How Do I Capture More Leads?

While some real estate agents put together websites to improve their image or appease their broker, most do it with a very specific goal: lead capture. Generating new business through online leads is the real point of having a real estate website, and it should be your number one priority. While this guide is about SEO, which focuses on getting visitors to the site, it’s also important to capture those visitors and turn them into leads. Here’s how you get started:

Registration Settings

Forced registration has been a subject of debate for as long as real estate websites have been around, but our SEO recommendation is to always force registration in order to view listings. If you aren’t capturing the leads that visit your website, then you’re missing out.

In our experience, real estate agents get the most number of leads when they force registration. While optional registration often results in a higher concentration of quality leads, it doesn’t increase the overall quantity. Because ROI is a priority, most Realtors find that it’s worth weeding out lower quality leads in exchange for more high quality ones.

If you absolutely refuse to immediately force registration on your website, then we recommend doing so after one or two listing views.

Calls to Action

Calls to Action (CTAs) are another way to improve your lead conversion rates, although they can be a bit harder to create.

The best CTAs will anticipate a visitor’s next move, and then encourage them to act. For example, a CTA on a listing page could suggest an appointment, or offer additional information about the property.

However, CTAs can also be used to increase engagement. Consider that search engines are paying attention to how users interact on your site—how many pages they view, how long they stick around—and it logically follows that you want to keep people on your site as long as possible. For this reason, CTAs that encourage visitors to view additional pages or consume more content can make sense. 

Next Section: How Do I Build Backlinks?