January Challenge
Thanks to Gary Frimann & Kathleen Daniels, Probate & Trust Specialist for this month’s challenge to tell about “The biggest change the internet has brought to your business”. This is such a broad challenge to reflect on. Technically the internet came into existence January 1st 1983. Prior to that there were small networks, usually University based, that featured “billboards” one could post on or communicate through and those were DOS based as Windows and Apple did not yet exist.
Just like I don’t know what the Real Estate world was like before automobiles I imagine most Americans today can not reflect upon what the business world was like prior to the internet. Keep in mind the internet is 39 years old and the median age in the USA is 38 years old.
Just as the effect of automobiles evolved in their effect on Real Estate so has the internet evolved in how it affects Real Estate. Wikipedia says Real Estate Platforms surfaced around 1999. That means that buyers like my daughter have never known what it was like NOT to search for homes on the internet. My first home searches were driving around in my car looking through a neighborhood or peering into a black and white loose leaf binder of horrible copies of Polaroid photographs and brief descriptions of homes.
So bringing that thought back around to the challenge to tell about “The biggest change the internet has brought to your business” one would have to say that #1 would be my first internet web page/site and other forms of advertising my Brokerage itself and it’s subsequent listings.
The advent of the internet took me and many other progressive agents and brokers down many a rabbit hole. The first rabbit hole would be programming. I needed to know how to create a web page and that meant learning as much as I could about HTML (If memory serves me correctly first there was HML and then HTML came a little later) Next there was how/where do you store that HTML material so anyone could access it. After that the world of SEO consumed a couple of years to win the race of making your page show up on search engines before your competitors did.
I’m not sure if life got easier or harder when all the ghouls… err I mean fine website builders and SEO experts came on to the scene BUT one thing for sure life got a whole lot more expensive. I know I spent thousands of dollars with a couple of RE expert builders and they all were a pain in the ass.
Then came Google Business sites. My god what a blessing!!! FREE website hosting that was infinitely more effective then all the sites I paid for added together. This was “The biggest change the internet has brought to my/your business”
When looking at the numbers above keep in mind I am retired and only work part time. Also note that when it refers to phone calls that is my free Google phone number that I only use on this site.
None of the sites I built or the ones I paid for gave me the demographics I get from Google business (see above) and none of them gave me the SEO I also get from Google Business… again, all for free. That being said I know it works. NOT because of the statistics but because of the number of people who walk through my door and tell me they found me on Google.
Last of all a request. Please see the Google search snapshot below and enter the information into your browser. I would greatly appreciate your giving me a good review if you would and when you have time. Thanks, Bob.
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