Click Here, Please

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Click Here, Please

Hah, gotcha!

These words (click here, please) must be the mantra of most real estate agents in the 21^st century. If not a specific request, then certainly an implied one. Believe it or not, though, there are still some agents who do not have websites. Perhaps they have plenty of referral and past client business so a website is not needed. Hmmm, I wonder, though.

Anyhow, we all want consumers coming to our websites, don't we? Otherwise, why spend the money to buy a template site, or even bigger bucks to have a custom site designed? More traffic means more leads and potentially more business. Theoretically, that is. Hits don't necessarily translate into business, and many folks stop by briefly, only to disappear into cyberspace, never to return.

So what should we know, and do, to make our websites appeal to those elusive consumers who have millions of sites to choose from. What will bring the traffic to us?

I am far from an expert (you know that, of course) and there are far wiser folks on AR in the areas of SEO and related topics. But I attended an all-day CRS class, "Driving Prospects to your Website Made Simple," yesterday with Randy Eagar, a popular trainer and consultant in the area of web positioning, and thought I would pass along a few tidbits I learned. [Randy also developed the first national real estate technology training course for the CRS organization]. You never know when these things might come in handy (many of which you may already be aware of), and you could decide to make some changes in your site. When or if the mood strikes...

So here are some highlights - perhaps you will learn something!

The PRIMARY keyword is LOCATION, say Carlsbad. The best way to get traffic to your website
The second best keyword is REAL ESTATE (yep, there may be some exceptions and everybody uses it so by itself it won't likely help you get found), and a combination of location + real estate (CARLSBAD REAL ESTATE) works best But you should not limit yourself to these alone. Focus on keywords with LOW COMPETITION and relatively HIGH DEMAND
Remember, we don't decide what the keywords and keyword phrases are, the folks who are looking do. What WE think consumers are searching for, or should, and what they are actually searching for can be very different. Don't make assumptions (wordtracker is one good source for keywords)
The best places for your keywords/keyword phrase are your DOMAIN and then YOUR WEBSITE TITLE
The target market for your website is RELOCATING BUYERS - keep that in mind. What are these folks looking for in YOUR town (it is not always the same for each city, since some towns are more resort orients, or more for retirees).
STOP words are those that the search engines do not index, such as "an, and, the, a"
The MOST important aspect of PAGE RANKING is the DOMAIN NAME, and then the PAGE TITLE.
Of course while getting MORE TRAFFIC is important, CONTENT is still critical. No content, and all the traffic in the world gets you nowhere. Content is what will keep visitors on your site. You already know this, but does YOUR SITE reflect this knowledge?
Search engines are shifting more toward "theme-based" algorithms that do not rely on the analysis of single web pages, but, rather, focus on the topical nature of the site and relevance to search requests. This does NOT mean keywords are not important but the focus is shifting.
Each page of your website should have a different title (in many template sites this is not the case - have you ever looked? - so look into changing the titles)
The number and quality (rated from 0 - 10) of in-bound links is important for determining page rank. Getting links from other sites/writers is not always easy - links from .GOV and .EDU sites are the best
You can also improve your page rankings by linking from other internal pages on your website. One way to do this is to use "return to my home page" in the text of each page (not in the frame portion in a template site, often the left hand side)
Research your competition's source code to see how they are using keyword and keyword phrases (e.g., do a search on a keyword phrase and see you comes up in the search ahead of you). No copying, please, but do see what they are doing for suggestions on how to improve your own site
Don't forget about Meta Tags - The Keyword Meta Tags (the words or phrases that best describe the page) and the Description Meta Tags (1 or 2 sentence description of the page) are the most important for many search engines

I could go on, but hopefully there are a few gems in here that you can use to enhance your site. I know I found it useful and now have a TO DO LIST!

UPDATE 9/30 - Keep in mind that spiders read from LEFT to RIGHT, just as we do. So the Primary keyword should be as far to the left in the title as it can be, since more emphasis is placed on the words farthest to the left. And lower case works well and is easier to read in the listng display from the search.

The number of characters (plus spaces), NOT words, allowed per search engine to display in their search listings also varies. For Google it is 79, Alta Vista 79. You don't want your title cut off in midstream, do you?

