Archive for Real Estate Website Tips
SEO: Outbound Links - Do They Help or Hurt?
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The question of outbound links on real estate websites comes up from time to time. So, what’s the verdict. . . do they help or hurt? There are a few issues to be considered. As usual with SEO, there’s never a simple answer.
Will Outbound Links Drain Authority?
It is true that if you display live links to other websites, you will be passing along a bit of your website’s authority to each of the sites you link to. And, I think it’s important to be aware of that fact.
Linking to other authority sites isn’t always bad for SEO, though. The search engines do like it when they see relevant outbound links to authority websites. How much that practice contributes to getting ranked - I’m not sure. But, it isn’t a bad practice in and of itself.
My advice is always to look at your own situation. If you are just adding some information-rich community pages to your website, now isn’t the time to pepper that page with lots of links - even if they are to relevant authority websites like the city site, the chamber site, etc.
Your first goal should be to get your new page noticed by the search engines. A outbound link or two won’t hurt, but don’t go overboard.
Will People Ever Return to My Site?
If you are providing good information, outbound links shouldn’t take people off your site never to return. But, I think it’s something to consider. For one thing, you’d want to open links to other websites in a new window to make it easy for your visitors to return to your website.
And, I would often prefer to see a page called “Local Resources”, or something similar, that contains links to attractions, schools, cities, chambers, etc. I think your main pages should be focused on moving the visitor toward a desired outcome. For example, providing information, then adding a call to action for a special offer relating to that information. On those types of pages, I don’t think outbound links are useful.
Those main pages should be landing pages that have a specific purpose. You don’t want to interrupt someone in the middle of starting to decide that they should contact you for more information, and shoot them over to another website.
So, my bottom line is this: outbound links do help put your site in context in the search engines, and used wisely, they help both your site and your visitors.
If you work in any communities where there are many non-English speaking residents, you might be interested in the article on ActiveRain written by Steve Mun, a Keller Williams agent in California.
Steve’s recent experience is that there are many foreclosure scams being directed at ethnic communities. The “mortgage consultants” who contact people in trouble play on the feeling of community they create. These consultants look like real saviours. They speak the language of the person in trouble, and emphasize their goal to assist others in their community. I thought it was a good word of warning.
Steve also cited a new regulation in California requiring foreclosure consultants to register with the State Attorney General and post a $100,000 bond.
Is that happening in other states? What a concept! Could this perhaps help eliminate some of the abuse??
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Visitor-Loyalty School Gadget
If real estate website visitors love school information - and they usually do - you need an effective and easy way to give it to them.
There are solutions out there that can be integrated into your website for a fee. But, there’s a site that’s new to me that can help you add school information to your website at no charge. At least as of the date of this post.
Check out Education.com
At Education.com you can create school data widgets for your blog or website that looks like the image below.
You can control the title of the widget, the colors and the size. You can show schools by city, zip code or county. It’s really pretty flexible as widgets go.
There’s an option to obtain the code to be placed in your HTML, or a Wordpress widget. When you visit their page, you’ll find that you can click on the school name from the push pin, or the school name in the “School List” tab, to see information about that particular school.
The information includes things like test score results, and teacher/student information such as the ratio of students to teachers, and all the usual type of information someone looking for schools in a new area might want.
I think it’s an excellent way to provide school information in an interactive way that will encourage people to stay on your site. It’s great finding useful (and free) new content!
5 Keys to Effective Website Content
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This guest post was written by Larry Easto who is a
best-selling business writer, and publisher of Real Estate Marketing Link
You have no doubt heard the expression: ‘people don’t care about how much you know until they know how much you care’.
Makes a great deal of sense to me.
In fact I know one agent who uses that statement as part of his email signature. In terms of content for your website, it’s also a good philosophy. Specifically, you can use your site to show visitors how much you care about clients.
Match this element with sound information that illustrates how much you know…and you have a solid approach to preparing great web pages. In practice there are 5 key ingredients to great web pages.
