Having a rent-a-website $35 per month. Having a custom developed website (that actually gathers information) $899. Being in the top three on Google, Yahoo and Live ... you guessed it. Priceless.
For the last several years my money maker websites have been in the top 10 on at least two of the three almost every week for my most important key phrases. I have to admit I had a little inside information since I've been "online" since before there really was an "online". Then in 1994 I switched from BBS's to the brand new "world wide web" technology and eventually owned a fairly successful web services company which catered to The NRA, American Outdoorsman, Shari's Restaurants, Hunter Engineering, SiGARMS, The Canadian Pooplayer's Association, and so on. That is when I learned about paying attention to people much more in control than yours truly.
Major changes have taken place since that time but the basic techniques for getting on top and staying on top are still the same as when Gossamer Threads was the name of the day and Google was what babies did. Fresh relevant content with lots of links from other sites with fresh and relevant content. Active Rain is a beuatiful boost because, for the most part, there are few links from or to blacklisted sites associated with AR.
Many users of AR have learned much about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and the value of being "on the front page" of the major engines. We have learned how to make sure keywords are in the title of the page and in the URL (Uniform Resource Lookup a.k.a. web address) and repeated just the right number of times within the content. Too many and you lose. Too few and you don't get ranked high.
But right now I want to introduce some of you to the Google Trends machine. Now that you are aware that keywords need to be properly used, that you need to link to and be linked from relative content and avoid blacklisted sites you will love this trend tracker. I can almost assure you that checking this regularly and following the trend reports in combination with knowing your client base and market horizon you will be even more greatly rewarded for your pointed effort.
First An Example
You may guess that searches for FHA have gone up over the last few weeks but would you have also guessed that searches for refinance have gone down?
What you are looking at is a trend track from Google Trends where the red line is FHA and the blue line is refinance. This was accurate as of 10PM eastern on 9/Oct/2008 and may be a little more telling than you would have expected. You can check the current results by visiting this link.
The top lines are general search terms and the bottom pair are news search.
I think you would agree if you were a loan officer this is a valuable bit of information to have, agreed?
So give it a try for yourself. Try keywords important to you in your market area and your line of service.
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RealNowRadio coming soon to a streaming audio near you! If you are interested in participating please visit the site and contact Ken.
THE OPINIONS IN THIS COMMENTARY ARE STRICTLY KEN COOK's PERSONAL OPINION AND NOT REFLECTIVE ON ACTIVE RAIN, NOVATION MORTGAGE, or ANY SPONSOR OF THIS WEBSITE.
EDUCATION BEATS LEGISLATION EVERY TIME. Get your clients, friends and family members to a LENDER RUN home mortgage seminar as soon as possible.
Copyright©2008 Ken Cook. Georgia and Florida real estate investment loans, FHASecure and FHA Home Loans, nationwide commercial hard money and small business loans, non-recourse loans for real estate investors
Novation Mortgage, 2501 E Piedmont Road, Suite 201, Marietta, GA 30062 Georgia Residential Mortgage Licensee 20014. Florida Mortgage Broker Business MBB 0703760 FHA Lender - Equal Housing Lender
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