Being an ardent Hillary Clinton fan, I had occasion with this past election to become more interested in politics than I ever have been. I have spent more time arguing with hard-core Republicans and conservatives than I like to think about. Arguing politics is probably one of the biggest wastes of time that exists. I don't think anyone will ever convert a person from one way of thinking to the other by discussing it.
And yet we argue. I have tended to look at things through "party" eyes, and tonight I was given a glimpse into just how deeply ingrained particular attitudes really are. The country is not really divided by the political parties as much as by basic beliefs - and it extends to all manner of things outside of running the government.
A couple of years ago, our condo complex had an HOA board turnover. It was a bitter feud between 25-30 of the most active owners. (Out of 212 - many of whom couldn't care less...just like non-voters!)
Our old board had its faults. The bookkeeping was less than it could have been, and funds were assessed for some things and used for others instead. I don't think there was any wrong-doing there...it's like when you are saving for a new sofa and your car breaks down. And it wasn't documented as well as it might have been.
Anyway, our fees had gone way up. Insurance rates had doubled and were part of our HOA fees. We had to redo a jacuzzi and some tennis courts. They were assessing us large amounts of money and it angered everyone. They had fired the property manager and went a year or so without one. Our landscaping was being done by several in-house employees that had little or no supervision, and very little training. The complex looked terrible and morale was very low amongst the home owners.
Several owners banded together, swooped in and got rid of the old board, and took over. They hired a management company, fired the employees, found better insurance, worked harder to get lower bids and manage costs. Our fees went down by a large margin. They've done a great job and our complex has never looked better. So what am I going to talk about finally?
Our old board was comprised of older people, mostly from up north, and here's the surprise - THEY WERE LIKE DEMOCRATS! If a pipe burst in the walls, and someone's unit was damaged, the HOA took money from the funds and usually paid for the damages to that unit. Many people did not have H06 insurance. If someone broke your window and you couldn't catch them, the HOA would probably fix it for you. They clothed the poor and fed the hungry!
The new board is mostly comprised of Southerners in their early to mid 40's. I'm almost 100% sure that they are all Republicans. We've had our political arguments for a year or so...they are all my friends. I've enjoyed some rolicking debates with almost all of them.
Issue at hand: Our complex condo insurance has a $5000 per claim deductible. If we have a fire, and the building burns down, the complex insurance will put the "structure" back. They will not replace cabinets, windows, countertops, etc. The individual unit owner will have to do this - either out of pocket or with their own HO6 insurance. And with 8 units per building, the $5000 deductible would be split 8 ways. Less if only part of a building was damaged. Also, HO6 insurance will not pay for something that is part of the structure...like those windows that we are responsible for.
If we have a storm and a tree falls on a building, crushes 2 condos - those two owners will have to come up with $2500 from somewhere to repair their units.
My SC homeowners insurance agent tells me that most good HOA boards have a special "kitty fund" to cover the deductible and help the owners. I suggested that to one of the new board members, and you'd think I had ignited the frustration of every Republican in town! Did I DARE to suggest we have an assessment to pay for something that would help those who couldn't afford to pay the deductible? If we had a claim on 10 units per year, that would be $50,000 the board would have to pay! (I don't think we've had 10 claims in the last 10 years) And here is an actual quote from the email I received from a board member about it...
"If my unit is one of the units that gets damaged I would love for someone else to pay for it. Isn't that the American way these days?? But if my unit gets damaged I will have to pay my deductible just like anyone else would."
And me? Well, I'm all for paying a small assessment that covers it for everybody. A liberal alone with a conservative HOA government. I have to admit it is funny right now. I just hope if we have a fire in the complex, it happens in the buildings that are happy to pay the deductibles...:-)
According to the article, Washington law-enforcement officals suspect that money laundering using real estate purchases is becoming more common, and they are considering adding real estate brokers to the group of financial institutions required to file a report when they suspect a suspicious transaction.
They also report that mortgage fraud and money laundering are often connected. Where mortgage fraud usually entails buying a property with a fake appraisal at an inflated price, then flipping and running; the money launderer often lives in the property or has someone live in it. They may continue to make payments for a while, giving it all the look of a normal transaction, then eventually sell it and graduate to an even larger purchase to add distance to the original money source.
