Real Estate Business - Is Your Website Working?

I have always wanted to be in the Real Estate Business, so I expanded my Search Engine Optimization Business to include realtors. Looking around the country at different Realtor Websites is an eye opening experience. From the pre 2k designs, to the fancy “code heavy” content management systems, and now the “so powerful” Real Estate Blogs. The times, they are a changing, and it’s time they do!

My initial observation of the Real Estate Website World is that it’s difficult to find a realtor to work with specifically. For example, I type into Google “south bend realtors” and I’m returned with realtor.com, then property listings, not realtors like I am searching for. So how does a realtor get themselves in front of these new visitors? By targeting the right keyphrases and providing useful and relevant content. Create pages/posts that are most relevant to the phrases searched.

Yep, this means you should be blogging and learning about basic SEO at the least. Think about that search phrase “south bend realtors”. The searcher is stating they would like to see choices of different realtors, not actual property listings at realtor.com. If searching for “south bend realty” the searcher is stating they would like to see different Realty Firms as search results. Learning to do keyword research to find keyphrases that are relevant to you and your Website, is invaluable.

The best way to demonstrate this is using a keyword research tool and entering a very general phrase like “south bend”. Then look through the results to find phrases specific to Real Estate. Now do a blog post about a specific phrase, include that phrase in your page title, post title, page description, and tags. Click here for some tools worth a look.

I hope you find these tools and tips helpful and as always feel free to call for an SEO Consultation. 866-253-8666

I stumbled upon a Florida Real Estate Blog today and thought I should make an example of it. Jack & Cyndee Haydon are a husband & wife Real Estate Consulting team based in Clearwater Florida. In addition to the full service real estate features you would expect, they have more information about Clearwater and Tampa than the Chamber of Commerce. It gives you a real feel for the area whether your buying real estate or not. Jack & Cyndee make excellent use of rss feeds too….check out the site here Clearwater Beach Real Estate.

So here’s the message Realtors, start your blog and write informative info about your area. Be more authoritative than the Chamber of Commerce and soon the traffic will start rolling in. Invite your visitors to join the conversation, keep in touch with them, then turn them into clients. Start blogging today!

If your already a Blogging Realtor, make a comment and share your blog. Please subscribe to the comments so you can check out any new Real Estate Blogs added.

Realtor SEO

What every Realtor with a Website needs to know about SEO.

Search Engine Optimization should begin when a Website is in the construction phase. Each page should be thought out in advance and each page should have a keyword rich page title, a well written page description, and the url (web address) should use the keyword when possible. For example, if you have a page about condos for sale and your agency is in Chicago, a logical page title would be “Chicago Condos”. The idea is to make that page the most relevant to the search phrase “Chicago Condos”. Unfortunately many Websites are already built and this work is yet to been done. If this is your website, fear not it’s never too late.

Optimizing your website for search is not a difficult task and can be accomplished in short period of time with measurable results in 2 - 6 months. Once page titles, descriptions, and url structures are fixed, a link building campaign needs to be implemented. Quality inbound links to your website are like “votes”. The more votes you have the more authority and trust your website gains. Authority, trust, links, and good site architecture all contribute to better search engine rankings.

From the individual Realtor to the Largest Brokerage, the benefits of SEO are clear, Increased Sales! For more information or a free consultation, call Jim 866-253-8666 or fill out the form below and I will contact you soon.

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Real Estate in Michiana Area Top Pick

1. Anchor Real Estate

why? “Coldwell Banker Anchor Real Estate is proud to offer top notch home buying, selling and relocation services for all of our clients. Our company has grown through the years and continues to grow today in this ever changing industry. We have developed an edge against our competitors by offering well-developed, strategic programs that accelerate our clients, both buyers and sellers, to the top of the market. Whether you are moving across the street or across the county we are here to help. We are available to serve you with all your real estate needs. We believe in providing our clients with reliable customer service and this philosophy has earned us the reputation of being the best in the real estate industry.” View Real Estate Listings in the Michiana Area

As a search marketer you come across search phrases that just make you wonder. Well this one is “South Bend quick change problem”. There are 39 daily searches for this phrase so it must be something big. So what is this problem South Bend? Is it getting better or worse, are we winning the war on the South Bend quick change problem? Is it the people of South Bend that have this problem? Are they changing too quickly? What are they changing? If anyone has any answers to these questions, please make a comment!

 This post is for the team at Anchor Real Estate South Bend. Here are some free tools to help with your search engine optimization efforts. If you need my services to setup a blog or for seo consulting, call 866-253-8666.

The keyword tool from Wordtracker  is excellent for finding search phrases. Enter a starting keyword to generate up to 100 related keywords and an estimate of their daily search volume.
For comparing web sites I like to use Compete. Get competitive metrics for every site on the web. You can compare up to 3 sites at a time and if you register (free) you can compare up to 5. Note these stats may not be exact, but the comparison feature is awesome.
With Seodigger you can find out for which keywords your site ranks high enough to be in Google Top 20. You can analyze your own sites as well as sites of your competition.
If you want to keep up with Joe Molnar consider adding a blog to your website. I suggest going to Wordpress.org to download the latest version of Wordpress. You can also look at the free templates for your blog while your there. For hosting your blog, Bluehost is the best hosting I have ever had and it’s less than $100 per year.
Directory submissions are very important for your website, there are tons of directories out there but my favorite for both price and traffic is Best of The Web. Note inclusion is not guaranteed, but I have not been rejected yet! Best value is the one time submission.
If you need free images for your website I like IStock Photo. You can find most any image you need and not worry about copyright issues. I have heard horror stories of image and copyright issues on the web.
Please let me know if I can answer any questions about your website, setting up a blog, or marketing. 866-430-7474

Web Site Marketing Tip

If your looking for an easy way to jump start your website marketing, here’s the hot tip of the day. Start a lens at Squidoo. Squidoo is where passionate people are strutting their stuff these days. Starting a lens takes just minutes and has more capabilities built in than most websites can dream of. RSS feeds, You Tube, Classifieds ads, and more, alot more….Have something to say, want to drive extra traffic to your website, start a lens at Squidoo  today.