If so have you seen it beneficial? Do you know how it affects your seo?

I just added it will let you know if it helps or hinders

I am very interested in how it works for you. I see both the positive and negative sides and can't decide whether to set it up.

Sure..chat can be added easily.

yes, anything is good to add traffic

I have about 30+ real estate websites and all adds up in traffic

Chris
http://www.HouseYouTube.com

I was also thinking about adding this. I can't see how it affect your SEO, but it could be good for conversion.

What about a phone number on your site. Now that is a novel approach...would it work...hum.. what about the coding. Could someone read it if they where viewing in fireloxke.

I don't think chat would work look at the demographics of the buyers. They will email and call when ready if you are worthy of the call and give them some info up front not just the standard template that 300,000 agent have on their site. Just my two cents.

I have the code for aim chat, and I do have it on my website plus the grand central phone number from google and the web button to call me. I also have contact forms on alot of my web pages.
Has anyone used it yet hmmm no but I just redesigned my site over the holidays.

We tried it out, but couldn't really get too many people to talk. We cancelled it, we had loads of traffic and visitors, but could only engage one or two a day.
Gave it up.

Try out a new service we found for Showing Feedback.
http://www.thanksforthefeedback.com/index.php

And would that not pose a treat to your site's harmony? I mean what if that attract chat spammer and post anything against your site.

I have ringcentral.com which allows you to have a button for someone to call you directly it has been the best product I have tried so far. The live chat thing didn't work for me at all.

Check out grandcentral.com. I think they still offer a free account. They were/are in beta then Google bought them. They give you a local phone number and code for your web site that will allow someone to enter their phone number while on that page of your site. They call you to whatever phone you have designated on your settings page - you can use multiple phone numbers - cell, office etc.

One way I use them is to record teleconferences. With their form on my website, I enter the number of the teleconference (on my website page) and click the call button, which causes a call to my office phone. When I get the call (within seconds) I push 4 on the phone to record the call. Then I enter the access code, etc to join the teleconference. Participate in the teleconference for the next hour or so. When I hang up, I can go back to grandcentral, log in and download the mp3 of the recording.

I thought about having this on the company website at the other brokerage I worked for. The idea would be that the agent who was on floor time would be responding to any chat request.

The broker didn't like that - probably because that may have allowed a "good lead" to escape them - they wanted to keep everything all leads coming to them via email and then they could decide which leads they wanted for themselves and which ones they wanted to give away to an agent.

Now however, as an agent myself with my own website I don't see how it could really work - it's not like I'm tied to my computer 24/7 so the chances of me being online when a customer is online wanting to chat is slim. So it would be, for me, a worthless tool using up bandwidth and on screen real estate.

i can see it working if you work with different agents. you might want to come up with a mastermind group of agents that can help with different times of the day to chat with visitors. doing it that way will drive even more traffic to your site because prospects will tell their friends that you are available a large portion of the time to handle their needs privately. of course you got to have someone you can trust, but tell them that they get to keep the leads they convert to a client.

also networking with other agents on your site will help lower your bounce rate. i think google looks at the bounce rate of a site.

No, chat on a RE site isn't going to do any good unless you're chatting with a buyer in front of the house.

Chatting online is for dating a tech support - if you have a computer problem, that's what chat is for.

People see "chat" as another way to say "I'm out to lunch, but I'll be back". and what do people do when you're out? Leave.

I think online chat is one of those interesting tools - but not necessarily a very good one on conversion of those "leads" over to actual customers.

No, because half the time my site wouldn't have anyone on there to chat with customers...and if I'm doing something on the computer during the day chances are I don't have time to chat with people...though I think it's a great idea if you have a licensed assistant to monitor the chat for you. (licensed so they can answer real estate questions legally)