Using Domain Names for Real Estate Website Navigation

Before you jump away, this isn't some technical discussion for website programmers. This is all about marketing your real estate website in a more user-friendly way that can improve your lead generation. Now that we have your attention, let's talk about how to use different domain names to direct visitors to different areas of your real estate website.

Why is it of value to do this?

Think about what you're probably already doing in your marketing to get people to visit your site. When it comes to print and other marketing media, you're placing your website address in the advertisements to try and get the viewer to type them into their browser to take a look at your site. It's about getting the attention of someone with your advertising and a call-to-action to get them to your real estate website. Using domain names relevant to their interests can help a lot.

The techie stuff isn't hard.

Getting this out of the way first: wherever you register your domain names, there will be a process to direct each one to wherever you want on your website.

This image is from GoDaddy, but all will have similar processes. You purchase a new domain name, and you can point, forward, or direct it to a page on your website.

It's true that you can just use the page address in your ad, and it's fine if it's short and sweet to get their attention to the page content and your goals for their actions when they get there. As an example, say your website is YourtownHomesForSale.com.

If you want to work on listing leads and want to attract sellers to the site, you could just use a site page address like YourtownHomesForSale.com/HomesellerResources. Or, you can get another domain like YourtownHomesellerResources.com. It's shorter and focused on the topic of the page or area of the site where you're taking the visitor. The destinations also look like a website dedicated to the single topic.

What about 301 or 302 forwarding?

As the previous image shows, one is permanent and the other is temporary. Without getting too techie, if Google's robots see a 302 temporary redirect, the assumption can be that things will change, so the original page content will be retained and the content associated with the new domain name will be ignored as duplicate content. So, use 301, as you're planning this and do not plan on changing later, though you can. There seem to be SEO advantages in a 301.

Using this approach, what are some other domain names you can use for this strategy in your marketing?

• YourtownHomebuyerResources.com – Like the seller resources page, you can take visitors to a location dedicated to their information needs as buyers.
• YourtownFirst-timeHomebuyers.com – This looks great to the first-time homebuyer, as it seems to be a site dedicated to their needs. They have a greater need for information and an education in the home purchase process.
• YourtownCondoHomes.com – Directing visitors to your real estate website area dedicated to information about condominium projects, this can help you in generating condo buyer and seller leads.
• YourtownName-A-Niche.com – Wildcard. Just fill in the information or niche you want to focus on with a website area or page and fill it in.

You're getting the idea, but does it work and is it worth the effort and money? As you can register domain names for around $10-$15 per year, spending $50 to $75 for a whole year of focused marketing is cheaper than one advertisement.

Any edge you can get in grabbing website traffic from your competitors is worth a try. Just an extra 10 leads in a whole year can make this one of your favorite strategies.

To view the original article, visit the WebsiteBox blog.