Why Websites are Better than Squeeze pages and Landing Pages.
By Duncan Wierman on Aug 12, 2009 in Marketing
A recent e-book claiming that websites are a less effective means of promoting a real estate business than are landing pages (also known as squeeze pages). As anyone who knows their SEO methodologies can tell you, it ain’t necessarily so. There are a number of reasons why an actual website is a more effective tool to gather leads and generate business if real estate is your field. While a landing page can be properly optimized for the search engines, the long and short of it is that doing so means one thing – more work for the webmaster.
The book seems to be designed to convince real estate investors of the merits of landing pages largely to persuade them to purchase the author’s system. Since real estate investors tend to be far more savvy about real estate than they are about search engine optimization, it’s certain that he’ll see some level of success with this book and the (nebulously defined) system it promotes; at least until investors realize that they’re actually losing out on business by having adopted this ill-conceived approach to online real estate promotion.
While it’s hard to fault someone for going for easy money where they see it, investors should be advised that what they really need isn’t an entirely new approach to building an online presence – it’s simply making the most of the online presence they already have.
There are a number of reasons why real estate investors should choose to maintain a traditional web page rather than building a series of landing pages. For starters, real estate is a business where your image matters. Having a professional appearance is incredibly important; landing pages are something which are largely the province of fly-by-night internet marketers (though not always, we’re not trying to give landing pages a bad name altogether here).
You can think of it in this way: if you were looking to purchase a property, whether as an investment or as a new home, who would you rather do business with? The Realtor with a polished, professional looking site, or one whose web presence is more akin to the virtual take on a used car lot? In many cases, this appearance corresponds with the behavior of the Realtor; basically, landing pages tend to look cheap. Hardly the impression you want to give a prospective buyer or seller, is it? Of course it isn’t, so let’s move on.
One of the chief problems with using landing pages is that a single business will tend to maintain a great deal of these pages which are targeted towards slightly different keywords, especially when using PPC advertising to promote your business. The proponents of landing pages often characterize this as a ‘money funneling system’, something which is not entirely accurate. A better analogy might be a sky full of very dim stars viewed from a brightly lit city center. Those stars aren’t all that visible now, are they?
The point here is that landing pages are rarely terribly visible in terms of search results. Since the content of these multiple landing pages is generally very similar, one page often differing from another only in the main keyword used, search engines view them as duplicate content. What does this mean? It means that search engines largely ignore these pages – so they have little if any traffic or lead generation potential beyond the relatively small number of people who pay attention to contextual advertising.
Is this inherently problematic? Actually yes – all of the work which goes into building these landing pages which don’t tend to generate that much traffic, relatively speaking could have gone into promoting your main website and gaining natural traffic. This traffic of course increases your website’s search engine ranking which means even more traffic and a higher profile.
If real estate is a numbers game, it stands to reason that you’d want to actually work the numbers and maximize your traffic to a single source. Landing page proponents will tell you that a traditional website can’t target all of the various keywords that a landing page can. This, of course is nonsense. It’s every bit as easy (if not easier) to add a page to your own website which is optimized for the same keywords – and it actually builds the page ranking of your website, rather than detracting from this important task.
I’ll leave you with one other advantage that a traditional website has over using only landing pages when it comes to search engine optimization and generating leads. Landing pages don’t tend to be re-index by search engines if indeed they are ever indexed in the first place! A website, by contrast has one possible application which makes it superior to landing pages in every way – it’s easy to deploy a blog as part of your website.
Blogging with Lead Capture Generation the best way to go.
Why a blog? Because it’s an incredibly easy way to add new content to your site and keep search engines coming back. This can help build your page ranking and your traffic faster and more sustainably than any number of landing pages ever will. In the time it takes to put together a single web page, you could add a page to your main site, put work towards other traffic driving strategies or get your site re-indexed by adding a new post to your blog; and you’d still have time to get yourself a cup of coffee, sit back for a moment and congratulate yourself on your business acumen while the people who favor landing pages are still uploading their page. It’s an easy call to make – websites win out over landing pages hands down.
