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.
There is an interesting discussion going on over at The Real Estate Cafe about who is the most to blame for all the foreclosures and problems going on now. When I first ran across it, I became incensed and had to stand up for Realtors. Someone had posted that they were the most to blame for being greedy, not representing the buyer properly, yada yada.
I see the devastation from the real estate crisis every day here in Myrtle Beach real estate, and my old customers and friends are losing everything they made in a lot of cases. It hurt everybody, except maybe the ones that flipped a condo or two right at the very beginning and then stopped...and there weren't many that did.
One of my guys is so kind hearted and feels so badly that he has refused to sell anymore...and he's probably the most "blessed" human being in sales ability that ever was. It's a waste of talent to see somebody that good blame themselves and toss away that kind of ability over the greed of buyers and everyone else involved.
Anyway, I thought maybe some of you might want to get in on the comments and defend agents everywhere. Take a look and see, and maybe tell the story of your area. I personally blame the so-called "experts" in the media for yammering on and on about the bubble bursting until it became a self-fulfilled prophecy. And maybe you are an investor who got burned and you feel like telling your point of view, too.
The National Association of Home Builders reported some news from AARP about Baby Boomers and their home plans.
AARP did a survey that showed one in four upcoming retirees expect to move to a single-level, more convenient home eventually.
79% said they would like to stay in their current home. (I found this surprising.) For the ones with plans to move, many said they would look for a better house, a better climate, or would move closer to family. Half preferred a newer or smaller home.
Men were more 20% more likely than women to want a newer home, or to be in a warmer climate. Women were slightly more likely to find a smaller home.
AARP offered a new 2008 Livable Communities Award to builders of more accessible, livable homes that enhance daily comfort, ease, and safety for its owners. The number of persons age 65 and older is expected grow to 70 million by 2030.
Winners of this year's award were located in California, Tampa Florida, Vermont, and Washington State.
South Carolina is a very popular location for Northern retirees that prefer a more moderate climate, and our Myrtle Beach real estate prices are much lower than Florida. Some of the popular retirement communities in the Grand Strand include Eagle Crest, Brightwater, Beachwood at the Heritage, and Myrtle Trace.
This is going to be a little off-topic, but I know there are a lot of single women in AR, and probably plenty of mechanically "challenged" men as well. I wanted to tell you all about a national company that everyone has heard of, but many people don't realize what a godsend they can be - Advance Auto Parts Store.
Most people think of Advance Auto as a vague place to go buy a headlight or a carburator if you want to save a bit of money and not shop at the car dealer. But this store and these people are SO MUCH MORE.
I've been using AAP since I first moved to Myrtle Beach about 17 years ago. For several years I was living on practically minimum wage, driving a 10 year old Pontiac Fiero, and eating bologna sandwiches more often than I like to think about.
North Myrtle Beach in many ways is like the usual small town. Back in those days, more so than now, if you lived here, you eventually met the business owners, the police, the restaurant waittresses and others that seemed to help each other as much as the residents of Mayberry. One of the earliest things I learned from men that I met along the way (men LOVE to advise single women about car stuff) was that AAP was the place to buy things like windshield wipers, antennas (antennae?) and lights for the car.
There is a local garage in Cherry Grove that was so kind to me as to let me buy parts from AAP and bring them up there to install and repair my car. Now this is not something most garages will do, but in "North Mayberry Beach", so many people go out of their way to help people who work at hotels and restaurants. Most grew up here and worked at these jobs as teenagers, so they know what it's like to get by on $5.00 an hour.
Anyway, I've always known you could save money by shopping at AAP. And I quickly learned that when you buy windshield wipers from them, THEY will come out of the store and put them on for you - FREE! Now it's customary to tip the boy who does this. He's probably living on $8-9 an hour himself. But if any of you women have ever tried to put wipers on yourself, you know that it's worth every bit of $3-5 to let somebody else get their hands black.
I suppose most of you have boyfriends or husbands that do this for you. But for those of us who don't, little things like this mean so much. Is your car running funny? Before you go drop it off to the GM dealership and spend a fortune, run it by AAP and let them hook you up to their diagnostic machine that might just save you a bundle. Buy a new battery there for about as much as you'd pay at Walmart...and these guys will install it for you, right in the parking lot. Got a headlight out? In most cases they will put it in for you at no charge and with no wait. Where else in the world can you expect service like that? Granted, they probably do more for a woman than they'd be inclined to do for a man, but I don't really know this for a fact either. They may well do it for every customer that walks in the door.
