Archive for Content – Sites/Blogs
Are the Search Engines Watching Your Videos?
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Based on a lot of the things written about videos, you’d think the search engines were pausing during their crawls to fill themselves in on the content of your videos.
Of course, this isn’t true. For all the artificial intelligence that search engines are putting into their algorithms, the little darlings still can’t see – besides that, they can’t hear the voice over on a video to determine what it’s about.
Why Do So Many People Stress Website Videos?
Website visitors love videos. It gives theam a break from reading, and you can often communicate something much easier and more clearly on a video.
In addition, search engines like “seeing” videos on your website because it means that you are keeping up with technology, and offering your visitors a richer experience on your website.
While the engines can’t watch your video, they can see that it exists on a page because of the code required to display the video.
How to Make a Video as Useful as Possible
1. Don’t Talk too Long
People have very short attention spans and won’t sit still very long. A number often bandied about is less than 3 minutes. Of course, it depends on what the video is for. If you’re trying to explain how a short sale can avoid foreclosure, you may need 3 minutes. If you’re trying to get people to sign up for a special report, the shorter the better. That type of video is more like an advertisement.
If you can’t fit everything you want to say into a short video, you’re much better off doing multiple videos on the same topic. Just make sure people know how to get to the other videos in the series.
2. Use Your Video as a Marketing Tool
I know that if you’re making a video about how short sales can avoid foreclosure, at least part of your motivation (I hope) is to help some poor folks who are in a bind. The other part of your motivation should be to build your business. So, don’t forget to ask for the business at the appropriate time.
Maybe something like “We have managed 40 short sale transactions and have saved all 40 families from declaring bankruptcy or going through a foreclosure. If you are having problems with your mortgage payments, call us at 888-999-6666, or send an email to Us@Ourwebsite.com. We’d be glad to offer you a free consultation to identify the best way for you to proceed.”
3. Set Up Your Video to be Attractive to Search Engines
Since the search engines can’t see the video, they depend on the SEO-related characteristics of the video to determine value.
- Make Sure that You Use Keyword Phrases in the Title of the Video. If you’re uploading to YouTube, don’t ignore the description field, either. Make sure you write a concise description that highlights the key benefits of the video, including the use of your keyword phrases. Don’t overdo it and stuff keywords everywhere, though!
- Display the Video in as Many Places as You Can Find. You should always upload videos to YouTube. Done properly, they end up in a lot of Google searches. Create a channel for your business where you can send people to see all of your videos in one place.
Google also offers a service called “Video for Business”. There is a fee involved, $5.00/month for each user account. I haven’t heard of a lot of people using this service, and I haven’t seen a lot of videos from this service in search results. But, it’s not a bad idea to be aware of what Google is doing.
There are other places where videos can be displayed: on the appropriate page of your website and on the appropriate posts on your blog. And, don’t forget to announce new videos on your Facebook page, Twitter, Linkedin and any other social networks you participate in.
4. Use the Secret Weapon for Obtaining Reader and Search Engine Points.
I hate to admit it, but I’m one of what is probably a small number of people who generally don’t like videos.
I know, it sacrilegious. But, unless the subject is very technical, or I enjoy the speaking style of the presenter, or I’m bored (which practically never happens), I would much rather read a transcript of the video. Providing a transcript will help your visitors. Besides folks who would rather just read the transcript, there is another group who want to watch the video and read the transcript.
As for the search engines, they CAN read transcripts. So, if you really want your video to improve your SEO and end up in more search results, a transcript is definitely what you need.
There are a couple ways to get transcripts. Let’s assume that the video you’re creating is a bit more complex than the videos you see of people talking while driving in the car. If you really were doing a video about short sales, I would suggest that you put some thought into what you’re going to say and how.
In fact, writing a script, or at least a set of bullet points will go a long way toward making your video as professional as possible. It doesn’t mean that you’re going to read the script on the video, but you should be familiar enough with it so that information comes out in the right order, and you’re not skipping around, for example. You also don’t want to forget an important fact.