Effective Planning
The best web pages are carefully planned and built. There are two basic questions to be answered: who are the ideal visitors to your website, and what do you want these visitors to do as a result of visiting your site? Once you have answered these questions, everything on your website should help achieve your answers as specific outcomes.
Keywords
These are the defining words and phrases that allow search engines to index your site…and help refer visitors to it. Keywords will also help you prepare clearly focused user-friendly web pages.
User-Friendly Content
The primary purpose of your site content is to show that you care and also what you know know. The absolute best content reflects your enthusiasm, your passion and your knowledge. As an expert in your field, you possess all of these qualities…let your web content showcase them to the world.
Text Links
Once you have attracted visitors to your site, you will want to offer them as much sound information as you can. However, instead of offering huge bundles of information, provide smaller chunks that are inter-connected by text links. This allows visitors seeking more information easily access it…without bogging all visitors down in too much text and information.
Graphics
It can also be helpful to include photographs and images that illustrate your content, which will also help readers learn more your market. These photographs could include typical clients’ properties, neighborhood landmarks, satisfied clients whose testimonials are on you site and so on.
A word of warning…ensure that your content is mostly text supplemented by photographs…not vice versa. Too many photographs will turn your website into a photo album, which in turn will probably chase visitors away. A good variety of appropriate photographs can add interest to your website and increase your visitors’ interest in learning more about you and how you can help them.
Remember that photographs and images are intellectual property and as such are subject to copyright protection. If there is any kind of identifying mark…the © symbol, a letter, number, icon, logo or even a distinctive squiggle…it’s a good idea to interpret that mark as the owner’s claim to copyright…and not use the photograph or image.
Follow Larry on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Larry_Easto
Insider Insight: Who Cares About Me?
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This guest post was written by Sam Chapman who markets in Austin, TX
Many real estate agent websites have an “About Me” page on them, but does anyone ever read it? Most people go to real estate websites and don’t look at anything initially except the property search page. That is why agent sites need to have a really good property search feature. However, some recent experience taught me something about the About Me page and other pages on my own Austin real estate website.
I have worked with three sets of buyers within the last 6 months and all of them chose me to work with partially based on my About Me page. The story went something like this with all of the couples: First, they were all 40+ years old. These are people who have bought and sold homes before and who understand the value of a REALTOR®.
They all found my website, registered to look at home listings and were on and off the site almost daily for about 2-3 months. When they had narrowed down the area they wanted to look in, they started jumping to other pages on my site such as the ones about schools and recreation.
One of the most interesting things these folks did was start learning about me. One of the ladies told me that she liked the section on my Meet Sam Chapman page entitled “Some Things Most People Don’t Know About Me.”
I added this personal trivia because I didn’t want people just looking at education, affiliations and the like. The first part of the page was a short bio, but the things most people don’t know about me made me more human to these people.
One of the buyers told me that she read that I was an Eagle Scout and that gave her a trust factor. Another family with kids read that I had been a substitute teacher and loved that. Another thought it was very cool that I had jumped out of a hot air balloon from 10,200 feet outside of Fairbanks, Alaska.
When an initial likeability and trust level was reached, the buyers called or emailed me. That started the relationship that they felt they already had even though we had never talked before. From there, two of the couples purchased within 30 days.
My point is simply that although most people will just look at the property search page, others, especially the more mature ones, will want detailed information. Some will even want to know who that agent is. So if you are an agent with a real estate website, get a little background on yourself out there for the people who want to know you.
A Note from Kathleen: Sam’s post reinforces a couple of my philosophies. First, I’ve always said that the goal of a real estate website is to get visitors to adopt it as their real estate research headquarters. That obviously happened with the visitors in Sam’s examples - they started with the home search, then came back for more over time.
I’ve also always encouraged agents to have an effective “about” page on their sites. You’re not there when your visitors start to wonder who you are. You need a marketing message that explains to visitors why they should work with you as opposed to another agent. Sam’s idea of the “things people don’t know about me” could be a great addition to your marketing message to get more personal with those visitors who want to know!
