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Blog Titles and Website Copy... Wasted Valuable Real Estate

You want to sell real estate, that's why you got an ActiveRain blog to go with the real estate website you're hoping will translate into real estate sales.

What's the most valuable part of your website and blog?

The title and the opening line of text.

The first words out your mouth need to be what your prospect wants... NOT what you want to say about yourself.

No One Gives a Damn Who You Are

Nor do they really care if you "welcome them to your website"

The most common gross tactical error I see in company websites of all kinds is to open with:

"Welcome to our website"

Your prospects care about one thing and one thing only: What they're searching for and are you local.

keywords + geographical area.

Give Google's customer (it's users, the people who use Google to search for anything and everything) what they want and Google will give you what you want.

The audience to please is, in this order: Make Google's users happy, Give Google what it wants, then give your prospects what they want. You come in dead last in this pecking order.

Let's analyze this: if your company isn't in the top spot in Google, no one will ever see your website. A website's sole purpose, it's only reason for existance is to PERFORM in Google Search Results Pages (aka serps). It's a waste of time, effort and money to craft a website if said website doesn't show up in the top ten, the first page of search results.

To pull this off you have to give Google what it wants... and what Google wants is for it's users to find what they want... and they way they do that is this and this alone:

keywords + geographical area

not keywords + geographical area, people search for X, then quickly discover Google returns search results for X in other states, not where they are. They clicked back and added the geographical area they are located in.

Another gross tactical marketing error on most company websites, real estate websites/ blogs included is:

keywords PLURAL, most business owners selfishly want people to think they are the sole supplier for X in a region. It's human nature, your prospects on the other hand are NOT searching for ONE suppiler, they're searching for the plural of a keyword.

Take lawyers for example, I have attorneys as local SEO clients, our competition is touting themselves as divorce laywer in X or criminal lawyer in X

The people searching for a lawyer are looking for lawyerS, attorneyS not one attorney.

So what text do you open with? How do you come up with a single line that sells the sizzle, not the steak?

Go to a blank Google page, begin to type, Google "suggest" searches before you finish typing, what you're looking at is previous search querries, that tells you someone already has interest in that as a keyword phrase. You might want to use that exact phrase because many people are likely to simply scroll down and search for that.

If that tactic (use Google's suggested searches) doesn't prompt you with ideas for an opening line, you could use Google's keyword tool for ideas.

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

I'll close this post with one last pet peeve... I guess I look kinda jaded, ya think? I keep getting local SEO clients that "think" they know what they want, I refuse to help someone commit Google Ranking Suicide. I have too many people on my waiting list to put up with a stubborn client. A consultants job is "horse led to water, drink or don't drink"

Google adwords, I'm sure you know what they are. In adwords companies bid on keywords, the higest bidder gets the top spot... well not really

There is a quality score google uses, if your site's quality score is higher you don't have to be the highest bidder to get the highest rank. If you purport your site is about X and X isn't prominently displayed on your site... your quality score goes down and the price you get charged per bidding goes up.

How do you get a better quality score? make the very first words out of your mouth be the keywords you're shooting for.

The algorithm that determines googlemaps ranking (Google local business listings is Googlemaps) also uses the quality score algorithm,

David Bruce Jr Regional Search Engine Marketing based in Frederick Maryland serving the entire US

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240 644-7530 davidbrucejr@frederickwebpromotions.com

Local Google Advertising Strategist David Bruce Jr of Frederick Web Promotions

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Posted by David Bruce Jr. Local SEO Apex Predator on 04/11/2010 01:45 AM

Comments (46)

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46 Comments on Blog Titles and Website Copy... Wasted Valuable Real Estate

APR

2010

Good points David! I spent almost a year chasing the Google number one spot. Until I made it Adwords was the way to go. The other ones I have seen added to keywords was "reality" and "realitor" as many people miss spell realty and realtor when searching.

Brilliant points! Thank you for your insight.

Thanks for the pointers even if you feel a bit jaded.

Good pointers, David. This is so important for proper SEO.

Very good advice and you are right, no one cares who you are... they just want to know WIFM

O.K., point well taken. I'll change the name. Thanks.

David, I like this. I'm going to go to my website again and take off the "Welcome." I have to admit I do have it in BIG BOLD letters. I will focus on what people are looking for instead.

