Bill French's (bfrench) Blog

I'll be at NAR this year which is uncommon - I typically frequent technical trade shows, not places where actual business people must make real livings. ;-) We have other business units in Technology, Public Relations, Venture Capital, and Automotive (CES, my favorite), and of course Real Estate,...

I see blog posts everywhere and they have really long lists of keyword tags in hopes of ranking high for all of them. Burying your posts with more than a half dozen tags is really dumb because it actually hurts your ability to obtain better search recommendations. It sends a signal to indexing cr...

What impact does your blog have on your business web site?This was a question recently addressed by a company with some degree of bias, but seems to have done a good job of analyzing the data for at least one of their clients. I don't think they have an axe to grind on the blog versus no blog dec...

I recently noticed this comment in AR..."... I know that I also rank for most long tail searches."I don't buy this argument at all. I'm not suggesting this person is a liar; I just don't believe that anyone can know what the long tail comprises for any subject, even the narrowest of subjects.My r...

A real estate agent recently mentioned to me that even though he's still in the top of Google for common terms about his local real estate market, his traffic is down significantly. What would explain this? How could this be possible? All indications are that his market (a southwest US city) is g...

While we all strive to increase traffic, it makes me a bit edgey to see that your blog strategy is based solely on the idea that you want to send more people to your website.Isn't it possible that some people may want to establish a connection with you before entertaining an MLS search?Isn't it p...

Mary McKnight mentioned this idea in a comment the other day and it deserves a good debate. Her opinion is extremely biased because she sells a product that depends on adoption of specifically this strategy. I also promote a product that doesn't depend on this strategy, but it also doesn't rull o...

I hear this a lot; it's not surprising. Our inboxes are jammed, we all have a million emails to handle, and the pace of business and life is only accelerating. Where does anyone find the time to blog? This is also the most common reason cited why people don't start blogging.The reality is that wh...

The other day I heard (through the grapevine) that the Real Estate CyberStars had an ongoing debate about the value of blogging and questions arose about the very need for blogs and RSS. It's a good question...Do we need blogs and RSS?In 2002 I would have had a tough time answering this question ...

I've been very impressed with Mary McKnight's commentary on ActiveRain; she has exceptional insight and a firm understanding of why blogs and Web 2.0 are important. She also provides excellent guidance concerning search engine optimization; guidance that I find useful and accurate. If anyone aske...