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Few things can send a property management business owner into a marketing panic as fast as a significant drop in website traffic. After all, when setting marketing goals, traffic is one of the main players because it is the first round of interaction between potential clients and your property management company.
Still, a drop in traffic isn't always a cause for concern; there are many reasons why your traffic might decline. In this blog, we'll talk about the process of determining what is causing your website traffic to drop—and what changes you can make to correct the issue.
Option 1: It Isn't You—It's Them!
One reason your traffic will drop is that total searches for your keywords are dropping—and therefore, traffic for you and your competitors is taking a hit. Generally, there is nothing you can do to change this kind of slump as the issue isn't with the marketing for your property management business—rather, it is the market itself.
We see this happen in the winter months when tenants are less likely to move, and we see it again when the real estate market takes a sharp swing up, and owners cash in on their investments when moving on from real estate investing.
How Can You Tell?
How do you tell if the whole pie is getting smaller instead of your particular slice? Google can help! Visit Google Trends and run a search for your keywords to see the volume of searches for them over time.
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You'll want to use your long-tail keywords here to really see your overall trends and patterns.
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You can manipulate the data to learn the volume and areas people are searching from.
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You can also use this tool to investigate related topics and queries (this is a nice tool for keyword research as well).
Option 2: When It's Not Them—It's You
When the search volume for your keywords is holding steady—or even growing—but you are losing traffic, it is time to start looking into why. Here are some options to consider and what you can do to remedy them.
Google Released an Update
- Google search algorithm updates can temporarily rank traffic.
- Checking if Google just released an update is one way to know if that caused the change, and what you should do about it.
- Google is constantly releasing updates, and some of them require you to adjust your strategy.
- Keeping an eye on these is smart SEO.
Google Is Penalizing You for Black Hat SEO
If your traffic takes a sudden sharp drop and it isn't because of lower search volume Google might be penalizing you for bad SEO.
- Black hat SEO is penalized because Google wants to provide a good experience for its users.
- Websites that try to rank without providing that good experience are penalized.
- If you suspect that your property management business is being penalized for black hat SEO, you can use your Google Webmaster Tools account to check for a notice of the penalty.
Your Competitor Is Running Better Marketing
- A significant drop in that does not correlate to a drop in search terms could mean that your competitors are out-marketing you.
- If your placement on the search engine results pages is dropping over a sustained time, your traffic will take a corresponding dip.
- Use tools to discover which keywords your competitors are taking over—and adjust your strategy to get back on the map.
You Are Running Better Marketing
Yes, you read that right: if your bounce rate is dropping and your visitors are spending more time per session and viewing more pages, it probably means your marketing is having the desired effect of bringing in more qualified traffic.
- Not all traffic is good traffic: if you're based in Texas, you probably don't need a lot of traffic from out of state, for example. Your clients are, for the most part, right there in Texas.
- Of course, there will probably be some traffic from out-of-state investors and such based on your current campaigns, but for the most part, local is where you'll find success as a property management business.
If you post a blog about a tenant-based topic, such as what credit score do you need to rent an apartment, you might be shooting yourself in the foot. If this particular blog is what gets featured, you'll get tenant traffic from all over the country! None of which would lead to leasing more properties.
We see this happen pretty frequently: when we filter out the traffic that wasn't going to perform anyhow and clients panic, we show them with the numbers why there is no need to worry. Qualified traffic brings you more leads—and is, at the heart of it, the whole point of inbound marketing.
Are you having traffic troubles? Contact Geekly Media: the real problem could be your website! Your website is the hub for your content and is meant to bring in the most qualified leads that are ready to become clients, so you just need to make the sale. With our fast and free website audit, we can pinpoint the pain spots that you're facing as a property management business when it comes to converting leads into clients.
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