Kevin's Web Design and Marketing Blog

Real estate keywords tool

Kevin Harper (Top Seller Sites) — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 11:08:56 -0600

Ever wonder what keywords you ought to be targeting in your real estate SEO and blogging efforts? I get that question all the time, which is why I created a simple (and free) tool for agents to use. It will generate a nice keyword list for you based on the localization and keyword variables you select.

This is how it works:

Select your state
Type in up to ten local city and/or county names
Choose several of the most popular keyword variations
Click "Submit Keywords"

You'll get a list of up to 1,587 keyword variations you should be using in your blogging and website SEO, depending upon how many options you select. I have the most popular variations selected by default, but you are free to select them all or be very choosy and select your own. That's actually what I recommend...you don't want to waste time optimizing for condo keywords if you live in a rural area with no condos!

You can find the Real Estate Keywords Tool at www.realestatekeywordstool.com. If you like it, please share! If not, please let me know and I'll work to improve it. :-)

Are You a Boilerplate Realtor?

Kevin Harper (Top Seller Sites) — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 18:13:08 -0600

Are you a boilerplate Realtor®? Are you a clone of all the other real estate agents out there you are competing with?

"Of course not," you say. But is your most important marketing tool, your website, a boilerplate site? I thought so.

Why do so many real estate agents get sucked into boilerplate sites that just don't perform—that just don't bring in leads, listings, or sales? It's easy to keep paying for them, month after month, year after year, with the same dismal results when it comes to search engine ranking and search engine traffic.

Chances are, you just didn't know any better. Well now you do! If you know better, you can do better, and I'll explain for you exactly why boilerplate sites are virtually (no pun intended) a complete waste of money.

You're not a clone

Repeat after me: "I am not a clone." When you pay $50/mo for a boilerplate site, you get what you pay for. You are enabling the business model of some big corporate website factory that is only interested in as many monthly checks from Realtors as they can get.

In order to keep prices low (or free) they are sacrificing the one thing that a Realtor® in this market needs most: individuality. As a real estate agent, to get a listing, you have to market yourself and your experience selling real estate first and foremost. Only then do you get entrusted with marketing the real estate itself.

So when you, a hard working real estate agent, plunk down a few bucks for a cookie cutter website that just came off the assembly line (or worse, came off the assembly line years ago), you are committing real estate suicide. You're basically saying "I'm a clone of everyone else out there who has a site that looks (and performs) exactly like everyone else's.

That's like saying "There's no reason you should hire me and not the other guy, because we're all alike."

Unless you're a cookie, your site shouldn't be a cookie cutter site if you want it to pay for itself and actually produce leads, listings, and sales for you.

Search engines don't like boilerplate content

Search engines don't like boilerplate information any more than a home buyer or seller wants a boilerplate real estate agent.

One of the keys to search engine success is so simple it's almost embarrassing for someone like me who earns a living giving web marketing advice. One of the most important keys to search engine success is uniqueness. You are unique. Make sure your site reflects that.

When search engines find cloned information out there in the vast web universe, they discount it and put it on the bargain shelf. It's not considered as relevant for search results as unique content.

In fact, if there is too much cloned content on your site, it can actually hurt you in the search engine rankings, because Google's algorithms can detect copycat content.

While that is going to make a lot of boilerplate Realtors® unhappy, it makes sense when you think about it. If there are 10,000 copies of identical boilerplate articles floating around on the web, one for each of the 10,000 customers of some big website factory, why would Google pick one over another to show in its search results?

Google's algorithms are designed to look for the most unique, the most relevant, and the most useful information that matches the search criteria of the searcher. Sorry folks, that is just not going to be that really cool set of boilerplate articles that came with your boilerplate website.

Search engines don't like clones, and (ironically enough), neither do humans.

Write unique content

It's not as hard as it might seem to become a good enough writer to produce strong search engine results. You don't have to start off as a polished writer. Don't let your fear of the blank page scare you into never giving it a shot.

If you are serious about successfully competing online for real estate clients, I would say that writing is an essential skill.

In future newsletters and podcasts (iTunes version), I'll cover more on how to develop your writing skills, overcome writer's block, and how to conquer the hardest part of writing: coming up with ideas to write about. I'll include tips on blogging, as well as some blog topic ideas for Realtors® to make the most of their website presence.

In the meantime, don't be a Boilerplate Realtor®! You're not a clone, so don't let your website look or read like one. Make your online presence unique, and you'll start seeing much better search engine results.