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ALL ABOUT THE CALIFORNIA RELOCATION DUDE

If I can provide more information about Carlsbad real estate and surrounding areas, the housing market in general (or locally), or otherwise assist you, friends or family in a home search or sale, please contact me by phone or text at (760) 840-1360 or email me at JeffDowlerSolutions@gmail.com

Serving Carlsbad (including Aviara, La Costa & Carlsbad Village), Encinitas (including Leucadia & Olivenhain), Cardiff, Solana Beach, Del Mar, La Jolla, Rancho Santa Fe, San Marcos (including San Elijo Hills), Oceanside, Carmel Valley, Escondido, and San Diego

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Posted by Jeff Dowler ~ Carlsbad Homes for Sale ~ 760-840-1360 on 09/30/2007 08:50 AM

Comments (103)

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103 Comments on Click Here, Please

SEP

2007

Awesome, Jeff! Thanks so much for sharing your new found knowledge...muchly appreciated!

Jeff,

Ive been experimenting with different meta tags and key rich words..watching what the others do as well...not sure if any progress is being made but I guess I'll eventually see.

Yikes...I still have so much to learn! Thanks for the gems...I really needed some.

I'll tell you something funny about the list. It hasn't changed since 1998.

This doesn't have a gold star, yet?

Jeff - What awesome tips! You're a jewel for sharing this. I can DEFINITELY use the help! Thanks!

You definitely got me..I clicked without even thinking. And look...theres great information. Thanks. :)

I don't understand what you mean by #10. Can you explain? And thanks for the info!

Thanks for the information. I am trying to spend time and what key words to use and not too use and now I am just procrastinating... :I swear I am gonna get on it .... ahhh soon :)

Faith - thanks for the compliment. It was an intense class, adn I came away with a sense of being overwhelmed, despite my thought that I am far better off than many. So much to learn.

Jeff

Neal - I think that is what is important to do...keep testing and revising to see what your results are. But I wonder sometimes if it is a moving target.

Jeff

Monika - you and me both. I rather enjoy that aspect of the Internet, but sometimes I feel completely inept.

Jeff

Lenn- well, maybe. Same issues but the emphasis is different, and we have millions more websites as competition now so perhaps we must pay more attention than we did in the past. The algorithms seems to be shifting as well and as certainly not, I believe, where they were in the late 90s. But you are far more knowledgeable about this than I!

Jeff

Oh Chris, you are so impatient. But I do appreciate the compliment contained in that timely question!

Jeff

Pamela - LOL. It worked!!! I knew I would catch someone. But I'm pleased that the content warranted the click!

Jeff

SEP

2007

I bookmarked this although I really rely on Lenn too....always can use more info and keep trying. Thanks!

Good summary of the basics, Jeff. Should be required reading for new bloggers (and all web projects, including the ones a "specialist" you're paying for does for you.

I caught one or two I need tips that will have me going back to my website and checking. Thank you.

Jeff. I'm not that knowledgeable. Just simple minded. I read and follow Google Guidelines. My point about "nothing changed since 1998" (D.O.B. for Google) was that, while Google changes algorithms, etc. to improve search, that's a Google change. For web site owners, little has changed in terms of meta tags, keywords, content, etc.

What worked for me in 1998 still works today. In fact, I would say that the big change actually came in 1998 with the launch of Google. Who, in 1998, would have thought that Yahoo, AltaVista, Lycos, WebCrawler, etc., would be on the "fringe".

The Internet is certainly more complicated. But, to me, Google is still the same simple minded friend it was in 1998.

Jeff,

It probably is...who knows the total secret. I keep thinking of a way to know the top dog who pays thousands to be on top off the pedestal without paying...just by figuring out the concept..I'm moving ..but how high can you really go without paying?

I've just learned more today. I've only worked on my front page and now I'm starting on the additional pages. Thanks for the great advice.

Excellent advice and information Jeff. I was unaware that the title page should be different on each page. Good luck getting my web master to do that.

Jeff - Thanks for another great lesson! Learning to write for Google is an ongoing education and with hundreds of thousands of us vying for top position, the battle is ongoing.

Jeff, man, you're killin me here! So much good info and I just can't seem to keep up with it all. Remember I'm old so you must take pity on me! Seriously though, when do you find time to do all this? Great job sharing! Thanks :)!

Jeff- great job. I was at Randy's class in Edison on Wednesday. I'm working hard to incorporate the tons of great stuff he taught. You did an excellent job highlighting everything.

Hey jeff thanks for the tips , i have to go look at mine and what I can do.

Classes are needed for this girl! Thanks for the great outline, Jeff. Now I just need to put them to use!

These ideas are definitely useful. Thanks.

