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I was referred to two recent blog posts about forwarding domain names, and I mean absolutely no disprespect at all to the author, but while there are legitimate and very useful ways to use domain forwarding, there was an aspect of her piece that I strongly disagree with; You should Forward domains for the SEO benefit and traffic from search engines. I thought that I should repost my comment as a blog post, so here's what I think (and again, no disrespect at all to the original author)
DOING THIS FOR "SEO PURPOSES" IS A BAD IDEA!
Let me say this again with even more emphasis with Italics and Underline
DOING THIS FOR "SEO PURPOSES" IS A BAD IDEA!
Do I have your attention? I hope so, because this type of thinking is exactly what has caused other major problems for Realtors in the past. How so? If it seems to be working, then why not do it?
The Parable of the Reciprocal Links
Let's look back to our not so distant history, and look at 2004-2007. A Realtor hears about the need for a website to get inbound links...and they say "Hmm, who can I get to link to me...I know! Realtor B down the hall has a website too! He can link to me!" So when he talks to Realtor B, they say "okay, but only if you link BACK to me. So they start reciprocally linking, and both their domains increase in rankings! Then Realtor C hears about it, and he exchanges links with Realtor A and Realtor B. They all increase their rankings. So the other realtors start hearing about it, and they start a referal system and spend dozens even hundreds of hours exchanging links. Why? Because it worked! It got them rankings and traffic beyond imagination!
Annnndddd thennnn
The bottom dropped out. Yahoo, then Google both looked at the site they were ranking for terms and saw this huge bloated monsterous tangle of Realtors linking back and forth and sideways and asked " Why would it matter if an Alaskan Realtor linked to a Florida Realtor? Is someone looking for a home in Juno REALY going to find that reference at all helpful? NO Is there any reason these Realtors are linked OTHER THAN they got improved Rankings? NO
BRIMSTONE! FIRE! DEVASTATION!
The great Voice of the Algorithm had spoken! Certain groups of sites were totally removed temporarily from the index of Yahoo. Others lost all ranking, great mass panic and finger pointing ensued. At a conference, Google confirms that reciprocal "link farms" like the one that Realtors had built, were at best going to be ignored, at worst could trigger penalties. Hundred of hours spent by Realtors exchanging links simply vanished. The Moral Of The Story Do NOT just do something because "it worked". Now, the Realtors involved in the reciprocal link exchange didn't do wrong by linking to other sites...nor linking to each other on a 1 to 1 basis. What they got wrong was that they weren't really adding ANY VALUE to the customer/visitor of their site, and by extension the customer/user of Google/Yahoo. The Search Engines bottom line is to direct their users to the most Authorative and Relevant website for a particular search term. The search engines are not a "static experience" they are updating their process every month, every week, every day. Don't just do something for SEO "because it works".
--That being said--
a. I believe that using domains as forwards for Print Advertising Campaign is a GREAT IDEA. (Because it's useful to your customers to make getting to the site easier)
b. Using redirects for a domain that you used to have a site at and moved is a GREAT IDEA. (Because it's useful to your customer to make sure they still get to the site they wanted to reach)
Not a Set it and Forget it situation:
Simply buying dozens and dozens of domain names, and forwarding them in Godaddy is not going to give you instant results. If you actually google the domain referenced as an example livingatrhodesranch.com you'll see that there are links pointed to the domain from multiple sources on multiple sites. You may also want to note that the domain doesn't just point to her site's homepage, she has it redirected to a page built out with Rhodes Ranch information and homes. So it's not a magic fix that will let you walk away from doing real internet marketing.
-My 2 Cents- DO THE WORK REAP THE REWARDS: Instead of just 1 click masking a domain and expecting leads to materialize, do the work. Open a free Wordpress.com site, add some relevant information to the city, and your service, link to your listings, spend $8 to redirect the domain to it, build some inbound links from valid sources (like your AR blog, Localism etc) online and actually be the relevant authority for the area. Get rich quick schemes only make those who sell the schemes rich. The path is narrow! but stick to it, and be successful!
Howdy!
Well, I've finally revamped my Riverside real estate website, but my partnerships with my Riverside Realtors I previously featured have dropped off. The good news is that Google has re-indexed my site and I'm once again ranking for riverside real estate. If you're a Riverside CA Real Estate agent, and want to know more about being featured on my site, drop me a message, email or call.
Cheers!
