Hi Michael...I realize that I need to subscribe to you. Although I read through your post I don't think I understood it all. Not because you didn't explain it well, it simply means I have to go back and digest it a bit more slowly. There's so much I don't know or don't understand but try to keep stumbling forward.

Kate

Michael,  Whatever the little girl in the photo is drinking ... I'd like one with some rum in it - thank you.  You have explained this concept to me many times.  The last time you explained it ... I finally got it.  Most especially how an outbound like can add credibility ... as long as it is relevant.  Great job ... this needs to be Featured. 

Hi Michael - Whether or not you're right - and I suspect you are - your post is a valuable and informative lesson on SEO, always welcome to those of us toiling in the trenches.

Featured in BananaTude!

 

Sooo...what you're saying is....WRITE GOOD CONTENT, right?

Super post.  Yes, it seems like over time, google is putting less emphasis on links/page rank and shifting a bit towards social signals, etc.  But, one thing is always constant - good content. And, yes, of course Matt doesn't always tell us everything and/or purposely misleads.

I do have a lot of thoughts, as well as q's, but I need to get some food first.

But, here's one of my burning q's...and, I've had it for a while....how to find more local people on G+ (and easily) so I can follow, etc.  this has not been simple at all.  maybe you can write a post about that (along w/ the q I raised about my July 4th post).  I do have to say that being on G+ has so many advantages, and somehow I'm on some suggested user list which is increasing my follower count...which over time will help me in searches, esp for the small portion of those that are local. 

You bring up some good stuff Michael. I had jumped on the Zillow stealing Google Juice theory too. SEO is something I really need to learn more about. 

I started blogging in 2007 and a review of my posts will reveal I've gone hyper-local for the majority of my posts.  The generic post simply cannot compete with the "big boy" real estate sites.

Great post Micheal I on the fence with this one. Yhe big boys out there don't need anymore attention, but they seem to get it with the widgets. I agree with Debbie in that contents is king in any game you play on the web. You can be number one on a search but if the contents is bad, you will not last long there.

Michael, Great to see you and wonderful post, content is what matters and you are the smart one we should all listen to!

Michael ~ a massive amount of important information. Did go to the 'example' you suggested and to the links. As you write: takes a lot of work - especially when you have a 'big boy' such as Zillow writing and updating 1000's of pages of content. Hey! Can I steal you for a month!?! OK - a day? At any rate, you have given me a lot of homework which I will certainly work hard on. Thank you.

I do believe what you are saying has a lot of credibility in it. We always blame the other guy when we are not doing well. CONTENT is king and if we do not write well will mean we will not be noticed by anybody. I want to learn more so I will email you.

Lots of good insights here.  I think your suggestions on how to compete are very good and I am going to continue on local and focused posts. 

Interesting. I have never heard anything about widgets pulling your rank down but find your post eye opening

Widgit drain is a myth. Thanks for your perspective on the issue, Michael.

Michael - One more thing to put on my to-do list page nesting and how well am I doing it!  Great post!

Michael as always you share great information with us -- thank you!   I don't know much about widgets except that I don't like them ... most look junky to me, which isn't important except for visual appeal.  So much of SEO remains a mystery!!  Wish there was a way to know more about how it really works :-)

GREAT article! I have often made comments that authority sites are created by constant updates. Active Rain, Facebook, Twitter among others are authority sites because of their large subscriber base that make comments constantly.

I like the mantra at the end...Widget-drain is a myth; I just need better content.

Widget-drain is a myth; I just need better content. Got it. Thanks.

Great post.  I am now a subscriber to your blog.  I also heard the rumor.  I hope you are right.

Michael- Great post. I didnt think about widget drain when I pulled Zillow. I started to use a widget to my own website trying to keep them with me.

Thank you for the post. I will bookmark this and read it again. I have the trulia widget on my blog.

Good post. the widget thing did sound familiar to me.

I have heard people talking about this before.

Good information here. I have been hearing and reading so much abut these links that drain your juice but it sounds like the key is as always - content.

Great information presented in a way I hadn't really thought about before. Thanks for opening my eyes to a new approach.

Very nice post.  Personally, as far as I can tell, we do not advertise anyone or anything on our website except us.  Not even in our blogs, anymore.  Love it when you give us this type of info.  It's so confusing to the "average" person that I know we really appreciate you.

I believe your theory about the widgets not changing the SEO optimization. It is amazing when people find a way to the top.  However, I am not seeing websites as the top.....mostly blogs

There seem to be lots of varying opinions about what helps and hurts SEO.

Interesting stuff here. I just want to sell real estate. Seems like too much time is being spent on how to outrun the other guy when the clients pick and choose who they want and are using factors that may or may not even relate to SEO and all this other business.

I'm going back to work.

I would say that the overwheling majority of sites don't rank well simply because they cookie-cutter, templated sites that are rarely updated and offer very little in the way of unique content. These are the sites that even if they ranked well, the consumer would probably leave the site pretty quickly.

Great Ideas! Thank you for the post.

Good morning Michael -

Thanks for shaking my tree to produce better content!  I'm late to the party but congrats on the gold star my friend.  Believe it or not I found this via your post on that other site you Google + and then headed on over to see what it was all about.  Much appreciate you Sir.  Make it a great day in all you do.

Michael - I love the way you explain everything.. it is both comprehensible, and to the point.. meaning I could follow you! I missed out on your SEO training  months ago..  so I appreciate reading this. Thank you

 

Well Michael, Again you give us food for thought.... this all seems too stressful to keep up with sometimes...what is up and what is down...thanks for the info!!

Writing hyper local posts about real estate, and about local events, restaurants, things to do... seems to be the way to go.  And what better place to do than on AR?  Great post!  K

Michael, thanks for the post. This including other topics should make us think

Michael, Oh Boy. Great info here. Now I just need to read it a time or two before it all sinks in and I can benefit from him.  Sure do love to read your posts. Thanks so much for the insights.

OMG you've drank the Zillow kool-aid!

DISAGREE.

Agree with traffic bounce.

Like the drill down fashion.

I like the widgets, but not the fact they take my viewer away. It would nice if they could be set to open in new window. Glad to hear they are not hurting my SEO, it is tough enough already. Thanks for the opinion.

I truly can not agree with you or disagree with you because I do not have a clue what they widgets are all about... Yikes... so I'll bookmark this post and add it to my "must learn list"

Thank you for the info...

Beth

The title definitely caught my attention. Great information to know!

In a hurry and just skimmed thru the post, but marked for SERIOUS reading later! Thanks

Z&T's business models are to use our content for their purposes. There is no way I get back more from them than I give them when they give me something for free. Besides that fundamental difference in our perception of the dividend split, you make some good points.

You also misspelled principle.

Awesome information.  Thank you loads for dispelling this myth. I've been following the blogs on this since I saw the blog about adding them and wondering which direction to go - add them or don't add them.  Kudos to you for laying it all out there!

what you and google seem to forget is that zillow, trulia etc don't have a single listing for sale, they are merely lead fishing.

 

so if a person enters the search term "homes for sale" in google why would they give them results that don't meet the search term.

 

the local realtors with the cheap websites are the ones with the listings so google should give them the best placement.

 

also it is the local mls providers who are selling their members listing information to zillow, trulia etc, kind of like being in bed with a rat.

Just wanted you to know that I read your entire blog. I am working on a blog campaign now using my intuition plus google analytics to see how it works. There's a slow uptick in links that drive traffic to my idx search (where I have pre searched for them. We'll see, early days. But' yes, I need my blogs to rank high in order to get that link through. Thanks for listening to me ramble.

On top of everything else that we do it seems there is never enought time to do this on my own. SEO is very complicated and ever changing. I wish I had the time to do more!

Why would I want to send someone from my web site to Zillow or any other site.  They charge me to do that.  If they want to pay me I will consider it.

If you know a little bit about how to read script, you can go in and change the location that the widget points to. 

That was interesting. I read it word by word to digest it all.

Thanks for the great post and explanation.  We had heard, but did not know how they were doing it.

great blog...really sets the record straight and gives solid rationale behind your position..thnk you for posting

As anyone can Zillow, Trulia and Realtor.com now nominate the organic search results on Google for EVERY city in the country.

They also participate in pay-per-click advertising, which dives up the cost for agents trying to get some internet exposure that further helps them dominate Google search results and crowd out agents and brokerages.

The sad thing is this is all done with our listings, paid for with the advertising we do with these companies and further supported by linking back to them through widgets and other linking they encourage.

We build them free content through the profiles we build and through the use of the blogs they offer. Now they want you to enter your “sold” info for more free content to advance their rankings even further.

We can’t stop them from taking our listing data but we can stop supporting these monopolies. If you don’t like what they are doing stop paying them for advertising, cancel your accounts, delete their widgets and stop linking to them!

I wish there was a like button or thumbs up/thumbs down option here in the comment stream. Great to hear MG's take on this. All the same, I hate to see Realtors linking to the big three who just take our data and then sell it back to us. With all due respect to the fine people who work at Zillow...

Hi Michael...sorry I missed this post, Congratulations on your feature. Great post in widgets I felt the same as what you are say, in fact one might be adding substance (relevant info) with a Zillow widget on your site.

Cheers, have a fun summer.

Let's not confuse the issues of agents (myself included) not liking what Trulia, Zillow and Realtor.com do with our listing data and the topic of this post which is that using the widgets do not drain our own juice. I deplore all of these sites. It is a crime what they are doing to agents. 

That was really interesting. Thanks for sharing your wealth of knowledge.