Kevin Harper
Custom Real Estate Websites
(208) 249-8893

Using domain redirects instead of parking + using micro sites

Kevin Harper (Top Seller Sites) — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 12:42:40 -0500

I had a question today from a client about parking domains vs. redirecting them. This questions comes up a lot, since there are articles out there that get it completely backwards.

If you have multiple domains, should you park them, or redirect them to your main site?
What about creating "micro sites" on their own domains? Is that a bad practice?

I ran across one site that recommended domain parking and suggested that micro sites directing traffic to your main site are banned by Google. There may be good reason to be careful with micro sites, but it's just wrong to say they are banned by Google or should always be avoided. They are a common practice, and I'll show you some links to a Proctor and Gamble example.

In order to make sense of this subject, it's important to understand what Google is trying to avoid, which is duplicate content (AKA spam).

Use domain redirects, not domain parking

Let's say a site has good content on one domain. Then the owner goes out and parks 30 more domains on it, with no redirects. That otherwise good content is watered down now, duplicated x30. Google's index is now bloated, and they feel (correctly) that they're being "gamed" with spam. Google's recommended practice is to redirect domains, not just park them.

Read this article about domain redirects from beginning to end and you'll get it.

If you want to use micro sites, do them right

Let's say you have one main domain, but focused content that you want to put up on another domain directing traffic or links to your main site. There's nothing wrong with that, as long as the site is unique, the domain is unique, and the content is unique. Those are huge caveats, don't violate them.

Using micro sites is technically no different than another content site linking to yours. The only thing different is that the owner is the same. In a "free speech" world, you can have as many micro sites as you want if you have the time and resources to write them, if they are not spam articles solely for the benefit of search engines. If they contain legitimately useful content, then by all means, link from them to your main site.

Whether they'll rank well and actually bring in significant traffic is debatable. They may not provide the best allocation of resources, since you really ought to be spending the bulk of your time and budget on your main site. What they can do, however, is add an inbound link to your site from a keyword-rich page. It doesn't have to have a high PageRank to help in that effort. Building micro sites is not something I would devote a lot of money to...yet I believe it can help in the whole SEO equation.

Think of it like Proctor and Gamble having a main site with a product page for Charmin, but also having a micro site for Charmin that deals in a more focused way with promoting that specific product. Both these sites point to each other. You could actually remove the link back from the main site and have it be a little more advantageous, since one way links are better than exchanges.

An example of a micro site that might work for real estate is a small site that focuses on mountain biking trails in your region, complete with maps and lists of clubs. Then your articles could link to content pages on your main site about subdivisions near those trails, or a free downloadable report (in exchange for their contact info, of course) containing trail maps near your targeted subdivisions. This idea could be applied to almost any special interest that you're passionate enough about to devote time to.

How a high Google rank can win you the listing

Kevin Harper (Top Seller Sites) — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 00:09:43 -0500

One of the cool things that a top ranking website does for a real estate agent is bring traffic and eyeballs. But traffic is not the only thing it brings. It also brings credibility and can close a listing deal for a client who's never even been to your website.

Wait a minute, you say...how can a high SERP (Search Engine Results Page) rank for your targeted keywords help you get listings from people who have never been online to search Google? Because you tell them about it in your listing presentation. Duh.

Every seller wants to know that you've got what it takes to market their property effectively, particularly in a market like this one. When it comes to PageRank or high SERP ranking (they're not the same, as any SEO guy or gal will tell you), if you've got it, flaunt it. It's pretty impressive to tell someone that when buyers are searching for "xyz homes," they're going to find your site.

So if you're in the top four for "idaho real estate" (like one of my clients...sorry, had to brag) you need to tell the world about it. Or at least your next listing prospect.

Are you targeting type-in traffic or search engine traffic?

Kevin Harper (Top Seller Sites) — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 22:40:31 -0500

I had a good conversation today with a client about the different marketing decisions I would make if I were targeting type-in traffic vs. search engine traffic. A light bulb went off in his head as he started to realize he'd been forfeiting a lot of traffic to competitors by focusing too much on one strategy without the other.

Type-in traffic strategy

You may be one who chose your domain name purely to reflect your corporate or personal identity. This is a strategy that mostly relies on type-in traffic from people reading your business card or advertisement and typing in www.CompanyName.com or www.YourName.com to find you.

