Archive for November, 2007
Is Google the Only Game in Town?
· CommentsMany of the agents I talk to are focused on being found in Google. We all know that more searches are done on Google than the other search engines. And, depending on who you talk to and what you read, everyone has a different opinion about the prime search engine for real estate.
Our philosophy is that you need to track your progress on all the major search engines: Google, Yahoo, MSN, AltaVista, Lycos, AOL, and Ask.
Have you seen any of the TV ads for Ask? They’re running in my area, and they come across as a very viable alternative that offers some unique capabilities.
And, AOL is doing some interesting things with their real estate search. Take a look at this post on the Future of Real Estate Marketing site. Players like Zillow and Trulia will need to deal with some of the more established sites like AOL.
This article also reinforces the fact that advertising dollars are moving away from traditional print media and flowing to the Internet.
So, a word to the wise: The Internet landscape as it relates to real estate marketing is changing rapidly. Don’t get stuck in a rut that will put you behind the crowd as everyone (local newspapers included) runs after Internet market share and advertising dollars.
Wednesday: In Memoriam
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To Jenny - A good friend and companion for
over 20 years.
If you’ve ever lost a friend who had four legs,
or wings, or fins
And, if you believe in Heaven, and that
in Heaven you get to have everything that makes you happy,
Read this story about
How Do You Stay Top-of-Mind?
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Staying top of mind with prospects and past clients is critical. And, there are a number of ways that you can do that. What you want, of course, is a way to:
- Stay in touch on a regular basis
- Avoid annoying your prospects
- Provide useful information to prospects that are in very different situations - some may have just purchased a home, some may be 3 years from another real estate transaction
- Prove your value as a real estate advisor
- Minimize the time you must devote to staying in touch
If you’re not familiar with the Home Mangement Club, you need to determine if it’s your answer for staying top-of-mind. You’ll find it meets all of the criteria listed above.
Learn more about this real estate marketing tool! You’ll find a brief description of the opportunity, plus links to consumer-side and real estate professional web pages that will show you how you can use the Club for your own on-going marketing. You can put a sign-up link on your website to help make your site more sticky.
If you are already using the Club, leave a comment to let us know what your experience has been! And, don’t forget to answer the poll on Internet marketing in the left column on this page.
Do-It-Yourself-SEO: Introduction-Glossary
· CommentsGetting your real estate website found in the search engines – it’s the goal of most real estate professionals. The days when a real estate website is used as just an online brochure are virtually over. Ever since it became obvious that websites are a cost-effective way to generate leads, more and more agents and brokers are working on creating lead-generating websites.
By the way, don’t forget to answer the poll in the left column of this page about leads coming from your website! Based on the responses so far, I’m thinking a series about Do-It-Yourself-SEO might just be useful!
Use this link to see all the posts in this series: Do-It-Yourself SEO.
Getting Started with SEO
We provide SEO services to many of our clients, but some prefer to do their own. For those clients, and anyone else who is interested, this post is the introduction to an eight-part series on Do-It-Yourself-SEO. My goal for this series is not to cover every nuance in the world of SEO. There are lots of books written on the subject if you want that level of detail.
My goal for this series is to provide enough information about the basics to get you started. I know that you can make progress with a subset of SEO information, because I’ve worked with clients who have done it.
Here’s What This Series Will Cover
- Do-It-Yourself or Hire an Expert - We’ll discuss the issues that you should consider when you make a choice between doing your own SEO and hiring a professional. We’ll also provide some guidelines for choosing an outside firm.
- Thinking Like a Search Engine - If you understand how search engines think, it will be easier to understand the process for getting your site ranked in the search engines. It’s true that search engines don’t provide a lot of detail about their ranking algorithms, and different engines use different approaches. But, it is possible to describe the process at a very high level.
- Selecting Keywords - The important first step is selecting the keyword phrases you want to be found for.
- Creating a Site Map - Based on your keyword strategy, you need to identify the specific pages that you’ll create for your site.
- On-Page Optimization – The things you need to do on your site to make it attractive to search engines.
- Off-Page Optimization – The things you need to do away from your site to get the search engines to rank your site.
- Blogging – How to use your blog to improve search engine ranking.
A Glossary of Selected SEO Terms
This list may be expanded, but these are definitions of some of the more commonly-used SEO terms:
Thanksgiving 2007
· CommentsDon’t forget to answer the poll!
The year is almost over, and it’s flown by, as usual. They say that time seems to speed up as you grow older for a very logical reason. When you’re 5 years old, a year is 1/5 of your life, so it seems like it goes on forever. When you’re… well, older than 5, a year is a much smaller increment in terms of how long you’ve been on the planet.
I have many things to be thankful for this year, not the least of which are the great clients I’ve had the opportunity to work with this year. To all of you whom I’ve come to know personally, I thank you for your camaraderie, and for your business.
For everyone who reads this blog, I thank you for your interest, and I hope you find this blog helpful.
I’m taking tomorrow off, so see you back here on Monday!
Remember our military at the holidays! As you may know, there are many ways to show support for our military folks who give so much all year around. Two Internet-based opportunities:
- Send a postcard to someone in the military. Visit Let’s Say Thanks. Xerox Corporation has set up this website where you can select a postcard from among designs created by children all across the country, and personalize it with your own greeting. The postcards are then printed by Xerox and mailed in care packages sent to military personnel serving overseas by a military support organization, Give2TheTroops.
- Send an e-mail. Visit America Supports You.
And, please join me in a prayer for peace.
