blog.propertiesonline.com » Website Tips http://Blog.PropertiesOnline.com Technology Tools and Tips for the Real Estate Professional Wed, 22 May 2013 18:05:38 +0000 en-US hourly 1 Boosting Your Online Visibility: Tips & Tricks http://Blog.PropertiesOnline.com/boosting-your-online-visibility-tips-tricks/ http://Blog.PropertiesOnline.com/boosting-your-online-visibility-tips-tricks/#comments Wed, 07 Nov 2012 18:15:18 +0000 Jess Maria http://Blog.PropertiesOnline.com/?p=2087 If you’re a real estate agent reading this blog, chances are you already have a properties website or websites. If not, what are you waiting for?? Getting your properties online is crucial for boosting sales, visibility and credibility. Let’s face it – your online marketing is just as important (if not more) as the offline marketing. But how can you be sure potential clients and buyers actually see you and your properties online? Here are some tips for boosting your search engine rankings: 1. Keywords: Start here. Don’t pepper your site with too many keywords, that will just make it appear generalized to Google, and you won’t reap any benefit. Instead, carefully select around four or five keywords total that you want to prioritize on your site. Think locally. You’re probably not trying to compete with a national organization. Tailor your keywords to your local market. Think strategically. 2. Analytics: Without a way to track results accurately, whether you’ve chosen the best possible focus keywords is hard to determine. Sign up for Google Analytics to learn a lot about your site and how it’s performing. Your web analytics will show you your increasing traffic and help you to determine which keywords and which strategies are producing the highest number of new customers. 3. Visibility: To boost the work your site is doing, you’ll want to up your visibility elsewhere on the web. A great way to achieve this is through blogging. It takes time to do it well and often, but the payoff can be huge. Start by ensuring that the root domain of your blog is your website, and opt for a quality SEO plugin tool to help guide you in adding keywords to your blog posts. 4. Content: If you struggle to find something relevant to say every day, share the blog load with others on your team! If you’re a sole proprietor, considering hiring a writer. And remember, content isn’t just text. On your website and blog, make sure your visitors will find thing visually stimulating. That means adding photos, images and videos. Set up a branded YouTube channel and put it to work! 5. Research: Your online presence can grow tremendously, with a little or a lot of effort. Explore Facebook, Google+ and other social networking tools. Look into smart technology that allows you to market single properties beautifully – complete with Craigslist, video, mobile technology and Facebook apps built right in. Or market multiple properties, or properties and yourself all at once! You don’t have to be a web wizard, as long as you set yourself up with the right tools. Boosting Your Online Visibility: Tips & Tricks is a post from: Properties Online Blog

Boosting Your Online Visibility: Tips & Tricks is a post from: Properties Online Blog

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]]> http://Blog.PropertiesOnline.com/boosting-your-online-visibility-tips-tricks/feed/ 1 Smart Linking Increases Real Estate Website Effectiveness http://Blog.PropertiesOnline.com/smart-linking-increases-real-estate-website-effectiveness/ http://Blog.PropertiesOnline.com/smart-linking-increases-real-estate-website-effectiveness/#comments Tue, 10 Jul 2012 18:07:32 +0000 Properties Online http://Blog.PropertiesOnline.com/?p=1878 The internet, mobile technology and social media offer powerful tools that can help you grow your real estate business. But, as we’ve been discussing recently, real estate agents and brokers must not only choose technology tools wisely; they must take steps to maximize the effectiveness of the tools they employ if they wish to reap the significant benefits these tools offer. Smart linking is one of the fastest and easiest ways to increase the return you obtain from your technology investment. Establishing solid links between your real estate website, mobile website, Facebook business page, listing domains, Twitter feed, blog and any other web-based tools you employ provides the following benefits: Providing potential clients with multiple access points to your services widens your proverbial “net,” ensuring that you will “snare” sellers and buyers no matter what media they use. Linking all of your online, mobile and social resources back to your agent website and providing links from your website to other resources allows potential clients to move freely between platforms and access information from whatever application they are using. The more convenient your site is to use, the more return traffic — and ultimately clients — it will attract. Ensuring seamless linking between all of your real estate technology tools is just the beginning. To improve linking effectiveness, follow these linking tips: To build your reputation as a real estate expert and attract visitors to your own website, regularly post comments on popular real estate forums and blogs, always linking your comments back to your website. Establish reciprocal links to outside sources to boost the number of inbound links on your website to at least 20. Inbound links — links posted on other websites that refer site visitors back to your website — enhance your reputation as an expert and increase search engine result rankings. Post and link to source material on other websites. Publish periodic online press releases that link to your site. Regularly test links to ensure that all links remain active. Smart Linking Increases Real Estate Website Effectiveness is a post from: Properties Online Blog