While there is a lot to be said for the brandability of this approach, keep in mind it's not the only alternative you have. If you are relying only on type-in traffic (or people looking specifically for you on Google), then you're probably leaving a lot of leads on the table by ignoring the search engine traffic strategy. Let's face it—most people aren't looking for you. They are looking for a service. It's your job to be found by being where they're searching.

The old rules of choosing short dot com domains with no dashes still apply to a type-in traffic strategy. You're wanting people to remember the name of your site so they can go home and type it in, so you don't want to have a website that looks like www.my-best-keywords.biz. After all, when you give out your web address on the phone, prospective clients will probably not put the dashes in the right places, and will probably type in dot com rather than dot biz.

But if you have only targeted type-in traffic up to this point, let me introduce another approach to you. It pays to complement your existing strategy with a search engine traffic strategy.

Search engine traffic strategy

Like any project, it's important to pick the right tools for the job. If you're expecting to capture search engine traffic with a type-in traffic strategy, that's probably why your traffic expectations aren't being met. Being on the web is not the same as being visible on the web. There's a lot of competition out there for website traffic, and if you want it from the search engines, you are going to need to invest in it.

A domain that targets search engine traffic doesn't have the restriction of needing to be short, free of dashes, dot com, and memorable. What's most important is the keyword value of the domain (along with the search engine friendly design of the site, of course). I don't want to overstate the value of the domain in the equation—it's certainly possible to capture high search engine traffic with a domain that reflects purely a corporate identity. It's just that, all things being equal, Google will tend to value the domain with targeted keywords over one that doesn't have them. Given equally designed sites with equal content, www.idaho-mls-listings.com (a site I'm developing, by the way) is considered to be more relevant to searches for Idaho MLS listings than www.mycorporateidentity.com.

My point is simply that if you're out to capture search engine traffic, you don't need the best and shortest dot com. www.my-city-mortages.com or www.city-real-estate-listings.info do just fine. You can always link them back to your main site if you choose a blended approach.

Search engine friendly design

It is appalling how many boiler plate real estate websites are nearly invisible to search engines. They are notoriously lacking in basic search engine friendly design features like HTML navigation (rather than Javascript or Flash), and unique, keyword-rich, useful content (rather than boiler plate filler articles).

I will write more on this later, as this is a topic that could get quite lengthy. But if your site is not capturing traffic from your target market on the search engines, it's probably because you are relying too much on type-in traffic. You need to either broaden your strategy on your existing site to target search engine traffic better, or add a search engine friendly website into your marketing repertoire for a blended approach.

How to give your leads to your competitors

Kevin Harper (Top Seller Sites) — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 14:16:39 -0500

Want to lose business to your competitor? Then wait a day to respond when fresh leads contact you from your website.

We live in an era of instant gratification. Most Internet visitors want their e-mails, voicemails, and website inquiries answered yesterday. When they don't get that fast response, they'll just move on--to your competitor, of course.

Too many professionals with websites think of their site as an overhead expense rather than as a lead- or sales-generating tool. But in order to get ahead of your competition, you need to think of your website in terms of its cost per lead (CPL).

You ostensibly spend money on your site for the purpose of producing leads or sales. So take the amount you spend in a given month or year, and divide it by the number of leads you receive in that time. This is your cost per lead. (If you don't get enough leads from your site to count, you definitely need to contact me for some tips!)

Let's say you spend $300/month on various website related services. That's $3600 per year. If you get 10 leads per month from your site, your cost per lead is $30. If you get fewer than 10 leads per month, your cost per lead is even higher. The more leads you get for the same amount of money, the lower your per-lead cost is.

Whatever your CPL is, putting a number to it should make you think twice about waiting a day to respond to a new lead's website inquiry. That's like going to the store to buy $30 worth of ice cream and letting it sit in the hot car for a day before remembering to get it out of the trunk. It's a colossal waste of both time and money that could have been spent elsewhere on more productive tasks.

There are two major steps in getting the most out of your leads: reducing your cost per lead, and increasing your conversion rate. So let's talk about these two steps.