While the seller isn't likely to be punished for an unsuspected involvement, they offer tips to protect sellers (and brokers, if they are involved) from becoming victims.
Indicators of a fraudulant transaction include:
No broker or agent involved
A Buyer who is in a hurry and ready to buy immediately, often with cash.
Buyers funds being wired from another account or another country.
No bargaining about price, and little interest in the date of vacating.
Little or no interest in viewing property or involving an inspector.
This is just another reason that it is a wise move to sell or buy a house WITH a real estate agent involved. The waters are too murky for most non-professionals to safely navigate!
One good thing about making websites for different businesses is that you are forced to learn about many things due to exposure! Insurance has never interested me much, except how I can get by with as little as possible and as cheaply as possible. Several years ago I bought a TBird convertible and set about to find the cheapest SC car insurance I could find. I ended up moving from 20 years at Nationwide to Allstate, and saving (no kidding) ONE-HALF of the premium.
But that's not what I'm talking about here. I live in a condo about 3 miles from North Myrtle Beach, and we recently had a shake-up in the HOA board. Many things changed, and one of them was an old by-law we had that said if your condo had a problem that damaged another's condo, you had to pay for it. I always felt pretty safe because I was on the ground floor and have a corner unit. Unless I had a tremendous flood or it caught on fire, I wasn't likely to have to pay for somebody else's unit.
Come to find out that South Carolina laws stated that in a condominium project, all units were responsible for their own contents and repairs, regardless of which unit caused the damages. So all of a sudden after 5 years of living here, I felt forced to buy an HO6 Condo policy. I talked to Scott, my Allstate agent, and got a policy...again at half the price most people pay for it. Because of the conversation, I end up making him a website, so it was a good thing. But this is what I learned, and much of it from discussing the website and the content that I needed to write. We're STILL writing, and I'm still learning. But here are some things you might not know as a real estate agent, and might want to!
If a condo is located in an area of any beach that is considered a high hurricane damage probability, states have a separate state-funded wind and hail insurance policy. Regular insurance companies refused to insure oceanfront property, so it was necessary for the government to step in and help out. It's not unreasonable, but it's not cheap, either. South Carolina recently extended the zone about 15 miles outside of the actual beach area, and my condo fell in that zone. So here we go again! I find out that my HO6 policy won't cover any kind of wind or hail damage. Doesn't have to be a hurricane, either. Suddenly my 5 years of being uninsured was a distant and pleasant memory...:-(
I think most people understand that flood insurance is separate from regular homeowner's insurance. CoastalSC homeowners insurance covers fire, theft (and only if you live in it!) liability for someone getting hurt on your property, damage from a tree falling on it, (unless you are in that "zone" and the wind blew the tree down) internal flood damage, such as a washing machine malfunction, and maybe a few other things I've forgotten. It might be a helpful thing to tell your buyer if you're in a coastal town, especially if they are a first-time home buyer. I certainly never knew that I wasn't covered if we had a regular storm and it blew my neighbor's trashcan into my front window.
But there is some good news. Allstate has many ways to get discounts on your premiums. One of the most important is the multiple policy discount. I think I sort of knew this, but have a friend who didn't, and now she's moved her HO6 policy to Allstate too, and saved a big chunk on her car insurance for doing it!
If you have your car insurance at one company, be sure and keep your other policies with the same company. They work together and each gets a discount. Combining all of mine took about $50 off my HO6 policy and over $100 off my car insurance. And also, if you live in one state and buy property at the beach or just another state, you can have your regular insurance at home with Allstate, and get the property insured with an Allstate agent in the other state. It still is counted as a multiple policy discount and really helps with your premiums! That bit of knowledge should impress buyers of oceanfront property.
I won't go into the other discounts that Allstate offers because you see them on TV all the time. But I ended up paying a little extra for that accident forgiveness clause even though I haven't had an accident in 30 years. Now if I do have a wreck that's my fault, they can't cancel me or take away my safe driving discount. And every year I don't have a wreck, my deductible is lowered, down to $500. Pretty good stuff, I thought. I guess it's apparent that I'm impressed with "being in good hands".
