This morning I really hit pay dirt. I was combing over SEO blogs as part of my research for an article I'm writing about driving traffic to real estate blogs and websites. We've been running a series of experiments with great results and I wanted to check in with the experts to discover what I might be doing right. I'm by no means an expert SEO aficionado or guru. I'm a subscriber to the good internet Karma school... "If it's well written and follows good composition principles," it should do just fine. Then I do my best to back that up with a little "common sense" key word usage, tags and such... Seriously, I jest. I know there's a lot to it and I'm an enthusiastic student. But I stress the term, student.
Not that I ignore SEO by any means, it's just that I'm so Right Brain. I confess my SEO is more ISMP (intuitive by the seat of my pants). My challenge is when I'm writing and think SEO at the same time it flips my internal editor on (that darn left brain critic) which shuts down the right side of my brain. You see, I basically hangout in the right side of my brain most everyday so when the editor comes on I'm instantly catapulted into a concentric Left Right Brain argument that can paralyze me for hours. I can't compose and edit at the same time.
It's even worse then when I'm staring at an empty page.
"Okay, let's start."
Yes, no, maybe, not that, could be, what if, how come, left right left right, not quite so right, a little more to the middle, what about graphics?
"There's gotta be a better way to say this!"
"Say what?"
"Okay then, what the ‘ell you trying to say here?"
Just throw some stuff on the stupid page, start playing with it, and stop trying to write the quintessential definitive internet marketing dissertation of the early 21st Century. Anyway, a couple of hours ago you had this really great idea. "What was that again?"
My work these days is more about the ‘big idea'. (A nice way to humor me and let me know I'm pretty much the old guy around here now.) I peer into the future and pick a destination. Where are we going? Dream about it. Ask the question, "if we were there, what would it look like?" Then assemble and implement.
Quite simple, right?
I use to do a fair amount of programming in Access, Excel, Visual Studio, and I studied (back in the day) Assembly Language, Basic (mostly before visual), Forth, C (before the pluses), Paradox, and HTML. Thank the Lord I now have an excellent programmer that works with me. Kareem Hunter knows Visual Basic and Visual Studio way beyond my comprehension and works miracles for me daily. I conceptually get the gist of it for sure, but the new versions look like Greek-eeze to me.
That's why I have such a love affair with today's Web 2.0+ internet. There's so many wonderful resources and solutions out there that I can play with what someone else has already built. They usually give me plenty of options to inner-act, tweak, and customize. I don't need to be a programmer (for the most part) to make what I want happen. Just write a little code here and there, plug in a widget, play with the Lego's and COOL, it works, it's fun, and it looks great.
I digress, but having fun.
I looked at several blogs this morning and found a few real gems.
Check these out, I think they're worth a look.
I found Brandon Corbett this morning. He's here on AR at: Brandon72
He's produced 3 really great videos that I found on YouTube. Brandon's delivery is easy to follow and understand. He does a great job and has a lot of great ideas. It's good practical SEO application that we all need to know.
Lesson 1 - Real Estate SEO - Link Building
Lesson 2 - Real Estate SEO - Website Content
Lesson 3 - Real Estate SEO - Website Attrition
While I was looking at Brandon's videos I discovered Wil Reynolds. I don't find him here on the rain, but I did find him on YouTube and LinkedIn.com. He's got a ton of neat videos on SEO and some fabulous ideas. You can check him out at: Wil Reynolds
I especially like these two...
And if you're not quite sure what Twitter can do for you, watch this one.
Using Twitter for Link Building
Speaking of left brain right brain, do you know what side of your brain drives your world? Take the test and find out.
So what are you, a lefty or a righty?
enjoy... René
Left Brain, Right Brain image courtesy of Idea Champions
Spinning Lady image courtesy of The Herald Sun
Comments(18)