Archive for February, 2006
Choosing Keywords for Your Website
· CommentsOne of the most important things you can do when you set up a real estate website is choose the best keyword phrases to use when you optimize the site.
Many people think that the best keywords are the ones that get the most searches. But, using the most popular keywords may not be the best strategy!
The most popular keywords are also the most competitive. Consider that you will be competing against millions of other sites, many of which have been building search engine rankings over a very long timeframe. You have to decide whether starting with a less competitive keyword will bring faster results.
The goal for a real estate website is to generate leads. If you can start generating leads by optimizing for a less competitive keyword, you’re setting your site up to pay for itself faster. For a new website with a new domain name, it may be more effective to optimize the home page for the less competitive keyword, and optimize an internal page for the most competitive.
As your site ages and your SEO efforts start to pay off, your internal page will quietly build strength, while the home page rank is generating visitors.
Real Estate Brands Aren’t Personal Brands
· CommentsSometimes when I mention creating a real estate brand to some agents, their first reaction is: “I don’t want to plaster my face all over town.”
And, I agree. If you are a real estate agent, you are running a business. It’s a real estate consulting practice. So, your brand needs to represent your competitive advantage. Which for most people, is not their face.
Your brand could be your name or a description of your company, such as ABC Realty Group. The really important part of creating a brand is defining what it stands for.
Best Places to Exchange Links
· CommentsIf you’re not an expert on analyzing a link opportunity to spot “bad neighborhoods”, the best way to obtain link exchanges is to use the real estate forums. Most forums have a category for link exchanges. You can post a request to exchange links, or answer posts other people have placed on the forum.
The other advantage to using a forum is that people who are good at spotting bad neighborhoods are active on most forums. If someone posts a link exchange to a bad neighborhood, someone on the forum will usually call them on it. So, forums are usually a safe place to identify link exchange partners.
Here are some forums to check out:
