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ActiveRain Dot Trulia Dot Com! Sell Out or Sold on it?

By Richard Weisser

Real Estate Broker/Owner with Richard Weisser Realty

April 08, 2014 09:01 PM

Now that it is official that ActiveRain is a subdomain of Trulia, I have some thoughts on the matter.

At our most recent Atlanta Meet-up, SEO was a hot topic of discussion. To be honest, most of us were tired of losing the SEO battle to the big aggregator sites that appear to be the darlings of Google.

When asked how to repel the onslaught, I was at a loss for answers. There didn’t seem to be an obvious way to scratch back to the search engine surface.

Then out of nowhere came the announcement that ActiveRain will now be a sub domain of Trulia. And while my first instinct was to shrink away in disdain, my senses finally got the better of me and realized that this is a good thing.

A VERY good thing!

ActiveRain members will now enjoy the benefit of having ALL of their content being associated with Trulia, That includes all of the external links that we insert in our posts!

Yes, it is a little like acquiescing.

But the old adage “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” seems to be reverberating in my brain.

And since I control all of MY content, I think that I have the upper hand!

By the way, as my regular readers know, I am NOT one to jump on any bandwagon that comes along.

I always call them as I see them.

In this case, I see this as a very good thing for AR members!

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Cindy Jones

Integrity Real Estate Group - Woodbridge, VA

Pentagon, Fort Belvoir & Quantico Real Estate News

I think it's a wait and see. I'm not sure anyone can say 100% what the outcome of the merger will be for SEO. Will a subdomain be as strong as a direct URL? I have no idea but I'm sure Google will let us all know soon enough.

Apr 09, 2014 10:47 AM

Barbara Altieri

Better Homes and Gardens RE Shore and Country Properties - Shelton, CT

REALTOR-Fairfield County CT Homes/Condos For Sale

Richard -- We will see... but I believe change is good. I'm positive about it and that's the best I can be. Doesn't make sense to me to knock it as I can't change it.

Apr 09, 2014 10:52 AM

Susan Haughton

Long and Foster REALTORS (703) 470-4545 - Alexandria, VA

Susan & Mindy Team...Honesty. Integrity. Results.

I like your positive perspective...we are fighting a losing battle in many ways, so maybe this is the antidote we need. We shall see!

Apr 09, 2014 10:53 AM

Lyn Sims

Schaumburg, IL

Real Estate Broker Retired

Interesting thought as we've all been thinking how to get back the SEO that we had. I truly feel insulted when AR HQ made it seem that most of us were 'making it up'. Glad to see that others were discussing the same subject at a meetup.

They also said the other changes were beneficial & I think they weren't at all.

Apr 09, 2014 11:39 AM

Kathleen Daniels, Probate & Trust Specialist

KD Realty - 408.972.1822 - San Jose, CA

Probate Real Estate Services

Richard, I had a similar first reaction for what I feel are the right reasons. I remain not found of the big aggregator sites. Given that I cannot wave a magic wand and make them all disappear, I do think the subdomain will be good for AR members.

Apr 09, 2014 12:30 PM

Joan Whitebook

BHG The Masiello Group - Nashua, NH

Consumer Focused Real Estate Services

Richard -- I hope that you are right. Time will tell how this will materialize. I'm going to think positive outcomes.

Apr 09, 2014 12:36 PM

William Feela

WHISPERING PINES REALTY - North Branch, MN

Realtor, Whispering Pines Realty 651-674-5999 No.

I am very skeptical.

These 3rd party groups have been taking our clients and trying to sell them back to us for a long time. I think it started at the National level and now they can't turn back.

I also hate the idea that this sight is involved with a sight that has had so much mis-information out there,. I for one am NOT thrilled.

Apr 09, 2014 02:12 PM

Sharon Parisi

United Real Estate Dallas - Dallas, TX

Dallas Homes

Although I have not been a Trulia fan, I agree that this could be a very good thing for Active Rain and its members.

Apr 09, 2014 04:39 PM

Michael J. Perry

KW Elite - Lancaster, PA

Lancaster, PA Relo Specialist

Nothing stays the same for long. AR needed to keep evolving and this appears to be the best available flight to board !

Apr 09, 2014 08:07 PM

Cheryl Dukes . . . . . Intown Atlanta

Guaranteed Offer for your Home - eXp realty - Atlanta, GA

With the decision already made, looks like we're just going to have to roll with the punches.

Apr 09, 2014 11:39 PM

CJ Johnson

Elite Agents - San Antonio, TX

Sales & Building Consultant

Time will tell. I bet someone, somewhere, in this merger is thinking about selling zip codes or upgrades. That is the business model for all aggrigate real estate sites ie:Truila, Zillow, ever our own REALTOR.com Everyone preaches more open access for consumers but how else would them make money unless they sell ads to eyeballs.

Apr 10, 2014 12:44 AM

Jeffrey Hogue

Jeffrey Hogue Realtor Group - Reading, PA

Real Estate Pro in Pennsylvania Since 1993

Richard, All your posts are a rel"nofollow" from Trulia and Active Rain. Don't be fooled. Look it up. They get all the benefit and you get squat. I am amazed at the lack of technical knowledge that agents are missing out on.

Apr 10, 2014 12:57 AM

Richie Alan Naggar

people first...then business Ran Right Realty - Riverside, CA

agent & author

To me, this is like worrying whether your eye will blink or your heart will beat. Things run on their own without our interference or input. My point? Put the energy where it will do you the most good and make the necessary personal changes to bring it about. I believe that is what Trulia and AR doing as well....That's all I know

Apr 10, 2014 01:12 AM

Bob Stewart

ActiveRain - Seattle, WA

ActiveRain Ambassador

Jeffrey Hogue,

You have no idea what you are talking about. Stop spreading complete and absolute lies. At this point, it's the second time you have said this that I have seen here on ActiveRain.

You are saying things that are libelous. You're actually leaving a written record of making false accusations about our company. Why?

We do have nofollow attributes on some stuff on ActiveRain. Mainly some recurring links (like certain things in the header) or on any links left in the comment section (to limit spammers).

BUT

There are not 'nofollow' tags on ANY links in the body of the content of a blog post. In fact, your suggestion that the "posts are a rel"nofollow" from Trulia and ActiveRain" shows that you don't even understand what a rel"nofollow" tag is designed to do. It has nothing to do with the entire post. It only has to do with links. And again

ALL LINKS FROM BLOG POSTS ON ACTIVERAIN.TRULIA.COM are indeed being followed.

In the other comment you left, you said something about having Trulia put rel'follow' tags. This confirms to me that you have no idea what you are talking about. There is no such thing recognized by Google. If a link has a 'no follow' tag on it, it won't help the site being linked to. But if it does not have that, the search engine will index the link. You don't have to explicitly tell google to follow the link. In fact, that tag, when used was something spammers tried to do to trick google into indexing their links in places where 'no follow' tags were added to links in comments.

So, all of that being said......stop making stuff up. It's just not true.

Apr 10, 2014 06:00 AM

Bob Stewart

ActiveRain - Seattle, WA

ActiveRain Ambassador

Richard,

Sorry about the ridiculously long comment. I may have lost my cool for one second. It's hard to just sit on your hands when someone is making up complete and total fabrications. It's even harder when that person is using terminology in the wrong way and putting themselves out there as smarter than everyone else and insinuating (or did he outright say it?) that our members are being tricked.

I will give him this much. All links coming off the main Trulia domain (with the exception of one link in your profile on Trulia) are 'nofollow' links. But as part of the planning on this move, we demanded that links from ActiveRain blog posts NOT have the 'nofollow' tag. That's exactly what is happening.

Anyone that knows about source code can look at a page and see this. I suspect what the commenter did was look at the source code, do a search for nofollow and since he saw results, started making these claims. But like I said, there are certain things on a page that do get 'nofollowed'. The links you place in your blog post ARE NOT ONE OF THOSE THINGS.

Phew, ok, back to the normally scheduled programming :-)

Apr 10, 2014 06:06 AM

Richie Alan Naggar

people first...then business Ran Right Realty - Riverside, CA

agent & author

I am an advocate of clearing the air we all breath...This was well done...thank you

Apr 10, 2014 08:05 AM

Katherine Gooding, Google Trusted Independent Photographer

Soundview360.com & Katherine Gooding Photography - Seattle, WA

Get your business on the map!

Nicely done Bob, good to see that the AR evangelists are looking out for the community here!

Apr 10, 2014 10:51 AM

Charles Stallions Real Estate Services

Charles Stallions Real Estate Services Inc - Gulf Breeze, FL

Buyers Agent 800-309-3414 Pace and Gulf Breeze,Fl.

Sorry, I did not explain that very well. You need to right-click on the link and go to "inspect element". There you will see the term "blocked" in the code. This prevents search engines from validating link.

Since we like clearing the air what does this mean? Can you block a post from being on google as this lady told me in an e-mail recently.

Apr 13, 2014 02:36 PM

Bob Stewart

ActiveRain - Seattle, WA

ActiveRain Ambassador

Joyce,

Which link? I just looked at 10 different links and none of them have anything in the 'inspect element' portion that says blocked. Can you show me a screen shot of where you are seeing this in the code? And then maybe which post you are seeing this on?

It wasn't a member's only post, was it? If it was member's only, we don't show any of our members only content to the search engines. But the stuff that is being made public, it gets indexed and the link count.

Apr 14, 2014 05:43 AM

Bryan Beckstead, KOmKards, Care-Connect-Communicate, on auto pilot, 24/7.

Start MAXIMIZING the Internet.... Kommunicon.com - Priceville, ON

Become a KOmKard owner today,

As a Newbie here, I have to look to the people that have been in the trenches the longest and it seems that they are saying, at least the majority, that this is a good thing for AR, will have to stay tuned to the debate !

Apr 16, 2014 05:14 AM