I recently read a post by a popular blogger named Andrew Spence regarding how important time on site is for your SEO rankings. Andrew states that the two biggest metrics Google looks at are “time” and “click throughs.” You can ready the full post here. http://www.andrewspenceonline.com/website-visitors/
This post touches on something I have been talking about for a long time now: Create a better user experience AND content than the other guy, and more and more visitors will come to your site.
Sure it might take some time and effort, but if you provide the same content as the other guys and you pull it from the same source (the MLS), then how in the world are you ever going to differentiate your website from anyone else. Last I heard, Zillow had $400 million in the bank…so you can’t compete there. Yet Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com, your company website, and all of your competitors pull the same content from the MLS and regurgitate it in slightly different ways.
Where is the secret sauce?
I may be biased, but I think the Interactive Floor Plan Tours and some of the advanced things you can do with them are the secret sauce of the online real estate marketing world. One place you can compete on is a better user experience and content. We know from research buyers want to see floor plans. They rank right behind photos as the top 2 content items desired for a listing. They can also generate 30% more interest and even more commissions for agents. Use the valiable content created for your tours to lure people to your site and keep them longer.
Easily add embedded content on your website or blog
To help with the time on site issue, we offer embedded tour content for your site. Think of how you can embed a YouTube video on a blog….it is basically the same thing. We offer “embed code” via our Embeddable Tour tool and our WordPress Plugin where all you have to do is copy and paste the code into a page or a post to add the whole tour, or just parts of it, right into your website. We offer a pop-over tour, or an embedded in-line tour option. With both of these options, the user is technically still on your site. No clicking a link and taking the user away to another tab (which means they leave your site…hopefully to come back). While it is technically content not hosted by your site, the fact the user does not leave your site and stays longer is very good for your SEO, regardless.
If you just put a link or button to virtual tour, two things happen. 1. The user is LEAVING YOUR SITE. Bad. 2. Each click means you are losing 50% of your audience. Bad.
So show your website visitors the great content you created with FloorPlanOnline.com – the secret sauce – right on your pages….and don’t hide it so half of your audience, or more, never sees it. Click here to see our embedded tour content live in action and read more about how to set things up. Or just click on the floorplan image to pop our pop-over tour! You can use our Pop-up Tour widget and put it anywhere, just like I did in this blog post, or in a sidebar widget area, etc. This is a great option if the content area for your page is narrow (like 600 pixels or less). Just use our button (you can upload your own as well) and when clicked, it pops the larger window over your site so you can maximize the view based on the user’s screen, not limited by your website layout.
Plus, with our new lead capture system coming soon, you will be able to capture leads in more places throughout the web. Something you can’t do with any other marketing medium. Click here to read more on our upcoming Lead Capture enhancements.