Smart Linking Increases Real Estate Website Effectiveness is a post from: Properties Online Blog

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]]> http://Blog.PropertiesOnline.com/smart-linking-increases-real-estate-website-effectiveness/feed/ 2 Tips for Maximizing the Effectiveness of Your Real Estate Website http://Blog.PropertiesOnline.com/tips-for-maximizing-the-effectiveness-of-your-real-estate-website/ http://Blog.PropertiesOnline.com/tips-for-maximizing-the-effectiveness-of-your-real-estate-website/#comments Fri, 06 Jul 2012 18:05:34 +0000 Properties Online http://Blog.PropertiesOnline.com/?p=1875 If you've maximized the productivity of your online, mobile and social tools, each tool will link back and drive traffic to your website. Creating a user-friendly, value-driven website is the single most important thing real estate agents and brokers can do to build their business.

Tips for Maximizing the Effectiveness of Your Real Estate Website is a post from: Properties Online Blog

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]]> http://Blog.PropertiesOnline.com/tips-for-maximizing-the-effectiveness-of-your-real-estate-website/feed/ 1 Tips for Generating Pinterest Traffic http://Blog.PropertiesOnline.com/tips-for-generating-pinterest-traffic/ http://Blog.PropertiesOnline.com/tips-for-generating-pinterest-traffic/#comments Mon, 28 May 2012 17:37:24 +0000 Properties Online http://Blog.PropertiesOnline.com/?p=1813 Easy to use and fun to browse, the popular social network Pinterest offers Realtors a creative new real estate marketing tool. Already a proven traffic-builder, the network’s phenomenal referral rate offers tremendous network-building potential. Named one of the Top 10 Social Networks by tracking firm Hitwise, Pinterest attracts more than 10 million unique visitors every month and drives more referral traffic than YouTube, Google+ or Reddit. And not only are more people visiting Pinterest, they’re staying longer. The average site visitor spends 100 minutes on Pinterest compared to 55 minutes on Facebook. Pinterest offers real estate agents a creative solution to the problem of staying connected to former and prospective clients. People typically visit real estate sites only when they want to buy or sell a house. Because this is an infrequent occurrence in most people’s lives, years can pass between contacts. Real estate websites that typically focus their content on buying and selling tips, community information, and property listings offer clients little incentive to visit after the closing. Pinterest’s heavy design focus allows Realtors to tap into myriad housing-related interests — interior design, furnishings, landscaping, gardening, architectural design, etc. — to maintain and strengthen their connection with former clients during those lulls when their services are not needed. For example, you could create multiple Pinterest boards on great kitchen layouts or cool master baths or patio design. By pinning photos from actual listings to illustrate your point, you accomplish three things: By appealing to housing-related interests, you maintain a professional real estate connection with clients while building a more personal relationship. Showcasing local listings photos keeps your expertise as a knowledgeable real estate agent front and center. Go big when pinning photos. Large, tall photos are repinned most frequently. Linking pinned photos to listing domains enhances marketing efforts. Creating boards on multiple subjects strengthens your reputation as a premier housing expert. Encourage Pinterest traffic by adding a “Pin It” bookmark to your website and Facebook page and promoting your boards on Facebook and in email blasts. Tips for Generating Pinterest Traffic is a post from: Properties Online Blog

