Leased websites are nothing new under the sun in terms of generating customer growth and revenue for businesses.
At its core, leased websites are nothing more than lead generation websites given a different name some would say.
And if you have been around sales and marketing longer than 15 minutes, then you’ll appreciate and understand their worlds are built around an important business of concern: lead generation.
And what are leads?
Simply put, leads typically refer to a person or set of persons who are ready to buy your products, use your services, or simply show great interest in your business.
Lead generation is a popular inbound marketing term used by businesses as a means of attracting new customers.
Businesses use lead generation as a method to achieve consistent and qualified sales leads which generate consistent streams of revenue and increased market share.
There are many ways to generate leads in business, such as through advertisements, phone calls, and word of mouth.
In today’s post, I will attempt to help you further understand the pros and cons of lead generation using leased websites.
I will discuss in great detail how leased websites could prove to be good or bad based on the type of business you own and operate.
Lead generation is all over the Internet.
In the online world, a lead is a person who visits your landing page and provides his or her contact information name and email address.
In return, this person receives some sort of free benefit from your company in the form of a newsletter, an e-book, or a product catalog.
Another example is using a newsletter sign-up form like the gray one in the sidebar of this page.
When someone permissively signs up or opts in to receive your marketing content, you can use professional email marketing to turn that lead into an actual customer.
A new concept has come to light for businesses to generate greater customer growth and revenue.
Businesses that use traditional lead generation marketing as a tool and strategy to promote their business are now combining traditional offline tactics with those of the online world.
Although not a new concept, businesses wanting to capitalize on a local market are now leasing websites outside of their primary website as a secondary source to obtain leads.
Increasing local presence with leased websites.
Let’s say you are starting or operating an existing company as an electrician, air conditioning repair man, or a house cleaning company that has a local presence.
You currently have a primary website and are maxing out your marketing spend on available marketing resources (i.e., Angie’s List, Craigslist, Service Magic, Yellow Pages, etc.) without much success.
A few calls here and there, but nothing consistent.
As you wait for your website’s search optimization to kick into high gear, garnering first or second-page rankings across major search engines, you take notice of the competitor websites ranking on the first page for selected keywords.
You click each search engine result wishing and hoping for the same type of success your competition has achieved.
However, you click and notice a website in position 3 on the search results can be leased.
Baffled by the concept of leasing, you call the number listed on the website to learn more about leasing the website and how the entire process works.
This story sounds too good to be true, right?
Well, it’s not and it actually happens in a good number of industries and vertical markets.
From auto glass repair to cleaning services to plumbing to electricians, there are a number of companies that lease websites from companies like Kickstart Commerce, Yellow Pages, Yodle and more to supplement the traffic received by their primary website.
For instance, at Kickstart Commerce, we help customers identify highly-converting keywords and use exact match domains to target keywords as a means to increase their website search engine rankings.
Some examples of local exact match domains as leased websites are KyleSprinklerRepair.com, and RoundRockACRepair.com.
Why would my business lease a website or multiple websites?
I can hear your questions as I type:
Why would my business lease a website?
And why is a business willing to lease a website when it can create its own or pay someone to create additional websites, also known as minisites or microsites?
Those are valid points and very good questions.
However, sometimes there is not enough time and resources to get this job done on your own in-house or even outsourced.
The problem with outsourcing the task of additional websites is that it takes time and effort for those websites to be optimized for high visibility across major search engines.
Whether in-house or outsourced, having additional websites built and optimized can take 6-9 months before the first lead is ever received.
This is quite the opposite when leasing a website as the process takes less time and effort to receive leads.
Website leasing is as simple as turning on a water faucet or flipping a light switch.
There is nothing for the business to do simply make monthly lease payments for the website and be ready to receive and manage qualified traffic of potential customers.
Leased websites differ in that they are optimized and maintained by search marketing companies.
It is in the search marketing companies’ best interest to keep websites optimized for search engines, attaining page one and two rankings across multiple search engines.
Leased websites that rank well in search engines increase the chances of the website receiving traffic consisting of qualified potential customers looking for your service.
In addition, leased websites might prove to be the best option for you if you don’t want to spend a lot of money on website hosting, building, setup, maintenance, and marketing.
High-level pros and cons of leased websites.
If you are considering leasing websites to drive focused lead generation for your business, here are some of the pros and cons you should reflect on so that you can make an informed decision for your business.
1. Leased websites offer ease of manageability.
There are many advantages of leasing a lead generation website for your business.
First of all, the websites are managed by other people, so you don’t have to worry about how to write the content, build incoming links, insert social media, do keyword research, and perform search engine optimization.
A lot of burdens might already have been lifted off your shoulders by reading this.
2. Leased websites eliminate the need for in-house expertise.
Designing a lead-generation blog or website that actually generates business requires experience and a lot of trial-and-error exercises.
If you are new to website development, blogging platforms, and lead generation, then don’t even consider doing the job on your own.
Search for a good provider that develops professional and reliable lead generation blogs for customers and hire their services.
3. Leased websites are effective for local SEO.
Many people have managed to make a living by making lead-generation blogs or websites for businesses that need them.
They offer to optimize a website for local clients and provide a good and simple way for your customers to contact you.
Moreover, they advise you on what type of product or service you can offer for free and what type of content should go on your lead generation website to get good placements in search engine results.
Some of these people also offer free assessments to see if your business would actually benefit from the inbound marketing method or not.
4. Leased websites provide potential customers at a premium cost.
Leasing a lead generation website would require a monthly, quarterly, or yearly payment to be made, so it is not totally free of cost either.
This is one of the disadvantages of leasing a lead generation website that has been recognized so far.
However, leasing a website or multiple websites for your business may be a good way to prime the pump in terms of delivering potential customers and sales.
Leasing websites will help supplement your business until your primary website builds and increases organic search traffic via search engines or another paid search marketing strategy.
5. Leased websites offer limited ownership of the website brand.
Because leased websites have invested so much money, time, effort and expertise to build, manage, maintain, and ensure the website consistently ranks well across major search engines, businesses are limited in their ownership of the website and its branding.
This is another downside to leasing websites.
Your business will not own the design or content and have limited to no flexibility to change the design and content at all to be business specific or branded.
Typically, leased websites only offer businesses the opportunity to post their business name, logo, contact information, and license and business registration if applicable.
Are leased websites an effective Internet marketing tool for your business?
If you plan on using leased websites for a long or extended period of time, then leased websites might not be a good idea for your business.
Your business can spend the same amount of money, if not more money and time, on website design and development, content creation, and search marketing while managing and maintaining each of these aspects yourself throughout the life cycle of the website.
In addition, your business will get an idea of how things actually work in the context of generating customer growth and revenue using various lead-generation techniques in conjunction with leased websites.
We have covered many of the pressing pros and cons in terms of leased websites and generating greater customer growth and revenue.
I advise you to determine and use your own best practices, and best judgment when seeking to determine whether leased websites are the most effective marketing tool for your business.
As a domain investor and business consultant, Alvin actively participates in daily domain auctions. Outside of auctions, he passionately shares his views, opinions, and vision for how businesses should and should not use domain names to generate greater customer growth and revenue.