Carole - sounds confusing I suppose. If you look in the tile bar on your screen (typically the darker blue) you will see a title for each page of your website. You can also look internally at the code for your website by right clicking, then clicking on view source. You will see a TITLE tag and the title for that particular page. You may be able to change this yourself or if a template site your service should be able to do this for you..

Jeff

Desiree - me too. I have spenmt some time on it but know I need to do more. I am inspired now.

Jeff

Sally - Glad it was worth keeping. And Lenn certainly does know a lot about this does, and Laurie Manny, too, and....

Jeff

Jeff - I think that makes alot of sense. It really is pretty straightforward stuff, and common sense, but it takes time to implement. And certainly some folks who help put together template websites don't understand our business nor are they particularly concerned about how effective our sites truly are in terms of competition.

Jeff

Thanks, Randy. I'm pleased it was helpful. Glad to see you back reading and writing!

Jeff

Jeff, great list! Most of this I had been taught by Mary at RSS Pieces but I was thinking about changing my domain name to something more clever and after reading your post realize I need to stick with what I have. Thanks so much!

Good points, Lenn. The basics still work.

Jeff

Neal - Randy, in the class, made the point that in many cases we can never be on the top because of the big guys who pay lots of money. But being number 1 probably does not matter, and oftentimes folks will click on sites further down the page. I, for one, am not willing to spend that kind of money, nor do I have it.

Jeff

Glad it was helpful, Kay. Keep plugging aweay.

Jeff

Thanks, Missy. My understanding is that you want to use some of the same keywords but each page should be unique. Plus you can use some other keywords in different titles, especially those that have to do with your services, such as relocation.

Jeff

Paula - yep, the competition is there for sure. The more we learn the we have to learn it seems. Adn the search engine process keeps shifting.

Jeff

Jeff, great information! Sounds like a good workshop!!!

Lisa - LOL. We are about the same age! I know what you mean. You read my post about "hating blogging" so you know how I do this....I don't sleep, well much. :) And writing this post was certainly much less time than it will take to do all this stuff.

Jeff

Lisa R - cool, so you know how great the information was. I am still reading through the book and marking some things to implement. It's going to take some time for sure.

Jeff

Vicki - I'm sure we can all improve in this area. Taking the time to make the changes, even small ones, seems to be the key...and not making excuses that we don;t have the time. Or finding someoone else to do it for us. Thanks for the comments.

Jeff

Jeff -thanks for sharing - I had never heard of "stop words" before - thanks for the link. All good info. Thank and congrats on the feature.

Great information! I liked the "return to my homepage" bit -- that's something I didn't know about. Thanks for taking the time to share!

Nancy - Yep, that's the key. All the learning in the world won't help if you don't put it to use. That's the challenge for many of us, I suspect. You can't do everything at once, it's the small stpes that matter.

Jeff

Thanks, Danielle. I'm glad it was hlepful. As I was writing I realized how much I actually learned, but then also how much I still have to do to implement some of this stuff. My TO DO list keeps growing.

Jeff

Thanks, Diane. I know for many this stuff is not necessarily new or earthshattering. RSS Pieces is a great resources, as is the stuff on Pro Blogger. Reading it on-line is one thing, though...I need to have it explained in person.

Jeff

Chris - hey, thanks. It WAS a good day of learning, and money well spent.

Jeff

This is a great list! Thanks for this and I will use this post as a reference from now on!

Cyndee - thanks. STOP words were just some ofthe new things I had never heard of. STEMMING was another - where plurals words are changed to singular (Lawns to lawn). Better to use singular as these will be captured in the plural forms of the words in the searches.

Jeff

Jeannie - it was news to me as well. But so simple, and easy to implement. THe important thing is that the HOMEPAGE button in the frame is NOT going to achieve this link for you, it must be in the text of the page.

Jeff

Renee - Thanks for the compliment. Glad it was worthwhile.

Jeff

Thanks Jeff, I wasn't sure if you were referring to the additional pages that acrue when you get too many posts to fit on one page. Now, I'm on the same page you are lol

Thanks for the information. I like the stealthy "view source" idea. See what makes your competition websites tick.

Awesome post Jeff... The info I have learned on AR has helped bump me up on Google to page 1 for most search terms in Manhattan Beach.. Reading posts like yours, and those from Lenn and Laurie Manny have proved to be extremely valuable.

I'm off to add return to my home page to my site now. Thanks for the tip Jeff!

Jeff - I am LOVING this post!! Thank you for spelling out all this in plain English for the geek-speak challenged (like me) amongst us. How do you check someone's 'source code' and once you've done that, how do you make changes to your own, assuming you need to?

