By Brandon Cornett
Spend some time in a real estate marketing forum online, and you'll soon discover that search engines top the list of hot topics.
Every agent wants his or her website to rank high in the search engines, and rightfully so. But with so much information (and misinformation) out there, the path to success can be hard to follow. This article will help you navigate.
Five steps to better search engine rankings:
Step 1 - Choose Your Key Phrases
The first step in any search engine optimization (SEO) campaign is to determine your key phrases. Key phrases are those words and phrases you want your website to be found for in the search engines. For example, if you're a real estate agent in Smithville, Texas, one of your key phrases might be "Smithville Texas real estate."
Don't choose your key phrases based on a hunch. Research them. Find out how many people are searching which phrases. Overture (a Yahoo company) has a key phrase research tool you can use for free. It's located at http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/rc/srch/. If you really want to get scientific, you can sign up with WordTracker. It's not free like the Overture tool, but it's much more thorough. It includes all of the major search engines with its results.
Step 2 - Evaluate Your Infrastructure
This section will step *briefly* into the technical weeds. Even if you don't fully understand this information, you will benefit from it. If you hire a web designer, for example, you'll be able to speak intelligently about your search engine aspirations.
A website with clean, properly structured HTML (web code) will have greater search engine visibility than a site with complex, poorly structured HTML code.
Search engines rank your website on its content (among other things). The more complicated your website's HTML code, the harder it is for search engines to find what they want ... your content. That's the importance of having clean "lightweight" coding on all your pages.
Burying your site's content under mounds of Javascript, table tags and graphics will only reduce your SEO success. You can avoid these things by hiring a professional designer, and telling him or her you want a properly built website that's primed for SEO.
Step 3 - Create Quality Content (And Plenty of It) Even if you do everything else right, your site will rank low if it lacks quality content. Search engines love content. It's one of the ways they validate genuine websites from "spam" websites.
Revisit your list of key phrases from Step 1. Find ways to interweave those phrases -- in a natural way -- throughout your content.
One way to achieve this is to add article pages to your website. An article of 300 - 500 words will allow you to integrate your key phrases in a natural way. Good for search engines, and good for your readers.
Step 4 - Obtain Inbound Links from Quality Websites
Search engines also evaluate your website based on the number (and quality) of inbound links. Inbound links are hyperlinks on other websites that link to yours.
When it comes to inbound links, you should favor quality over quantity. It's far better to have inbound links from a handful of quality websites (that already rank high with search engines) than 100 "starter" sites with low ranking.
You can increase the number of inbound links in several ways. In my opinion, writing and publishing articles online is the best way to go about it. "Article marketing," as it's known, warrants a discussion all to itself. Just know it can help you increase the number of quality sites that link to yours.
Step 5 - Be Patient and Persistent
Search engine optimization takes time. People who say they can get your website on page one of Google overnight are either (A) lying to you, or (B) using practices that will do you more harm than good in the long run.
A solid SEO program takes time and persistence. But take heart in the fact that once you achieve good ranking through the practices outlined above, you'll be able to maintain your ranking for quite some time. Of course, it helps to make SEO a perpetual part of your overall marketing efforts.
Conclusion
There you have it, five steps to a solid SEO program: Determine your key search phrases. Evaluate your website's structure. Add quality content to your site. Seek inbound links from quality sites. Be patient and persistent.
By taking the time to do it right, you'll be able to achieve better rankings, maintain them longer, and drive qualified traffic to your website. So keep learning, and keep at it!
About the author:
Brandon Cornett has worked as a web writer and marketing manager for a direct mail company serving real estate agents since 1986. His "Agent's Guide to Web Marketing" and his free newsletter are available at: htt p://www.ArmingYourFarming.com/products
Re-published by:
This amazing article is reposted and brought to you by http://www.getrichpinoy.com
The organization is venturing on Philippine Real Estate, Online Marketing and Philippine Stock Market Investing Education. You may check out other portfolios of get rich pinoy organization at http://pinoysellyourhousenow.blogspot.com for FREE Special report how to sell your house FAST in the Philippines and http://pinoyhouseforsale.blogspot.com Get your FREE Think and Grow Rich and Real Estate Investing Ebook
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Real Estate Marketing Online -- Can Prospects Use Your Website?
By Brandon Cornett
Ever visit a website with a specific goal in mind (like buying something), only to leave the site in frustration? If so, you've witnessed how usability can affect a website's ROI -- for better or for worse.
The same is true in real estate marketing. A website that lacks usability will lose potential clients. This applies to franchise sites as well as the personal marketing websites of individual agents. It doesn't matter how much traffic your website gets. If it's hard to use, it will turn people away.
Usability Defined
In online marketing terms, usability is the degree to which visitors can maneuver through a website to achieve their goals. Websites with high usability keep more first-time visitors, earn more repeat visitors, and enjoy a higher ROI -- whether measured by sales, phone calls, downloads or subscriptions.
Usability thrives on simplicity and leads to profitability. So let's look at some ways you can increase the simplicity, usability and profitability of your website.
Determine Your Objective
Start by determining the primary and secondary objectives of your website. Knowing this will help make the site more usable. If you know what you want visitors to do, you can focus your energy on making that task as simple as possible.
Get specific here. Don't say, "I want my site to support my real estate marketing program." That's too vague. How do you want it to support your marketing? By generating phone calls and emails? Then that's your website's primary goal -- to generate phone calls and emails from visitors / prospective clients.