UPDATED
Google Slap:
A term by online marketers about Google introducing a quality score for the landing pages
Quality score criteria are:
- Whether the landing page is part of a full website which minimally has to include a Contact-, an About Us- and a Privacy Policy-page.
- Whether there is a complete navigation menu internally linking to each page of the website.
- Whether there is a site map
- Most important, whether the content of the page has a high relevancy to the keyword
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August 12th, 2009 at 11:49 am
Hi Duncan. I can appreciate your position on the landing page vs. website argument. Truth be told, SIMS is a total system that includes landing pages, a blog and a core business website. It’s not just a course on landing pages.
The SIMS system explains in great detail on how to build an online presence in a short period of time. It includes modules on structuring your presence and goes in great detail on how to drive traffic to your presence.
I am a member of the charter group of SIMS and I can’t say enough about the program. Greg and Jeff are far from “fly by night” internet marketers that are looking to fleece customers.
I follow you on Twitter and Facebook and respect your work but I would have hoped that you researched the whole system before you wrote your blog post here.
August 12th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
I have reviewed it and my comments made still hold. SIMS comments about a “WORK once and profit for life”, is absurd! Anyone who knows marketing knows that is a blatantly false statement and even more so with internet marketing. Why do you think you keep seeing new marketing on tv, news, radio, internet etc. There is NO Magic pill. I have been in the Information Technology Arena with a marketing background for many years, and my feelings are that this statement is misleading people. I don’t agree with many other things in his videos either. You can baffle people with fancy formulas on a white board but that does not make it correct. I may be the black sheep on this, but something has to be said for people to slow down and evaluate both sides of the technology and the implementation of the marketing plan
August 12th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
Hi Duncan
I met you at a Jeff Adams event and liked you very much. I continue to be impressed with your knowledge and outspoken monitoring of the internet marketing and social media. Can you suggest an alternative to SIMS which offers help training Virtual Assistants to run your marketing and website updates as well as an integrated database such as Realeflow? I would appreciate any comments….
Thanks
Dujuana
August 12th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
There are many! It depends on a few factors what is best to recommend to you. Send me and email telling me exactly what you want to do, your budget, a break down of the time you have, etc. and I will be glad to analyze your situation to give you the best answer.
August 12th, 2009 at 6:05 pm
Hi Duncan
Thanks for getting back with me. Well I have Jeff Adams’ websites… http://www.mycashforhouses.com and have recently purchased a vanity number with all the domain names: http://www.1866sellyourhouse.com. I would like to get my website optimized so I can START my marketing. I have spent so much money on all this stuff and still don’t know how to put it all together! My http://www.1866sellyourhouse.com is my first attempt to throw something together, but I have no idea how to put video/audio/squeezepages with that site. I can change the jeff adams site’s domain to my new one, but don’t know how to do it. I feel like I can’t start my marketing because I don’t have my internet back office optimized as of yet. I see leads coming in, but not leaving information. I have an answering service with Voice Connect, but always receive hangups and almost never messages left by leads. I have MyPropfolio.com as my database, but it isn’t integrated to capture any leads. Ugh! I don’t know where to start. The SIMS program seemed to put it all together, but it is expensive! I am self employed and basically working 2 jobs full time. I don’t have much time to get all this together and am very frustrated. If you know a better and more cost effective way, I am open! How do you feel about Realeflow.com?
thanks!!!
Dujuana
August 12th, 2009 at 7:20 pm
Thanks so much for your feedback. I am so confused with everything! I need my stuff to be integrated and work seamlessly, but can’t seem to get it together myself. I am not tech illiterate, but a gadget girl/geek wannabe. Can you teach me how to teach a VA to run all this stuff for me? Geeze! It gives me such a headache trying to put 1+2 together and have it come out to 5!!! I have tried to tweak keyword tools myself, and have had a little success. I really need my leads to come in from 2 specific states and 2 specific cities within those states for now. Not working 100%. Most of the leads I get that call in are from TX. I never marketed to Texas! How do I make this all work for ME!?