I've learned so much when it comes to web page rankings. This is just one more piece of knowledge that will get my website to the top.

Hi David ~ The welcome to my website thing is one of my pet peeves too.... Great post. Fortunately I could give myself a check mark for most of your points. Definitely learned something I didn't know about adwords though. Probably explains why I pay way less per click lately.

Thanks for the insights.

Denise

David:

I cannot believe you have been on AR so long and I have never seen you before. I checked your profile and see you have less than 10K points.

And yet, this is one of the best posts I've ever read on here. I already knew a lot of this stuff (mostly thanks to my time on AR), but you have some great ideas I'd never thought of, and you presented this post in such a compelling way. It was easy to read every word.

Please come back more often!

Excellent....on point...to the point...please write more!

I have not thought about any of this stuff before David, thanks for the tips

David, pls be jaded and let us know what needs to be done. I changed my website 'Welcome' sentence 1 minute ago. How dumb of me not to know sooner.

APR

2010

Wow, thank all of you for your comments and kind words.

Bryan, You're not dumb, you're doing the same thing webmasters do, they're taught to write for the wrong audience: In my not so humble opinion: it's counterproductive to write for humans unless and until you've written for Googlebot.

What colleges are teaching is to cater to the wrong audience, most are "so marxist they can't sell thier way out of a paper bag"

Agent Aaron, thank you for your kind words! It'd be really appreciated if you'd say that on my LinkedIn profile recommendation!

http://www.linkedin.com/in/marylandsearchenginemarketing

I've not posted as on AR as much as I could have primarily because I keep getting asked to do local SEO for real estate agents and all of them are losing money, they couldn't afford my services back when they were half of what I now charge.

Real estate has been a sea of devestation for a while now, goog thing it's getting better.

Thank all of you for you comments

The timing of your post couldn't be better for me since I'm currently revising my web site. I think I knew most of this already, but am definitely going to re-read several times. Thanks for taking time to educate us!

Hi David, awesome information. Thank you so much. I had no idea that you could check by using the "suggest" phrase. I did a little test and was so pleased to see I made in the top five on each one. You've just given me inspiration for area's of improvement. Yeah!!

I agree with Aaron, please come back more often. I am bookmarking your post.

Bruce, good advice.

Do more people search for "Maryland Search Engine Optimiztion" or "Search Engine Optimization Maryland"? I see that you use the first but you advise using the second.

Nice post and some good tips - although I think people do care about who you are to a certain degree.

Hi David, thank you for the edumacation! You are right. I learned something today because of you :)

David, you are right, and I have been adjusting my website over the last year to make it more SEO friendly.

I do need to change my tagline. I have been wanting to do that for years. I have to ask someone else to do it, that is my problem -- I keep forgetting!

There are 10 spots on Googles first page. There are about 40,000 real estate agents in the Phoenix area with active licenses.

The very large companies have the top slots. If an SEO content provider gets 500 of those 40,000 as clients, how can all 500 of them get on the first page of Google with a serch phrase that is relevant to the client's business that will bring leads? That has always puzzled me.

One of our problems is trying to improve our SEO without getiing the right kind of help. There are too many "snake oil" SEO sales people out there trying to get our dollars. Many of the best consultants can be found right here on AR.

Just finished 22 new landing pages with SEO friendly URL's, titles and a boat load of key word phrases, and a specialized IDX search on each. It isn't about having a website anymore and the business will come.

Your right about content; potential customers and clients when they visit a website want to know Whats in it For Me.

Jerry

Thank you for sharing. I have bookmarked to read it over.

Great information. I have also bookmarked this page.

Hi David, Realizing we are not the reason people search the internet is lesson one . Well done !

Since I am currently in Google oblivion, this was a very helpful post! Thanks and I'll get working on it today!

Bruce - Thanks for the info regarding SEO, it is always good to find additional information here.

You mean it's NOT all about ME? Who knew? ;-)

Great stuff! Thanks for sharing!

mary!

Great SEO information David! Thanks so much for sharing!

Awesome post David! Thanks for sharing this great SEO information!

David, thanks for sharing. I need to implement some changes.

This is a very thought-provoking post. Thanks for the tips, and for your candor.

