Don't forget to feed the Spiders! 

At the International Builder Show this year, a marketing director of a regional homebuilding company said something that I thought was rather interesting. She mentioned that she almost considers Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as a marketing expense even though it's really a web expense. And it dawned on me that the homebuilding industry is lagging a little bit when considering their web marketing as part of their overall marketing expenses. But SEO is important - that's how search engine spiders find your website!

Our experience has been that clients time and again pour most of their marketing dollars into their pretty, but functional website, yet few realize and plan for the ongoing expenses to keep a good site up-and-running and to perform as it's intended to: generate eTraffic and conversion into eLeads. And it all starts with SEO.  Maybe this is why so much more money is spent on PPC (pay-per-click) advertising than on SEO, even though SEO has proven a better return on investment over the long term.

What should be considered a marketing expense in regards to your website?

>> Web Hosting - Think of this as is a rental expense. To have your online sales model open, you have to pay to keep it open. It's relatively cheap, but don't short-change yourself. Make sure your hosting company has the capacity to host your site when traffic spikes during a big promotional campaign.

>> Web Design/Development - Web designers are abundant, but web companies that know the right combination to turn a pretty design into a dominating eLead machine - now that's the ticket! The right sales messaging , user-friendly navigation , and the overall "flow" or usability of your website are key elements !

>> Search Engine Optimization - Often designated as a function of the IT department, too many builders are not taking SEO and the overall marketing of their web site seriously. They tend to budget for PPC but not for SEO: partly because they see traffic increases from their PPC immediately and partly because of the mystery of SEO. But we challenge you to examine your conversion rates - you might have high traffic, but what's the bounce rate? SEO will outperform PPC with traffic AND eLead conversions! Now, that's a real marketing plan!

Companys looking to improve traffic AND their eLead conversions will see that SEO is a true marketing expense that, when done carefully and consistently, can garner better overall results than most other forms of marketing - on- or offline!