Thanks!!
Ann

Jeff- I have this bookmarked, and plan to come back and reference it often over the next couple of months. Thanks!

this is a wonderful bit of information and as with others I am book marking it - to remind myself later

Jeff - i have been following the web-sites of a few agents that always appear at the top of the important search terms in the organic results. Their web sites are static and never change. One site has technical problems, yet they are still on top. I can't figure this out. Could it all be because of the links? if so it makes the argument for content, which is so hard to create, less persuasive. I don't have enough technical knowledge to make such judgement, I am just asking a question.

I agree completely - it's amazing how many agents are giving big $ away to webdevs who are unconnected (in every way) to the RE industry.

Very good info Jeff. Thanks for taking a days long class and providing us with the cliff notes. I'm a readers digest type of guy so this is perfect!!!!

Thanks for the tips, I picked up one or two that I need to go back and revisit on my site.

Carole - LOL. Being on the same page is good! Especially when talking about page ranking. :)

Jeff

Tracey - yeah, I thought that was pretty cool. Every now and then you will find a site where the code if blocked but not typically agent sites.

Jeff

That is great, Kaye. Good for you. I have more to do still, at least for some search terms. Thanks for the compliment.

Jeff

Lisa H - good for you. I have been working on that this morning! Thanks...adn hope it helps.

Jeff

Ann - To check the source code, go to the website of interest and open it on. Start with the home page. Place your cursor on the page and right click - this will bring up a menu. You should see VIEW SOURCE in the menu - click on that and it will bring up a screen with the website's html coding. You can look to see what meta tags are used (for keywords, title, and description). you don't want to copy what they do but it can give you some ideas to implement on your own site.

Also, one you have some good keywords based on what Wordtracker says people are searching for, do searches to see what sites Google brings up. Check the source code for those sites since they are ranking high for ideas.

Make sense?

Jeff

Sandi - good for you. Just don't put it off or forget, otherwise it does you no good. Add it to your to do list!

Jeff

Thesa - good idea, just don;t file it away and forget about it. This is good stuff, or so I've been told.

Jeff

Faina - that is an excellent question and I am not sure of the answer. ANYONE KNOW THE ANSWER TO THIS??

I will see if I can find out. Perhaps Laurie or Lenn know. My guess is that the links are still helping them. Do they have blogs too?

Keep in mind that, as far I understand, the search engines don't crawl the websites often lke they do blogs. So link from your blog to your website - your blog may already have a higher rank which can help your site over time.

Jeff

Jeff- you really have to look at the ROI on this, IMO. If you aren't making money off your site then spending $ for someone to play SEO wizard probably does not make sense. Too many have shown they can improve their sites and make money (over $100K) off their sites without having to employ a costly techie.

Jeff

Bryant - glad the Reader's Digest Version works. I like that sort of thing myself. I may have to add more to the pos as I find my way through the workbook - there was alot we did not cover.

Jeff

Hi Jeff - thank you for that step-by-step instruction - and yes, it does make sense. I'll be scouting around tomorrow on some sites to see what I come up with, and then checking my own, too.

Thank you again for this post and the info in the comments, too.
Ann

Thanks for the information.

Linda R - I'm glad you got something out of it and can put it to use.

Jeff

Sure, Ann. Glad that helped a bit. It's time consuming but well worth it. Good lluck to you.

Jeff

Dena - you're quite welcome. It was such good stuff I felt it ought to be shared with those who might find it useful as well.

Jeff

Nice tips on domain names and page titles. This is a class that I'm definitely going to take when it comes to Las Vegas.

John - Thanks, It was WELL worth the time, IMO. Of course now I have to make some changes and then track the results, but I am confident it will bear fruit. He also does consulting on a personal basis, which could be money well spent.

Jeff

Jeff - This one got bookmarked and a big five. What an excellent resource!

Jeff -- you have done a great job pointing out some key information. I have bookmarked this post because as soon as the snow starts to fly, the next project is to take another look at the website. Thanks for such rich information.

Thank you, Marlene. I'm pleased that you felt it was worthy of recognition.

Jeff

Joan - Thanks for the positive feedback, but, well, don't wait too long. What if snow comes late? You don't want to miss out on making some important changes.

Jeff

OCT

2007

Excellent post. Thanks for sharing.

Bob and Carolin - Thanks for the kind words. I'm pleased you also found the information useful.

Jeff

Jeff,

You rock! I will look into this and will find time to implement this. Awesome tips and great information!

