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3 Big Changes Could Impact Online Real Estate Marketing

by blogger1
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on Thursday, 10 September 2015
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How will these changes impact online real estate marketing for you?

With internet marketing drawing most of the focus for real estate businesses today even small changes can have a dramatic impact on results and ROI. If real estate investors and companies aren’t wired into this constant evolution they can find their advertising budgets and income gets blindsided. So what is changing now?

Google Infinite Scroll for Search Results

For years real estate companies have spent millions vying for top spots in Google search results. If you haven’t been on page one, or at the top of page one in Google searches you may as well not have existed. But what if there were no longer pages in Google searches?

In September 2015 Search Engine Roundtable revealed that Google was testing ‘infinite scroll search results’. That means there is effectively just one page. If you’ve been using Twitter or Facebook you are probably already familiar with this functionality. However, it is unclear what it may mean long term. Everyone is effectively on page one of Google now, but those top 10 or 30 spots could prove more valuable. What about Google Adwords? Will there now be far fewer (much more expensive) ad opportunities due to only 1 page? Or will there be endless ads? You can test out Infinite Scroll for Google now with this Chrome tool. How do you rank?

The Wikipedia Witch-Hunt

For years dozens of real estate companies and independent professionals have been hacking their way to the top of the search engine results by using Wikipedia. Wikipedia’s authority makes links from the online dictionary incredibly powerful fuel for those that want to show up at the top of Google, and to be seen as trusted by Google. Now Wikipedia is crushing years of investment by erasing data that people may have paid marketers to put on the site. This could dramatically alter the rank of many real estate websites and personalities. This both creates a big opportunity to move up, but is also a big wakeup call to keep investing in your own website and real estate blog instead of banking on third party sites like Wikipedia, Facebook, and BiggerPockets.

Keywords

Keywords are the DNA of SEO and online real estate marketing. However, the one big blunder that 99% of real estate marketers make is that they do some rough keyword research at launch and then focus on those keywords forever. The problem is that the keywords that users actually use changes on a daily basis. You’ve got to at least be reviewing trending keywords and the most valuable opportunities on a monthly basis, if not daily and weekly. Google Trends is one of the simplest and fastest to use tools to stay on top of this.

Summary

Winning at online real estate marketing requires constant awareness to changes like those above. This can be more than a full time job. One that most real estate pros don’t have time to do effectively, and that most discount marketers get horribly wrong every day. Use the above info to stay ahead of the curve, but don’t be shy about recruiting some freelance help to realign and recalibrate your internet marketing campaigns on a regular basis.

Authored by Best Transaction Funding BestTransactionFunding.com is the leading source of transactional funding and hard money loans for real estate wholesalers in the US, where 100% financing, and saying “Yes” is what we love doing all day long.

 

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Wholesaling Business: How to Boost SEO to Capitalize on the New Surge

by blogger1
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on Wednesday, 10 June 2015
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How can real estate wholesalers boost their online visibility to capitalize in the new surge in business?

Over the last few weeks we’ve seen a variety of data showing a dramatic surge in delinquent mortgages, REOs, home searches, and demand for wholesalers. Of course, that only helps those in the real estate wholesaling business if they can be found online today. And especially when it comes to being found in Google searches. Unfortunately most real estate wholesalers are doing pretty terrible in this arena. Some haven’t been trying. Others simply haven’t been investing enough back into it. And there are those that are completely hurting their own online real estate marketing efforts. So how can they change that?

How is it Working Now?

The biggest problem is that many have no idea how they are doing right now. They don’t really know if what they are doing is really working or not. They don’t know which things they are doing are working. And which need to be improved upon. So they aren’t always reinvesting in the best marketing. Many have no idea where their online traffic comes from, or what the ROI on different marketing channels is. So the first step is to check out how your real estate wholesaling website is ranking for different keywords and search phrases. Many will find they really haven’t been making a dent at all.

Choosing the Best Real Estate Keywords

Showing up at the top of Google searches and gaining more leads depends a lot on using the right keywords in your website content, and in your real estate blogs. Unfortunately there is a ton of confusion about this. So what makes great keywords?

The short answer is keywords that have high search volumes, low competition, and deliver highly targeted prospects that are ready to act.

Most of those that are new at SEO marketing tend to trend to far to one end or the other. They either focus on keywords that have high volumes, but are expensive to compete over, and deliver poorly qualified prospects. Or they hone in on highly targeted long tail keywords that can’t deliver enough leads. You’ve got to find balance. And understand that this changes on a monthly basis.

The Quirks that are Sabotaging Your SEO Marketing

However, even with great keyword choices some wholesalers are missing out, and sabotaging their efforts.

