Web becomes broker lifeline

Broker Rob Thomson looks more like a commodities trader than a real estate agent when he sits at his office in Jupiter’s posh Admirals Cove community. He’s hidden behind six computer monitors — seven if you count the laptop — and he calls it the battle station. He runs 20 Web sites and can monitor traffic to each with a Google Analytics search. It tells Thomson who’s visiting, what countries and cities they’re from, how long they’re staying on his sites and what properties they’re looking at. He has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars developing his online lead machine, and says that search engine optimization has transformed his business.