I get asked all the time “how do I get more traffic and leads to my website?” Many usually then ask the next question “how do I get ranked on the search engines?” Well, I think the search engine concern is only for those who have an advanced web program. To graduate to that ‘advanced’ level, you need to do the basics first.

Have your web address on all of your normal marketing materials. When I first examine the web practices of the average agent, I first tell them to put their address on their business cards, flyers for properties, newspaper ads, homes magazines, radio ads, etc. I’m amazed at how many spend money on pay per click and don’t even have their web address on their business card!

Follow that up with a good call to action. An easy and obvious one for those who have an IDX feed in their site is to say “see all available properties on my website”. Even better is to use some wording such as “use the same database Realtors use”.

Use a ‘branded’ email. Don’t advertise for Yahoo!, MSN or AOL. Giving your.name@aol.com doesn’t do anything for you. You are better off using whatever your domain name is for an email domain as well. Getting an easy to remember email from one of those services is next to impossible. Even if I got jack@aol.com, it might be hard for the average consumer to remember if it was AOL, Hotmail, MSN, Yahoo! or something else. So, the strategy is to get a good domain name and then do your name at that domain. My website is www.jacklindberg.com and my email is jack@jacklindberg.com . I can also do support@jacklindberg,com, sales@, marketing@ or whatever I want. Every time I give someone my email at jack@jacklindberg.com, most people would figure out my website address from it.

It seems kind of silly to be worried about search engine placement when these simple things aren’t handled first. By starting with the basics, you are building a good foundation on which you can add more sophisticated marketing programs.