Without a doubt, web traffic is vital to the success of a real estate website and is something that should always be seriously considered when developing growth strategies for your business.
Consider this. In the real estate game, the number of listings that you have as an agent affects your sales volume and your listings are also determined by how many listing appointments are scheduled or set.
The same logic applies to digital marketing for real estate because the more website traffic you have, the more people get to be aware of your brand. Ultimately, the more people are aware of your brand, the more leads you are likely to generate.
Web traffic is an effective indicator
Indeed, web traffic is important however determining expectations on how it works can be challenging such as the traffic volume needed and your level of experience when factoring it in to match with your size of business, target demographics, and marketing goals.
Understanding web traffic is really important and in simple terms, it refers to the visitors that go to your site. They could be new or repeat visitors and may come from a variety of sources such as organic traffic through search engines, social media, direct traffic, and sponsored or paid advertisements.
But do take note that there are different factors when measuring web traffic such as unique visitors, page views, and sessions, all of which stand apart from the other.
A unique visitor could visit your website multiple times such as sessions and would pore through multiple pages in your website which are considered page views.
For instance, digital marketing companies would use page views as a performance indicator, however, measuring traffic through unique visitors has been found to be a primary focus of attention as studies have shown that the more unique visitors there are, the other two metrics are bound to improve.
How much website traffic do I need?
There are a number of factors that affect your website traffic that could help determine if the numbers are ideal or not.
One of the most common ways of measuring this is to compare your real estate website with the competition, but it is crucial to understand to use fair and realistic comparisons.
While there is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to ensuring website traffic success, there are several common factors that work effectively across most, if not all, real estate sites.
Site age
Ranking on Google is a goal that every website needs and a good indicator that a website is performing well. However, one of the major factors that help achieve this is for the site to establish domain authority and trustworthiness.
This may not bid well for those just starting out with their websites, however, it is for a very practical reason. Brands need to establish that level of online qualities and happens when a site has been online for a period of time and has developed recognition for the brand from the online community.
Domain authority takes time to build and real estate websites need to maintain that from scratch the moment they start building their brand and amassing a good following, just to name a couple.
Remember to consider this when comparing old and new real estate websites accordingly.
Business size
When planning to establish your traffic goals, compare your business with similar-sized competitors.
It would not make sense to compare a small agency running a small-scale operation with one that handles hundreds of agents and listings.
Industry vertical
If you want to get more substantive benchmarks to determine your traffic goals, make sure that you compare based on agencies with the same specialisations or offerings as yours.
For instance, real estate agencies that cater to traditional sales and property management offerings would fare generally higher compared to an agency focused on specialty property management alone and have no sales department.
Now, you have a good idea of how to benchmark your web traffic numbers, having the right strategies is also critical to ensure getting good web traffic.
Here are several tried and tested strategies to boost your web traffic.
Search engine optimisation
SEO is worth seriously considering if you want your traffic performance to improve because strategies that are carefully planned and executed for organic search is a game-changer.
Optimising for search is a worthy investment that pays good dividends so do not be reluctant to invest in it.
Content
Be consistent in developing compelling and relevant content for your website so that it establishes your domain authority from visitors.
For instance, one of the best paths to take with regards to content is identifying common real estate problems and providing solutions.
Advertise
Sponsored or paid advertisements in Google or social media can give you a lot of traction in reaching out to your target market as it puts your content in front of your target audience. Doing so encourages more visits to your sites and responses to your calls to action (CTA).
Engage your audience
Constantly and consistently reach out to your audience by creating a newsletter that will continually engage your audience and keep them coming back to your website. Make sure that you also strengthen your marketing funnel by providing the right links that will aid your visitors in their journey to your website and work their way to your sales funnel.
Stay updated
Whether it’s your website or social media channels, it’s important that you always stay on top of your game so that your audience will recognise your relevance in the real estate market.
Always make sure that your website and social media channels have accurate and updated information, as well as ensure that you have the right information and tools to keep them informed, updated, and feel that they are important in the success of your real estate business.