Wade asked me to share something I mentioned in a previous post. I thought about firing off the exact shopping list of what I did and how I did it. Then I thought better of it. Not to be uncaring and selfish but what would Wade really gain from my handing him everything?
Wade, in short here is what I did. I track who finds me, what keywords they used to find me, and what search engine they used to find me. Here’s a sample of the keywords they used back in March of this year.
Yes, somebody did find my site by misspelling Gall Bladder.
(can you say Long Tail?)
Sorry about the poor image quality.
You can see the underlying tone of the query is refinance related. Should I refinance? Should I go to Lending Tree? Even a Loan Officer searching for refinance leads found me. Remember this was the dawn of the Subprime Meltdown. As a loan officer back then – might you be working on getting everyone you could into a safe loan? You bet!
Flash forward to today. Here’s a sample of what they are typing in now.
Notice the difference? What do you think their primary concern is now? Foreclosure!
Now that will get you to sit up and take notice!
The point I’m trying to make here is this. If you are still working today like you were back in March you are behind the times. The world is leaving you behind. Adapt your business plan if you haven’t already, help those you work with (Agents) adapt theirs too. By helping others you help yourself.
Ask yourself what you can do as a mortgage professional to adapt to the opportunities presented to you. What can your Agents do? How can you help them? Now start formulating your plan.
Does that help? I’ve got plenty more to come.
Mike – Nice follow-up. You are on a roll!!!
Your use of web analytics shows that you are cutting-edge. I’m sure that’s why your business is booming. I’ll stay tuned for more posts; I am particularly interested in helping referral partners build their businesses. Thanks Mike.
Tony- Thank you as always!
Wade – Eric Blackwell has an interesting piece on BHB in which he details the symptoms of SEO Tunnel Vision. I’m a borderline case. LOL
I have multiple tracking devices running silently. Google Analytics and webmaster tools, MyBlogLog, Sitemeter, and HitTail all have wonderful features. No one system does everything I want it to do, which is why I run several at the same time. The data here is from HitTail (which I started back in March).
I’ve been a blogger since 2001 and would love to have seen these programs back then.
Mike, foreclosure is definitely on the minds of our fellow Americans. It’s great that you’re working on solutions to help them.
“By helping others you help yourself.”
I share your enthusiasm. Great posts and welcome to Lenderama!
Paul -
Foreclosure, the fear of foreclosure, short sales, loss mitigation, interest rate reset, recast… The list goes on and on.
The sad truth is that some people should not have ever owned a home. Some were bamboozled into ownership and bad loans. Some walked into it with acute awareness. And some own and should own.
I can’t bail out many of them. I can’t refinance them into lower fixed rate terms. The damage (for so many) has already been done.
What I can do is help to deliver the honest and unbiased truth to their situation and perhaps propose the best avenue for them to follow for the best remedy. I shine a light on the scams and cheats.
It’s the professional real estate community that helped get us where we are, shouldn’t we all help get us out?
Thanks for the comment and the welcome!
“It’s the professional real estate community that helped get us where we are, shouldn’t we all help get us out?”
Right on my brother!