You and I obviously have different kinds of clients. I find that many of best clients have connected with me "personally" before we ever meet through my blog and website. I have children in college and I get a lot of parents buying lake homes who comment about me writing about my kids off at college who turn into buyers because I've connected to them in a very personal way. So maybe your clients are looking for real estate and "don't give a damn who you are", but I'm very happy that my clients connect with me on a personal level and give a damn about who and I am and then trust me to find the real estate they are looking for. JMO

Great advise, David, you opened my eyes to more awareness of what prospects are looking for. Thanks!

David, I have no idea what you just said but it made a lot of sense to me! Just kidding. What you said DID make a lot of sense. I'm guilty of having designed my own website and not keeping it as current as I could. I'm also guilty of not applying what I've learned here at ActiveRain re:SEO to my own website. That said, I will make it a project now. Thanks for your post.

Great tips. Thanks for this post! I'll be making adjustments to my website

Great information and also bookmarked! Thanks.

So much to learn, so little time! Thanks for the tips, David. I paid through my nose for my website, which has been up and running for about 6 months now, and it's still not ranking in the top 10...even though I paid for SEO too. I'm a bit discouraged. My web designer says these things take time. tick, tick, tick -- Tanya in Montreal

Thanks for the post. Too many realtors plug ME ME ME in all their marketing and ads. It's not about YOU.

This is great informationn for those who need to blog for results!

APR

2010

Thanks for the SEO info-- my stealth site seems to be faring better than my straight RE site... maybe I should combing them! Kathy

APR

2010

Wow again, lot's of comments,thank you all.

Tim Maitski: you got me there, I've been busy with my paying local seo clients, spending time on them and not on my site. You noticed that my main site: Maryland Search Engine Optimization Consulting had it's title set at geographical area + keywords

I just changed it to keywords + geographical area

I've been getting work from all over the lower 48 states, haven't been updating my site. I took my own advice, thanks for pointing that out:)

Bill Travis: you asked how do the top 500 seo boosted real estate sites squeeze into the top 10 Google search results page?

Two words: Google Trustfilter, Domain Authority

Matt Cutts calls this a "secret sauce" question, meaning they won't answer that.

Links are currency, that's true, but "some links are more equal than others". I'm in Frederick Maryland, Maryland's largest county containing Maryland's second largest city (give or take).

If we got a link on the local newspaper,that's good, if we got a link on the Washington Post, well they're both newspapers but it's easy to see to the casual observer that one is likely to be more "important" than the other.

If Google views you as THE authority on topic X, then your site would "seem" more like the Washington Post compared to your competitor "seeming" like the smaller newspaper.

Brian Schulman: you mentioned some SEO firms appearing to you as possibly "snake oil".

I can hit any target, some targets are harder to hit than others. If you want to take someone out, you gotta BE THE AUTHORITY on topic X. It costs money to knock a site out if it has google trustfilter assigned to it by Googlebot. It can cost $10,000 to pull that off depending on the target.

Just to get in the top ten is, from our experience, at least 50 man hours of work, @ $50 an hour you're looking at $2500 upfront. we charge a minimum of $100 week to as much as $1000 a month to keep someone there. I realize that prices many out of the market. If you really want to hit a target, that's what it's gonna take. Some targets cost more than others. Anything less than that, in my not so humble opinion, is "snake oil sales".

Another thing: once we take a genre, we're done. If I accept you as a client in X geographical area,and we agree on a fee... someone else can offer me double and I have to turn them down. A deal is a deal.

I can take a podiatrist in Montgomery County Md, and I can take an optometrist, but all other podiatrists have to hire someone else... now if you were a podiatrist in Carroll County... it's game on!

APR

2010

David............

You know when you take all the fluff out it, your post is a bullseye and hits the target dead center. Thank you

APR

2010

This is very useful info- I have bookmarked the post for future reference. Thanks for sharing your knowledge!

APR

2010

David,

Liked the post, good information. Will go and check my sites. Some of what you say is really common sense and the ability to see what we do with the eyes of the client

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David Bruce Jr. Local SEO Apex Predator

Frederick, MD

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Frederick Web Promotions

Address: 785 Wembly Dr, Frederick, MD, 21701

Office Phone: (240) 397-9804

Cell Phone: (240) 644-7530

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Maryland Local SEO and Social Media Optimization Expert teaches real estate agents how to rank near the top of Google Local Search Results.

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