The huge obstacle to being successful online is overcoming the need to research and understand your online market. This is SUPER helpful to acheiving success by leveraging knowledge to better harvest results. Via John Jones (Weekly SEO):
San Diego homes, San Diego real estate, San Diego Foreclosures... these are all types of keywords you can expect home buyers, sellers and real estate investors to be searching for on Google.
To prove the above statement I went to Google's own keyword tool to get the estimated number of times each of the above keywords have been searched over the last month. Here are the results:
- San Diego Homes - Searched roughly 673,000
- San Diego real Estate - Searched roughly 201,000
- San Diego foreclosures - Searched roughly 301,000
Even if you were to rank well enough for just those three keywords to get 1% of the total visitors from those searches you would be looking at 11,750 visitors to your website each and every month.
The three mentioned keywords are CRAZY popular and therefore probably going to be highly competitive amongst your peers if you are in San Diego. While these are the most desired keywords to rank for in San Diego, they aren't the only keywords.
In every market, we find that a real estate agent will target multiple markets and multiple niche focal points. This gives us a starting point with our keyword research and ultimately results in a list of keywords ranging from maybe 30 all the way up to several hundred combinations.
Today I launched a new FREE hyperlocal keyword discovery tool that takes the process of building your initial keyword list and simplifies it. Anyone can utilize this tool without the need of a PHD or deep understanding of the Internet. There are a total of three questions asked; they are:
#1. What areas (Cities, Counties, Neighborhoods) do you work in?
#2. What service / product (real estate, foreclosures, luxury homes, etc.) do you sell?
#3. What state are you in?
Give it a try, you'll find that keyword research doesn't have to be difficult at all. Once you have your keyword list, take it to Google via the link above and determine which keywords are going to drive the most traffic and which ones are you focusing on that maybe you shouldn't be wasting your time with.
Sincerely,
John F. Jones III
Info@10minutes.org
Http://www.10minutes.org
A solid part of making your real estate website an authority in your area is to build inbound links from appropriate and authority directories. These links generally come from submitting yourself as a business listing, but where do you start? While Yellowpages.com and Superpages.com are the first that come to mind, you can actually use Google to suggest other directories.So a search for Realtors in your area, and a map showing listed businesses will appear on the results page. If you see one has listed reviews, click for more information and see what directory those reviews were listed on. Navigate the site, and submit your own listing, because you now know that Google recognizes that directories entrys and will give you an opportunity to get noticed.
A website is multi-faceted in it's benefits to the for a real estate agent because it serves multiple purposes.
- The ability to use as a sales tool to get potential listings onboard.
- It's a marketing platform to display those listings and the business.
- It allows outreach onto 3rd party platforms by property exportation, and over time, Google/Yahoo/Bing Rankings.
- It's an online location that serves as a reference point on outbound marketing promotions via directories like Yellowpages.com, Superpages.com, Yelp.com and the like. This has a secondary benefit of increasing the rankings of your site as you become more visible.
- It serves as a center point for social media outreach, speaking to the clients you can interact naturally, and draw them in to your site which does the converting from visitor to client. This has a secondary benefit of increasing the rankings of your site as you become more visible.
There are no "magic beans" here, just a new way to harness technology to improve a business. It doesn't matter how sharp the axe, without someone to swing it, there's no firewood and a long cold winter.
 The Best Room at the Inn
The historical mission in Riverside, California is a fabulous testiment to the Mission Revival style of architecture. Rooms in the mission in vary in price from the low hundreds to the thousands per night. One of the best rooms in the entire hotel though is the Glenwood Suite.
Looking out from the spacious living room of this two room suite, you look down into the courtyard of their 4 star restaurant, and across the way you can see the herb garden and oriental style roof of the Japanese wing of the Inn. Staying a night in this room will set you back around $1300-1400 but it is a terrific romantic getaway with style and class.
If you are a blog owner, then you definately should consider following these steps to help you break out! Via John Jones:
I noticed today and over the last week that my Active Rain posts are capping out at about 100 views before the views start to trickle in. Further, I'm ranging anywhere from 40 - 50 click through's to each post I write and roughly 4 - 5 comments on average per post.
So how does one break through the glass ceiling and succeed at getting 500 views and 100 - 200 clicks to each post? Many people will want to say, "Quality & Catchy" content but I must say that some of my posts have taken a great deal of time and in some cases creativity so I am thinking that for the most part I have covered quality and occasionally catchy.
The answer comes in many different ways and several combinations of these methods. Here are just a few ideas to jump start your views, clicks and comments. I cannot possibly cover all potential ways to promote your AR blog but I'm sure that others will be able to provide other creative ways.
