Just over a year ago I made a couple of changes to my Austin real estate website that resulted in big changes in the number of internet leads I got. My website gets good organic traffic for some very coveted search terms, but before these changes, the traffic wasnt turning into a lot of leads. The site wasnt sticky enough and I didn't have a call to action. I realized while studying other real estate websites that on many I had to search for a long time before finding the button to click on to do a property search.

I will usually spend fewer than 5 seconds on a site trying to find what I want. If I dont find it quickly, I go to another site. Knowing that I do that, I figured others do the same. So the first change I made was to put a large, bold Search Austin Homes link toward the top right of every page on my website. This was what was missing from so many other real estate websites-a call to action. There needs to be something on a real estate website that compels someone to take an action and this link was it.

Right below the Search Austin Homes link, I put my contact information. My thinking was that people would be drawn to the link as they would see it on every page. My statistics also show that the majority of visitor time on the site is spent looking at listings. So adding my contact information right below the link would draw people to it in addition to the search link. Most people using the internet to look for homes dont want to talk with a REALTOR® (at least not right away), but some do. Adding the contact information resulted immediately in an average of just under one email or phone call to me per day by potential buyers. Prior to the change, I was getting around 6 per month. That is a huge change!

Going back to the stickiness factor, I needed a way to keep people on the site longer and also to get them coming back to the site often. Before adding the call to action, the IDX search page came in at 6.5% of requested pages. In May and June, that was up to 16%. Part of this increase is also a result of having a great IDX search feature. Not that I am necessarily plugging WolfNet, but I use their IDX with the enhanced map search feature called MapTracks. MapTracks shows listing all active in the MLS shows listings on a map. Visitors can move the map around to see different parts of the area. They can also zoom in and out. In addition, they can switch between map, aerial and hybrid views. In addition to price range, number of bedrooms, etc., users can also search by city, zip code, subdivision and school district. When a user sees a listing she likes, she can save it to a favorites folder. A user can also save one or more searches to come back to later. The significant thing about saving favorites or searches, the user is asked to register. When that happens, I get an email notification of the registration. I also get an email notification about the saved favorite or search. After receiving the notification I can go in to the WolfNetBack Office and see what the user has been doing. I can see the date of the first login, every login since, every search saved and every favorite saved. This is all very helpful when contacting users.

I added the call to action end of November, 2007 and immediately started getting more calls, emails and registrations on my site than ever before. I started tracking this on February 1. From then through the beginning of June, I 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 dont convert quickly. Most usually have a 6-9 month incubation period before actually turning from a prospect into a relationship and then to a closing. Since the changes a year ago, I have had internet leads convert into one listing, a closing in June, another in August, one in November and I have two coming this month. On top of those I have had two referrals closed and one more on the way. The dollar volume just from the four buyers is over $2 million. In addition, I am also working with several very serious buyers who should find something to close on within about 90 days. Not bad, especially in a slow market during the slowest time of year.

In summary, whether you get good organic placement, do PPC or market yourself in other ways, every REALTOR® in the business needs a website. Every real estate website needs a great IDX search. Every real estate website with a great IDX search needs a big call to action.

About The Author

Sam Chapman is REALTOR® serving Austin, Texas and its surrounding areas. See his recommendations in action by visiting his Austin real estate website and austin real estate blog.

One of the things that drives me craziest on the Internet is there is a lot of GOOD advice out there- but there is a distinct lack of explicit practical advice. Meaning, everyone wants to tell you that you need to generate leads from your real estate blog but they don't tell you how to specifically capture each type of lead. So, let's hit it. This post will show you how to use two conversion psychologies called "the cult of me" and "self qualification" to generate highly qualified investor and foreclosure property leads.

Goal: To attract more investors contacts

Strategy: Create a list of Top 10 Best Buy, REO, Foreclosure or Investment properties that you require users to register to receive. This will require 3 steps:

1. Create the list

2. Create a call to action button and lead conversion form

3. Create a blog post announcing your offering

Real Estate Investor Profile: The average investor that will find you online fins you because they are looking for information on investing in real estate. That means they probably are not a professional investor and are most likely a first time or part time investor that recognizes they need the help of a real estate professional to identify savvy investment properties.