If you have a script, you practically have a transcript.
The other alternative is to hire a Virtual Assistant to create a transcript. You may already have a VA. You could also look into using a transcriptionist. Do a search for video transcriptionist. You’ll find a number of companies you can evaluate. The fees I saw were somewhere around $1.50-3 per minute of the recording.
What’s been your experience? Are you using videos?
If you’ve posted transcriptions with the video, how did you do in the search engines?
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Of course, you know that there are several steps to generating leads from a real estate website, including:
- Pick the right keyword phrases
- Drive targeted Internet traffic to your website
- Keep visitors engaged once they reach your website
- Put as many things on your website as you can to entice visitors to identify themselves
And, after you get a lead, you have the challenge of converting them to a client. Easy, right? Well, just kidding.
Actually, steps 1 and 2 are relatively straightforward. It’s when you get down to keeping people engaged and motivated to contact you about something. . . that’s where the rubber meets the road, as they say.
Offer Something of Extraordinary Value
That’s the challenge. You need to offer something to your visitors that will keep them on the site, impress them with your expertise, and motivate them to provide the contact information you need to start developing a relationship.
I’ve always loved the way that Michael Russer has described the “irresistible offers” that can motivate site visitors to contact you. His definition of that type of offer is as follows:
- Targeted to your specific niche market.
- Considered extremely valuable by members of that market.
- Is unique — only you are offering it, or better yet, you are the only one who can offer it.
- Uses an attention-grabbing headline or has a catchy name.
- Uses a request form that invites the visitor to share personal information, and assures them that their information will be kept private.
I know. That’s quite a tall order. But, I encourage you to come up with some really compelling propositions to put on your website. If you can’t identify something that fits all of the criteria, don’t worry about it. As you gain experience creating this type of website content, you’ll undoubtedly get better and better at it.
How do you identify a compelling offer? First, you need to put yourself in your visitors’ shoes. What would be valuable to you if you were them? Websites that target a niche do better than others because those sites have a very clear message to a well-defined target audience. But, choosing a niche is a topic for another post.
Come Up with Something Extraordinary Today!
Let’s say that you want an extraordinary offer for your website. What ideas can you come up with?
- Let’s say you’re well established and have the capacity to offer a 2% Rebate to home buyers. Do you think that would motivate an Internet visitor to contact you? Naturally, you’d have to determine that a rebate is lawful in your state.
- What if you’re new to the business and you’re just trying to get an email list built up. Could you offer something everyone might want such as a gift card from Visa or a great restaurant in the area? Having people sign up to enter a monthly drawing might not get you names of people who are ready to buy or sell. But, you’re certainly making yourself stand out in the market.
- Short sales are a big part of the industry in many areas today. What would someone in trouble with their mortgage payments want? If you’re a short sale specialist, you could put together an analysis of someone’s situation that indicates whether a short sale would be beneficial. Should you put that questionnaire on your website? It might be asking for sensitive information. You could make the offer, and use a contact form to identify people interested in the evaluation. Then, you could contact them personally to start to develop a relationship and get the information you need for the evaluation.
And, if you can give these offers an extraordinary name, you’re even better off. Rather than saying you can help someone determine if they should consider a short sale, give that service a name. Short Sale Assessment. Short Sale Analysis. Foreclosure Avoidance Appraisal. Stuff like that.
Think about it.
Do you have anything on your website to grab your visitors’ attention? If so, leave a comment so we can learn from you. If not, describe your target audience and we’ll see if we can brainstorm some alternatives!
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Ah, yes, I’ve been reading posts from Active Rain again! This one is from Karen Druschka. She talks about how she uses blog posts on local communities to make money!
You need to read the post. She identifies the categories of information she uses in each hyper-local post, and shows an example of a post that generated a phone call that ended in a closed transaction.
And, the client even had a friend who is an agent! You can’t get a better recommendation than that for a particular marketing tool!
