Can someone tell me what I am doing wrong?

By
Real Estate Agent with Port City Realty 54149

I received my e-PRO certification in 2002. I have had a website through homes.com since 2000. I have a site through Point2Agent. My homes.com site is far from generic. Both sites are interwoven and I have many domains that are pointed to one or the other, or pages. I have 4 blogs, but I have just started blogging, so I am not very experienced. I read a lot of SEO suggestions and try everything I can.

My homes.com site (www.PortCityRealty.com) comes up occassionally when you search for Mobile AL real estate, but usually it is nowhere to be found.

My Point2Agent site (www.PortCityCondos.com) does come up good when searching for Mobile AL condos, but there are not many other condo sites in Mobile.

I know the speciality helps, but what am I doing wrong on my primary site? Are their any suggestions that I can do myself, without spending $$?

Comments (11)

Donna Harris
Donna Homes, powered by JPAR - TexasRealEstateMediationServices.com - Austin, TX
Realtor,Mediator,Ombudsman,Property Tax Arbitrator

First, you're going to kill yourself with so many blogs.  Keep one or two and work on those and dump the others.  The more posts on your blogs, the better exposure they'll get.

Second, without spending money??  Doubtful.  Get a good PPC campaign going.  Otherwise, you just need to keep changing your content and using the keywords over and over to get the engines to like you.

Jan 03, 2009 12:07 PM
Robert May
Robert W May - Lethbridge Real Estate - Lethbridge, AB
Real estate consulting

Julie, from what i can tell you need to SEO your website.  Improve your tags and possibly keyword content towards the top of the pages.  Also, the websites that point to your primary site do nothing if they are redirected in the wrong manner, simply using a masked redirect will not work with search engines.  Get inbound links from other relevant sites and directories.  There are tons of free ones if you have the time to fill in the same info repeatedly, or you can pay to have directory submissions done for you.  I personally like the cheap directory submission companies, they do a craptastic job, but they are inexpensive and get you into the most basic directories.

Like you, I wanted maximum effect without having to enter my credit card.  I think it cost me about $40 bucks to get my site SEO'd and bringing me decent local traffic.

Jan 03, 2009 12:20 PM
Robert May
Robert W May - Lethbridge Real Estate - Lethbridge, AB
Real estate consulting

Here is one of the many tools that you can use to check your site:

 

http://www.seoworkers.com/tools/analyzer.html

 

Type your domain name in to the little box there and you will see that you have no titles, no meta tags, etc because of the masking.

 

Hope that helps without overwhelming you.  I have a list of 10 tools that are all free (did i mention that i am cheap, lol)  that work good for site analysis.  Shoot me an email if you want me to send you my complete list of free web resources.  I have them all bookmarked here someplace.

Jan 03, 2009 12:28 PM
Lise Howe
Keller Williams Capital Properties - Washington, DC
Assoc. Broker in DC, MD, VA and attorney in DC

thanks for highlighting an issue for all of  us! Lise

Jan 03, 2009 12:50 PM
Markelle Harden
Classy Inbound - Charlotte, NC
Digital Marketing Specialist

I feel your pain Julie! The Internet is changing every day, and when you are looking for SEO it is frustrating to say the least, especially with some of the price tags associated with it. Here are my 'budget friendly' suggestions:

1. www.ClassifiedFlyerAds.com  Create a listing flyer for your two or three most popular listings, mention the Home Search option on your web site and provide a clickable link within the flyer, then pay ClassifiedFlyerAds to optimize the flyer for you. Very affordable, and you can measure the results easily. If it doesn't get any buyer leads - send it to your sellers to make them happy and move on!

2. Craigs List. Craigs List. Craigs List. Every 8 days, only post properties in the first time buyer price range. Provide them with a link back to your site to search all homes in your area...

3. Past clients. What are you doing to get their attention? I know this is unrelated to your question, but if you are looking for warm leads, those who know you and love you are much more fun to work with than those 'cold' Internet buyers who don't know how wonderful you are, and you have to spend time, money and energy wooing them. I'm not talking glossy recipe cards. I'm talking REAL communication so they remember exactly how hard you worked for them. www.ByReferralOnly.com has a very affordable 'webinar' right now. When I was an agent I paid over $800 to see this presentation live, and it transformed the way I did business, and the way I help the agents that I work with.

 

Good luck!

Jan 03, 2009 01:05 PM
Tim Maitski
Atlanta Communities Real Estate Brokerage - Atlanta, GA
Truth, Excellence and a Good Deal

With those sites the way they are set up, I don't think you have much of a chance at any rankings.  I think Robert's comment about masking is correct.  I don't know exactly the what and why of masking but I don't think it's good for SEO.

Go to "View" in the menu of your browser and click "Source" and you'll see the HTML code for your page.  There's pretty much nothing there.  I'm pretty certain that's what the search engine spiders index. 

Look at the top of the browser page and see what your title is.  It's just your web url.  That isn't going to get you anywhere.  It sounds like that e-pro certification is pretty useless stuff.

Jan 03, 2009 01:15 PM
Janine J. Wilson
A Buyer's Best Choice Realty®: Buyer Representation Exclusively® - Johnson City, TN

Yes, I agree that the website analyzer      http://www.seoworkers.com/tools/analyzer.html  is an excellent tool, having been shown this site and given a demonstration of how it works, at our National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents (NAEBA) convention in Orlando (November, 2008). 

Both Jon Boyd, a past NAEBA President, and our current President-Elect Ben Clark, demonstrated that website tool and it was great!    Janine J, Wilson, 2009 -2010 NAEBA National Convention Chair

Jan 03, 2009 05:25 PM
Julie Martin
Port City Realty - Mobile, AL
Realtor, Broker - Gulf Coast Real Estate

I want to thank everyone who has responded.

I had no idea that the masking on my site was making it do so poorly. I went to http://www.seoworkers.com/tools/analyzer.html and looked at it. Wow! My homes.com site is awful. My point2site comes up good. I will be making some major changes this week. Any other suggestions are still very welcomed!

Jan 04, 2009 12:24 AM
Leslie Prest
Leslie Prest, Prest Realty, Sales and Rentals in Payson, AZ - Payson, AZ
Owner, Assoc. Broker, Prest Realty, Payson,

I got our site out of frames a few years ago, because I read that they aren't good for SEO.  I also changed to text links (of keywords) instead of image links.

Jan 04, 2009 02:49 AM
Suzanne Stephens
Stephens Design - Battle Ground, WA
Real Estate Website Design

Yes, Julie, your domain on your Point2 site is set up incorrectly, and that's the reason it appears to be in frames. Call Point2 tech support Monday for assistance: 866-977-1777. Hours of operation are 8:30am to 5:00pm MDT. Or go to the Point2 help site and search "point an existing domain".

 

To get good search results, you need lots of good custom local text content  as well as lots of inbound links (links from other sites to yours). My client Barbara Reeves' site is the top ranked site for "Mobile AL real estate". You may be able to learn more about how much content helps by studying her Mobile site as well as her top-ranked Daphne site and those of other competitors' in your market. SEO work on Barbara's two sites was done by ComputerCamp.net, DomainDrivers.com and by Barbara and myself.

Jan 04, 2009 08:31 AM
Diane Daley
Caron's Gateway Real Estate - Northumberland, NH

I Know what you are going through...  It isn't easy to get everything working at top notch....  I would probably do only 1-2 blogs and hire someone who is great at optimization... 

Jan 04, 2009 08:35 AM

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