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Web Site Headache

By
Home Inspector with ACSI American Construction Specialists & Investigations

I am not a web designer, however I have built several sites over the years and they always did ok with the search engines.

In the last two years my site had been slipping, (well maybe plumitting is a better term)

I had pages that used to rank in the top 5 that were now on page 5 of the google search.

I fought the computer, read countless blogs on SEO and edited into the wee hours of the morning for months. This resulted in me moving from page 5 to page 2 or three.

We all know people don't look past the first page.

My blogs ranked great, if you searched AZ windo leaks or Smelly water I would be first or seccond, but while those terms got me some expert witness work, they did not help the home inspetion business.

I worked on SEO but I discovered that all the rules have changed, it is no longer is enough to have your key woAZ Home Inspector or web gururds on your page, they are supposed to be in H-1 tags, and H-2 tags and H-3 Tags and embedded in images, only you can not have too many key words or that hurts you too and the ones you do have should be bold underlined or italic.

There should be a certain amount of text on your pages other than the key words Too much text dilutes the keywords, not enough text and Google doesn't like you because they think you are key word stuffing.


I decided to hire someone to rebuild my site and fix all my SEO issues.

One of my better ideas.

They rebuilt the entire site including my blog. I didn't know I had over 200 pages on my site.

Then there is the site map and the meta tags and the title and the keywords and the widgets and the plug-ins and the ... ... ...

 

Let me just say after working with the website company I hired, I now have a whole new respect for the people that do the job right.

I really should have known better than to do it myself. As a AZ home inspector I see work that home owners think they can do themselves too.

Like me, their projects may work but they likely don't work right.

The bottom line is let the Realtors Sell Real Estate, Let the Home Inspectors Inspect and hire someone else to to build a website that works.

If you please, Check out my AZ Home Inspection Website and let me know what you think.

It was actually built on a Word Press Real Estate Template, it was just converted to work for me.

Comments (14)

John M. Scott
BRE # 01442690, Scott Keys Properties - San Francisco, CA
Broker / Owner San Francisco Bay Area

Scott, your new web site looks very professional. I used to know how to build web sites back in the 90's, but it's way over my head now.

Aug 15, 2011 03:46 PM
Colleen Fischesser Northwest Property Shop
NextHome Experience - Chelan, WA
A Tradition of Trust in the Pacific NW since 1990!

I know what you're saying. Sometimes we "do it yourselfers" get so bogged down in the doing that we don't have time for the work that puts food on the table! Will check out your site....are you willing to recommend your SEO optimization company?

 

Aug 15, 2011 03:47 PM
Patrick White
Home Driven Realty, Inc - Baldwin, NY
Driven to bring New Yorkers home

Good Evening Scott

 

Thanks for the post. Have a great day

Aug 15, 2011 03:49 PM
Scott Warga
ACSI American Construction Specialists & Investigations - Gilbert, AZ

John, I now know exactly what you mean.

Colleen, I hired Go Pro Local  I highly recommend them, they did 200 pages in under two weeks, their fees were fair and they have been very responsive.  I had access to the site while they were building it so I could see what was going on. They do a lot of work at night so I would e-mail them a list of things I wanted changed and the next morning they were done.

They have done some work for a few companies and I saw the results so I decided to give them a try. I am glad I did.

The new site is built on Wordpress so I can maintain it myself, That alone saved me thousands in monthly fees.

Aug 15, 2011 03:59 PM
Ted J. Macy
Top Agents Atlanta Metro - Milton, GA

Thanks for the great information, we are just starting on our WordPress site, your site is great.  Good information.

Aug 15, 2011 04:03 PM
Scott Warga
ACSI American Construction Specialists & Investigations - Gilbert, AZ

Ted, Thanks for the complement.

If you do not have someone building your site for you, contact Ken at Go pro local and see what they can do for you.

 

Aug 15, 2011 04:12 PM
Dick Greenberg
New Paradigm Partners LLC - Fort Collins, CO
Northern Colorado Residential Real Estate

Hi Scott - I did our first website in 1994 (!!) - the first Realtor website in northern Colorado. It worked great for a long time - lots of relo clients, mostly the early geeks on the web - and then people stopped searching for agents, because everyone had a site. So we changed our site to service our client base, and it did a good job of that - data and market stats, etc. But not much in the way of leads and we had pretty much stopped thinking of it as any good for that. Then, this last spring, we took a chance and worked with a very good company on a major website redesign, which required blogging and backlink commitments from us - hence, our presence here on AR. It works, and we're back in business with real leads. I wonder what's next.

Aug 15, 2011 04:21 PM
Kaera Mims
Liz Moore & Associates - Fort Monroe, VA
Associate Broker, e-PRO, REALTOR; Hampton, Newport News, York Co.

Scott I don't know why you had this post in the AR Comedy Club group - there is nothing funny about finding an awesome company to help turn your website around. I am glad I came across this post because I too have been trying to DIY and getting no where. I may have to give WordPress and Go Pro Local a try! 

Aug 15, 2011 04:49 PM
Chris Ann Cleland
Long and Foster Real Estate - Gainesville, VA
Associate Broker, Bristow, VA

Hiring a professional to stay on top of SEO is a great idea.  One day I bet I'll be doing the same thing.

Aug 16, 2011 04:08 AM
Steve Stenros
Poway,La Jolla,Del Mar,Mira Mesa,Carlsbad,Escondido,Temecula - San Diego, CA
CREIA MCI, ICC, ACI Home Inspector,San Diego

Scott, I looked at your new website. It really looks great! I hope it brings in lots of new business for you!

Aug 16, 2011 04:20 AM
Scott Warga
ACSI American Construction Specialists & Investigations - Gilbert, AZ

Dick, Who knows what is next. I looked at it this way. There is a good chance that the economy is not going to improve in the next year or two. I could keep doing what I was doing and hope to stay in business or I could be proactive and go after the clients that search online. The number of people searching online is growing daily so I decided to pay the money and let a professional do the work.

After all, isn't that what I want my clients to do?

Kaera,  I posted this in the AR Comedy club for two reasons. One is some people can relate and find it funny that we put ourselves through this pain of trying to do all things. The second reason is most of my AR friends can be found in that group and I wanted my friends to provide feedback on the site.

 

Chris,  I have no doubt that this will end up paying back well over what I have invested in it and I bet it will for you as well. I strongly suggest you consider letting someone else handle it for you.

Steve, Thanks for the kind words, some day I would like the site to be a place where other inspectors can get information they need as well, but that will be down the road.

   
Aug 16, 2011 05:34 AM
Ted Tyrrell
RE/MAXCamosun (Chatterton) - Victoria, BC
Selling Homes in Beautiful Victoria

Scott, great looking website. You are correct about letting web designers look after the SEO of your site.

Aug 16, 2011 01:45 PM
Lynn911.com ~ Dallas Real Estate Agent Top Team
Dallas Houses for Rent Dallas Apartment Rentals Lynn911.com - Dallas, TX

Scott ... yes I ditto your comments I did not know about the H1 H2 H3 , all changed from sites years ago ... UGGG..

 

dallas homes for rent by owner dallas houses for rent by owner lynn911.com

Aug 17, 2011 09:13 AM
Scott Warga
ACSI American Construction Specialists & Investigations - Gilbert, AZ

Ted, thanks for the comment,

Lynn, Sometimes the more I learn make me realize the less I know.

Aug 17, 2011 01:34 PM