This includes:

  • Failing to incorporate keywords into other parts of your website
  • Not interlinking web pages and blogs together
  • Not having a mobile friendly website
  • Forgetting they still need to deliver readable, interesting content
  • Ignoring the importance of off-site SEO and back links (like from press releases)

Conclusion

Now is the ideal time to up your online marketing and SEO efforts as a real estate wholesaler. There is a massive windfall of business volume up for grabs, if you can leverage Google to participate.

The above can give you are great head start. But it is also worth considering hiring someone to handle it so that you can focus on what you do best, and actually get to closing deals and making money.

 

Authored by Best Transaction Funding BestTransactionFunding.com is the leading source of transactional funding and hard money loans for real estate wholesalers in the US, where 100% financing, and saying “Yes” is what we love doing all day long.

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Zillow Merger Highlights Huge Value in Real Estate Blog Market, New Twists for Wholesalers

by blogger1
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on Thursday, 31 July 2014
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The $3.5B Zillow takeover of Trulia, and consolidation of two of the largest online real estate platforms guarantees to have some ramifications for everyone engage in real estate. So what does it mean for property wholesalers, and how can they use it to their advantage?

The Rise of ‘Zulia’

Bloomberg coverage reveals the massive merger will deliver almost $1B a year in revenues for Zillow, and enable it to capture almost 90% of online real estate related search traffic.

A third of readers at industry publication Inman News believe it may be a good thing for the industry. Yet, over half are fearful that it could have negative fallout for professionals and consumers.

But, forget the rumor mill; what does the Zillow – Trulia consolidation mean for real estate wholesalers in the trenches?

Coming Soon…

One of the biggest concerns over the new giant dubbed ‘Zulia’ by the press, is the monopoly could dramatically increase online marketing costs. Zillow has made no secret of the fact it wants to grab as much of the $27B annual real estate marketing pie it can. As the main go to source for advertising and viewing homes (if consumers will ever trust it that much, in spite of flawed products) it could have the power to command a lot of online traffic and charge big fees for listings.

While many wholesalers may not use the MLS for flipping houses, Premium Zillow Broker, Sandra Allen of Metro Brokers Carolinas has announced the firm will assist property sellers in leveraging the platform’s ‘Coming Soon’ listings feature.

Billion Dollar Real Estate Blogging

G-Code Magazine was quick to pick up on the data showing each Zillow visitor is worth an estimated $89, and how much of the website, and its new companies’ traffic is drawn by blogging and articles. Considering the number of visitors the Zillow Blog, Trulia Blog, Active Rain, and RealEstate.com’s advice sections attract, each piece of content could be worth well in excess of $100,000. And, RealEstate.com, and Trulia have been investing in it heavily. This may explain their 76% annual growth, which far outpaced Zillow’s, and may have left Zillow no choice to buy Trulia, or be bought out by them next year. In which case we would have a ‘Trillow’.

While many real estate wholesalers may not be able to afford upwards of $200 or $300 for freelance writers to craft daily blogs at the beginning, the value is clearly there. Content is going to be the best marketing tool most wholesalers and small to mid-sized real estate investment firms, and Realtors have at their disposal.

Through better keyword, selection, honing in on targeting local and niche traffic wholesalers can capture high quality web traffic and real estate leads. However, they are going to have to shake the habit of crusty self-promotion, and cookie cutter content, and get serious about delivering on what consumers are really interested in.

Too many say they can’t afford quality content right now. They should be asking if they can’t afford to invest in quality content now – how will they survive and grow to be able to do it later? Quantity is great, but quality still rules. Fewer, better posts, with more circulation via social and email blasts might be the best strategy.

For many of those reading this - Zillow just helped you get free content! With rising cost of other types of online real estate marketing, other small and mid-sized real estate firms needing help, those that work together to collaborate could make a significant impact. Think guest posts, and collaborative articles, and content exchanges between various vendors, local companies, and real estate professionals.

On Target

On the subject of quality, Zillow has been plagued by a series of less than highly praised products and moves. There is the extremely controversial ‘Zestimates’, bold claims of perfect credit visitors, incredible inaccuracies in home listing data, and major loses in new customer acquisition practices. Perhaps buying other more profitable companies with better products is the only way for Zillow to stay afloat.

However, in the meantime it means wholesalers have a ton of room to win customers and lifelong business partners by doing great business. Provide accurate ARVs, repair estimates, and deliver good deals, and no matter how much noise the competition makes you’ll gain all the repeat business, and referrals you can handle as a property wholesaler.

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