How is your Web Site Doing? Do you recieve any business from it? Have you tracked the results with Stat_Counter or something Similar?
Are you Trapped within your own Web Site? Sold on the concept, but did not ever take it to the next level? What level you ask? Why to the level of recieving business of course. Instead of bragging about that very expensive business card ( your web site ) you are paying for which very few people ever see!
I think that as busy_Real_Estate_Agents we often take for granted things that are not necessarily true. We all have heard for years about having web sites. Most everyone you talk to will ask if you have one. Sales people take it a step further when they say " Of course you have a web site" which presumes if you do not that some how you are missing the boat.
Yet how many of us have really tracked our business from that web site. Is it cost effective? Where are you in the search engine position count? If you can not be found on the first few pages of a Google_search then who is ever goin to see your site?
Let's face it with only 10_spots_per_page_on_Google to be divided up with all of the other agents vying for top spot someone is bound to be left out.
Given those facts perhaps a web site as a stand alone strategy might not be the best strategy for you. I know it was not for me. That is why a little over a year ago when my_Web_Site which had been online for a couple of years and could not be found in the first 100 pages or better, I switched my thinking.
Here is what happened to me that caused that paradigm shift in thinking. I had written my_first_blog_post here on Activerain and then subsequently followed up about a week or so later with my_first_post on my Wordpress blog. I had been avidly reading about SEO and the benefits of rich keyword content for your web site. The recomedation was to change your web pages regularly with fresh content. Who has time for that?
A few days later after I had written those posts I checked Google and found that I was on Page One for my Wordpress post and about page four for my Activerain post. I was astounded. I began to craft a strategy from that point forward that would link my Blogs to my web site. Using the speed of the rise of popularity in the blog to point the customers to my_Portland_Oregon_Real_Estate_web_site . I also use the same strategy to point the Buyers to my Buyer's_Web_Portal where after Buyers Sign up they recieve daily or hourly updates from the MLS on homes that match their needs. This has been a big boon for me and is all driven by my Blogs towards these Web Site Landing pages.
Today I have more than one blog and am always using those blogs to send traffic to my web site. Web sites tend to be more static and are not crawled as frequently as blogs. It is a strategy that is working well for me. Perhaps it will work for you as well!
Portland Oregon Home Buyer's let_your_next_home_find_you with House Hunt Portland. For Portland_Oregon_area_information and Real Estate Property searches please be sure to stop by my web site at www.portlandrealproperty.com and say Hello!
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" A Real Estate Transaction with Herb is one YOU will Profit from "
You make some good points Herb and it aint easy having to do your own website updating and SEO but online there are tons of freebies. And like your say you gotta have your own website (maybe even your own blog as you say) nowadays to be considered knowledgeable!
And there are tons of useless real estate websites that agents have never taken to the next level.
Great blog Herb if you dont utilize your site to it's full potential and full seo potential what good is it. I had that same epihany over print.
I love my website I do wish it did a little more. I have seen some great features on other websites, but can't pay an arm and a leg for them.. ;)
Stephen,
I do like the freebies. You know that the strange thing is there are still a ton of agents out their who do not have a web site. I can not find it at the moment but I checked on this just about a month or two ago and was shocked. I think that it was something like only 15% of the agents had a web site. And of those, many had only the companys web site as thier web presence.
Heather,
And we will continue to struggle with the problem as long as their are technological improvements. The real question is : Will be get on the cart or be ran over by it?
Konnie,
I don't know what your looking for but I have a templated site from Alamode like many of the other agents here do. The cost is somewhere around $300 a year. Check it out if you are interested at www.portlandrealproperty.com
Herb,
I have several blogs and always try to get fresh information out there for consumers.
Mike,
You are a blogging mad man. I envy your abilities. Perhaps you could write a post about how you manage such a feat and its benefits? If you do, be sure to send me a link.