Promote the Primary Objective -- Demote Everything Else Take a look at your home page. How many items do you have competing for the reader's attention? If the answer is "a half-dozen or more," you have not promoted your primary objective. Instead, you have a handful of objectives competing for attention.
Avoid putting all of your goals onto one page. Segregate them onto separate sections of the site. For instance, maybe the goal of one page is to evoke calls from buyer's about your listings. While the goal of another page is to motivate buyers into signing up for a first-time home-buyer's seminar.
But keep it to one primary goal per page. Your main objective should be the most prominent thing on the page. Everything else on that page should play a supporting, background role.
Use Familiar Structure and Other Web Conventions
Logo in the upper-left corner. Navigation down the left side or across the top. Dark font on a light background. Web users expect certain things to be in certain places, so you should accommodate this assumption. Trying to be unique by putting things where they don't belong is an amateur tactic best avoided.
Having structure similar to the structure of other websites doesn't mean you're unoriginal. It means you respect your readers enough to give them familiar road signs. Differentiate yourself with superior content, not with unique (obscure) navigation.
Use Clear, Concise Language Reading is hard on a computer screen. So don't make people read any more than they have to. For example, instead of saying, "Use the link below to email me with any questions or comments you might have" ... simply say, "Questions or comments? Email me."
Conclusion
Websites have become a key part of real estate marketing. But simply having a website is not enough. You must have a website that visitors can actually use. Remove the obstacles between your prospects and the actions you want them to take, and they'll be more inclined to take those actions.
About the author:
Brandon Cornett has worked as a web writer and marketing manager for a direct mail company serving real estate agents since 1986. He now dedicates his time to helping real estate professionals improve their marketing. His "Agent's Guide to Web Marketing" and his free newsletter are available at: http://www.ArmingYourFarming.com
Re-posted by:
This amazing article is reposted and brought to you by http://www.getrichpinoy.com
The organization is venturing on Philippine Real Estate, Online Marketing and Philippine Stock Market Investing Education. You may check out other portfolios of get rich pinoy organization at http://pinoysellyourhousenow.blogspot.com and http://pinoyhouseforsale.blogspot.com
Ever visit a website with a specific goal in mind (like buying something), only to leave the site in frustration? If so, you've witnessed how usability can affect a website's ROI -- for better or for worse.
The same is true in real estate marketing. A website that lacks usability will lose potential clients. This applies to franchise sites as well as the personal marketing websites of individual agents. It doesn't matter how much traffic your website gets. If it's hard to use, it will turn people away.
Usability Defined
In online marketing terms, usability is the degree to which visitors can maneuver through a website to achieve their goals. Websites with high usability keep more first-time visitors, earn more repeat visitors, and enjoy a higher ROI -- whether measured by sales, phone calls, downloads or subscriptions.
Usability thrives on simplicity and leads to profitability. So let's look at some ways you can increase the simplicity, usability and profitability of your website.
Determine Your Objective
Start by determining the primary and secondary objectives of your website. Knowing this will help make the site more usable. If you know what you want visitors to do, you can focus your energy on making that task as simple as possible.
Get specific here. Don't say, "I want my site to support my real estate marketing program." That's too vague. How do you want it to support your marketing? By generating phone calls and emails? Then that's your website's primary goal -- to generate phone calls and emails from visitors / prospective clients.
Promote the Primary Objective -- Demote Everything Else Take a look at your home page. How many items do you have competing for the reader's attention? If the answer is "a half-dozen or more," you have not promoted your primary objective. Instead, you have a handful of objectives competing for attention.
Avoid putting all of your goals onto one page. Segregate them onto separate sections of the site. For instance, maybe the goal of one page is to evoke calls from buyer's about your listings. While the goal of another page is to motivate buyers into signing up for a first-time home-buyer's seminar.
But keep it to one primary goal per page. Your main objective should be the most prominent thing on the page. Everything else on that page should play a supporting, background role.
Use Familiar Structure and Other Web Conventions
Logo in the upper-left corner. Navigation down the left side or across the top. Dark font on a light background. Web users expect certain things to be in certain places, so you should accommodate this assumption. Trying to be unique by putting things where they don't belong is an amateur tactic best avoided.
Having structure similar to the structure of other websites doesn't mean you're unoriginal. It means you respect your readers enough to give them familiar road signs. Differentiate yourself with superior content, not with unique (obscure) navigation.
Use Clear, Concise Language Reading is hard on a computer screen. So don't make people read any more than they have to. For example, instead of saying, "Use the link below to email me with any questions or comments you might have" ... simply say, "Questions or comments? Email me."
Conclusion
Websites have become a key part of real estate marketing. But simply having a website is not enough. You must have a website that visitors can actually use. Remove the obstacles between your prospects and the actions you want them to take, and they'll be more inclined to take those actions.
About the author:
Brandon Cornett has worked as a web writer and marketing manager for a direct mail company serving real estate agents since 1986. He now dedicates his time to helping real estate professionals improve their marketing. His "Agent's Guide to Web Marketing" and his free newsletter are available at: http://www.ArmingYourFarming.com
Re-posted by:
This amazing article is reposted and brought to you by http://www.getrichpinoy.com
The organization is venturing on Philippine Real Estate, Online Marketing and Philippine Stock Market Investing Education. You may check out other portfolios of get rich pinoy organization at http://pinoysellyourhousenow.blogspot.com and http://pinoyhouseforsale.blogspot.com
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