How to improve Web site rankings on search engines
By JEFFREY E. BUECHLER
7/6/2004

More fresh and qualified mortgage leads. This is the mantra of the mortgage broker. However, getting these prospective clients can be a frustrating and expensive proposition.

The Internet is an ideal vehicle for such generation. During May 2004 alone there were nearly 10,000,000 searches, for the term, 'mortgage'. Unfortunately, there are 52,000,000 web pages all competing for that traffic. These search result listings are highly coveted because they are probably mostly people actively searching for the very service you provide.

Even with such incredible competition, your firm can tap into this resource as well. However, odds are your existing website does not consistently provide the quantity of leads your business requires.

There are two main ways that your company can tap into that traffic; Pay Per Click (PPC) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

PPC, also called Cost Per Click, is where companies bid on keyword(s) they would like to be found on the results for and pay up to their bid price each time someone clicks on that ad/link. The higher your bid, generally the more prominently your site is listed (generally either above or to the right of the main listings). The two largest providers of PPC advertising are Overture, whose results show up on Yahoo and MSN, and Google's AdWords, whose results appear on Google and partner websites. There are a number of smaller PPC providing results as well including Kanoodle, Enhance (formerly Ah-ha) and Findwhat.

PPC does have a number of benefits. First, it can quickly be implemented and traffic generated immediately. Next, the keywords you are bidding on can be rapidly changed, Third, the price you to bid for each keyword can be modified at any time.

There are also downsides to PPC campaign. For instance, it can be expensive, in the mortgage industry, to achieve top placement. You can generally expect to bid between $2-$12 a click for highly searched terms such as 'mortgage'. PPC is also subject to 'click fraud' (i.e., competitors clicking on your link to deplete your budget). In addition, your 'click through rate', or the number of times your ad is displayed compared to the number of times it is clicked, can be quite low, typically around 1%. Managing a PPC campaign and ensuring that your site remains at the level you want can be quite time intensive as well. Additionally, your site remains listed only as long as you have a budget allocated, and when your budget runs out, so do the leads.

For example, Acme Company -- who provides mortgage services exclusively in California -- decides it wants to be the #1 paid listing for the term 'California mortgage'. It opens an account at Overture and starts bidding. To be in the #1 position for that term, the highest bid is $10.03, so to be #1 Acme bids $10.04. Now, every time someone clicks on Acme's link to its website, $10.04 will be charged to Acme (deducted from the account Acme previously opened). One hundred clicks = $1,004. With a 1% conversion rate -- one loan closed for 100 clicks purchased -- Acme has now written one mortgage at a cost to acquire of $1,004. Of course, the company that was #1 can raise their bid and regain that top position.

SEO campaigns, which generate 'organic' rankings, are designed to get websites ranked highly in the main search results of the search engines. The higher a web site ranks in the results, the greater the percentage of searchers that site will be visible to, and the greater the chance that a searcher will visit that site. Seventy percent of all searchers never go past the first page, and 90% never go past the second page. A properly executed SEO campaign helps to ensure that a site is accessible to a search engine and improves the chances that the site will be ranked highly. Studies have consistently shown that the majority of searchers prefer to visit the main results vs. the paid results, and a properly implemented SEO campaign generally sees a higher conversion rate than PPC (2% vs. 1%) as well. A properly designed SEO campaign should ensure continued rankings for a period of time as well and should include site monitoring to ensure that when the search engines change their criteria for ranking, that your SEO campaign changes to reflect those new demands. SEO generally targets a much greater number of keywords since traffic generated is not based on paid clicks. Individual campaigns can therefore focus on terms that while may not convert at a high rate, do generate a tremendous amount of traffic.

The more popular and effective techniques for achieving higher rankings include link building, content development and meta-information.

The downside to SEO is that there are greater upfront costs than with a PPC campaign. In addition, it may take several months before a company sees any benefit from an SEO campaign.

Also, choosing the right SEO firm to perform the work can be daunting as there a number of techniques which are prohibited by search engines. These techniques can include, cloaking, doorway pages (known by many names, attraction pages, Dips, information pages), keyword stuffing, and hidden text. The use of these techniques can lead to a 'penalty' (a lower ranking than would otherwise be warranted) or even a complete delisting (a website completely removed from a search engine and will not be displayed at all). This is a devastating event for any company and can necessitate building an entirely new website with a new URL.

Which advertising campaign is right for you? If properly managed, both PPC and SEO can, and should, show a return on investment. PPC is the quickest way to generate traffic, albeit at a premium price. If long term, ongoing traffic is your goal, then SEO may be more cost-effective in driving targeted traffic to your website.

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