Website review #3 - 03/30/08 05:48 PM
Following on from my request for websites to review, today I will be taking a look at www.terryandtammy.com
I have to say that on spending some time on the site I think it's really very good for several reasons.
1. The home page intro is short and sweet swiftly followed by some options for the visitor.   Very good, although I would possible change some of the wording.
2. There is a wealth of information available to the visitor.  It shows that a lot of effort has gone into the site which is always a good sign.  It shows that the visitor isn't just … (2 comments)

Website review #2 - 03/29/08 09:54 AM
Following on from my original request to review some sites, today I'm taking a look at the following site:
http://www.lagoliving.com
This website has one huge fundamental problem.  It's built using frames which is a BIG no-no when it comes to website design.
If you're not familiar with the concept of frames, it is just a  way  of putting one webpage within another so that they display in the browser at the same time.   There are instances where frames can have a purpose but as the overall design of a website they are a very bad way of doing it.
To explain this better let me … (8 comments)

Website review #1 - 03/28/08 06:05 PM
A couple of days ago I asked if anyone wanted me to review their site.  Here's the first one...
The website being reviewed here is http://www.passaiccountyhomes.org 
The first and most obvious issue is the font on this site.  It is defaulting to Times New Roman which is not a good font for a website, it doesn't look good at all.  Stick to the standard fonts such as Arial or Verdana as these are much better to read on a screen.   This site has the font set in the CSS file so it's easy to change quite quckly.  Changing the font will make … (7 comments)

Would you like me to review your website? - 03/26/08 06:37 PM
I was just sat here thinking about what to blog about today.  What SEO or online marketing tips could I give to help people with their own sites?  Yes, I'm a bit of a geek and I love this stuff!!
Then I had an idea.
I've been looking at some of AR bloggers' own sites and so many have such poor optimisation, little proper marketing done on them, poor usability and certainly not enough instances of interactions with visitors.  Sorry, don't mean to be horrible but most I've seen have some really fundamental issues that need resolving.
But, instead of pulling those sites apart … (14 comments)

Google tells you what keyphrases to use - 03/25/08 07:32 PM
Most people already use one sort of tool or another for deciding which keywords and phrases to target to get traffic to their websites.  But many people overlook one which is really cool, and as usual it's provided free by Google.
It's called Google Suggest
It's actually been around for a while and if you use Firfox browser and have the Google toolbar installed then you're already seeing it, although may not be using it to your advantage.
What Google Suggest does is tell you the top ten phrases as you type.  So it changes dynamically as you type your search term (read keyphrase), … (14 comments)

Get your link text right - 03/12/08 06:01 PM
Links are hugely important in ranking well in the search engines, particularly Google.  Links pointing to your website are like votes from other sites to yours.  The more (quality) links you get the better your site will rank.
But so many people get this wrong, particularly when it comes to the actual text you put in the link.
When you place a link to your website on another site you need to make sure that the link contains the keywords that you're actually trying to rank for.  If for example you have a website www.mywebsite.com and you want to rank for "Justin's website" … (2 comments)

Autoresponders and why you should be using one - 03/10/08 06:26 PM
In a previous post I talked about the importance of building an email list.  I cannot stress enough how important it is that you build up an email list for your business.  It's a resource that you can call upon at any time.
But, building your list is only the first part.  You've then got to work that list.  
People often say that "the money is in the list".  I disagree.  The correct statement is "the money is in your relationship with the list". 
If you have say 1000 email addresses but you never email them, or only email them once a year, … (3 comments)

Spiders sniff out the fresh stuff - 03/08/08 02:51 AM
Are you keeping your site fresh and up to date?   Constantly updating the content on your site will give it more importance in the search engines's eyes.  That's why blogs work.
The fact that Google owns Blogger shows just how important Google views fresh content.  In fact, after posting on my blog here on AR I have noticed that Google indexes my new post within a matter minutes!  Brilliant.
But, keeping your website fresh is much more difficult as your site can have many hundreds of pages.
One of things that I do and that has really helped me is to allow people to … (9 comments)

Are you building a list? - 03/05/08 09:44 AM
Here's an area where many businesses let themselves down BIG TIME.  They don't capture email addresses.
Email addresses are priceless!  Why?
Firstly, if you're used to having a decent level of traffic from the search engines and one day they change their algorithm (as often happens) you can all of a sudden lose it all overnight, through no fault of your own.   If you have a database of email addresses this can save you as you can mail them to drive traffic back to your site.
Secondly, not everyone buys a property straight out.  Most people will check out various websites about the … (6 comments)

Interlink your pages - 03/04/08 10:08 AM
One of the most common and often overlooked areas of SEO is internal linking.
The majority of webmasters tend to focus on incoming links and neglect the much easier route of building a well interlinked site.
On the various real estate websites that I've worked on this has been a common problem often due to the number of pages a website can have if it has been set up property with a new page for each property.
The way to look at this is that in terms of the Internet your website is essentially a small part of a huge network of sites.  That's … (4 comments)

My favourite SEO secret weapon - 03/03/08 06:19 PM
Here's a really simple and really effective tool that I see so few realtors using...the web cam!
Web cams are a really effective way of generating links to your website (which help your search engine ranking) and also offer a very "sticky" element to sites.
People love to see images and especially dynamic ones.  YouTube is a great example of this.
I first tested the web cam theory on a website of mine 3 years ago and to this day it drives hundreds of visitors every day to that site.  I also got a bunch of strong links to my website in a matter … (6 comments)

Helping realtors with SEO and SEM advice - 03/03/08 05:52 PM
Hi everyone.
I'm new to AR but have been drawn in by the amazing community you guys (and gals) have established here.   This is a great site and I hope to be able to contribute to it.
I am not a realtor myself but over the past 5 years have been providing leading edge services in SEO and SEM to realtors in competitive markets.
I love what I do so I'm here to share my advice with yourselves.  I hope you'll enjoy my posts, they will not be the usual stuff you read on other sites.  I will give you some great insights into … (5 comments)

 

Justin Aldridge

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