Matt Cutts did one of his fascinating videos about the inside workings of Google several weeks ago that answered a lot of questions I get from my real estate clients these days. Everyone's site seems to bounce up and down in the rankings, with the exception of the most powerful ones that pretty much stay in the number one or two positions. Sometimes these sites can move around a bit, but for the most part they stay, as they are usually based on the size of the site, the age, and number of incoming links it has.
Anyway, Matt explains that in the old days, Google would have big updates that really shook the internet world. Once or twice a year, unfortunately often right before Christmas, they would have an algorithim change...like discounting certain kinds of links...or penalizing for certain types of SEO practices. You'd see familiar (and often deserving) sites that would suddenly tank in Google for no apparent reason. Storefront sites that were depending on Christmas sales to get them through the year would suddenly lose all the free business that Google can bring. Anyone that got hit in that way would be forced to scramble and find out what they were doing wrong, and often resort to pay-per-click advertising to make their sales budget. Google got a lot of criticism for it.
But around the middle of last year, Matt explains that they went to a daily indexing and algorithim adjustment process. The large changes are no longer that noticeable, and changes are much more minor than they used to be. This can be good or bad, depending on whether you are the site owner or the SEO person...ha ha.
Without further ado, here's the interesting video that Matt did. He's doing these videos about twice a month now, and if you haven't ever watched them, and are interested in promoting your website, I recommend that you sit down a couple of days and catch up. You will learn more from this cutie-pie than all the SEO tutorials and tips you spend your time on elsewhere!
I'd also like to mention a couple of new sites that I'm working on. My Allstate agent in Myrtle Beach is writing some really good tips for getting the lowest premiums on SC Homeowners Insurance. I also have a new site of my own that lists the best restaurants and all the Pet Friendly Condos in Myrtle Beach.
I am so often begged by Realtors and business people that I meet for just a few "tips" to doing SEO because they don't have the money available to pay for someone to do the real job for them. I thought I'd make a very simplified guide that I can refer them to, and that perhaps it might help some Active-Rainers in the bargain.
Again, there is so much more to it than this, but if you do the following you'll at least be half-way to having a search-engine-friendly site that you can get some links coming into. Most of these can be found everywhere on the internet, but we all have our different priorities, and this is what I start with when I do SEO on a business website:
1.Download the Google Toolbar. This is something you need to use everytime you look at another site - whether it is a competitor or someone you are going to exchange links with. Be sure the options for "PageRank" and "Page Info Menu" are checked. The only reason for not using this tool is if you are using AOL to get on the internet. And sorry, that is too silly to even address.
2.Go to the free Wordtracker Keyword Tool. This keyword tool shows all related searches and the number of searches per day. The information is derived weekly from Dogpile and some of the other conglomerated search engines which pull Google, Yahoo, and MSN together for the results.
A. Open up your email and prepare to send yourself this one.
B. Start with typing in "Your City". Copy and paste any results that pertain to real estate that you see. Do it for the city alone, the city plus the state spelled out, and the city plus the state abbreviation. Don't bother with any that are less than 10 per day. Paste this into the email you are sending yourself along with the ones below.
C. Now type in "Your City Real Estate". Copy and paste the results that you get for any phrase didn't show up with the main search. The free keyword tool only gives you 100 results for each phrase. It may not show up with the city alone. Again, use the state abbreviation and spelled out for this one.
D. Do the same for "Your City - homes, houses, property, condos, land, lots, commercial", and anything else I've forgotten to mention. If you do it without a state, it will still pick up the ones with it, and usually there are not 100 phrases to display.
Paste all this to your email to yourself and mail it before it's lost. You've just done half of what I charge an initial consulting fee to do.
3. At this point, you could use Google's keyword tools to see which of these phrases had the highest number of searches VERSUS competing ads in Adwords. This would give you an idea of how competitive the terms were. But for simplicity, we're not going into that.
Put the phrases together in order of highest number of searches to lowest.
Here is where it gets tricky. If you have a newer website or domain name, it's going to be nearly impossible for you to rank for the most competitive search terms. Find a medium in the list and begin with that.