Reducing your cost per lead (Getting more ice cream for less)
This is roughly analagous to going to Costco rather than Baskin Robins for all of your ice cream. You may spend more up front, but you're buying in bulk to keep unit prices down. If you're spending $200 per month resulting in only one lead, your CPL is $200. That isn't good, because if only one in 10 leads becomes a sale, most businesses are going to be underwater real fast. On the other hand, if you make changes that bump up your lead-capture costs to $300/month and you now net 5 leads per month, you've cut your CPL by 70% to only $60.20.
Increasing your conversion rate (Using it before it melts)
This is the part of the equation that most professionals let slip in the day-to-day operations of their businesses. Let's say your experience shows that you convert one in ten leads into sales. Conversion rates are going to be extremely different for different products and markets, of course. Yours may be higher or lower. But what if you could bump up that "hit rate" to one in eight? How about one in seven or one in five? Small improvements in your conversion rate will show dramatic increases in your bottom line.

How can you make small improvements in your conversion rate? Follow up with your leads like they are ice cream melting in the sun. By decreasing your response time, you are going to increase your conversion rate and get the most bang for your CPL buck. You're able to use more of that ice cream before it melts.

The best way I know to insure a bad conversion rate is to let leads go stale. That's why direct response companies that sell leads drop the prices for them precipitously as they get older. If you want to improve your conversion rate, and you're not in the habit of responding to leads immediately when they come in, here are some techniques to help you kick that bad habit.

Tips to decrease response time

Create a form on your website that not only stores your leads in a database, but sends an e-mail to you immediately to respond to immediately. And no, I'm not being redundant. Just because you get the e-mail immediately doesn't mean you'll respond immediately. Make sure you do, and you'll be a step closer to making sure your lead turns into a sale.
Set up your e-mail so that you will always know ASAP when you have new correspondence. With the volume of junk mail hitting our inboxes these days, this could mean taking proactive steps in combating spam via third party services. It's worth it. Take control of your inbox and you'll begin to take control of your lead conversion rate.
If you're not at your computer enough to respond to e-mail quickly, then have the form on your website forward an alert to an assistant who can call you or deal with it immediately, or to your cell phone so you can.

An instant response is the ultimate in customer service, and that will go a long way toward boosting your conversion rate. Of course, there will always be occasions when family time or a business meeting keeps us from responding instantly. But the faster we can get back to a lead, the less likely they are to walk into the hands of our competitor.

If you don't let the ice cream melt before you get a chance to use it, chances are, you'll get more ice cream. Your leads will turn into customers, and they will be handing you even more leads. Now that's a nice problem to have!

Using Google Local business listings to capture search traffic

Kevin Harper (Top Seller Sites) — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 02:56:28 -0600

One thing every Active Rain member should do immediately is go through the steps to list your business on Google Local. Don't know what Google Local is?

It's basically their mapping portal, but it's really much more than that. I'll explain why.

Google has been including Google Local results at the top of generic search results for awhile now. When Joe Homebuyer types in "Yourtown Real Estate," there are a number of ways he can find your site.

Organic Search
It is the holy grail of most website owners to be #1 for their targeted keywords in organic search. This means that Joe Homebuyer finds your site in numbers 1 through 10 of the search results. The higher, the better, of course.
Pay Per Click Advertising
Google's system is called Adwords (not to be confused with Adsense, their revenue sharing system for content owners--I'll write more about these later). This means that Joe Homebuyer clicks on one of your ads in the top or the sidebar of Google's results and kaching, you just spent a buck or two for a visitor (or more, depending on the current price of your keyword).
Google Local Results
For many search terms that include a city name (such as Yourtown Real Estate), Google will show local businesses ABOVE the search results. This means you can show up BEFORE the number one listed site just by taking the time to get your business listed in your city.

Go to Google and type in the name of the city you do business along with the type of business you're in. For most Active Rain users, it will be "Yourtown Real Estate." You will probably see a few local business listed like this:

Local results for real estate near Yourtown, ID

Below this heading will be several local businesses, and yours could be one of them. Of course, larger cities have more competition, and Google may rotate matching businesses through the lineup. But it's absolutely free to be listed.

Of course, don't depend on Google Local for search traffic. There's really no replacement for a search engine friendly website with well-written content, meta description tags, keywords, h1 tags, etc. But business owners who do not take the time to get listed in Google Local are missing an easy potential source of website traffic, and therefore leads.

To sign up for Google Local, just go to the maps.google.com page and click the link in the left sidebar that says:

"Business Owners: Add/Edit Your Business"

It's that simple.

Getting quoted in the press

Kevin Harper (Top Seller Sites) — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 11:32:14 -0600

Getting quoted by the press is one of the most under-recognized but powerful sources of free advertising. When successful, it is actually more like an endorsement than an advertisement, and such "passive endorsements" are far more effective than paid display ads in newspapers or magazines. It definitely gives you credibility when your clients and customers see you quoted as an authority in your field.

