Texas Website SEO: Rule #1 and Rule #2. It’s that simple.

Texas SEO/ Website Help:   How to make your website generate leads….  Affordably!

“Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is not an event, it’s a process.”

Most of the time, my potential clients hear this statement and think it’s only a sale-pitch for some never-ending SEO contract.  However, seeing is believing, and hopefully this blog post will help you to see why SEO is not a one-time event.

Having an effective website is simple…your site only needs to do 2 simple things. 

Rule #1   People must find your website among the thousands of similar websites.   Your website needs to be found.   This is Rule #1.

Rule #2.  Your website must be engineered in such a way that it actually DOES something. 

Your potential client needs to DO something to let YOU know he or she wants something.  This is called “lead gen.”   It might be a phone call, email or some other “notice/lead”.  Afterall, unless they make contact with you, how will you make contact with them?  Good websites generate a “digital handshake”  between you and your potential customer.  At its essense, SEO is simply the engineering/art of this digital handshake. 

 We’ve spent over 5 years trying to do rule #1 and rule #2 better. And accomplishing these two only gets harder with time because there are more people entering our web-space.  You have the same problem in your web-space.  This only means our website (or websites) must be better than our competition.  It’s that simple.

And while this blog post is not about going into the details of “How”  Rule #1 or Rule #2 happens, what I do want to show you is the reality of how hard it can be to actually accomplish Rule #1…consistently.   Half of the SEO battle is getting people TO your website. 

Let’s take a look at some of my mortgage traffic….Remember, I’m a mortgage broker in Texas so I’m not just an SEO guy…I’m a guy who makes his living from what I’m offering you.   I make my living from gaining website customers, specifically mortgage customers.

Business is really simple once you have a customer. And that’s what we all need:  More Customers.  And if I can make a profit in the mortgage world, which is probably one of the most competitive markets  in web-land,  then I KNOW I can help you with your business.

Back to the rules….

Rule #1 People have to find you.  Take a look at this graphic….I just ripped it from one of the programs that I use to track my website’s visitors.   It’s a matrix-y print-out of some of today’s traffic @  www.mylendingplace.com.   (I own a ton of mortgage websites, but www.mylendingplace.com is the main enchilada.)

What do you notice? 

Notice how the searches are all over the map? 

Notice how some people search “Texas mortgage rates” while others type “Texas refinance“….and still others are even more specific like with  “Texas 20-year fixed mortgage refinance rates zero points.” 

Everybody is basically looking for the same thing…they are just calling it different things.  Who knew a mortgage could be described in so many different ways?

(How many descriptions can people use for your product/service?   )

Notice in the graphic that some searchers don’t include any city or state (geo-locators) but then some are so specific they search by their zip code!

Welcome to SEO. 

 The reason SEO is so challenging is because your website can’t just appeal to a few Google Keywords.  What if www.mylendingplace.com only ranked with “austin mortgage”–how many customers would I have gotten today?  Probably not that many…

 To be successful you need to break your website into parts and slowly, systematically begin to add content your about different products:  

For example, does it really matter if you get on the first page for ”Houston Mortgage Rates?”     What if your potential customers are searching “Katy, Texas Refinance Companies.”  Because your traffic is so diverse you’re website needs to be customized for this diverse traffic.   Pretend your store is a grocery store and have “sections.”  There’s the produce section, there’s the dairy section, there’s the wine section….

Your website needs to be laid out like a grocery store. Take a moment and write your core product down on a piece of paper.  Then pick 2-3 sub-categories and build your website around these 3-4 sub-categories.

That’s what I’ve done with www.dallaslending.com.  Another Mortgage Website.  This site’s whole function is to garner web traffic from the Dallas /Fort Worth Area. I literally took the grocery store concept and created a stand-alone site for this one specific area…Dallas.  

 Once you go there notice I’m breaking the subject of “Dallas Mortgage” into down further into several key pieces.   There’s there “Refinance” area, the “Home Equity Loan” area…even a place to send me a few notes telling me you’re interested in hearing from me.    Notice I even have a Dallas VOIP phone number.  

I would encourage you to do the same thing.   Or let me do the heavy lifting…if you want a similar website like www.dallaslending.com it’s only $1700 which is kinda funny since I spent close to $15,000 developing that site.  But it’s a turn-key, ready-to-go example of a site you could have within a week.   Why re-invent the wheel? 

Pay per click people won’t tell you any of this because they just want you to have a (large) SEO budget so that they can use to “drown you in traffic.”  Which is fine if you have the $$, but who cares if PPC gives you Rule #1 in abundance if your site doesn’ t have Rule #2– the ability to get customers to DO something?

Rule #1 + Rule #2 + Blogging (adding content)=LEADS.   But the leads only happen if your website does both Rules #1 and #2 well.

Solution:  You need to get a website from us.  We know what we are doing.  For a website that’s really going to give you a fair shot at SEO you need to buy the $1700 site…but if you really want to see your business grow it’s probably gunna costs around $300-$500/month.   Call me and let’s talk about your goals.  SEO takes $$, but more importantly it’s gunna take TIME. 

 It might even take 3-6 months to start seeing results. 

See why so many people just go the  Pay-Per-Click route.    PPC is easy and effective…but it’s also VERY expensive.  But other than the costs, if your site doesn’t have Rule #2, you’re just wasting your money.  

Give us a call and let’s see how we can your website more effective.

Rule #1:  They must find you
Rule #2:  They must DO something.       It’s that simple!

www.jakerbaker.com

Give us a call~  512-577-2958

jonspears@earthlink.net