July 20, 2009

Top 10 SEO Mistakes

Filed under: Marketing, SEO — Andy @ 12:24 pm

So, you’ve got yourself a great-looking website for your real estate business and now want to get some traffic. Everyone’s talking about SEO, so that must be what you need to do, right? Not so fast…

Before you read any of the following, get used to the idea that you’ll be writing content. Content, content, content. SEO is great, but without good content, you’re sunk.

So, while you’re writing said great-and-focused content, here are the top 10 most common SEO mistakes to watch out for:

1. Keyword Dilution
If you choose too many keywords to optimize for, especially words that are unrelated, this will reduce the effectiveness of all of them. It is best to select a set of keywords (5-10) that best matches your business, and focus your website’s content on topics related to them.

2. Keyword Spamming
Don’t overuse your keywords. Search engines are smart enough to recognize when your content uses words too frequently. Punishments range from reduced ranking to banning from search results. The key is to keep your content focused and on-topic, and valuable to readers rather than a stream of repeated related words.

3. Link Spamming
If you have too many links to/from the same sites, even if it is not an intentional cross-linking scheme, search engines may penalize you for link-spamming. The best way to avoid this is to create compelling content that people will naturally link to. To get the word out, search for “real estate blogs” or “real estate forums” on Google. Post some comments and link back to your site. If your content is compelling, you’ll start seeing organic growth immediately.

4. Linking to Bad Sites
Outbound links to bad sites is extremely harmful to your ranking. If you make sure you link to sites with content relevant to your topic, you can mitigate this. Links to illegal download sites, or other sites deemed questionable by search engines, can drown you.

5. Circular Linking
Site A links to site B. Site B links to site C. Site C links back to site A. This is circular linking and, even when disguised, is penalized by search engines. Good quality content on your site will attract the right types of links over time, so don’t try to fool the search engines by cutting corners - it won’t work.

5. Duplicate Content
Search engines will penalize you for duplicating content on different pages throughout your site. Again, the “Content is King” rule applies here - there is nothing better than on-topic, updated and useful content.

6. Invisible Text
Ever wonder why you don’t see this bad habit much anymore? It’s because search engines penalize it tremendously. Keyword-spamming white-background sites with white text was all the rage back in the early 2000s until search engines started levying heavy penalties.

7. Poor Page Coding
Some sites look great, but they are coded terribly badly. As a human, this is hard to see, but from a search engine’s point of view, pooly coded sites are very hard to read. If you don’t code your site yourself, make sure your designer has a good reputation for SEO and site design before you drop big bucks into a good looking flop.

8. A Flash Intro/Homepage
Search engines can’t read flash pages, so stay away from these monstrosities at all cost. In general, flash movies/images won’t further your SEO cause at all unless they have good alternative text descriptions in the page’s code.

10. Movies without Transcriptions
Are a waste of time. Unless you’ve included all the text from the movie in the page, these will contribute to your site’s search engine ranking at all.

The message is pretty clear: content, content, content. If your site is flush with good quality content centering on some well-chosen keywords, you’re in good shape.

July 13, 2009

Does Bus-Bench Advertising Work?

Filed under: Marketing — Sam Prochazka @ 11:53 am

Ever noticed just how much Realtors™ dominate bus bench advertising space? Bus bench advertising might be a good fit for you, but without knowing the facts you could lose thousands of dollars.

The true cost of bus bench advertising

Here are some statistics about bus bench advertising in the US:

  • There are around 32,000,000 ad-supporting bus benches in the US
  • Average cost for one bus bench (2007): $250.00US/month
  • Bus bench advertising is an $8 billion industry in the US

Talk to a sales rep for a bus bench and they quote you a monthly rate for space that will vary depending on impressions and location. What they won’t tell you are that you’ll need to pay extra for:

  • special design, printing
  • special installation
  • several additional months paid in advance to guarantee your spot
  • periodic repairs that’ll be needed to repair damaged/vandalized benches

These expenses can add up quickly, and unless you’re able to keep the dollars flowing, you’re likely to drive by your bus bench and find you’ve grown a mustache.

Some placements work better than others

In the world of bus benches, the rules are no different: Location, location, location. Bench reps will be able to give you the number of impressions your ad receives in any given period, but impressions alone won’t guarantee success. The following are some other must-haves with your bus bench location:

  • Traffic lights
  • High traffic areas that get congested during peak traffic hours
  • Major arteries into your target areas

Contrasted colors and design

Drivers are inundated with advertising on their commutes, and for yours to stand out it’ll need to have the maximum possible contrast with its surroundings. Make sure to choose colors and fonts accordingly. Better yet - consult a marketing company with experience in  bus bench design to help you.

