UDR, a company that specializes in helping renters find apartments, really knows how to maximize search engine optimization to whack the business bushes.
In 2004, UDR’s annual organic search engine traffic was a mere 88,000, says Steve Taraborelli, VP of sales and marketing. UDR expects to close out the year with 1.2 million organic visitors. It’s the type of qualified Web site traffic that enables UDR to maintain a healthy lead stream and focus its demand generation budget on other customer marketing tech and initiatives, he says.
Taraborelli attributes nearly 77 percent of UDR’s total unique visitor traffic to organic search engine referrals. At the end of last month, UDR’s search engine referral traffic topped 1 million visitors, a stunning 134 percent compared to the same period last year.
UDR manages its SEO program in-house. By pushing every button on Web 2.0 tech, the company has seen its lead stream rise 16 percent from 2007 and its annualized marketing costs per apartment drop from $154 in 2005 to $88 in 2008. UDR says it has been able to save more than $2.2 million a year in marketing costs.
UDR’s success boosting its SEO results is based on
- Building a Wireless Application Protocol Web site for mobile apartment search, lead generation and apartment reservations
- Developing an iPhone app and complementary site with apartment search, slide shows, Google Maps and apartment reservation features
- Using quick-response barcoding on print materials to track advertising metrics
- Launching a Spanish-language Web site
- Marketing MySpace.com, Twitter, Digg, FlickR, Pownce, Bebo, Delicious, MetaCafe, YouTube, blogging, micro blogging and other socal media