If your website has been around for years but just not optimized, you may be able to optimize the text, add a good number of quality incoming links and rank fairly quickly. Look at your website with the Google toolbar and see what, if any, Pagerank it has. If it doesn't show a cache and the green bar is greyed out, something is wrong and Google hasn't indexed your site. That may require a professional's advice to find the problem. If the pagerank bar is white or has any green at all, and there is a cache showing, you're in good shape. A pagerank (PR) of one is the least. PR2 is much better. PR3 is well on the way, and PR4 and above is excellent. If you've never done any link campaigns, you'll probably be a one or two.
Choose what you want to target accordingly, and then pick out the 3 most important ones. Be realistic. If you are a new site, you are not going to rank for "Las Vegas Real Estate". However, you might be able to do it for a small town that has very few competing websites. Do a search for the good terms and look at the first 3-4 sites using your Google Toolbar. Note the pagerank. See what Google shows as a sample of the links these sites have. Can you hope to compete for these terms?
Look up the competing site on Yahoo Site Explorer to get the most complete list of backlinks there is. This will give you an idea of its strength, as well as a possible list of sites you can also get a link from.
4. Apply these 2-3 most important phrases to your homepage. Put them in the title, the metatag description, and the meta keyword list. The latter is not used by Google, but is still used by other search engines. Keep that list to about 10 maximum.
5. Use these phrases in a header (H1 or H2) tag at the beginning of your homepage. Use them in the ALT tags of your photos and graphics. ALL GRAPHICS SHOULD HAVE ALT TAGS- Sitewide. This is not only important for SEO, but politically correct. It's for people using audio readers, and on some cellphones.
6. Put about 250 words of text on your homepage that reads well and describes your area and services. Use those keyword phrases sparingly in the text in different ways. If the term is "Atlanta homes for sale" then use it as "homes for sale in Atlanta, GA" and "sales of Atlanta homes and property". Vary the usage, and DO NOT SPAM the terms. Today's search engines are smart. They know spam from good content, believe it or not.
TIP: Make your homepage and all other pages' top banner link to your domain name and use the main keyword as the ALT text.
7. Put your business name and address at the bottom of every page of the website and use a link with it to the domain name with the secondary keyword phrase.
8. Be sure that all links back to your homepage use the same URL. Do NOT USE "index.html" on the end of it. If you prefer using the "www." then choose that and NEVER link to it without that.
9. Every page on your site should have its own title and metatags, and they should match that page's content. This is a priority. Try to make a page pertaining to all of the keyword phrases you sent yourself. Use the phrase with dashes as the URL if possible. (example www.yoursite.com/atlanta-condos.html or www.yoursite.com/atlanta-foreclosures.html) Again, on those pages, use that particular term in the H1 tag, the ALT tags, and the text, sparingly.
10. Keep the links on your navigation to a maximum of about 25, especially on the homepage. If you have many pages, try to create a main page for groups of them, and use those main pages as your navigation. The more links per page, the less pagerank that page is going to have. Do a sitemap ON the site and use the search terms as much as possible for the links on it.
11. Create anXML sitemap for Google. A good free site to use for this is XML-sitemaps.com. Sign up for a Google Webmaster Account and submit this sitemap. Google will tell you all kinds of details about how they see your site from this. You can get a list of all the backlinks that Google shows for your site, including broken links and other problems.
12. If you've done all these things, you're ready to start getting incoming links to the site. Do some using those three most important keyphrases...not with one phrase. One-way links are much more helpful than reciprocal ones. Do not bother getting links on pages that show nothing for pagerank with your Google toolbar. Yes, you may lose a few this way...the toolbar only updates about every 90 days. But you've got a huge job ahead of you, don't waste your efforts. Blog links are usually good. Recip links with a partner on a CONTENT page with no more than 2-3 other links is helpful. Links from pages that are nothing but links are a waste of time, especially if they are reciprocal. Try to get some of the area businesses to trade links with you. Offer to advertise for them with a banner if they will give you a text link on a good page of their site. If you link to your website from your Active Rain blog or profile, try not to link back to it from the website...keep it a ONE-WAY incoming link. Link to your site from all of your social profiles.
This is only the beginning of your hard work ahead. I haven't covered all the important points of SEO, but I've touched on many. Join the SEO forums like WebmasterWorld.com and READ. You can learn a lot from the forums, but be sure the information you get is up-to-date and from a reliable source. Read Google's Webmaster Rules and don't try to use any shortcuts. Build lots and lots of content, and write for your customers.
