In Local Web Marketing, there are two kinds of "positioning":

1. Physical Positioning - That Gets You Found Locally on the Web
2. Mental Positioning - That Makes People Call YOU First

You have to position yourself in your own town where consumers can find you. Positioning you well there means that your web site is more easily found than that of competing Realtors®.

Second, if you have strong local competitors in your region, you have to position yourself as being a better choice than they are. But this kind of positioning is something that happens not in the real world or on the web, but instead in the minds of customers. It is how they rank your reputation in their minds against that of similar firms. And there is much you can do locally on the web to become positioned as number one!

Blending Physical AND Mental Positioning In Order to Get You More Leads

Physical positioning has to do with the many places that your web site can be found by people who are looking for Realtor®-related services. People typically find information on the web by using a search engine to locate sites that have certain matching "key words."

For example, a consumer wisely seeking a home in Boston, MA might well enter the key words: "Boston MA" or "Boston MA real estate" or "Boston MA homes for sale" or "Boston MA real estate search MLS" (minus quotes). But because "Boston" is included in his search terms, many community web sites are certain to come up, too. And that is why you want to be in them. People generally explore the community first before they look for homes or agents there.

So if your web site includes these same key words, both visibly in its text and in its hidden underlying META tag code that is NOT visible, then your site can be one of those that the search engine will more easily find and display for the searcher along with the community web sites.

The other common way that people find information on the web is by clicking on a link that they feel will take them to another site containing the information that they seek. Clicking on such a link transports them instantly from one web site to the one that contains what they want.

To help get people to come to your site using links, you should have a "presence" or "physical position" or "link" in as many local community or city web sites that you can find that serve your marketing area. Here's how you do it.

Today, almost city and town has at least one web site of its own, if not several. These sites contain information about local government, schools, hospitals, emergency info, recreation, sports, weather.... and, most prominently....real estate.

Studies show that online community residents today actively look in their local community web sites for local information the way that they used to look in their phone company's Yellow Pages. Thus, you will want to have a link or banner in your local community web site(s) in order to: 1. Let people know that you exist, 2. Position you in their minds as the most visible source for all their realty needs, 3. Enable relocating buyers to find you.

Chances are that if you opt for a local link, you may be the only source shown in town for real estate services, especially in smaller towns. And that is terrific because the most important part of both physical and mental positioning is to be first!

How to Get A Link or Banner in your local Community Web Site(s)

First, you search the web to find the community web sites for YOUR city. Say you are in Santa Rosa, California. You would use a search engine to search for the key words: "Santa Rosa, California" (no quotes).

Hotbot's search engine will get you more than 220 pages of Santa Rosa references and a half-dozen or so of these are community web sites. You usually can tell if they are community versus city government web sites, because the official city sites do not typically carry paid ads or links.

Another way to find a city site is to insert the exact name of your city into a domain name, e.g., http://www.(yourcity).com as in http://www.santarosa.com, then paste this web site address into your browser and see if a site for your city shows up at that address. Often, sites that contain the city name in the URL are the oldest and biggest commercial sites in your community because ones including the city's name were likely the first commercial ones to be registered.

Once you have identified many of these commercial community sites, then send an e-mail or call the owners of the biggest down to the smallest sites, and ask what the procedures are and what it costs for you to have an ad position in the site. You can bet that the owner will get back to you ASAP as such sites are always in need of more paid ads. But, first check to see if the owner offers any free links, as some do. Some sites offer a standard free link, then charge you only for extras like being at the top of the page, having a longer description of your site, having your link appear in boldface, etc.

Local Web Advertising is a Real Value Compared to other Forms

Web advertising in your own community is not expensive compared to newspaper ads which appear for just one day and disappear. With web ads, your site is out there always, waiting for consumers. Right in your own hometown!

Be willing to pay even a bit more to buy the biggest or most enhanced links that are offered. Why? Because you want not merely to be physically positioned in the site, but to be so very dominant there that consumers mentally position you as the number one or only source in town.

You might even want to negotiate with the owner of the community web site not solely about price, but also about the physical position or size of your link or ad. For example, being positioned on an interior page that takes five clicks to reach is not nearly so valuable as being on the very front page of the site---the one that every visitor sees. A good compromise is to be on the first page of the interior "Real Estate," "Local Businesses" or "Professional Services" section (or similarly named section).

The site owner can give you hints on what comments and format to use in describing your business, or, write your own. He can even help you create a banner ad, if needed.

Many local link ads include a title and a description, such as:

San Clemente Real Estate, (Realtor® Full Name Here) County's #1 "Web Realtor" for Homes. Search MLS here.

Moving? Best info on San Clemente, CA & South Orange County, plus search area MLS for homes. (AgentFirstName)'s real estate site rated #1 in County for buyer realty info. Selling? Reach 5000 EXTRA online buyers/mo through (agentname)'s site.

Clicking on the title takes a visitor right to your site. For an example, see Web Realtor® Debbie Ferrari's community web site link ad.

Once you become well "positioned" in your local community web site(s), you can enjoy dozens, or, perhaps, hundreds of extra consumer inquiries each month from your site. Remember this: Gaining top physical position also gains you top mental position.

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Published: August 23, 1999

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.

Bill Koelzer is a Web marketing consultant to web-proficient agents nationwide. He is co-author, with Barbara Cox, Ph.D., of the Prentice-Hall books, Internet Marketing in Real Estate and Internet Marketing. Bill is also webmaster of Orange County Real Estate, among the most-awarded known Realtor® sites. Visit his website, Koelzer.com or e-mail him at .