Just got my site up and running....

General Real Estate Investing
1

So, I just finished updating the SEO on my site.

I was going to go the Investor Carrot or Lead Propeller route but, I don’t see any value in paying IC or LP hundreds of dollars when I understand SEO and Web development. With that being said Google hates :banghead duplicate content and it can hurt your Google page ranking. When a customer purchase from IC or LP all they are doing is paying for the same site/content and see they both have hundreds of customers which means more competition for those customers because all of their sites are the same.

Anywho, I am looking for feedback. I have skin like an elephant. All good and bad criticism is welcome and appreciated!

:bobble

Check it out

https://webuyhouseswithcashmoney.com/

2

It really is beautiful, except for the blinding sun, and the scrolling panels.

Simplicity kills, but this site just kind of makes somebody slightly ill…

A lot of people make the mistake of trying to be tricky and cute, rather than instantly functional.

I would recommend your navigation bar being 50 px’s high with instant drop downs.

Your unique selling/buying proposition is overwhelmed by that sunset. It’s perceptively blinding and hard to see the text.

Something I was reminded of recently, and that is the name of your company, and/or your unique selling proposition needs to be completely overwhelmingly unique.

For example, nobody cares that ‘you buy houses.’ So does everyone else. So, what?

How about, “We Bail Out Sellers With Fast Cash”, or “Sure Closings, Or Your Money Back” "or “High-Profit Homes Sales”, or “We Buy Houses You Can’t Sell,” or “We Can Buy Your House In 2 Days, Or Else.”

Make the site and USP instantly recognizable, and then navigable without scrolling. Don’t make people scroll to find out more. You’ve got less than 400 x 600 px’s of screen space that will fit on a standard smart phone screen.

And you can use plugins that will adjust output depending on the screen size.

Otherwise, you’ve got the essential elements necessary, except perhaps a lack of testimonials of happy customers with happy experiences on a tab that reads ‘Ecstatic Customer Reviews’. ???

3

This is a post by William Siebler that better explains the importance of having a USP (Unique Selling Proposition)

Want to banish competition with just one move?

Give the thing you sell a unique and intriguing name.

So, if you sell web design, don’t say that. Everyone else says that. Instead call your service, ‘Client Sucking Website Formula’ (note that’s off the top of my head).

If you do tax returns don’t say that. Instead call your service, ‘The Rich Persons Tax Reduction Strategy.’

A unique name serves two purposes.

  1. It makes your thing sound interesting, instead of boring.
  2. It makes it impossible to directly compare your service to the competition, because they don’t have your thing.

If you think this sounds simple, it is, but it works.

4

Thanks for your honesty! These are some really good tips I will take into consideration. I did remove the sunset header. In there near future I’m going to create another site with a USP so I can test all sites.

5

Testing ‘is’ so useful. Lots of people marry themselves to one idea, and testing seems like a waste of time, if not a threat to their assumptions of what they think/believe ‘has’ to work.

About 15 years ago, I think it was Frank Kern that taught me about dominating my niche, and Matt Bacak teaching the importance of setting oneself apart with a company name. So, before I got online, I figured the best way to get noticed and set myself apart was to use “Screw the Bank!” as the name for my ‘sub2’ marketing business under sub2marketdomination.com I didn’t do any testing, except I now have other websites with more ‘on-the-nose’ titles relating to subject to financing, etc.

Let us know how your testing works. Very curious!

6

The change? Okay, wow! I think you’re on the right track. High contrast! Still you’ve got this huge dead space, showing a beautiful picture of a house, but which should contain your USP …‘money shot.’

At the top: The header “We Buy Houses | Charleston, SC” is straight-forward and clear, but won’t set you apart from any competitors who also buy houses in Charleston, SC, and takes up more room at the top than necessary. 100px max. Branding wise, you remain an ‘also ran.’

You want to limit the title and navigation bars to a total of 150 px high. This way, you can dedicate more space underneath to the USP headlines/sales pitch.

You include some stuff at the bottom, that just limits your options, and distracts from what you want to happen, which is for a prospect to call you. Everything should be about getting a prospect to call …not to educate them on your entire process. That comes AFTER (during) your offer presentation.

Frankly, people who have to be educated, aren’t as motivated, as they’re just curious. And satisfying curiosity doesn’t make you money particularly. Motivated sellers don’t need education. They need a solution. And that solution should be what your putting in front of their eyeballs on the front page without scrolling.

Here’s an idea of what could be placed over the photograph you currently have, or perhaps replaces it. ??? It puts your USP into easily-digestible bullet-points, with little, or no scrolling necessary.

http://jaypalmquist.com/images/Sampe-960x575-2.png

7

And just for giggles, here’s some more thoughts to consider regarding your website:

  1. People have short attention spans.
  2. People are resistant to slick, real estate professionals.
  3. People want fast results.
  4. People are impatient.

So…

  • Don’t complicate things.
  • Reduce resistance by remaining non-threatening (simplistic).
  • Don’t distract prospects from calling you, with fill-in forms, asking for a bunch of information.
  • Offer a quick way to solve their problem that focuses on calling you.

From experience, motivated sellers are willing to overcome their fears and dial your number. It’s a great qualifying tool. The rest will be happy to fill out questionnaires just to satisfy their curiosity.

Frankly, I put fill-in forms on my websites, but the only purpose is to distract the unmotivated, option-weighers from calling me, and wasting my time. I have a low frustration threshold myself. So, when someone calls me, I want to believe that they are genuinely wanting to do business, and not just ‘get educated.’

Curious, but unmotivated suspects will ask things like, “So, how do you buy homes so fast?” Or, “Can you explain how you buy ‘as-is?’” These are not questions that motivated sellers usually ask.

Instead, motivated sellers just need to be primed to talk about their house, and then the spigot gets turned on full blast, and they start rambling about how great their house is, and how wonderful the neighbors are, and they know all the kids on the block, and you’ll love the new ‘x’ stores nearby, etc. etc.

The rest will fill out forms, in order to educate themselves at your expense …and will rarely close.

8

I too agree that you’ve got a nice site. I also thought it best to build my own website instead of opting for an Investor Carrot.

Happy investing,
Eddie

9

Site looks great, though i disagree with not paying a $100 plus a month for someone like carrot.com.
I started my first site with carrot in 2017 and have netted over 200k from organic SEO alone. just recently added my second for another area.
The profits will pay for my sites for the next 100 years! If you dont start moving up the rankings after a few months i would for sure look at carrot.com
Bret Arrington

10

Way to take action. Imperfect action is always the straightest path. Done is the enemy of perfection.

11

One small nitpicky comment, on my phone the title and hamburger for the sidebar menu overlap.

jay

12
  1. I would create pages for each city you buy houses in and load content to help rank for those term.
  2. Definitely make sure your site is optimized for mobile. I agree with considering a site like carrot. Load times are great. They offer a lot of tips & education too.

Good Luck out there!

Investor & Real Estate Broker:

13

There is some actionable advice in here and I love seeing everyone help each other out.

The high contrast content is a nice touch and something we all need to be paying more attention to these days. Most of my website traffic comes from mobile (like 75% which is crazy). So always be testing your website on your phone.

The only small thing I noticed was your menu location on mobile. I was hunting around for it before I found it centered and below where I normally look. Might be a good idea to bring it to the top right where most mobile users look for site navigation.

Now time to get that site ranked.