But today, this company amazed me beyond anything that's happened since I moved here.
Last night I must have left something on in the car from the day before. I still haven't figured it out, but when I went to go grab a burger for dinner, my car was as dead as a doornail. No horn, no lights, remote doesn't work...just dead. And I'm thinking, CRAP. It's Saturday night. Tomorrow is Sunday. Will I have to call a tow-truck or maybe I can find a neighbor to jump me off....which I hate to ask. People are funny about giving you a jump with today's new cars. I'm thinking on Sunday everything will be closed...what if I have to buy a battery? I went to bed just beside myself worrying about it. I can't stand to be without transportation.
This morning about 8am I decide to call AAP and ask if (A) they are open, which I doubt...and (B) will they loan me one of those battery chargers if I can find a ride up there.
First amazement, they answered the phone. The LADY manager (that's pretty amazing too) explains to me that they don't open until 9am, but yes, they are open. And yes, if I want to leave them a charge card or something as a deposit, they will give me a battery jumper.
BUT...she says, why not just let me send my guy to your house to help you and jump the car? I ask her how much that will cost and she tells me NOTHING. "It's our customer service", she says.
Can you imagine in this day and time (and gas prices) that any company would do this? I might add that this is a new Advance Auto that just recently opened about 3 miles from me in Little River. I've always dealt with the one in North Myrtle Beach before. These people did not know me, nor did she ask my name.
She goes on to say that since it's Sunday, they won't be busy, so as soon as they open, she'll send one of the boys to help me. And if I want to tip him something, that's up to me, but there is no charge for the service.
About an hour later, a very nice older man rides up in a yellow truck, jumps me off, and then because I'm smart, I follow him back to the store to have the diagnostic done. It shows my alternator is fine, and the battery is just low but good, and advises to recharge. This has taken about 6 miles of driving, maybe an hour of their time, and they don't charge me a dime or sell me a thing. AND ARE HAPPY TO DO IT!
Yes, I tipped the man...and well. I saved a tow-truck fee, possibly being sold a battery I didn't need, and received the kind of service most people just dream of. So girls, (and guys too!) the next time you have a car problem, remember there is a company out there that wrote the book on customer service. Advance Auto Parts is the BOMB. I can't brag on them enough.
And to the home office AAP, I hope you give the manager and all the employees at 1661 Highway 17, Little River, SC a RAISE. They do more to brand your store as a winner than all the advertising in the world.
It got too long so I just decided to bring it here and say what I wanted to say. I think the points have been posted enough times, or you can go read the posting if you want to get your feathers ruffled.
Here's my take on the whole blogging thing...from an SEO's standpoint, and as a person who bought a condo 5 years ago.
There are two kinds of blogs in the real estate business, and on the internet. There are business blogs, which are often boring, and there are humorous, sometimes sarcastic, and fun to read blogs. If I want to be entertained, I'll go visit something like this. http://myrtlebeachramblings.blogspot.com/
If I was a customer buying a home (and I HAVE BEEN A CUSTOMER BUYING A HOME) I'll tell you what I would be looking for on the internet. A blog would not be the deciding factor, but I wouldn't be looking for entertainment, either. First, and maybe it's because I'm in the business, I would be choosing one of the real estate websites that ranked well in Google. Why? Because it's very very hard to rank in Google anymore if you aren't a legitimate business. Any website I go to, from an infomercial or an ad...that doesn't have a good Google pagerank, I will usually pass on. There is a reason why Amazon, Ebay, QVC, Adobe, Dell, and others are at the top of the search engine rankings...it's because they are good, legitimate businesses. Obama just won the election with no small help from Google. It's starting to rule the world, and eventually is going to.
The next thing I'd personally like to see is a PICTURE of the agent. I might pick a kindly older man, or a nice looking younger man, or a 40-something experienced and hard working lady Realtor. But I DO want to see what they look like! About the only thing I wouldn't choose is some 20-something year old in a low cut top that is flaunting her sex appeal. Now I know for a fact that those kind do well here in Myrtle Beach - among the male clients. So if you want to limit your business to men who are staring at your boobs the whole time you're selling them a home, you'll certainly get some sales from it, no doubt. But you'll lose the middle aged women, the men with jealous wives, and the religious people.