Can Jeff’s team change up my website so it doesn’t look like a template anymore? I did have a simple logo made and would like my site to match. I know you don’t work for Jeff, but see that you have much knowledge of his websites and fixes…so thanks for answering the questions.
If your course helps me get this stuff all organized and working properly, I will accept your challenge and give you the greatest testimonial EVER! I am ready to pull my hair out ovuh heeeuh.
To answer your question: “….why do you think you need Realflow?…” I need the integration of leads, calls, websites, lead capture sites all integrated without me having to do all the set up and figure out how to make it work myself. Like a biz in a box..just plug it in kinda of a thing. I don’t have loads of time or …God forbid!…patience. Can you save me from myself Duncan? I am so ready to quit my “job”, even though I am self employed, by next year. HELP!
Thanks again
Dujuana
August 12th, 2009 at 10:40 pm
Hi Dujuana
Firstly. Jeff Adams websites are more than enough to get yourself a deal. Use what you have!! You just need to sit down and really go through the virtual office as it has EVERYTHING you need. One of the great things about Jeff is his support department site, is that his team can also help you optimize your webistes. Open a support ticket at http://www.realestatewebsupport.com . They can also help you with putting all the video, audio and sqz pages on the site. Again, if you want a new domain name, they can help you with that too, OR you can go to your registrar of your new domain name , open a support ticket with them, and simply ask them to do a 301 Permanent Redirect with MASKING. Takes about 5 minutes to complete for them.
If people are contacting you with Voice Connect, and not leaving messages.. CHANGE the message.. Marketing is about testing, tracking and tweaking !! BUT you also have their caller ID. Call them back !! You have a 5 databases with Jeff’s sites, you don’t need another one with MyPropfolio.com WHY?
SIMS only teaches a few techniques that I have been teaching for the last two years. Its nothing new at all. Don’t buy into the hype!! You have a system.. why do you think you need Realflow? ( my personal opinion withheld) .
I am half tempted to give you my course if you do a 30 day challenge and you have 1 hour a day to spare so I can get you to make at least 5K this month and document the process. My techniques are far more advanced and integrate better with Jeff’s website system than anything else on the market. There is no need to more money for another marekting system.
August 12th, 2009 at 11:03 pm
I understand and most people are confused about internet marketing and that is why I am so outspoken about it and what works and does not work.
How much time do you have to apply to marketing your business. In my course, I teach you how to maximize Jeffs system, and put you on a 30 day marketing plan where you will spend 30 minutes a day on marketing.
Yes, I do teach you how to have your VA do this too, BUT first you have to know how to do it before you can manage and track their activity.
If you take a look at Jeffs system, and my course together.. it has everything you need! You don’t need anything else. You just need to apply yourself!
Email me direct for more info using the contact form .
Duncan
August 13th, 2009 at 12:40 am
Yeah it is all about as clear as mud to me! I try, but it really starts to make my brain ache after awhile. That is one of the things I love about you…your bratty nonconformist stance! I am like that as well, but have fallen into lemming status much to my own dismay recently. Please help STOP THE INSANITY and the bleeding of cash!
I can handle 30 minutes a day. I work a lot, but can find time for 30 minutes every day. I have pretty much left my Jeff Adams site as is since I am really not so sure how to change/work/maximize them.
I don’t have your direct email. info@1866sellyourhouse.com You can email your reply here.
Thanks Duncan!
Dujuana
August 18th, 2009 at 5:55 pm
Good article and exchange of ideas.
No piece is complete “out of the box” Each website, blog, landing page needs to be tailored to fit the individual agent.
Their website reflects their experience and knowledge of the market as well as localism (Neighbourhood).
If ranking on Google can be purchased based on following the hard learned lessons of others I am all for it, because I know that I spend 3 – 4 hours daily looking reading and organizing thoughts for differents posts or ideas in progress.
Do not forget the most basic tenant, Your website must have content worthy of your readership. If the SEO is perfect and you adwords have huge “clickage” it is meaningless if they arrive at a barrem store front.
If you have someone coming to Toronto Look me up!
David Pylyp
http://DavidPylyp.com
September 6th, 2009 at 5:33 pm
Duncan:
As you know am a coach for Jeff’s program. Thank you for explaining how his system works and how it integrates with what you teach. Really that is all you need.