If you’re not a member of Active Rain, you may not be able to access the post(s) mentioned above. So sign up for Active Rain now. If you’re not a member of Active Rain, you should be anyway.
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What have you done with videos lately? Do you know you need to get more involved with providing videos, but you just haven’t found an approach that you will stick with? I’m trying to help!
A big problem for a lot of folks is the idea of filming themselves. To film yourself, you need:
- a video camera
- a good location for filming (quiet with a good-looking background)
- a script or at least an outline so you sound like you know what you’re doing
- to look good so you look like you know what you’re doing
The camera isn’t a big problem. I’ve heard lots of great feedback about the Flip camera; it seems to do videos quite easily. It’s the other three things that slow people down.
If you have a problem with numbers 2-4 above, relax. There are a variety of ways you can make videos without putting yourself on the web.
Create Videos without Putting Yourself on the Web
Recently, I wrote a blog post about Screenr.com, a website where you can create real estate videos using your computer as the “star”.
This post discusses Animoto.com, a website where you can easily create videos from photos and videos you already own. It’s easy to do and the result looks professional, at least to my eye. There’s an example of an Animoto video shown below.
This solution isn’t free, but it’s not overly expensive, either. There is a free version that you can use, but it has a severe limit on the length of the video: 30 seconds. I used that version to make the 30 second video below. I wouldn’t suggest that the video below is a good informational or marketing tool, but it went together quickly and it gives you the idea.
The next level, as of this writing, gives you the ability to make full length videos and costs $30/year. If you want more capability, such as having your videos unbranded, the cost is $249/year.
There are a number of ways you can use Animoto to interact with your social media sites. You can export the video to You Tube. You can post it on your Facebook wall, share it on MySpace, Twitter, Digg, Delicious, Posterous, and the list goes on for quite a while.
Don’t be hesitant to make the most of videos for your business, there are tools out there that make it easy to create real estate videos!
Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.
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Since I’m always on the lookout for great real estate blog post approaches, I decided to stop in to Active Rain and see what Lenn Harley is doing on her blog.
Some of you may know Lenn from RealTalk or Active Rain. For those of you who don’t know her, Lenn is a successful broker in Maryland and Virginia. She has years of experience, a lot of good ideas, and she speaks her mind.
The blog posts I want to point out are the ones Lenn writes about homes for sale or sold homes in her area. To me, it looks like when Lenn is writing about a new construction neighborhood, she posts homes that are currently available, like this one for Chantilly Town Homes.
You’ll notice that the first line of that post promotes the 2% home buyer rebate that Lenn is offering. Interesting, eh? If you were a serious buyer and you happened on this post, or on a compelling proposition for this rebate on Lenn’s website, would you be likely to complete a form or make a phone call?
Next, Lenn added a chart of the new homes for sale, with an indication of the Rebate she offers. By now, a serious buyer should be drooling. She continues with what look like professional photos of the models.
The call to action is clear, and she paints a small picture for the buyer: “I’ll meet you at Brookfield Homes…” She reemphasizes her special offer of the rebate and describes the eligibility requirements. Below that, she has listed a number of links to other places where she may have another chance at turning the visitor into a lead. And, by the way, those links do great things for her SEO. You’ll notice all the links are done with keyword search phrases.
On another post, Lenn is providing real estate market statistics for a larger geographic area, the city of Leesburg. After a brief introduction, you’ll find another chart. This one shows a Leesburg list to sold report for the month of August.
I love the fact that the next thing is the post is a photo of homes representative of moderate, average and luxury prices. Nothing like giving the visitor something concrete to relate to.
And the post is closed with another call to action, another significant offer of a 1% rebate, and more links related to Loudon County real estate.
Nothing amazingly fancy, nothing that any agent/broker couldn’t do, probably didn’t take hours to put together, but how effective do you think these posts are??
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If you’re not a member of Active Rain, you may not be able to access the post(s) mentioned above. So sign up for Active Rain now. If you’re not a member of Active Rain, you should be anyway. 
