I acutally do financial advisory work as my full time gig. Having said that, I'm looking to launch a mortgage and home equity loan website. I've been doing some prelimary research on various keywords such as "state + mortage company" or "state + home loans" or "state + bad equity loans" and such. Most of the sites that show up are either affiliate link directories or large national lead generation companies that decide to have a subdirectory dedicated to a state or region. In my opinion, I think there is opportunity for me to launch a site that focuses on various niche mortgage services and rank well for them. I've always personally thought that website prospects like to deal with a personal mortage broker as opposed to some large lead generation company. But other people have said that it might be hard to get good rankings for the site. I know I don't need to be #1 to make money from the site. I just know that I need to place well enough and have good website usability (which most of these sites don't have) and get good conversation rates with the visitors. What are your opinions on this? Can anyone here recommend a website of a local mortgage company that ranks well within the SERPS and also has good functionality to the site? Thanks.
hard is not the word here honestly you are going to be working full time link building to rank for mortgage phrases. As soon as you appear, the competition will close ranks and push ahead. This is mainly because of the massive value of each lead. I have a client in the UK who does ok though
my girlfriend has sites that rank for bunch of mortgage phrases (with my help) so far non of them has really paid out. I think the one with the best rankings has a bad domain ,and doesn't get the click thrus it should.
Here is what an SEO told me from their perspective. I was told that it's not that difficult because most of the larger sites work on more generic terms such as "mortgages" or "home loan". Thus, their linking campaign reflects this. But very few go after "state + keywords" and do the all anchor text and mix it up a bit. And if you provide good usabilty with appropriate mortgage tools (to make the visitor stay a little bit longer) than it might work out. Make sense?
I just read this exact same post over at REWebmasters. How strange to din them both within 10 seconds of one another!
not that strange because I'm the same guy. i just need to verify and get varying opinions. I hope that isn't bad?
I have exactly that.. whereever they are located they type "mortgage" or "loan" really - state results are MUCH lower - so you want to compete you have to rank for mortgage. Thats the hard part. forget the state part. Another hard part is that Adsense click pay out very well for those kinds of terms - so you have lots of 'not built for adsense' sites run by seos (probably a few in this forum alone). Then fight the professional cloakers and spammers and those that churn out domains. Its very competitive, so sell swiming pools instead - with big margins and much less competition
Well, I agree that "state + reverse mortgage" or "state + loan officer" is lower than keywords like "mortgage" or "loan" but it would be more targeted traffic because I do think that prospects want to deal with a "local" guy as opposed to a national company. I think alot can be said for customer service and the fact that people want to deal with a website that has the face of a loan officer on it and not some national mortgage company's logo, IMHO.
yes but you still have to compete with the big guns - doesnt matter how good your customer service is if you cant get the traffic in trhe first place. With local search its just going to get harder http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=mortgage+california&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8 With local results: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...s=en&biw=1025&q=mortgage+new+york&btnG=Search
By the way, there are other SEs out there as well. Admittedly, G is the biggest but you can always use Y and M to rank well in the beginning and use the incoming leads to pay off for more SEO work. Basically, reinvest in your business.
I don't know why you are trying to tell that mortgage keyword list is full and there is no posibilities to gain money. Everywere are niches so I think that driven will succed. It is only matter of time to find sources about mortgage.
I am just saying it is one of the most competitive areas online. Yes you can do it (I even have a finance site in my signature), but I cant think of many keywords that are harder to rank for.. maybe web design, real estate, games, mobile phone, money - but there cant be that many terms. You will regularly see 'mortgage & loan" keywords in everyones list of top paying adsense. I do believe there are opportunities but I think you also have to look further than search + ppc (hence the masses of christain loan spam I get)
As a Realtor battling tough keyword combinations, I have found success by narrowing the focus of the KWs. Use the keyword tool on DP to find some that are both relevant and used frequently and focus a page on that combination. There is a need for what you are proposing but many of the companies I have seen rely on people knowing the URL, not using search engines. There are even a few using frames. For backlinks, I'd start with Realtors you already know who have websites. I doubt it would violate RESPA to link to them and they would appreciate a relevant link as well. Personally I have never been approached by a mortgage officer asking for reciprocal linking. I have existing reciprocal links for some of the farming sites however. Realtors often have lists of service providers they recommend. Ask a few to make their lists public online with a link. I also work with a company that provides home virtual tours. The tours can be sponsored (RESPA) legally with a link back to your site. You get advertising and perhaps establish a relationship with a new Realtor. The fee is $8/mo. per tour. Send me a PM if you want details. The company cleared the product as RESPA legal but I can't address the details persoanlly since I'm not an attorney. Hope that helps
I rank for a couple states + "mortgage" and I don't see much traffic, hell I am rnaked for some general mortgage terms too. I am kind of astounded at the lack of traffic actually When I have ranked for other highly searched terms I have seen great return, I am sort of wondering if brand recognition would be a major obstacle in the online mortgage scene.
Mortgage adsense is a joke. If you are trying to make money off mortgage, you need to sell leads directly to a bank -- and make sure to get paid per lead.....never accept payment per conversion, you will just end up getting ripped off.
Google adsense is not good idea? You will be paid for clicks not for leads. And I think there are less problems with payments. By the way most affiliate programs with credit products are only offered to us citizen.