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If you are in real estate today,
you have to have a web site? Absolutely. The
problem is that very few real estate websites perform
well with search engines and the reasons that they
don't are:
1. Most of the large
real estate web site design companies offering
fancy package deals for brokers and agents don't
understand search engine optimization and don't
offer worthwhile SEO services to their clients. Many of these companies are real estate
web site factories, rolling out pre-programmed content
and functionality with your name and picture on it for your
geographic location, like cars off a production line
with a few different options and different paint and
upholstery colors.
2. Real estate
brokers and agents
don't understand why they need
search engine optimization or SEO, the acronym for
the same.
Regarding Item 1, if you
search on Google for real estate web site design,
9 out of 10 web sites on the first page have significant
structural errors that are preventing their webs from
getting the best possible rankings.
9 out of 10!
If they don't do first class search engine
optimization for their own webs, what makes you think
they can or will do it for you?
Regarding Item 2, if you
have or are planning on having a website for your real
estate business, you either need to educate yourself
about search engine optimization or you need to hire a
really good
SEO certified consultant to work with you and your
web designer to hopefully get it right the first time or
improve what you already have online.
Regarding Item 1, based on
my experience with one of the companies listed on Google
page one, if you were to read this page to them the
response might very likely be, "Hey, we ARE on page one
at Google, aren't we? What the big deal?"
The big deal is that every competing web on page two at
Google is equally deficient, so if all of those folks
made corrections and additions to their webs, they might
well displace most of the webs on page one!
Regarding Item 2, search
phrase research reveals very few search engine searches
for real estate website optimization or SEO. Real
estate folks don't know much about optimization and
aren't seeking information. If you take the initiative,
you will be well ahead of the rest of the pack in a
market that has an incredible number of competitors with
very low barriers to entry - it is pretty easy to become
a real estate agent? Only a few who call
themselves real estate professionals actually make the
big bucks. This is an opportunity for you to
really separate yourself from the pack.
So what is a real estate broker
to do? First of all, you can educate yourself:
-
You can learn about
how
to become number one at Google.
(A little proof for you
here. My Google rank for become number one
Google is # 1 out of 79,900,000.)
-
You can read about why text
on your web pages is so important on my
web copywriting basics
page. Good copy is frequently missing from
real estate web sites. Most real estate web
site factories are graphically intensive and lack
good copy. Graphics are easy to create.
Writing great copy that works well for search
engines is not.
(web copywriting basics # 1 out of
925,000*)
-
Search phrase research will
help you to know what search targets you are missing
for your market. Read my
keyword services
page. This is something you can learn to do
yourself and you will be amazed at what you can
learn.
(keyword services # 2 out of 314,000,000*)
-
Truly powerful websites have
lots of good content, well over 100 pages if you
want to be a powerhouse with Google. Read
about how to get great content on my
web content
provider page.
(web content provider
# 14 out of 253,000,000* and I am working on getting to
page one)
-
You can learn about other
strategic and affordable ways to promote yourself
and your business on my
small
business web publicity page.
(small business web publicity #1 out of 394,000,000*)
-
I have over 150 pages in my
website and they all contain good, solid, reliable information about
web marketing that works.
If you are web programming savvy,
read about my
expert SEO technology report. You can also
get the very best
SEO training courses for yourself or
someone on your staff.
(expert SEO technology #1
out of 4,080,000 and SEO training courses #4 out of
1,290,000*)
Most real estate web sites are
substandard from an optimization perspective, and one of
the motivations I have for writing this page is to help
adjust the seemingly cavalier attitude of some of the
people I have dealt with on behalf of my clients who
have websites designed by one or more of the companies
on page one of Google for the search phrase real estate
web site design. One account rep I talked with
recently boasted of his firm's 97% client retention
rate. Perhaps the reason for that is that there is
no better place to go? This seems quite likely to
me. A less than optimum performing real
estate web site appears to be the ordinary.
My opinion is that there is no
reason you should be ordinary if you have a choice.
I don't want to program or manage your real estate
website, and I have no interest in running a real estate
website factory, but I certainly would appreciate the
opportunity to help you make your web site much more
visible within the search engines so that the home
buyers and sellers who are searching for you can easily
find YOUR Web site faster than they find your
competitors. If you
would like the same, please
contact me.
If you are looking for a custom
website developer who can get you online in a hurry,
complete this form, you can visit their web and they
will contact you if you wish.
I expect success.
*Based on the day this page
was written April 9, 2006. |