This brings me to another point...the religious references. I myself am turned off by that and probably would go straight to the next agent. But there is a HUGE group of highly religious Moral Majority types in this country...and THEY would pick that site that had the Biblical references over one that didn't. So you may limit yourself, but then again, some people prefer to work with people they have something in common with. So this is not a "don't do" in my opinion. It's simply a matter of preference. One of my customers is real big into the Gideon International Society and promotes it on his stuff. I was a fanatical Hillary Clinton supporter, and I blogged about it. If I lost a few Republican customers that way, it's not a problem. We blog about our passions, and it's a good thing, as far as I'm concerned. It shows who we are and what we believe in!
The next thing I'd look for is an excellent IDX that I do NOT have to register to use. I'll go right by one that does require that. I advise my customers NOT to require it...some take the advice and some don't. Offer an email notification of new listings and get the info that way. Then you don't offend anybody. Use an IDX product that has great photos and is simple to use. Don't make me fill in 10 boxes just to look for a 3 bedroom home with a fireplace, please. When I find a property I like, I'll click the contact button and ask you about it. And if I do this at 7pm on a Friday night, don't make me wait till 9am on Monday morning before you answer me. If you don't care about my needs enough to give me a call over your weekend, then I'll find somebody who does.
Lastly, I would probably glance over a blog and see how professional and knowledgeable the posts were. If the agent can't spell, I would run for the hills. Nothing is worse than posting things on a business website that sounds like a school kid who flunked the 2nd grade. If there are property listings on the blog, I'd probably look at a bunch of them! So I think that's a great thing, personally. I would love lots of photos and some local attractions and news, too.
I've been working with Realtors for 6 years now, and I don't know what all those abbreviations mean. Do I find it offensive when it's in a signature? No...although I've seen it overdone. There's a fine line between being proud and advertising one's accomplishments, and appearing to be a braggart. If this was my customer and was paying for my opinion, I might kindly point that out. But I would not feel like I had the right to blindly post on a site like Active Rain and blast somebody about doing it. There are ways to talk to other people and get your point across without being insulting.
BUT...for those of you who don't follow the SEO forums and know this...everywhere you go, you read that one of the best ways to get comments, views, and GOOGLE juice (aka "link-bait") is to say something controversial, be nasty, or otherwise get an upset audience to participate. My personal opinion is that Joe's post was at least partly for that reason. It certainly isn't going to win him any customers. I suspect that was mostly for the attention and the SEO. 'Course I could be wrong...but that would be my first guess.
One more point I wanted to make is about SEO. I have about 6 blogs that I'm active in, and I do it for the SEO benefit. I have one personal blog that I use for my own therapy. I try to keep my AR blog to use for long, interesting (I hope) articles, and I don't spam here or make useless posts. But posting a listing gets the same SEO benefit as posting a long, trolling, hateful post about doing the wrong things on a blog. It doesn't get the comments...but it's content. Perhaps some people are not trying to build a big reader base for their blog, but are doing what they have to do to get their website to rank. Just a thought. I do post listings occasionally for my customer's blogs, although not on here. I try to only do the really good looking homes and include a lot of photos. Personally, I like looking at a home in Flower Mound Texas just to see how different they are from homes in Greenville SC or Myrtle Beach real estate.
A couple of other points of Joe's that I don't agree with - Profiles: Absolutely I disagree with that. I think you need to take time to create a GREAT profile on AR. Include links to your website. Include links to your blogs and to profiles on the social sites (You ARE using Digg and StumbleUpon, right???) Link your AR profile on those, too. Get the Pagerank up on your AR profile and it will do an amazing amount of good towards helping your website to rank! Active Rain has become a high authority site to Google. You can bet they are keeping tabs on it.
Last of all...Ya'll need to use your signatures for your keyphrases. I think Jason Crouch pointed that out before. It really does help...maybe more than all the designations...:-) When you post a comment on someone else's blog, it throws a link to YOUR profile...making it rank better. If that link has "your city real estate" in the anchor text, it makes your profile stronger for that phrase. Then when you link to your website from that profile, it does even more good! Try to always look at everything you do and everything you write on the internet as a way to boost your main website in the search engines. It will become 2nd nature to you eventually, and one day you may find yourself with a top ranking.
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.
Most people think of Advance Auto as a vague place to go buy a headlight or a carburator if you want to save a bit of money and not shop at the car dealer. But this store and these people are SO MUCH MORE.
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