Westbrook Village Real Estate - a Wonderful Niche
Posted on May 13th, 2007 by Jonathan Dalton
A few months ago, a group of agents from my office made the decision to start farming Westbrook Village, an active adult community in Peoria, Arizona.
My presence alone guaranteed that the group would have a website - in my office, I am known as the “web site guy.” Where others have twiddled their thumbs and wasted countless dollars on template sites, primarily from one company, I went independent with the assistance of a web designer on my first site, built my second site for Arrowhead Ranch from scratch and had been tinkering on my old blog for months.
SEO’s a less than exact science, as proven by my blog-induced roller coaster ride along the Google ranks (along with my complete disappearance from Yahoo! on the main site and on this blog, which still makes no sense … but I digress.) But it’s not too hard to understand that success is more likely for search terms with less universal appeal. And this fast has led Westbrook Village Real Estate to become a very successful site.
Traffic numbers are lower than on my other sites … they usually can be measured on both hands and feet, according to one stat counter I use. But the visitors are extremely focused. They are looking not for general real estate information, but for specific information about Westbrook Village.
On a percentage basis, the inquiries I receive compared to the visits the site gets is far higher than on any of my other websites. In most cases, the prospective clients have far more immediate timeframes than the general inquiries I receive elsewhere.
In short, this niche site has been all that was promised by proponents of niche real estate.
And this has led to a not-so-small dilemma … how large can a niche be? I’ve spent the last two years playing in the big kids’ playground of Phoenix Arizona Real Estate. But should I continue doing so? Or should I pull back and refocus the site for Peoria and Glendale - are these two cities still too large for niche success? Would I have to pull back further?
My Arrowhead Ranch site has performed well in terms of traffic if not leads, which seems more a reflection of content than SEO. (Oddly enough, it has served far better as a phone directory for the Arrowhead area - I receive countless calls from folks looking for the country club or hoping to book a tee time.) And so changes will be coming there as well. What works for one niche ought to work for another.
We most often assume bigger is better. But maybe a higher percentage of a reduced traffic base is the more logical path to follow.
Technorati Tags: Phoenix real estate, Phoenix Arizona real estate
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It’s easier to be a big fish in a small pond.
-Athol