Concerns About Website Visitors Clicking On Links And Leaving Your SIte

From time to time I hear from Realtors who are concerned that if they link from their site to outside resources they are just creating a way for visitors to leave their site. I used to hear this concern more than I do now as in the past this fear was widely planted by some template companies who were trying to attach a benefit to the framed sites they were offering. Now most template companies, in attempts to make their products more search-engine-friendly, have stopped using frames (on their main entry page at least) so they are not promoting this "benefit" as much as they used to.

When Realtors do express concern over linking out from their site, here is my usual response...

Concerns about people clicking on links and leaving your site never to return are really groundless. It is a myth that has been circulated over the years by "gurus" who base their pontifications on their speculation and not their experience and by template site companies trying to sell their framed environment as a benefit.

Here is what really happens... people do not arrive at your website due to random surfing - they arrive because they search for specific word combinations in search engines and your site ranks for those words. Although people will use and find a Realtor's site for well over a hundred word combinations they all have something in common - almost all are looking specifically for listing information.

When they arrive at your site they head directly for your Home Search Form and your MLS Listings page - with laser precision. I am sorry to say but the rest of your site (especially information about you) is ignored for the time being so there really is no danger of losing prospects to another site. How do I know this? From over a decade of studying log files and the patterns they reveal.

The other pages and links on your site are not useless though. Aside from being important in search engines they do prove beneficial to your clients - after they become your client that is (when there is little danger of your losing them).

After a prospect has visited your Home Search Form and submitted it they usually leave your site to continue their quest for homes. Your receive the form and respond and begin a relationship with the prospect. At that point the prospect (especially out of town prospects) returns to your website and starts to go thru the rest of your content and really do appreciate it at that point.

The links to informative resources outside of your site are important to your clients - and there is no danger in losing a client because of them. In fact, they help to cement the relationship because your website becomes an important resource for them. You will find that people will time after time tell you exactly that when they are sitting in your car while you are showing them homes :)

Links leaving your site are also important to search engines when they are trying to figure out how to rank your site. If you link out to other real estate sites - especially those that are recognized by search engines as authority sites - and local information sources, it is a good thing and does help your ranking. Who you link to is as important as who links to you.

If you link to off topic sites (gambling and Viagra sites and the like) you will never rank well. It is a rare site indeed that will rank well in a competitive market with no links to other relevant resources leaving their site.

So if your site is properly designed to attract clients looking for real estate in your market area - pay no attention to those fears that that links leaving your site are just avenues for your visitors to escape. Those links are really an important component of your site's success.