I just learned something. Remember when I exhorted you to ‘Do This . . . ‘ and that was to go to Google and search ‘Sell Real Estate’? Help-U-Sell usually shows up near the top of the organic (non-paid) results, which is great. Robbie — who knows everything — told me why:
Our web-pages — corporate and broker sites — make abundant use of the phrase, ‘Help-U-Sell Real Estate.’ That’s especially true in boilerplate on the broker sites. When you search the string, ‘Sell Real Estate,’ Google is seeing that combination every time ‘Help-U-Sell Real Estate‘ appears on one of our sites. Duh!
There’s a lesson in this. As you get to the point where you’re ready to remove the ‘beta’ from the tail end of your NEW broker site URL (i.e. go from acmerealty.helpusellbeta.com to acmerealty.helpusell.com), you will likely have a URL conflict with your existing OLD website (chances are you’re already using acmerealty.helpusell.com on the old site). If your plan is to shut that site down, there’s no problem. But, if the OLD site is producing leads for you and you want to keep it, you’re going to need to go get a new URL at GoDaddy or whichever registrar you use. You should choose that new URL very carefully.
Do your Google Analytics to see what search terms people in your local market use when they search for real estate. Try to come up with a URL that uses that information. For example, ‘www.homesforsaleinSarasota.com’ might be a pretty good choice, as would ‘Sarasotahomes.com’. Make your URL something that people use when searching. Then point that URL to whichever site you want to get that traffic.
Even if you’re not ready to remove ‘beta’ from your NEW site, you may want to begin searching for the perfect URL. If you can come up with one or more that will draw well, you can tie them up now and redirect them as you see fit in the future.
And as always, if you need help with that, contact Tami, Lori, Robbie or me at corporate. We live to boost your lead count.