Good luck, and hopefully we'll see you at the top! :-)
I don't know if you all know David McInnis or not. He was the founder of PRWeb.com and is a brilliant as well as a super nice guy. PRWeb continues to be one of the best SEO tools around, although another company bought it out. The excellent search engine tools and the way Google favors their press releases is in no small way due to David's influence and guidance as well as his working relationship with Matt Cutts.
David has come up with a new social site, and this one again will benefit you from links and for your SEO. Nothing on it is no-followed. You can write what you like for your profile, and put in links to your websites and blogs with anchor text, as well as pulling in your blog feeds, again, with DO FOLLOW links.
Having said that, I'm sure they are keeping an eye out for spam, and I wouldn't push the envelope too far with links. Be sure the websites you link to are legitimate, and you take time to make a GOOD profile. I understand the profiles are ranking well for content terms as well...so you should choose a user name with your search terms in mind, and use them throughout your content.
"PeoplePond provides the tools needed to take ownership of your online identity and reputation management by creating a search engine optimized online profile promoting your online identity and content."
I happened to receive an email yesterday for one of my clients, sent to my webmaster email that is on all his domain names to help him. It looked like this....
Hi,
My name is Brandon Birdwell and I would be interested in buying your domain ____.COM from you. Are you interested in selling it? If yes, how much would you want for it? What payment method would you prefer?
And just in case you are wondering how I got your email, anyone can get that info at whois.net
Regards,
Brandon Birdwell
**********************
I didn't think anything about it because this client owns about 100 domain names, so I forwarded it on to him. Oddly, the original email address didn't attach, so this morning my client asked me what his email was. I had deleted the email, and feeling badly, I Googled that odd name. I found a dentist and a Yale student, which didn't seem right. I kept going down the results and then found a blog called Blog To Great, which described the same email and advised that it was a scam. This is what they had to say about it...
Funny thing is, the domain he inquired about from me is "parked" at Sedo, who provides full info on my domain's web page on how to contact them to buy. It seems this person is looking for people wanting to sell via Paypal and would likely reverse payment after they have the domain name.
I know that many of us in the real estate industry tend to get caught up in the domain-buying addiction. I certainly have . So we need to all be careful from now on with inquiries that sound too exciting and come from nowhere. Looks like we are their latest target. I feel sorry for these two people with the name of Brandon Birdwell! ####
As we have been saying, Myrtle Beach real estate has gotten a huge boost since the first of January. Although there were enough "lookers" in 2008, it seemed that they all intended to wait for something before they made the decision to buy a home or condo in Myrtle Beach. Whether it was the election, Christmas, or just their state of mind, it seemed to come together after the new year. Retirees and Canadians seem to be coming out of the woodwork now, and the number of foreclosures is dwindling - a good thing for all concerned.
It seems odd that sales of resort condos and vacation homes would increase with the economy getting worse every day. But perhaps it's because stocks are falling that more people want to invest in real estate instead.
The building industry has a popular website at www.builderonline.com that informs and updates builders about their profession, and they have released a report listing the 15 Healthiest Housing Markets for 2009. Myrtle Beach is number 15, proclaiming our area as "remaining one of the hottest markets in the country". They say our prices last year remained steady, falling only 10 percent, with an average price of $174,800 - very affordable compared to most other resort areas.
Wilmington NC was next, followed by Charlotte, Denver CO, Nashville, Fayetteville and others, with the Texas cities of Austin, Ft Worth, and Houston being the final three.
Myrtle Beach vacation rentals are also booking like wildfire for the summer, and it appears that regardless of jobs and the economy, most people are not willing to forego their vacations. As well, the Myrtle Beach golf industry seems to be thriving and in all, our 2009 looks very promising. Martin Brown, who owns Condolux Vacation Rentals, continues to say this is going to be one of the best years his company has had, both in rentals, property management, and Myrtle Beach home sales.
Well, this is one blog that I must admit I will enjoy writing.
William Shatner is a hero of mine. I've been a "Trekky", or avid Star Trek fan for 30-plus years, and William Shatner has always been a major crush for me. When he (we) were young, I don't think there was a sexier man alive. As with Davy Jones from the Monkees, also an idol of mine, those of us who have loved these guys since we were kids still see them as the handsome young hunks that they used to be.
