Archive for Realtor Tools & Tips
Keywords and SEO for Real Estate Simplified
Keyword phrases aren’t any kind of magic hidden tags. Search engines read your content and they are sophisticated enough to detect spam and other so called tricks of the trade. They are looking for sites whose content is relevant to what people are searching for. So just keep that in mind each time you add a new real estate listing or any content to your web site. Ask yourself, "Am I using regional real estate related words that people may be searching for?"
For example I live in Fairfield CT so I will use "Fairfield CT real estate" as the example search term. The typical headline for a home in my neighborhood might be: "Classic Colonial on Quiet Cul-de-Sac". This is a nice headline for the real estate section of our local newspaper but for the world wide web we need to be more specific. "Real Estate in Fairfield CT Historic District". or "Colonial in Fairfield CT Historic District" If we use the second headline we would still need to get the "real estate" term in there. So the first line of the property description could be something like: Fabulous real estate opportunity in Fairfield's Historic District. Note how I have also worked in the market area search term "historic district".
Other areas of your web site can be improved in the same way. I often see web sites that offer "personalized service" instead of "personalized real estate services". Many real estate sites don't use the phrase "real estate" at all.
There is more to SEO than this of course (META tags: title and description) and what I call a "search engine friendly" web design. Link popularity and so forth but the single most important thing you can do and still need to do even if you have all the other stuff is to have great content that also happens to include the keywords people would use to find you.
Create Your Own Real Estate Listings RSS Feed
RSS (really simple syndication) is a feed that allows your subscribers to receive your "feed" automatically through a feed reader or email. RSS feeds can also be displayed as dynamic content in web pages. A feed will generally consist of a short summary which when clicked will bring you to the full article or detail page.
You can use an RSS feed for any area of your web site that you would update frequently: new real estate listings, price changes, open house schedule, mortgage rates, community news, real estate market statistics and so forth. The feed will allow people to subscribe to your latest updates and can also keep your latest updates posted on your web site and perhaps even posted on other web sites and blogs.
To easily create and publish your RSS feed use a desktop application that provides a wizard to help guide you through the process. I recommend FeedForAll:
Now that you have your RSS feed published (uploaded to your web server) you will want to include links so visitors can subscribe to your feed. You may also want to display your feed content as HTML on a web page or blog and of course you will want to submit your feed to RSS directories and search engines.
A very simple way to get started with displaying, publishing and promoting your feed is to sign-up for a free FeedBurner account.
Free Virtual Tours
Free do-it-yourself virtual tour. No third party ads and 100% branded to you. You can include your photo, name and logo. The beauty of this virtual tour in addition to the price (did I mention it's free?!) is the built-in lead capture, activity tracking and lead management features.
Here's how it works; Create an account by choosing a user name and password. Choose an attractive template. Upload your pictures and write your descriptions. You can use unlimited photos and create unlimited tours. The tours are hosted free for as long as you want.
You can track the activity for each tour and the tours have built-in forms for visitors who are interested in the property. All the contact information and tour leads are stored for you. What's the catch? You pay $1.00 for each each lead that you generate through this service. $1.00 for a qualified lead. This is someone who has viewed your tour and is interested enough to fill in the form to ask you a question, send it to a friend or request an appointment. You only pay if they fill out the form.
Give it a try: flyinside.com
Are AOL Email Addresses for Losers?
Andy Wibbels thinks so and I bet many people would agree with him. I won’t be so rude here as to call some of the top producing Realtors in the country “losers” but I will say; Realtors using AOL, free mail accounts and email addresses with their ISP domain name are definitely “losing out”.
Let’s discuss some of the reasons you should not be using your AOL, Yahoo or other ISP email accounts. Yes, there is more than one reason, in fact there are many. The first and most obvious is that it is simply unprofessional. I know the dangers of “assuming” anything but let’s please just assume that we all know and agree that lulu69@hotmail.com is not an appropriate email address for your business image.
What else is wrong with this address? Well, it kind of looks like SPAM so there is a more than high possibility that this email would be deleted, blocked or even blacklisted. What else? As if your email not being received isn’t enough to deter you from this bad practice. Well then…
How about branding? You all know branding. You have spent money on logos, business cards, direct mail campaigns, just listed and sold cards. You have a website. You have a full page ad in a glossy magazine and listings in all the local newspapers. I don’t have to tell you about branding. Then why are you branding your ISP domain name every time you send an email?
Still, that email address seems like such a small thing compared to your other marketing efforts. And yet, think about it. How many emails will you send and reply to today? Compare that to how many other marketing/branding impressions you made today. How does it compare? How does the cost compare? Can you see how your biggest return on investment (ROI) could actually be coming from your own branded email?