Herb - you're absolutely right that blog posts will boost your ratings. The more blogsites you have, though, the more difficult it is to keep each of them up. It's not good to have blogsites where you haven't posted for months.
Sharon,
Not if you have followers. Yet I will tell you that even though I have blog sites that do not get all of the attention that they do deserve, they are still out there producing results. You just never know what combination of words a consumer might use that triggers your post into the top positions.
Hence it is somewhat important that as we write not to date the material and predetermining the posts obsolesence.
You write such informative and helpful blogs, I want to thank you. Your thoughts always make sense and make me think about my methods and madness in this online world. I am hoping to just folow in baby steps in your giant footsteps!
Herb, thanks for sharing this informative post. What you have stated here can be extremely benefical when done consistently over a period of time. Good post!
Joanne,
Thank you for your kind words. I write these posts for myself as well. It is a way of keeping my feet to the fire as well.
Lola,
Thanks for reading and your comment. It is a sucessful strategy which does require implementation and dedication but can reap large rewards.
Herb, congrats on the SEO and Google juice! It sounds to me like you are well on your way to a successful website. Take care and happy blogging!
Jason,
Thanks. It is a work in progress and you can not sit on your laurels. Stop blogging for even a short while and you will slip down the ladder. It is that consistancy that keeps you on top.
Herb you are so right. I recently married and now have a common last name. I thought - how in the world am I going to end up on the front page of a google search. I have a website through my broker, and also my own website. But it was a post on Active Rain that pushed me to the top! I blog on a regular basis and I am beginning to "own" my name....
Teresa,
Congrats on your success. Something I did not touch on in this post was domain names. That is another thing we have been Sold by web site developers. They all ask " Of course you own your own name right? " This is a ego driven question to get you to by their product.
The reality of marketing on the Internet is this.: Buyer's from outside the area do not know our area that well. They could not tell one county, one town, one neighborhood apart from any of the others. Nor do they Know your name!
Check the keyword phrases. How many people who are searching for a home in Portland Oregon will put Herb Hamilton into the search engine? For that matter choose any agent who you think is the top agent in your area and ask the same question.
A domain name however that helps identify what or where you do something will help more than an obscure title such as your own name.
I can only assume it is blogging that has helped my website. My web site is young, (just turned one) but given me some business this year. More than mailing in my farm for five years! Guess who is not going to be mailing much anymore!
One thing I would touch on that you said here "I had been avidly reading about SEO and the benefits of rich keyword content for your web site. "
Ok I may be totally wrong here but I think I am totally right. What you want to do is add more content and not ever change your content. You can change your meta description, titles of your pages, h1 tags, etc if you feel your SEO is not optimized enough or just not working but you never want to remove content from your site. Basically more is better (unless what you are writing is pure BS to begin with that no one wants to read) The actual key words on the page really don't add up to all that much as long as you are including and writing about what that page is about, that is it should naturally follow that if you write a decent page it should contain key words about the subject that the page is about. To expand on that, there is no such thing as key word density. There used to be and it is no more. You can't force Google to see a page is about real estate by writing those words over and over. Really Google focuses more on those other things and then checks to see that those things are on the pages that you are telling Google those pages are about.
"The recomedation was to change your web pages regularly with fresh content. Who has time for that?"
I think here yes change as in add more content like I was saying but if a page is showing up well in search results then why would you change that? If you change it then it might not show up. If you add more to a page or more specifically to a site by adding a blog for instance then yes adding new fresh content will help expand your site not only to readers but to bots as well. But fresh content doesnt necessarily mean better ranking nor does it have anything to do with page rank a seperate thing altogether. Plus as you say who has time? Yes completely rewriting your website once a week would be ridiculous.
The other thing I noticed is bolding key words and italicizing. If you do this for bots it does nothing. It used to but doesnt anymore. If you highlight a word to help out a reader then yes it can help.
Anyways.. hope some of that helps !! LOL
Carol,
There are all kinds of marketing stratagies. There is however a finite amount of time. Not to mention that ROI thing.