Anyway, today's Reuter News had a neat article about Shatner fighting the economic crunch with his Priceline commercials. As the Priceline Negotiator, he comically storms into unsuspecting people's houses and offices as they are preparing to book a vacation and spend more than they have to.
One of the worst industries to suffer with our economic times is travel, and the article says Shatner's job has gotten a little harder.
"But the 77-year old actor best known for playing Captain James T Kirk in the Star Trek movies and television series is hopeful that spending begets spending, and that if enough people loosen their purse strings and venture out for leisure travel, the economy could rebound." says Kyle Peterson, the article's author.
It doesn't hold true everywhere, but those of us in resort areas find that markets such as Myrtle Beach real estate and Florida oceanfront property sales are largely influenced by the vacationers and our seasonal hospitality business. I can't speak too much for Florida, but our Myrtle Beach condo rentals really took off after the new year, and so far look good for this summer. If this carries over into real estate sales, it will definately improve over last year. Not only will it boost sales, but it will help some of the investors hang on to their vacation condos instead of going into foreclosure. At least we can hope so!
"We're in danger of retracting so much that everything will fail," Shatner told Reuters. "We're being fed by fear, and fear feeds on itself. And if we can break that cycle, we might come out of this sooner and better than we expect."
At any rate, it's a cute article about my man and his efforts to boost the economy, so I thought I'd share. Give it a read if you will. Bill Shatner has been around a long time, and has some wisdom to share. And Denny Crane is still fighting for truth, justice, and the conservative way...:-) Again the article can be found HERE.
I've run across so many so-called SEO companies here in Myrtle Beach that it actually makes me ashamed to be in the business sometimes. I've seen some people on Active Rain that are attempting to pass themselves off as SEO experts and they are far from it. We've got an SEO/web design company here that is actually using their regular web customers to rank their SEO customers with hidden links! It seems to get worse everywhere, every day and harder for you to know how to choose a legitimate real estate website SEO company.
I've probably given out more free advice in the 5 years that I've been in this business than all the work I've been paid to do. I think Diann Tonnesen, who has the number one Las Vegas real estate website, and Annette Smith who ranks for all her Sarasota, Siesta Key and Longboat Key search terms will confirm this fact. They have never been my clients. But they're long time friends and "group consultants" that have given me ideas as well as had me for answers to their questions the whole time we've known each other. There are other agents all over the place that I've coached and spent time on the phone with because I like to be helpful and friendship benefits us all in the long run.
I've gotten more than a handful of Myrtle Beach real estate sites to the top of Google for the main key phrases. I've had clients in other states and even in other professions such as photography. I try to train my clients how to do the things necessary to stay there because they can't afford to pay the prices I have to charge indefinitely. Some do what is needed and some don't. Most of the sites stay on the first page, but without a lot of constant work, they won't stay on the top. I've only worked for a few people here on the beach, but I don't think there is a Realtor in this town that hasn't heard of me or the companies I've worked with. The search engines have been my all consuming interest since about 2002-2003. It's all I do. It's all I think about. I'm not a realtor, have no family here, don't really design websites...I just produce results and LEADS. I'm a robot! :-)
But I can't work for 5 or 10 Realtors in the same town at the same time. It's unethical and probably impossible. Any SEO company that tries to do this is NOT an ethical SEO company. If you contact the SEO person who actively works for your competitor and he happily agrees to work for you too, you need to run - not walk - in the opposite direction.
Here is my best advice for choosing an SEO company to give your hard-earned money to. My first piece of advice is to go with one of the high profile companies like Bruce Clay Inc or even Real Estate Webmasters. They are going to cost a lot of money. But if your area is competitive in real estate, you will have to pay a good bit anyway...and it will take a good bit of time for a brand new website. Six months to a year right now seems to be the average time it takes to rank in the top 5 for "your city real estate". If you've had your site for a year or so and are just now wanting to rank it, chances are it will be quicker and easier.