Students are really confused about all the systems that come out. I am going to send my students to this comment string because you have laid it out in all honesty.
Janice Bell
students@energywiseproperties.com
September 6th, 2009 at 5:43 pm
Addition comments. – You can not market your real estate business like you would an information product on the internet . Squidoo and Hub pages?? Come on..
I have tested in numerous ways, using A/B split testing, multivariate testing and these page show NO increase in traffic for finding hungry buyers or even motivated sellers. Jeff Walker is an internet marketer ( and a good one ) but his methods are NOT the way to promote your credibility for a real estate business. Yes, Greg has some traditional deas, blogs, videos, etc.. but nothing that is earth shattering or even advanced in my opinion for the price. The squeeze pages that he has are NOT a Google friendly quality score. The cost to do PPC on these sites would be very expensive. I hate to see new real estate investor who are not being fed information that I feel is beneficial for its price!
September 7th, 2009 at 11:51 am
I knew the SIMS thing was going to make a lot of money…for the sellers of the system. they made a real effort to deliver tons of cds and material but I have had many investors tell me that its crap. I would like to know more about Jeff Adams. An Client Attorney in NC speaks highly of him and she suggested I look into his lead system.
In your opinion, do squeeze pages have ANY value?
i.e email marketing to homeowners and directing them to a squeeze page for a free report? My idea is this…
Email campaign to homeowners directing them to squeeze page
after submission it directs them to Blog which offers tons of free information AND a chance to speak live with a loss mitigation counselor (I have a company that processes loan mods and short sales for Attorneys) to discuss their scenario if they submit their FULL contact information and a short questionairre. It also offers buyers to join a list of preforeclosure and REO Homes by signing up online. Included on the blog page is a link to my professional website for buyers and sellers.
How would this work in Google?
September 7th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
Jeff has a good website system. Like any system, it needs to be tweaked and marketed. That is why I have my course on internet marketing for real estate to go along with it. you can really use any website using my system. I howeve prefer to use his websites utilizing my marketing.
Yes, Sqz pages have value, BUT how you deploy them and the design is critical. Sqz pages are just ONE method of capturing leads. If your SQZ page gives them enough information (instead of just a form and a blurb of text) that they will opt in . FINE. But marketing is marketing, which means all methods have to be
TESTED, TRACKED and TWEAKED on a daily basis! Your strategy would have to have GOOD Seo, good content, (try for an excellent PPC Quality score) but it sounds like you are trying to market two strategies.. one as an affiliate for a company and one for your real estate busines. I would just FOCUS.. NICHE everything with good content.
September 7th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
Thanks for rapid response. Give me the links to your system please. I’d like to learn more.
I agree 100% that the Squeeze is only one method. After I posted that I thought I’d combine the direct marketing 50/50 with my blog to generate leads and test them both for response in an email campaign. Its all about leads. No leads? no business.
To answer your question: I am looking for seller leads. I am confident we can sell the properties thru MLS and CL as long as its priced aggressively.
I’d like to build a buyers list too but the only real buyers lists are wholesale lists (landlords) and they want cash flow poperties. i have a strategy for flipping REOs but i cant get into that right now. Want to get good at one thing first.
October 13th, 2009 at 4:50 am
I have personally tested squeeze pages/landing pages and a fully developed website. I find that a well written, well designed website far out performs a squeeze page. They use of video I find helpful for conversion. Some of the squeeze pages in the SIMS system are very basic
but I can not say they don’t work because I have not tried them.
One thing I will say, you have almost no chance of optimizing them for organic search as they have too little content. You will be stuck with driving traffic with PPC,Craigslist and other none SEO approaches.
I do Website design and SEO for several real estate people including myself we just concentrate on good design,great articles and solid SEO.
PS. I am a Platinum Member of Duncan’s membership site, it is some of the best education out there for Online and Offline Marketing.
I am also a member of several other Internet Marketing communities.
Dollar for dollar Duncan’s advise is the best there is for Online Marketing of Real Estate.