Tips for Generating Pinterest Traffic is a post from: Properties Online Blog

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]]> http://Blog.PropertiesOnline.com/tips-for-generating-pinterest-traffic/feed/ 1 SEO Checklist for Compatibility with Google’s New Search Parameters http://Blog.PropertiesOnline.com/seo-checklist-for-compatibility-with-googles-new-search-parameters/ http://Blog.PropertiesOnline.com/seo-checklist-for-compatibility-with-googles-new-search-parameters/#comments Tue, 22 May 2012 18:33:22 +0000 Properties Online http://Blog.PropertiesOnline.com/?p=1786 Google has begun implementing 40 changes and updates to its core search engine algorithms. Real estate agents that want to maintain high rankings in Google’s search results will need to make some substantial changes to their real estate websites. But keeping up with 40 tech changes is a lot to expect from even tech-savvy Realtors. The following checklist provides a useful guide for prioritizing website changes and re-optimizing your real estate website to take advantage of Google’s new search parameters: Open a Google+ account and start moving clients and prospects into friend circles. Google’s new search results algorithms place the greatest weight on social media connections, giving a significant edge to Google+, Google’s new Facebook competitor. Increase the amount and quality of original content on your web pages. In new algorithms, unique content receives the highest scores while using content available on other sites counts against you. Providing in-depth Q&A content is a fast way to increase unique content on your real estate website. Hiring a professional writer to create content is another option. Move valuable content from your parent company or other resources to subdomains to decrease its negative impact. Decrease the volume of offsite links and ads on your web pages. Both now decrease web page rank. Current topics and trends capture the greatest attention from Google’s freshness update. Q&As and blog posts on hot button and trending real estate topics will boost your search ranking, perhaps significantly; but the uptick will be fleeting, decreasing as the freshness of the topic fades. Regular posting on newsworthy topics will be required to maintain a high freshness rating. Accommodating Google’s new page layout algorithm may require a major overhaul of your real estate site landing page. Google now favors web pages that make value-added content instantly visible when a site visitor opens the page. Forcing visitors to scroll down to content or filling the initial page view with ads will lower your search rank. Unfortunately, so will glossy photo displays that attract customer interest. SEO Checklist for Compatibility with Google’s New Search Parameters is a post from: Properties Online Blog

SEO Checklist for Compatibility with Google’s New Search Parameters is a post from: Properties Online Blog

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]]> http://Blog.PropertiesOnline.com/seo-checklist-for-compatibility-with-googles-new-search-parameters/feed/ 0 Tips for Maximizing Website SEO Under Google Search Changes http://Blog.PropertiesOnline.com/tips-for-maximizing-website-seo-under-google-search-changes/ http://Blog.PropertiesOnline.com/tips-for-maximizing-website-seo-under-google-search-changes/#comments Thu, 17 May 2012 17:31:31 +0000 Properties Online http://Blog.PropertiesOnline.com/?p=1781 Recently implemented changes and updates to Google’s search algorithms mean real estate agents will need to tweak their real estate websites if they want to maintain their current search rankings. Agents that fail to adjust and re-maximize search engine optimization (SEO) of their real estate sites to accommodate Google’s new search parameters will see themselves drop down or even disappear from Google search results. For real estate professionals, the most critical changes are to Google’s Link Evaluation (discussed in our previous post) and the search engine’s year-old Panda search-ranking program. Before focusing on Panda, one more important comment on Link Evaluation changes: In new algorithms, Link Evaluation not only weights new information on Google+ heavily in determining search results across the board; but, among members of your friend circles, it also continues to push your site to the top of search results as long as an individual remains a member of your circle. Google’s new search emphasis on its new social media network makes opening a Google+ account a smart move, if only for the SEO benefits. Panda created a SEO firestorm when it was released a year ago. Designed to cull low-quality and low-content web pages from Google’s massive index, Panda heralds a major shift in the way Google’s search algorithms evaluate and rank web pages to derive search results. Overnight, many of the SEO tricks that had been commonly employed to boost web page search rank became not merely ineffective but actually counted against pages under the new Panda system. Pages with little original content or with an abundance of links and ads plummeted in the rankings, consequently losing traffic. Many real estate sites took a major hit after Panda’s implementation. Panda took a poor view of the copied material from authoritative sources and home office libraries that forms the backbone of many real estate web pages. Panda devalues websites that carry material available on other sites in favor of websites that display original content. To be continued Tips for Maximizing Website SEO Under Google Search Changes is a post from: Properties Online Blog

Tips for Maximizing Website SEO Under Google Search Changes is a post from: Properties Online Blog

