We posted about the new launch of Community Sherpa here a few days ago, and also over at Multifamily Insiders. Disclosure, I have no ties to Community Sherpa and have not tested the product. I am just delighted that someone has produced a product that they can actually sell. Again, hats off to Dan McCarthy and his gang for that. We wish you the best of luck with your launch.
Google Page Rankings
As suspected, there are lots of opinions about the product, is it Social Media or not, Does it replace the Community Newsletter and so on. But one thing that most of the folks who weighed in on the conversation had in common, the Content Creation that Community Sherpa produces will enhance the communities SEO and Google Page Rankings.
Content is King
The “content” that Community Sherpa will be creating for their clients, if applied correctly, could/will significantly increase a communities web traffic, and certainly will increase a communities Page Ranking on a Google Search, particularly if they can achieve inbound/outbound links. And if the targeted audience find value in the content being created, they will naturally create inbound/outbound links, which equal Google Juice.
Experience, Not Theory
This isn’t theory, it is what we did at Urbane Apartments. Once we added the Urbane Life Blog our Google Page Ranking soared to Number One to Number Three on Page One Google of a Google Search consistently when the search was Apartments (your city) And according to the recent white paper by Rent.com Apartment (Your City) is one of the most used search terms for folks looking for an apartment. Further, if you Google Urbane Apartments, we own the first half dozen pages. Have you done a Google search on your company or community lately, You Should.
In our case at Urbane it was Apartments Royal Oak. We just entered a new market and did the same thing thing with Apartments Birmingham MI. We are NOT SEO experts by any stretch, but it also didn’t take us very long to get to page One, Number One either.
What Is The Value of Clicking Your Web Site First
So my long winded point is this, assuming Community Sherpa delivers a like result, meaning they push the Community to a Page One Google Ranking, have they provided more value than an ILS, meaning Will the prospect click that community before going into the maze of ILS Listings? And, what value is that to the Community?
I have put most of our marketing chips on that square, thinking that if the prospect clicked on Urbane Apartment Web Site before getting tangled up in the ILS Maze our opportunity for conversion increased dramatically.
Based on Results, that theory is working well. Our Traffic continues to climb. We had our largest traffic week last week with over (100) Guest Cards for the week, and just short of (400) Guest Cards for the month. Pretty good results for a (360) unit portfolio huh, How much traffic is your strategy producing per (100) units? I would love to hear your feedback.
Eric’s background is rooted in the rental and real estate industries. He founded metro Detroit’s Urbane Apartments in 2003, after serving as senior vice president for a major Midwest apartment developer. He established a proven track record of effectively repositioning existing rental properties in a way that added value for investors while enhancing the resident experience.
He also established The Urbane Way, a social media marketing and PR laboratory, where innovative marketing ideas are tested. Eric has been featured in Entrepreneur Magazine and Business Week Magazine.
You can connect with Eric_Urbane on Twitter.
Eric also writes regular articles for the following publications;
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