracking on February 1, I have received 143 phone calls and emails, and have had over 800 registrations on my site.  OK, but what about conversion? 

We all know that most Internet leads don’t convert quickly.  But, at this point, I have one listing, four homes under contract and one closing as a result of internet leads since February 1.  I am also working with four buyers who should be under contract by the end of August, and I have two $1 million+ referrals out that should close this summer.  Not bad!

For over a year, my site’s ranking on the search engines has fluctuated from #3 to #8 and everywhere in between for the term Austin real estate, #3 or #4 for Austin real estate blog, between #3 and #5 for Austin homes, #1 or #2 for Lake Travis real estate, and up there for a whole bunch of long tail results.  My short tail makes up around 15% of results. 

So part of getting the leads is a result of getting my site ranked well in the search engines, but before I made the call to action change, I wasn’t getting even 10% of what I am getting now.

• This is a great example of the power of Search Engine Optimization (SEO).  You’ll notice that while Sam has evidently done a lot of work to rank for his main keywords, his long tail results (ranking for terms that are related to your main keywords) are also impressive.  If the traffic from his short tail (main keywords) is only 15%, that means that 85% of his traffic comes from related keywords.  This is a situation unique to doing SEO on a site – using pay per click, for example, will produce traffic as long as you’re paying for specific keyword placement, but you’ll never get traffic from related keywords!
• Another factor to keep in mind is the fact that Sam provides a map-based MLS search provided by WolfNet.  While he had the Wolfnet search on his site long before his leads increased so dramatically, I believe that using a more sophisticated search may be contributing to his results. 
• Sam is requiring registration after the visitor views three listings.  The fact that 1) he has a map search tool, and 2) he can give his visitors some information before registration is required may have something to do with his visitors’ willingness to create an account.  When I asked him about that, he described how he gets his search to work so well:

Before adding the call to action, the Point2 listings page was the stickiest page on my site, even with the WolfNet IDX search.  In June of last year, 12% of requested pages were for the Point2 listings page.  The IDX search came in at 6.5%.  At the same time that I added the call to action, I also hid the Point2 listings page.

Another thing worth noting is that I changed the defaults for the WolfNet map search (MapTracks).   MapTracks show every listing (residential, lease, commercial, house, condo) in the MLS, and shows listings on the map from high price to low.  I found it took a long time to load using those standard defaults.  In addition, people don’t generally like seeing properties starting at $4.5 million, which is the top end for the market, and dropping from there. 

I used the Default Search Settings in the WolfNet back office and selected new criteria.  My search shows single-family homes in a range from $250,000 to $500,000.  I also limit the number of listings to display to 150.  That seems to return a reasonable number of homes, and loads much more quickly.  The visitor can enter their own criteria once they reach the map search page.

So my recommendation for Point2 Agent site owners is this:

• Get WolfNet MapTracks.  Set the default search settings where you want them, center and zoom the map to the best start location, and limit the number of listings displayed. 
• Hide the Point2 listings page.   I’ll wager you could use the Point2 listings page WITH registration required. 
• Create a very noticeable call to action on every page with the exception of the search page.
• Force registrations after 3 detailed listing views.

This post was contributed by guest author and Austin REALTOR® Sam Chapman.  In addition to his real estate website, he also maintains an active Austin Real Estate Blog.  Sam has lived and worked in the Austin area for almost 20 years.  Sam primarily works in the south Lake Travis area and western parts of Austin, but can refer buyers to agents who specialize in parts of the greater Austin area.