Why do people visit your website?
Is it because:
- They’re trying to choose a community and want to know which will best suit them?
- They’re looking for the perfect home in the community they’ve already chosen?
- They’re thinking of listing and want to take a look at their competition.
Different people have different reasons, but whatever their reason, when they do arrive it’s your opportunity to show them that YOU are the agent they need.
Because it is a valuable opportunity, I believe your home page should give them an incentive to learn more about you and what you can do for them. In other words, it shouldn’t be ALL about a home search or ALL about the reasons to choose that community.
Why then, do I say you can promote yourself by promoting your community?
Because when you do it correctly, everything you do to promote the community will lead people directly back to you and your services.
How can you go about it?
By adding community pages to your site and by consistently blogging about the community.
Do you have to have your own website to benefit?
No, not really. While I do believe every agent should have his or her own website, you can blog on Active Rain and lead people to your profile. Then link to those posts from your groups on LinkedIn and other social media sites.
The possibilities for promoting yourself while you promote the community are endless.
Post your market reports. Post news about neighborhoods, subdivisions, celebrations, community events, schools, restaurants, parks, playgrounds, volunteer organizations, and anything else that catches your attention. And of course, blog about your listings and your sales.
Always remember to use good SEO practices, and before long people searching for information about your community will find you “everywhere” on the Internet.
And then… they’ll start thinking of you as the community expert.