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]]> http://Blog.PropertiesOnline.com/tips-for-maximizing-website-seo-under-google-search-changes/feed/ 1 Google Search Changes Necessitate Real Estate Website Tweaks http://Blog.PropertiesOnline.com/google-search-changes-necessitate-real-estate-website-tweaks/ http://Blog.PropertiesOnline.com/google-search-changes-necessitate-real-estate-website-tweaks/#comments Mon, 16 Apr 2012 18:19:28 +0000 Properties Online http://Blog.PropertiesOnline.com/?p=1778 High search engine placement is the key to driving client traffic to your real estate website, and search engine optimization (SEO) is the key to high search engine placement. It would be convenient if search engines would stop tinkering with their search algorithms so that real estate agents could maximize their sites for SEO once and be done, but that’s never going to happen. Like it or not, constant changes in search algorithms by the masters of Google and their ilk mean that real estate agents must stay current with new search parameters and periodically tweak their real estate sites to accommodate new search strategies and re-maximize SEO. Realtors and real estate agents that fail to keep up with the latest SEO strategies will see their search rankings plummet, site traffic fall off, and new clients move to more web-savvy real estate brokers. Such high stakes justify the effort and expense it takes to keep your real estate site search engine optimized. At the end of February, Google began implementing a series of 40 changes and updates to its search engine, many of which boost support for Google+, Google’s Facebook competitor. For real estate agents the two most important changes were to Panda, Google’s year-old search ranker, and the self-explanatory Link Evaluation. If you want to keep your real estate website at the top of Google’s search rankings, the following tips will show you how to tweak your site to accommodate Google’s newest search engine modifications. Link Evaluation shifts search impact from offsite links, the backbone of traditional SEO strategies, to social media engagement. Your blog entries, article submissions and directory submissions will still count toward your search engine ranking on Google, but their value has been marginalized in favor of social network mentions, social update shares and customer engagement (comments and reviews). Not surprisingly, Google places premium value on Google+ interactions. If you’re not on Google+ yet, the SEO advantages alone should make this a priority. Continued next time Google Search Changes Necessitate Real Estate Website Tweaks is a post from: Properties Online Blog

Google Search Changes Necessitate Real Estate Website Tweaks is a post from: Properties Online Blog

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]]> http://Blog.PropertiesOnline.com/google-search-changes-necessitate-real-estate-website-tweaks/feed/ 1 Use Real Estate QR Codes to Boost Website Traffic http://Blog.PropertiesOnline.com/use-real-estate-qr-codes-to-boost-website-traffic/ http://Blog.PropertiesOnline.com/use-real-estate-qr-codes-to-boost-website-traffic/#comments Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:56:43 +0000 Properties Online http://Blog.PropertiesOnline.com/?p=1562 Sometimes described as bar codes on steroids, QR codes have become an essential mobile marketing tool that offers real estate agents a cheap, easy and effective way to drive traffic to their real estate sites.

Use Real Estate QR Codes to Boost Website Traffic is a post from: Properties Online Blog

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]]> http://Blog.PropertiesOnline.com/use-real-estate-qr-codes-to-boost-website-traffic/feed/ 0 Agents – Engage your Visitors with Video http://Blog.PropertiesOnline.com/realtor-website-video/ http://Blog.PropertiesOnline.com/realtor-website-video/#comments Wed, 03 Aug 2011 19:55:50 +0000 Vered http://Blog.PropertiesOnline.com/?p=421 Adding video to your agent site also allows you to reach out and connect with more potential clients. While a text-rich website is important from an SEO point of view, adding video to your site enhances the user experience, which is an important factor in the success of any website.

Agents – Engage your Visitors with Video is a post from: Properties Online Blog

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]]> http://Blog.PropertiesOnline.com/realtor-website-video/feed/ 0 Real Estate Websites: Why SEO is Important http://Blog.PropertiesOnline.com/real-estate-websites-seo/ http://Blog.PropertiesOnline.com/real-estate-websites-seo/#comments Thu, 07 Jul 2011 18:27:27 +0000 Vered http://Blog.PropertiesOnline.com/?p=628 SEO, or search engine optimization, is important for any website, and this is true for real estate websites as well. Essentially, SEO helps to make sure that your website will be found on the Internet. Optimizing your web site itself, or on-page optimization, is just part of your efforts to build a web presence, but it’s certainly a major part. If a search engine bot crawls your web pages but your web pages don’t “tell” it what your site is all about, then the search engine will not be able to index your web site correctly, and people who search online for what you offer will not be able to find you. For example, if you sell real estate in Austin, Texas, your site’s title tags and copy need to include related keywords such as “Austin real estate,” “homes for sale in Austin” etc. Another important factor in determining whether your website will rank well for your main keywords is inbound links. Search engines show strong preference to websites who have links from other websites pointing at them. High quality agent site companies have tools in place to help your agent website get links. Engaging in social media will also bring you links over time, because the people you connect with will learn about your site, and if you provide useful material, they may link to it. Another important aspect of on-page search engine optimization is to add a blog to your real estate site. A blog, unlike a static site, tends to be rich in text. If you write it correctly and include your main keywords throughout the text, a blog can give your SEO efforts a significant boost. Real Estate Websites: Why SEO is Important is a post from: Properties Online Blog

Real Estate Websites: Why SEO is Important is a post from: Properties Online Blog

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