Following are some recommendations that should help you get noticed:

Don't count on wire services
It's true that mass-distribution outlets can help a reporter find you, but you will probably have far more success reaching out to individual reporters and editors who are most likely to be interested in your story idea. Remember that they receive hundreds of press releases on their desks each week, and probably thousands more in their e-mail inbox. Work on building a trusting, mutually beneficial relationship. You may have a great story, but if a reporter doesn't know you from Adam (or Eve), you have less of a chance to make that good first impression.
Read the publication you are pitching a story to
It is helpful to write your press release in the writing style of the publication you are pitching a story to. Yes, this requires you to actually read it on occasion! As marketing director, it was worth every penny in subscription costs to have a stack of publications on my desk. These gave me a wealth of story ideas and the names of reporters to contact who were interested in writing stories like mine. It also gave me a sense of the writing style of each particular publication. Let's face it, Daily Variety has a much different tone to it than the Real Estate Journal.
Make one-on-one contact with reporters and editors
Don't assume that because your press release hit the newswires or the newsdesk that the editors at a particular publication are aware of it. It's your job as the one who cares most about your message to follow up with the right people. One technique I've found useful is to ask the newsdesk which reporter would be most likely to be interested in the subject of my story. Doing this requires you to be able to give a one or two sentence summary of your story idea, but this is how I landed my first article in the Wall Street Journal. I simply called the closest bureau and asked if there was a reporter that might be a good match for my story. I was forwarded to her voice mail and she called me back a day or two later.
Be prepared to make your pitch in a voice mail
It pays to be prepared to make a quick pitch by voicemail, even if it's just a teaser. Explain in just a few sentences what your story idea is, and that you wanted to find out if they are interested in covering that type of story. That may be the only opportunity you get to make the pitch. E-mail is a great way to make contact if you already have an e-mail address for them, but you don't always have that at the beginning of the process.
Be interesting
If you don't sound passionate about your story, don't expect a reporter to get excited about it. Maybe this seems self-evident, but don't take it for granted.
Be respectful of an editor's or reporter's time
While it's your job to follow up and try to make contact to pitch your story, never, never, never be the pesky salesperson. You are there to help with a story, not bother them about one. Pestering reporters will just turn them off to your message. The Biblical advice contained in the Golden Rule is important here. You don't want sales people bugging you, and reporters don't want to be bugged either.Be
Be genuinely helpful and expect no guarantees
The best thing you can do is be helpful and be genuine. Don't ever be tricky or minipulative. Reporters are simply looking for good information to make a good story, and if you provide them with that, you stand the most chance of getting quoted in a story at some point. It's a relationship thing. Sources that stand out from the crowd will be the ones who take the time to build a friendly relationship with members of the press.
Be accessible
Because reporters and editors work in such a deadline driven environment, it works in your favor to bend over backwards to adjust to their time constraints. If they are working on your story, their deadline is your deadline. In the course of your conversations, try to find out when their regular deadlines are so that you can (a) get information to them in a tcontribuener, and (b) avoid bothering them around that time.
Be patient
It can take weeks, sometimes months, to go from press release to publication. Keep in mind that reporters are working under numerous deadlines for numerous stostories.Bey one time. Your story may be the most important one to you, but even if a reporter likes your story and intends to follow up on it, it may take time for that to occur. I've had reporters call me back months after I made a pitch, long after I thought the story idea was dead, to get more information on it.
Look for trends
Simple one-dimensional stories are good. Multi-dimensional stories that fit into a regional or national trend are infinitely better. If you are wanting to get mentioned in the press, I highly recommend reading the prominently placed stories in newspapers, magazines, and trade journals. You'll find that the feature stories are not usually write-ups about a particular company, but about a trend wherein a particular company has a role. As a general rule, a trend story consists of at least three perspectives, which means you may need to share space with a couple of your competitors. Don't figit.Look, it's the nature of the business. In fact, be preparMulti-dimensionalames and contact information for colleagues who are not outright competitors who can add another perspective to the story. This is all the more reason to develop a good relationship with the reporter!

These are some of the lessons I've learned in dealing with the news media. I hope they are helpful to some of you here!

I'd love to see some comments with your own experiences, tips and suggestions on this subject.