This post comes to us from BrokerageU:

Is your website helping your business the way you expected it to?

The reason might be that the person who sold you your website left out one little, but valuable, piece of information: Your website will not generate leads for your real estate business.

The primary function of any website is to organize information (content). If the information on your website is valuable, you can ask the reader to volunteer their contact information so you can start a conversation with them about Real Estate.

Keeping this in mind, now think of your website not as a lead generation tool, but as a traffic conversion tool. You must have readers before you have the opportunity to capture a lead.

If you are expecting to generate business from your website, the conversation that we need to have is about Traffic and Content.

Website Traffic

There are really only two ways that your website will get traffic (readers):

1. You send them to your site or,
2. They find your site with a search engine (Google)

We can further break down Website Traffic to paid or organic.

Examples of Paid Traffic

• Pay Per Click
• Facebook Ads
• Print Advertising that includes web address as call to action

Examples of Organic or "sent" traffic:

• Craigslist
• Search Engine Optimization / Keyword optimization
• Word of mouth referral from past clients or business relationships
• Networking and personal conversations

Content that Converts

Ok, so you've got people visiting your website now – What do they find when they get there?

• Will they find answers to the questions they have?
• Is the information neatly organized and easy to find?
• If they have further questions or want to take the next step – is it easy to figure out how to do that?
• Do you have a strategy for keeping in touch if they are not currently looking to buy or sell real estate?

If a reader of your site finds your information to be valuable, and if it's easy for them to do so, they will raise their hand and give you permission to continue the conversation.

The buying process for an online consumer is 100% in the consumers' hands. You do not know they exist until they raise their hand to ask a question.

The conversion rate on traffic to lead depends on so many factors like how and why the reader found your site in the first place.

Converting traffic into leads on your website is very much a numbers game. Assuming you're using the best website conversion tools available, you will still only convert a small percentage of over all readers into leads. And of those leads, only a small percentage of those will close.

Why Do Most Websites Fail?

It's very simple. An online lead generation strategy requires either a lot of money, and/or a lot of time and patience.

The reason why most websites fail is that expectations are unrealistic about what role the site plays in your marketing strategy and, sadly, most will quit before they figure out how to make it work.

It Takes a Village

Don't try to do everything yourself. It's hard enough just trying to sell real estate everyday, who has time to figure out all this other stuff?

• How do I drive traffic?
• What is the best website for converting traffic?
• How do I convert the traffic I'm getting?
• How do I find the time to monitor, measure and optimize my strategy?

The answer is, you need a great support system. Surround yourself with people that are moving in the same direction as you. Partner with people that stand to benefit from you being successful.

This is why we created Brokerage University. If you have any questions about your website or your online marketing strategy, you can search here for ideas and answers or simply leave a question (or comment below) and let's start a conversation!

To view the original article, visit the BrokerageU blog.