Mortgage SEO: How long will it take to get leads?

The hardest part with SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the patience it requires.   A lot of people have the notion that anything with computers happens instantly…which is kinda true.  However, with SEO…not so much.

Remember,  there are a lot of people who want to be on “page one” for their favorite keywords.   If SEO were as easy as pushing a few buttons wouldn’t everybody be on Page One?

Did you know there’s a little “unofficial” period of time Google where won’t rank your website for any reason?  It’s called the “Google Sandbox” and basically it runs around 3 months to a year when -no matter what you do-your website won’t rank. Sometimes it won’t even appear.   And because of this little unofficial phenomenon, newer websites are harder–take longer– to rank.

Now that we know about the Google Sandbox…what do we make of all those “guarantees” the other SEO guys make?  You know…the  “We Guarantee your website will rank on page one within 5 minutes of writing us a $5,000 check!!!”

Well, it’s BS. 

I’ve been involved in website marketing (SEO) since 2005 and lemme tell you….SEO WORKS but it takes time.   It took me nearly a year to get my mortgage website (www.mylendingplace.com) where it was producing mortgage leads consistently. 

Read that last sentence again…ONE YEAR. 

Do you have the patience to put 1 year into your website?  If not, you might want to go the PPC route.   PPC stands for Pay Per Click. It’s effective and it’s very expensive.   Even if you have deep pockets PPC is not for the newbie. 

Why:  Because without effective landing pages, all the traffic won’t matter.  For example, who cares if you dump 5K into your PPC and get 50,000 visitors if none of this traffic converts to leads.  Or worse, who cares if the 50K worth of traffic produces leads but not the kind of lead that’s profitable for you.

I mean, if you’re a luxury home builder does it really matter if you get 10,000 leads for people wanting manufactured homes?

See whattamean?

Traffic + effective landing pages = Happy SEO customers!

With all that said, has all my effort with www.mylendingplace.com been worth it?  Yes.  Double yes!!!  But even after 3.5 years and I still have to tweak, update.  

However, the ROI (for my organic SEO)  has been incredible.  

Because of the time involved to getting a site up and going– this is why we are so affordable.  We know what works and what doesn’t.  And this is why we only charge $200-$500/month because we know-in some cases-it might take a year or more to achieve your SEO goals.   We specialize in Mortgage SEO-which is probably one of the most competitive industries around.  

We like to think if we can succeed in the mortgage SEO space we can definitely help you succeed in your industry.  

As always, the proof is in the pudding.  So……..let’s take a look at a real-life example of Google’s “Time Out” period…or “Google’s Sandbox.”  Because whoever you go with for your SEO you’re going to have to get out of the sandbox!

Take a look at one of my own websites that’s currently in  Google’s “Time out” period.  Notice I literally googled my website’s exact key words.  I just left off the dot com.   Notice Texas Mortgage Associates is NOwhere on page one-even for the exact search of “Texas Mortgage Associates!”

However, notice there’s a little website called “FHA mortgage Associates” that’s near the top of page one. 

BTW, both http://www.texasmortgageassociates.com  and http://www.fhamortgageassociates.com  belong to me…or actually, they belong to Jakerbaker.com which is me.  

So what do you do to get around the Google Sandbox?   Well, for starters, start now.  

Launch a website.  

Better yet, hire us to launch one for you…and let’s get a site up THIS WEEK that works and is capable of producing leads.  

  The sooner you get a site up the sooner your Google Sandbox clock starts ticking.  The older your website, the more you update that bad-boy the sooner you get out of the Google Sandbox because eventually the Google-engines start to say “okay, this site seems authoratative, it’s been around a long time…let’s rank it.”

Will you get leads the first 3 months?  Probably not.  However, it’s better to get a good site up now and get past the Google Sandbox timeframe than to wait for all the SEO stars to align.

So call us and launch one of our WordPress Sites-it will be completely turn-key ready to go and use this for the next year.   Then, once your site ranks, you can either stay with us or build your own custom site.  

The costs for one of our websites:  In most cases, around  $500-$750.

Remember, SEO is not a one-time event, it’s a process.  It takes time.   Call us, we know what we are doing in the SEO world.  If you are a bank or a mortgage person and want us to do your Mortgage SEO, call us now!