The real estate industry is a competitive one, and as a player in that market, you've got to play every edge that you can find. You've got your listings on MLS, submitted your ads to the newspaper classifieds, bought space in local realty For Sale magazines and even set up your own website. Now you need to maximize your exposure by getting the word out about the service that you offer. Listing your real estate related web site with a real estate directory is an excellent way to help drive targeted traffic to your website.

Targeted traffic is what you want to make it worth while having a web site. The prettiest web site in the world is only useful if it provides leads for your sales. In order to do that, you need to attract traffic - and not just any traffic. You want web site visitors that are looking for what you're selling - whether it's homes, inspections or contractor services.

You COULD just submit your web site to the search engines... and watch your listing get lost in the thousands of realtor, real estate, house for sale, sell houses and other realty-related web sites. Most web experts agree that in order to benefit from search engine traffic, your listing needs to appear in the first three pages of the search engine results.

There are ways to boost the flow of targeted traffic to your web site - and on the World Wide Web, increased traffic means increased sales. A real estate directory can help boost your real estate sales in a number of ways.

On the web, fewer means more. When you rely on Google and Yahoo! and MSN searches for your traffic, you're a tiny minnow in the ocean. There are literally thousands of other real estate sites competing for a spot in those first three pages. Want to be a big fish in a little pond?

A listing on the right real estate directory will put you where your potential customers and clients will see you - on a site that's designed for people who are looking for information about what you sell. Suppose you buy foreclosed homes in California. Because a real estate directory categorizes its listings, your potential clients don't have to wade through three pages of listings for real estate agents and home mortgage companies to find your listing.

Because the real estate directory has links to and from many web sites that are relevant to real estate, it's far more likely to rank higher in the page results than any single-realtor site. When you submit your web site to a real estate directory, you're leveraging the popularity and page ranking of the directory to bring traffic to your web site.

But you're also helping to boost the position of your own web site in the rankings. Because many search engines count the links to your web site to establish the popularity of your web site, every link from an outside site gives yours a little boost. Even more importantly, when a web site that Google recognizes as an authority links to your site, you get an extra little bump up in the listings.

Reciprocal links, search engine submissions and submissions to directories are all important pieces of your web presence and marketing. By paying close attention to them all, you'll find that your web site pays off in increased sales.