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Six items to consider to OPTIMIZE your Home Page for Search RESULTS!

By
Title Insurance ePro, MBA

Right to the point --

1 - Sell your main website to the consumer who is reading the page -- does the description of your website on the search engine provoke or urge the consumer to click on the page title to go to your website -- optimize this description to offer click-through appeal by selling the main search results to your reader.

2 - Get to the point -- keep your site simple and don't offer too much -- think about your specialty, think about what the consumer wants to do on your site -- too many options clutter the search for consumers.  They want to look at your featured listings, your office listings, all the listings, home valuations, reports and some information about what your all about.

3 - The words used in your title, URL, heading and page content are given more weight than later words -- get to the point and use critical words that consumers would search for.  Pretend your a consumer and search Yahoo, Goolge, MSN, AOL as if your looking for homes for sale in your community and find out how you rank.

4 - Unique content -- content is king but unique content that you may offer like statistics in the local community makes an impact.  Are prices going up or down, are REO's going up or down.  Everyone has listings search but what is it all about in your area.  Be careful not to duplicate words or titles in underlying pages as not to get the search engines interpreting your site incorrectly hurting your search placement.

5 - People don't like surprises -- your title, headings, keywords, description and URL should reflect what they search for on your site -- give them what they want.  Remember -- you can always drive consumers to an underlying website page rather than just your home page.

6 - Lose the photo -- I probably will get a little heat here but the community photos are more important than the photo of yourself.  Market to the needs of the consumers searching your site -- what does the community look like rather than a photo of your self.  You have other opportunities to market yourself with your photos.

Hope that helps!  Make it a profitable day!

 

Posted by

Make it a profitable day!

Scott Hoen

SHoen@FirstAM.com

Direct:  (714) 250-5014

Cell:  (714) 270-9607

"The Views expressed herein reflect only the individual's personal views and are not the views of the author's employer."

The Somers Team
The Somers Team at KW Philadelphia - Philadelphia, PA
Delivering Real Estate Happiness

Scott, great tips !  We appreciate it.   What do you think of the our site's main page - www.thesomersteam.com ?

Oct 31, 2008 12:48 PM
Jon Wnoroski
America's 1st Choice RH Realty Co., Inc. - Green, OH
Summit County Realtor

Scott, Great Points.  I'm always looking at my web site and working hard to optimize it.  Thanks again!

Nov 01, 2008 01:34 AM
Bobby Wallace
Vacant Land Solutions - Charleston, SC
Sell Your Vacant Land The Hassle Free Way!

Scott- Thanks for the tips!

Nov 01, 2008 02:26 AM
Lyn Sims
Schaumburg, IL
Real Estate Broker Retired

I'm not buyin' the 'loose the personal photo'.  Yes area pics are important but after the consumer decides your the person, curiosity will kick in & they'll say, who is this person and voila your handsome photo will be there!  They'll be making a judgment whether you're an ax murderer or not.

Nov 01, 2008 12:21 PM
Stacie Robbins
Mammoth Properties - Mammoth Lakes, CA

i agree with the absence of personal photo on every page.  When the prospect sees that you offer what he or she is looking for, they can always click "About Me" if their curiosity includes what you look like.  I don't believe that physical appearance should be put to the forefront over your experience, skills and services.  It may cause a misconception if they form an initial opinion of you just from a photo, it's often the source of stereotypes.

Nov 01, 2008 02:33 PM
Eileen Begley
Coldwell Banker, DelMonte - Carmel, CA
Monterey Real Estate

ok, didn't take my photo off the front page, but did remove it from most of the others! Your first point is especially good. Doesn't make much sense to come up high in the search engines if people don't actually want to hang out and read.

Nov 02, 2008 04:58 PM
David Saks
Memphis, TN
Broker / Industry Analyst

Good focus on meta tags is important for the search engine crawlers. Especially for those who still use good old, time honored HTML. Hope you have a fine week ahead.

Nov 02, 2008 08:27 PM
Erol Kartal
Schaumburg, IL

I've recieved inspections because of my web photo. Some people said I looked trustworthy with gray hair?

Nov 04, 2008 07:05 AM
Celina Gleason
AgentOwned Realty - Manning, SC

Great posting there, Scott.  You made a very good point about personal photos.  I don't think one should completely get rid of their personal photo on their home page - simply make it small in inconspicuous.  Your other points were well stated and full of common internet sense. 

Nov 04, 2008 07:18 AM
DeAndrea "Dee Dee" Jones
Samson Properties - Manassas, VA
DMVRealEstateChick

Good tips, The keywords are important and I agree with you on photo placements.

Nov 04, 2008 07:41 AM
Todd Clark - Retired
eXp Realty LLC - Tigard, OR
Principle Broker Oregon

I know it seems weird, but I've done two tests now and I'm on a third as of last night. But, I took the personal photo down and replaced it with my logo and business went up, switched it back went down. Now, at the request of some Activerain members, I'm trying the same experiment with a photo of my family instead of just me.

See how this one goes, but I agree, drop the photo!

Todd Clark, Helping Families Home - www.IFoundYourNewHome.com

Nov 10, 2008 01:37 AM
Troy Erickson AZ Realtor (602) 295-6807
HomeSmart - Chandler, AZ
Your Chandler, Ahwatukee, and East Valley Realtor

You have some great suggestions, and I definately need to re-visit my website to make some corrections.  I really need to focus more on what the consumer is looking for, reduce the portrait photos, and just get to the point.  Thank you.

Nov 11, 2008 05:16 AM
Christine L
Property Cupid, LLC - Chandler, AZ
Broker

Wow, you seem to have hit a nerve with the Drop The Personal Photo Tip.  That tip really flies in the face of what agents that have been in the business for awhile have been taught (read-beaten over the head with) about personal branding.  Change is Hard!

Nov 11, 2008 05:31 AM
Roland Woodworth
Blue Cord Realty - Clarksville, TN
Blue Cord Realty

Scott ... You make some valid points here. I know I could use some adjustments on my site too

Nov 11, 2008 02:15 PM
Boston Condo Guy
Boston Condo Guy - Boston, MA

Todd, thanks for the valuable (scientific) knowledge, it's great that Google Analytics allows us to wrong such A/B comparisons these days.

Nov 14, 2008 09:07 AM
Heather Goodwin
Licensed by the Louisiana Real Estate Commission - Shreveport, LA
Results That Move You

Scott, that's some basic good sense, but I haven't changed my text yet after all I've learned on AR.  Time to do that!

Todd- that experiment sounds like a good post topic!

Nov 14, 2008 09:24 AM