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The Power of Active Rain - Smart Seo Use of The Blog

By
Real Estate Broker/Owner with Pocono Mountain Lakes Realty RB 066506

Sure I use my Active Rain Blog as a tool to generate real estate business, but I also use it as a diary of my progress in my never ending search for the perfect SEO Solution. I think I have figured out yet another step in our never ending journey to figure out the internet, SEO and how you go about "Getting Found". This will probably be old beans to fellow Active Rainers, but I think for newbies it is worth being put out there.

My best advice to you all is to combine a nice website (doesn't have to be expensive but should contain links to idx as well as full optimization and search engine placement) and an outside Active Rain Blog and make serious practice of including at least three backlinks in a blog post back to your website's various pages, preferable 'lead capture' pages.

 As I am writing this post, I am waiting for clients to arrive who read one of my Active Rain posts. They called me to discuss various lake communities here in the Poconos and who then decided to take a short trip up the Northeast Extension of the PA Turnpike to check out two lakefront homes! One home is in Big Bass Lake and the other in Arrowhead Lakes. (Notice the 2 backlinks). Both homes are just under $500,000. Don't you think blogging is serious business now?? The power of the combination of blogging and a good website is untouchable in the real estate business. I am keeping this post as a members only post because so many other agents around here have kind of snickered at the fact that I Blog. They are not going to get any of the benefit of this post. For the rest of you, my hope is that you get some serious traffic out of it, just not here in the Pocono's.   

Shannon Jones
The Shannon Jones Team - Long Beach, CA
Long Beach CA Real Estate

Thanks for the helpful information. Now I need to figure out the HTML coding that allows me to make the linkbacks look like a word or two instead of the http://longlonglonglonglist....etc.  Good to hear from someone who's making it work!

Oct 31, 2010 04:37 AM
Ken's Home Team LLC. | 360.609.0226 | Portland, OR & Vancouver, WA Real Estate Team
Ken's Home Team LLC. - Vancouver, WA
- SOLD IS OUR FAVORITE 4 LETTER WORD -

nice job, In the last few weeks I have had several people call me because they found me on the internet, they did a search and my name popped up... all that is due to Active Rain

Oct 31, 2010 04:38 AM
Linda Humphrey
Humphrey Home Connections Realty, Reno, Nevada - Reno, NV
CRS, Broker/Owner HHC Realty

Excellent point! Back links from authoritative sites like AR are golden. I have suggested :-)

Oct 31, 2010 04:40 AM
Jenny Durling
L.A. Property Solutions - Los Angeles, CA
For Los Angeles real estate help 213-215-4758

blogging has definitely gotten me higher in the SERPS- I just don't know if I'm actually picking up and business from it. 

Oct 31, 2010 05:00 AM
Carol Costanzo
Montague Miller and Company - Charlottesville, VA
GRI, SFR

I am hoping your arriving clients will write an offer on one of those homes. That is wonderful.

Oct 31, 2010 05:04 AM
Chris Dugger
Real Estate Marketplace - Louisville KY - Louisville, KY
Louisville REALTOR

Rick ~ Blogging and SEO has consumed my random thoughts through the days. Before, I was content with simply customizing my broker-supplied website...then I started blogging on AR and started to learn about SEO. No I realize that I need a fully customizable website of my own to take the most advantage of the SEO I'm creating. It's great to see every day how people have found my outside blog through Google and Yahoo searches...still waiting for that first client that I can link directly to my activity on AR.

Oct 31, 2010 04:10 PM
Rick Cordisco
Pocono Mountain Lakes Realty - Lake Harmony, PA
Pocono Real Estate Professional

Thanks everyone for the comments:

To Shannon - Use the hyperlink shortcut

To Ken - That is so Awesome, AR has serious Google Juice doesn't it?

To Linda - Thanks for re-affirming my points!

To Jenny - You will know! I ask each client that contacts me and they will say I was on something called Active Rain, then clicked something etc...!!!LOL

To Carol - I believe an offer is coming forth. They liked one a lot, the other a little and one we couldn't get into they want to come back and see that. It has the most potential for the least money!

To Chris - No need for customized websites, just ones that allow you to do what you need to. I have one Fully Custon Website, One through I-House(template), one through GoDaddy (Don't underestimate their seo tools) and my newest through Topproducer. Ranked in order of production:

~I-House

~GoDaddy

~Topproducer

~Custome site 

Nov 01, 2010 12:03 AM