Shane,
Thanks for the detailed comment. You make some valid points. I do not suggest that you should take down an active page. Adding additional original info to it from time to time works well. Adding additional pages to your web site following proper conventions including adding to your site footer and submitting to search engines is advisable.
Herb-Great post! I had an agent in my office tell me last month that "websites don't sell houses agents do" . I do believe a good agent needs a great website they go together. I can not believe that there are many agents that do not have a website.
Joe,
Strange but true. When I wrote the post I had lost my login information for RE/MAX. But since then I have found it and was able to recreate the search I had done before.
First off I was doing the search after reading an article in one of the Real Estate magazines that had quoted the large number of Agents who did not have a web presence today.
So I went to the RE/MAX site as I know that we generally will be ahead of the curve. Here is what I found.
In Oregon the number of RE/MAX agents is 1343, and only 743 of those who report that they have a web site. That is a 600 person drop.
In your state Joe there are 1585 agents, and only 892 of those report that they have a web site.
The article that I read said that the vast majority of agents who report that they have a web site are actually only agents of the company web site. They themselves do not have a personal web site.
An agent in my office, one who does not have a web site, actually told me he doesn't want anyone to find him on the Internet. If you Google his name, absolutely nothing shows up. Granted he is old school and works primarily with local developpers, but still!
My broker still has no site for our office. The top earning agent in my office and several others also have no web site. I have several sites. One is primarily the IDX site but it also has a blog. Other sites are focused on particular markets or communities and are primarily blog sites. Those sites bring me more direct contacts than the IDX site and craigs list brings me more property inquiries than my IDX site or Realtor.com!
Times they are constantly changing. As a full time Realtor, I concentrate on content and target marketing and hope for the best.
Kathy,
Thanks so much for stopping by and your comment. After reading your comment I checked out your Web Site to find out if indeed you live in a rural community or not. As I mentioned in my article and in the comments, often times smaller communities tend to shy away from the Internet as a marketing strategy prefering to contiune to rely upon there name and good standing as there primary strategy. This appears to be what you peers are doing.
The wise indiviual like yourself recognizes that all good things will come to an end. Eventually all communities large and small will evail themselves to the Internet. Smaller communities often are slower to adopt.
I do have a critique though of your site. I did not notice either in your Activerain Profile or on the front page of your web site any mention as to the names of the communities your service. Yes there was a County or two given but no Towns. That strategy for Internet Buyer's is a little tough as most Buyer's probably have a pretty good indication of what town they may be re-locating to but not neccessarily the county.
Even if they did know what county, that is a pretty large geographic area and Buyer's may think that you are spread too thin unless you personaly identify the Town.
Just some thoughts.
Herb, is it a viable stategy to eliminate the 'static website' altogether and just use WordPress as your primary real estate site platform for your domain name? Or do you think it makes more sense to link to your blog from your 'static site?
Kristal,
Only if it is a seasoned site. If I were just starting out I would use a Hybrid site like The_Pickle . Conventional wisdom says to stick with the seasoned site for the juice you have already paid for.
Herb,
Thank for that. I think you are correct. I believe I do well with www.kristalPooler.com on SEO primarily because it has been running since 1997. I believe Google values the age of a site and I do not want to lose that.
Google also values intent. If you renew and or only pay for a domain name registration 1 year at a time you look like a temporary or scam site.
I just renewed my domains each for 5 years. Was only $50. each.
After a while, blogs are like chips... you can't have just one. Of course I am moving towards dynamic CMSs as my websites... instead of just pointing them to my site.
Lane,
You are an ambitious individual. CMS's , tell me more about how you use it and the benefit. Send a link if you wish I am always interested in learning a better way.
Content Management Systems are great because the style of the site and the content are seperate. I am using Joomla for GarageHomesUSA. The biggest benefit is that content is easier to add... and so the site can be continuously updated.