Send the right message

Your bus bench needs to present a consistent, compelling, and SHORT message. Keep the following in mind:

  • everyone offers a, “free home evaluation”
  • photos may clutter up your bus bench and take away from your message
  • your points of contact must be front-and-center: make sure your phone number and website are displayed clearly
  • your message must entice potential customers - offer neighborhood real estate stats, or something else that is compelling

So - do bus benches work?

Well, like most things it depends on who you speak to - but the short answer is: yes - but only if you’re smart about it.

July 7, 2009

Escaping the Realtor Cycle of Death

Filed under: Marketing, Prospecting — Sam Prochazka @ 10:49 am

When you’re finding new customers, you don’t make money; when you’re converting those customers, you’re not finding new ones. Almost all entrepreneurs find themselves in this loop when they’re starting out, and without action, many will still be doing it five or ten years from now.

“But I need an established client base before I can scale back my marketing…” You’re right! If you scrap your marketing, then you’re guaranteed to fail. The secret is in building your, “established client base,” in an efficient way that doesn’t take away from your marketing or immediate customer service requirements.

“Yeah, that’s obvious.” Yes it is, and I bet you’ve already heard it from your business coach, broker, colleague, top producing friend, husband/wife/son/daughter/mom/dad, high school friend, etc. But what THINGS can you do to ACTUALLY accomplish this?

Use technology

Technology will help you. It will alleviate the time you spend servicing customers, and will allow you to easily keep in contact with your sphere of influence.

To keep in touch with past and present customers, do the following:

  • Get a good website
  • Include a blog post (make it compelling) at least once-per-week about the market, or updates relevant to your sphere of influence
  • Use an email campaign manager to keep in constant contact with your customers (build at least 18 months of campaign messages to begin with)

To service your existing customers, do the following:

  • Get a website with map-based MLS® searching, and direct all your buyers there to do searching on their own. Make sure to followup with them every now-and-then via email or phone.
  • Ensure your listings are rich with information - feature sheets, photos, virtual tours, maps, etc.

To attract new customers, do the following:

Use your knowledge

Offering valuable content to your customers is absolutely vital - without it there’s no reason for them to use you over one of your competitors. The great thing is that educating your customers serves two purposes: it ensures you’re fresh in their minds when they decide to enter the market, and it means they’ll be more comfortable during the real estate process and convert more quickly.

“But what should I talk about?” Don’t sell yourself short - your knowledge on how a transaction works, what to look for in a basement, or what to do in the event of encroachment are just some of the things that your customers would find very useful.

Leverage your sphere of influence

They don’t call it a, “sphere of influence,” for nothing. Real estate comes up in casual conversation all the time, and when your friends are talking about it, they should be talking about you as well! Your name will get around, and before you know it your sphere of influence will be growing.

Commit and be consistent!

To make this work, think about a manual water pump - you need to work hard initially to get the water flowing, but once it is you can slow down… But what happens if your stop pumping? You have to start again from scratch.

This is the biggest mistake most Realtors® make is to commit to something more than they can handle. The key is to choose a strategy that is REASONABLE within the constraints of your life. If you’ve only got 10 minutes/day to spend, then be honest with yourself and don’t commit to an hour. Anything that becomes a struggle to do, won’t get done.

July 3, 2009

3 Ways Your Customers Can Work For You

Filed under: Buyers, Marketing, Prospecting, Sellers — Sam Prochazka @ 10:29 am

Tired of all the hand-holding you do for your customers? Here are 3 ways you can turn those time-consumers into money-producers:

1. Empower them to do their own work

Top producers know it - customers who are empowered to do their own work will; it REALLY IS that simple! You can empower your customers by:

  • having a Virtual Office Website that allows them to do and save their own MLS® searches
  • giving them access to other information about the market such as statistics and trends
  • giving them all information about listings so they can narrow down their favorites themselves

2. Make them your sales staff

Happy customers will tell their friends about you; all you need to do is give them great service, then make sure you stay in touch.

  • Use an email campaign with your recent website blog entries
  • Add them as a friend on Facebook
  • Send monthly newsletters

Doing these things will ensure your customers always mention your name when their friends ask, “which Realtor™ should I use?”

3. Use them to recruit listings

If you’re working with lots of buyers, you can use them to recruit more listings. Just go to craigslist.org, or kijiji.com and add your buyer’s needs to their, “wanted,” directories. You’ll have FSBOs inquiring in less time than you think.

Successful companies use their customers to grow their businesses - start thinking like them and you’ll find more commission in your wallet almost immediately.

Careers | Privacy Policy
© Copyright 2010 RealPageMaker ® | making you money. saving you time. simple. | websites for real estate. All rights reserved