Rand Fishkin, Wizard of Moz | @randfish | rand@moz.com
4 Essential Strategies to Drive
High Value Web Traffic in 2017

What Channels Send Traffic to
the Real Estate World?

Via SimilarWeb
#1:
Search
#2: Direct
(type-in, bookmarks, app
referrals, or no referral
data)
#3:
Other
Websites
#4:
Email
#5:
Social

Spending most of your budget &
time on these? You’re missing out!

Mobile, Desktop, Apps, Winners,
& Losers

Desktop search is plateauing,
while mobile search growth
accelerates Via Wordstream

Ignore these, it’s just
the holiday slowdown
Good news – the top five sites
account for only 17% of the
industry’s visits. There’s a long, long
tail.
Real estate is a more
mobile activity than
most, but we can’t
ignore desktop either.

Helpful to see
how your site’s
engagement
metrics stack
up against the
winners.

How Do People Find an Agent,
Expert, Company, Consultant, or
Broker?

I need “X” to
help me with
“Y”
Search Engine
Friends
Prior, Positive
Experience
Social
Media
Trusted
Resource

I need “X” to
help me with
“Y”
Friends
Prior, Positive
Experience
Social
Media
Trusted
Resource
Search Engine

I need “X” to
help me with
“Y”
Friends
Prior, Positive
Experience
Social
Media
Trusted
Resource
Search Engine

I need “X” to
help me with
“Y”
Friends
Prior, Positive
Experience
Social
Media
Trusted
Resource
Search Engine

I need “X” to
help me with
“Y”
Friends
Prior, Positive
Experience
Social
Media
Trusted
Resource
Search Engine

One of the Real Estate Market’s
Biggest Challenges…

These 5 sites own the top 3 organic
results for every one of these queries
(+ 1000s more like them)

Want to compete? Gotta go long tail.

You’ve got a real
shot to rank for
keywords like
these
But it’s looking near
impossible to rank for
keywords like these
Via Keyword Explorer

4 Strategies to Pursue for Traffic
Growth

The
“Niche Expertise”
Strategy
#4

Molly has built a recognizable personal & professional
brand association with a unique niche—houseboats

Thanks to content,
outreach, and
experience, she earns
press & rankings

The “Maps + Local
Rankings” Strategy#3

Results like these (organic web
results) are driven by inputs like:
Keyword choices & placement
On-page content optimization
Engagement & user satisfaction
Link diversity, quality, & quantity
Site crawl accessibility
Load speed & site security

But results like these (local/maps
rankings) are driven by inputs
like:
Quantity & diversity of citations
Business name
Location in relation to searcher
Listing consistency & coverage
Link diversity, quality, & quantity
Popularity of business

The “Pay to Play”
Strategy#2

Google now shows up to 4
ad results above the
organic results, and they’ve
made these ads more
subtle. They may get up to
50% of all the clicks on this
page.
The other 50% go to organic
results (hard to rank, but
free)

Though expensive, FB ads can be
incredibly well-targeted

The best ads target people who
already know you & like you.
hence re-marketing via display ads
(AdWords, AdRoll, Retargeter)
with search through RLSA
or on social via audiences that have
liked your (or using uploaded
emails)
tend to have the best click &
conversion rates for the lowest cost
Geraldine looked
at boot… Now
boot follows me
around Internet
like lost puppy.

The
“Content Flywheel”
Strategy
#1

Matt Goyer’s Urbnlivn gets traffic,
links, and mentions from all over

Over time,
he’s built a
brand that
gets cited &
linked-to

He has active social audiences
across Facebook, Twitter, &
Instagram

Unfortunately, he’s made
some SEO mistakes…
Outranking the site itself,
but with an awful title 
Fine posts, but targeting
words & phrases no one
uses in their searches 

The
Flywheel
KWResearch+ Industry
Intuition
PublishContent
Promotevia Social
Channels
Pushtoemail +RSS
subscribers
EarnLinks+
Amplification
Growsocial, email, RSS,& WoM
channels
GrowDomain
Authority
EarnSearch&Referral
Traffic
RankforMoreCompetitive
KWs

The Right Approach for You:
Matches your strengths
Fits how your audience finds you
Leverages your unique
competitive advantage(s)

Rand Fishkin, Wizard of Moz | @randfish | rand@moz.com
Thank You!