Real Estate Investor Psychographics: A first time or part time investor is typically "new money" meaning they are self made and proud of what they have become. They feel good about their accomplishments and want to use what they have to make more money. They can be shrewd can like to be appreciated for their accomplishments. They often also like o feel like they are masters of their destiny's and like to have hand in making decisions that affect their future.

Implementation:

1. Create the list of best properties

The list MUST have value, so put some time into this. Cull through the MLS for foreclosure, investment, first time buyer, fixer upper, etc best buys. Put together a list in Microsoft Word where you take some of the MLS data like images, MLS#, Street Address, Description and your remarks on why you consider that particular property a best buy. Also, make sure that you fully brand the document with your logos, phone numbers, address and websites. Then save the document into a PDF and save to your drive in an easy to find location. You do not want to immediately publish this to your blog, because you want to create implied value and make people register so they can receive it.

Read also: Top 5 Easy and Effective Listing Posts You Can Write for Your Real Estate Blog

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Landing Page Optimization is an essential component of good web design. It is the process of improving a visitor's perception of a website by optimizing its content and appearance in order to make the pages more appealing to the target audiences, as measured by target goals such as conversion rate. What does that really mean? Basically, it means you need to make individual pages on your blog or website so simple and compelling that visitors WANT to contact you. And, isn't that what we all want... people to contact you through your website?

So, how do you optimize the layout, calls to actions and content of your real estate agent blog or website to get more conversion?

1. Identify mission critical parts of your website and their true economic value

Your only answer should be "my conversion forms." As a Realtor, your conversion forms should be one or more of the following:

• Contact form
• Search for properties registration form
• CMA/House Value form
• Market report form
• Special Offer/Newsletter form

These forms are the most important pages on your site because they are where conversion from visitor to contact takes place. Therefore, each of these forms has to be clearly identified, visible on each and every page of your real estate blog and incite people to want to click them.

Read also: Let's Talk Landing Page Optimization by SEOmoz

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A real estate blog or website without well crafted and placed calls to action will simply fail. A call to action is simply that single offer on your page that gets your visitors to convert from a casual reader into a contact by clicking on and filling out one of your lead generation forms.

BONUS: RSS Pieces and 1ParkPlace have teamed up to provide you with complete sets of high quality, graphically relevant and SEOed call to action buttons you can use for free on your real estate blog or website. Each button is already SEOed with high quality, universal, real estate related "alt" and "title" descriptive text- all you do is copy and paste these buttons to your site and add the link to your lead gens!

See our real estate button sets here.

Sample:

What makes a good real estate call to action?

1. Invaluable Offer. The call to action HAS to offer some value to the visitor. That means that you must have lead generators connected to tools that truly have some function that is critical to the user experience. So what types of tools are critical to your real estate visitors?

Read also: How to generate leads from your real estate blog: we have proof

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OK, so I never make blog announcements but these two are extremely cool. We are welcoming the blogs for 1parkplace and Russell Shaw and announcing the approval of 1parkplace for offering it's IDX search and lead generation solution to the ARMLS.

Real Estate Lead Generation Blog: Steve Hundley

The first is that of Steve Hundley, CEO of 1parkplace.  For those of you that don't yet know just how much I love the 1parkplace IDX search and lead generation solution, just talk to our clients using it- Laurie is generating between 5-30 leads per day, Ines, Mariana, Teri and others are also raking in leads daily. Most of you may also know that we have had a very strong relationship with 1parkplace and exclusively offer their RSS feeds through our blogging platform.  Steve is a newbie blogger- so be gentle and give him encouragement.  He's a fast learner and is happy to share what he knows- so if you have questions- go to his blog and ask away.  Or, better yet- register for a webinar - his presentation and tips on lead generation can change your business.

What's the product?

1. A map based IDX search

2. Search, CMA, VIP Sign in etc lead generators

3. Back end client management and drip email campaign system

There are other features but these are my top 3 picks.

Read also: How to generate leads from your real estate blog: we have proof

Why am I excited about Steve blogging?  Because I have been telling him he should for almosta  year now- he is a master at crafting online strategies that get results for top producers liek Ruth Pugh and Gregg Neuman and amazes me with his knowledge of how to use on and offline marketing to generate more leads and grow your business.  His new blog will focus on tips, tools and ideas on how to improve your bsuiness, online presence and lead generation. 

Check out his "Steal This Post" blogs - these are articles he writes that you can use on your own blog - they are mostly controversial, research or entertainment pieces meant to be linkbait.

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