- Add a very visible link to your blog on your websites main navigation. Many major companies that have blogs make sure to announce the fact that they have a blog and so should we.
- With every e-mail you send out, be sure to add your blog URL to the signature line. This is what you should already be doing to promote your website so why not your blog?
- Take the time to submit your blogs RSS feed to feed based directories. About a week ago I wrote about 45 sites that you can submit your RSS feed tofor free. After I wrote that article and submitted some of my own RSS feeds to these directories I did see my numbers jump a little and stay fairly stable at the new range.
- Promote other posts you've written within new posts. If something you wrote in the past is relevant to what you are writing about now then be sure to provide a link to it. One perfect example is the link I included in item #3 on this list and in #5 below.
- Get in the habit of ending all of your posts with something like a "Previous Post: The Professionals I know"
- Take the time once a week to write a post titled something like, "End of the Week Round Up" where you briefly recap on the posts you've written during the week and maybe even some other posts you've commented on.
- Take #6 as the basic principle and apply it to a monthly post titled something like, "Monthly Conclusion"
- Get active on Twitter or Plurk and join hundreds if not thousands of other Realtors and even locals in your area. When you write a new blog post simply announce the post if you think those following your profile would appreciate the information you have to provide.
- Write posts that others might want to Reblog about. A link back to the original post is provided each time a post is reblogged which means you'll get some foot traffic that way.
- Ask other AR members that subscribe to your blog to ReBlog, Tweet, Plurk or otherwise pass on the post to others if they enjoyed the article.
- Building consistency in the style of your writing and with the posts you write to keep people returning to see whats new. (Contributed by Ron Moore; a Florence South Carolina Realtor)
- Reciprocation and participation in others blogs via commenting directly and even referencing can build up an interest base directly to your own blog but make sure your reciprocation is genuine and your contributions helpful. (Contributed by Ron Moore; a Florence Realtor)
What other ways can you think of that will help promote your posts and help you reach your next level with your AR blog? Share your strategies below with everyone so that we can each test different concepts out.
By the way, if you ReBlog I'd appreciate a Reblog of this article. If you are on Twitter I'd appreciate if you would share this with your other Realtor connections that might be on AR but don't catch this article and of course if you have any other strategy to promote blogs I'd appreciate your help in helping me get to my next level.
Downtown Riverside
Taking a walk in downtown Riverside is a truly great experience. You will see many different historic buildings like the mission inn. The downtown pedestrian mall has a large number of small, non chain stores so shopping really is contributing to the local bussiness person. You can get all kinds of unique gifts and toys from Ms. Tigglywiggles or get some scrap book supplies from Auntie Amy's.
Downtown Cuisine
The Historic mission inn has 4 top rated restaurants, from their Las Campanas mexican restauraant to Fratoria, Italian you definately will enjoy the food. If you are looking for the best sandwich in the world, then go to Simple Simon's, and try the Grilled Marinated Chicken breast sandwhich served on french bread with real olives baked into it. Downtown riverside is a real blast!
Rise of the Multi Media Real Estate Platform
With more and more venture capital available, we continue to see a growth of new websites online that are integrating the newest innovations in online services with what has traditionally been a low tech industry. Real estate is opening up to technology, and Realtors need to be on their toes about what is changing. Zipvo is another example of a new technology that is expanding even further than it's original scope. You upload your virtual tours, and then they becoem searchable by zip code for interested home buyers. They just expanded to include an article submission feature similar to Digg.com, but for the RE industry. Here' my word of advice, keep on top of these trends, there are some great free tools, and ways to market listings now!
Find a Home in Riverside
Riverside California is a beautiful community in Southern California. The city has several distinct regions that you can look in and find the home that you are looking for. The historic downtown area has the Mission Revival architectural marvel of the Mission Inn. This is a 4 star hotel, with the classy Presidential Lounge, and 4 world class restaurants.
Downtown Riverside
In downtown, they hold a farmers market weekly, selling fresh fruits, flowers and other local products. You can also enjoy the diverse culture of Riverside through it's Art Walk on the first thrusday of Every month.
Unique City, Unique Architecture
If you want to find a craftsman, Vistorian or colonial revival style home then you should look to the "Woods Streets". We can help you relocate and find the best piece of Riverside Real Estate, that meets your specific needs. Riverside is really a gorgeous community.
Tour Riverside Through Video
Want to get a fresh look at Riverside, check out these "Riverside in 20 seconds" video tours!
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Jeremy Rivera
Riverside,
CA
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Riverside Home Source
Address: ca
Cell Phone: (951) 275-6814
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