PropertyManager.com

Use Local Search to Increase Traffic to Your Property Management Website

Posted on 07. Jul, 2009 by Jonathan Brownfield in Best Of, Marketing

Chances are, if you’re in the property management business then you’ve advertised your business in the local phone book.

The problem is, people are flooding to online search to find businesses and services, all but assuring the printed telephone directory the same fate as the Long Jawed Mastodon. The good news is that you can adapt to these changes without traversing continents, changing your diet or growing a woolly coat.

The solution – online “local search.”

Local search allows potential residents and owners, for example, to submit a location-specific search to Google and get back a listing of local property management companies. The two search giants, Google and Yahoo, both offer free local search listings as does YELLOWPAGES.com. In a recent survey, an impressive 74% of search marketers found their experiments with local search to be effective. This will be especially true for residential property management companies because they service a geographically defined demographic.

Take five minutes and submit your business information to these three free local search services. It will drive qualified traffic to your website and increase the number of people who find your rental listings.

1. Google Local Business Center (free)
This tool enables you to control the content of your business listing as it appears in Google Search and Google Maps. But what makes this service so compelling is the reporting dashboard. You’ll see the number of times your listing appeared, how many people clicked on it, what search words were used to find your listing and other statistics that shed light on how potential customers find you. (More Google goodness: Gmail and Google Calendar for property managers).
Website: http://www.google.com/lbc
Examples of listings: Search Results Page,  Map

2. Yahoo! Local (free, paid options available)
Yahoo! Local offers three types of listings: Basic (free), Enhanced ($9.95/mo) and Featured (starts at $25/mo).
Website: http://listings.local.yahoo.com/
Example of listings: Directory Page

3. YELLOWPAGES.com (free, paid options available)
Your business listing goes on their website as well as on their extended network, which includes sites like AOL and bing.com. They claim 125 million monthly searches which makes using their service a no-brainer. “Enhanced advertising products” are available, including the ability to upload a video.
Website: http://listings.yellowpages.com/
Example of listings: Directory Page

Super Useful Tips

• Use many location-specific keywords on your website (ex. Santa Barbara Property Management).
• Include your physical address somewhere on your website.
• Install web analytics on your website to see which directories are sending visitors to your site. Google Analytics (www.google.com/analytics) is free and easy to set up.  We will do another post on how to do this…watch for it!
• For a ridiculously comprehensive list of factors that will help your site rank higher in the local search directory, click here.

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Moving Marketing Online: Interview with Nick Scarabosio, Jackson Group Property Management
Horizon Realty’s Twitter Debacle: It Can Help You With Your Property Management Social Media Plan

Tags: google, internet marketing, search engine marketing, tools, website