Dave

Thanks for sharing some really great information.

Great Post and I do appreciate the information.

Dave - Hey, thanks for the compliment. Now go to work.

Darrel - you are welcome. Glad you found it helpful.

Mohamed - thanks for your comment. Hope you can make good use of the information.

Jeff

Hi Jeff,

Great post and some great info for those doing their own SEO and Keyword purchases. caution tape Just had a thought about the keywords.

How many words in the English language describe our products in the consumers mind. I come up with TWO, homes and real estate. Does that mean, that within a city, that only 20 agents will ever be in top ten organically. In my area, there are over 6000 agents in our board. This means, that only 20 out of 6000 will get the traffic in my city doesn't it? With this in mind, we could add for sale to those words, and that makes 40 out of 6000. yelid

Additionally, how many of the visitors using those keywords are actually agents checking their position on the search engine as opposed to active buyers and sellers? I think when we "do the math" we will be surprised at the answers we are able to arrive at. I think we should ask ourselves, how many times have we directed someone to type those terms in while doing a listing presentation, and how many times we have typed them in ourselves looking for our position?

This may change your perspective a bit on what the true traffic numbers are.

Another thing to consider when building a business around sales, is that when you get to the top, you usually start to add more overhead to your business. More space, additional assistants, buyers agents, etc... If you drop out of the top ten when the SE's change their algorithm and they do this often, you might find yourself competing for pay per clicks with some heavy hitters. The one with the biggest pocket book wins this game don't they?

Sometimes, you must be careful, you might get what you wish for as well.

If you get to the top and cannot make all the return calls, you could be damaging your reputation in your market. Not much chance of that in this market, but it certainly was during the run up over the past 5 years.

Jeff-great advice and tips. It just so happens I am revamping and preparing for next year! My website is horrible. that will be my next project. I have revamped my activerain profile and have my own personal blog up and running. I have neglected it for so long because of my blogging addiction. I can't wait to adjust the site. I enjoy the transformation

This post is worth printing and distributing and I will do just that. Thanks so much for your wisdom.....and I appreciate you commenting on my post.

Jeff- Thanks for sharing! It seems so simple until we start working with ways to make our websites more effective for our businesses. This is a great summary of tips to get me started! Thanks again.

Fred- those are some interesting questions and valid points. I am certainly not an expert in this area. I think traffic is something you always have to watch since I suspect it changes over time, as will the keywords potentially. I expect what people are searching for today is different, to some extent, than a year ago. And there are certainly a lot of variations of keyword phrases that one could use when you consider services, types of housing, and other things, even in one city.

As far as PPC, my sense is that many do not click on those ads. So, yes, it DOES cost a lot =if you want to play that game, but I am not convinced it is necessary to get sufficient traffic to build a strong business. And certainly, as you point out, growth is going to result in more overhead, and one musts consider that in term of the business model and goals one has.

Thanks for your thoughts = they add a lot to the discussion.

Jeff

Midori- thanks for your thoughts, and good luck with your plans. It's good that you recognize the need to make some changes and are planning to do so - many don't ever bother. It is always work in progress, I think. It seemed to me that much of what I included was very do-able for folks, and given this was the main focus of the class, we should seriously evaluate where out site is vis-a-vis where it could and should be.

Thanks so much!

Jeff

Pamela - well, I think, in principal, it is fairly easy but it takes time and dedication. So many assume that they can put up a site and everything just happens, without having to do anything with new information, etc. Not anymore...there is too much competition. And the Internet has gotten too complex for us to just sit by and expect folks to come visit our site in droves, begging for our help. NOT.

Jeff

OCT

2007

Sweet! Number 12 and your update at the bottom are gonna keep me busy!

Go get 'em, Lisa. Time's a wastin'!

Jeff

OCT

2007

Great Job! Thank you very much for the great info!

OCT

2007

Mirela - so sorry for not responding earlier to your comment. Thanks for the compliment. I'm glad you found it helpful.

Jeff

JUN

2008

Thanks for the info. It is really helpful. I am actually looking at hiring him as for my SEO. Not too happy with Compass Internet Systems right now, the SEO co. I currently use. Do you know of anyone who has hired Randy for SEO and if so what was their experience?

Michael - I do not know of anyone personall,y but have heard good things in general. The class I attended was pretty impressive. I'm sure he can provide references. NEst of luck.

Jeff

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Jeff Dowler ~ Carlsbad Homes for Sale ~ 760-840-1360

Carlsbad, CA

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