If you can't pay those prices and want to find someone local, then this is what I recommend that you do:
1. Search Google for your city and real estate SEO. See if there are any sites that rank at the top for that, and read what their website has to say. Do they talk about "submitting your site to the search engines monthly? Do they brag about having a "link service"? If so, go to the next one. Do they offer tips and information on the website that convince you they know what they're doing? Do they readily admit that it takes 6 months or more to rank a new site? Do they offer blog training? Mention the social sites as a method of building links? If so, you may have a legitimate SEO expert. Look at their portfolio and make sure they have some prior customers that rank highly. Don't take their word for it. Go to the site, look at the title, use some common sense about what YOU would type into Google if you were looking for that product. If a website for Palm Beach Florida Real Estate is nowhere to be found for that term, but ranks well for "luxury homes for sale in Palm Beach", that's not good enough! Anyone can take a specific 5 word phrase and rank for it with a few links. That is one of the oldest and nastiest tricks these fly-by-night SEO companies use. Go to Wordtracker's Keyword Tool and look up the city. That will tell you what the most competitive keywords are. Be sure their customers rank for the right ones.
2.When you've done the research, contact the company/person on the phone. If they are in India or overseas, you'll find that out fast. Walk away. I'm sure there are some legitimate SEO companies overseas. But you have no way to investigate them, and no recourse if they take your money and run. Yes, they are cheap. Would you cash a check for someone you've never met that lives in Nairobi? No? Then don't put your most precious business asset in the hands of someone like that either. Make sure they are in the US. Check the Better Business Bureau in their city. Google the name of the company and find out if there are any complaints about them. These ripoff companies are usually all over the internet with complaints and accusations.
Reciprocal Link Directories are a thing of the past and can actually hurt your rankings now...especially in Yahoo.
3.Ask them to explain to you in a very basic way what they do to rank a site. If they say they start with on-page optimization, create a blog, bring your site links from articles and social sites, submit to a few of the legitimate directorys such as Yahoo and DMOZ, and have some partner sites that you can network with, then they are probably on the up-and-up. Again, refer to number 1 above. If they talk about building a reciprocal link directory on your site and charging you by the month to obtain link trades...again, walk away and try another one. They should not say that they build pages on their sites or even yours that redirect to your site. No hidden text or funny cloaking tricks. Try to find out as much as you can, and ask other Realtors what they think.
4. ASK FOR REFERENCES AND CHECK THEM. Call as many as you can and ask for specific websites to double check and see if they rank well and have some pagerank on Google's toolbar. (You DO have a Google Toolbar installed, right? If not, shame on you!)
If you've done all this PI work and everything looks good, then get an iron-clad contract with the people and give it a shot. Do NOT pay them the entire amount up front. Try to negotiate to pay monthly and even to have a trial period if they will. Many won't. But the usual way of doing things is to pay part up front, and the balance when the site is ranking well...or whatever you agree on. Many will only promise the first page, and that is acceptable. If they promise you you'll be number one, then something is wrong.
Be sure this agreement is NOT for pay per click ads or some special downloaded toolbar gimmick. That is not to say that it might not be worth your while to run a well-controlled Google Adwords campaign during those 6 months if you can afford it. But paying them for organic SEO should have nothing to do with any kind of advertising.
BE SURE THEY ARE AGREEING TO RANK YOU FOR A REAL KEYPHRASE. it's a good idea to start with some of the easier ones and work up, but don't let them sell you on ranking for the name of your website, your broker, or even something like "home for sale in Atlanta with a cement driveway". They should not get paid in full until your site ranks for something productive.
Most of all, go by your gut feeling and do your due-diligence. There are so many bad ones out there. You may be talking about an expenditure of up to $10,000 before it's all said and done. Invest wisely and it's worth every penny. Invest without checking on the company and you can lose a lot of money. And don't assume that everyone advertising SEO on Active Rain knows what they are doing, either. I've seen about as many bad ones here as anywhere else.
If you have other questions or want to ask about a certain company, contact me. If I can't help you we can check out the other ones to be sure they can do the job.
Disclaimer: ActiveRain Corp. does not necessarily endorse the real estate agents, loan officers and brokers listed on this site. These real estate profiles, blogs and blog entries are provided here as a courtesy to our visitors to help them make an informed decision when buying or selling a house. ActiveRain Corp. takes no responsibility for the content in these profiles, that are written by the members of this community.
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