Most real estate websites are designed for the sole purpose of attracting only the REALTORS who will buy the sites; they do little to garner favor with search engines. If the search engines won’t find those sites, potential customers won’t either! Put your site on a platform used by Fortune 500 companies.
A Billboard in Antarctica?
As everyone knows by now, over 80% of home buyers find their homes or their agents on the net. The sad truth is that only a tiny fraction of REALTOR sites are ever even seen. Most small business websites suffer from the same sort of inattention! You might as well buy a billboard in Antarctica!
It doesn’t have to be that way. An AgentBlogBuzz.com website is designed for results! Put your name on top of a high-performance blogsite and get found! The sites are built on the very same Wordpress platforms used by everyone from Fortune 500 companies to presidential candidates!
Here is a bar graph that displays web traffic on my site at http://realestatetwincities.net for June 4th, 2009 (Snapshot taken at about 4:00 pm)
Web Development for Realtors and Other Brave Entrepeneurs
My own Minneapolis real website at http://realestatetwincities.net was built on Wordpress and ranks on top or near the top of the Google search results page for the term “Minneapolis MN real estate,” ranking higher than notable sites like homegain.com edinarealty.com, mlsonline.com, realtor.com, trulia.com, cbburnet.com, remax.com, homes.com, themlsonline.com, all Keller Williams sites, realestate.yahoo.com, all Sotheby real estate sites, and some other major players with very deep pockets and large internet advertising budgets. It ranks higher for “Minneapolis real estate” than sites built by Real Estate Webmasters, VREO, Advanced Access, Homes.com, Real Estate Home Pages, Mighty Agent, Agent Image, Z57, and sites built by many other big-name site developers. It also ranks high for many other real estate-related search terms. The site gets about 650-700 sessions per day, and about 5500-6500 hits per day. The site works well because it is easily read by search engines, and all content is extremely accessible. The architecture of the site itself is optimal for search engine results. The core code is extremely light. The sole objective here is to run this lean and court favor with search engines.
Content is King!
Search engines can’t read flashy animations and they can’t index music or graphics! Search engines want solid, idex-able, content-rich advertising copy! You will learn how to publish posts that will frequently index and rank within hours of publication! You will learn how to do your own search engine optimization! You will not need to spend thousands of dollars on SEO or pay-per-click campaigns!
Affordable Web Development
My website construction fees are reasonable, More importantly, your website will outperform sites that cost anywhere from $5,000.00 to $20,000.00 How do I know this? I have personally had several websites built for me and have spent many thousands of dollars on them. I have also spent thousands of dollars on monthly SEO services. If someone calls you and tells you that they can get you ranked on page one if you give them a big monthly fee, they are planning to rip you off. Some of their SEO tricks may even be “black hat,” meaning that search engines could penalize or even ban your site! If you have a good blog set up correctly, you don’t need to spend money on SEO services. SEO is a rip-off provided by snake-oil salesmen. All you need is the right structure, follow a few rules, do a little writing, and have a little patience.
There is no “silver bullet” for having an optimal website. No one can guarantee you “number one” spot in the Google SERPS. But with a little persistence, your work and investment in your own professional blog will pay off! There are plenty of people out there that want hefty monthly fees to get your site optimized for Google SERPs. The truth of the matter is, you can do your own SEO. You just need a simple website structure, fresh and original relevant content, and backlinks. Real estate search terms are some of the most competitive terms on the internet. I am a real estate agent myself, so I understand your tough market niche. However, if a Wordpress blog will work for real estate, it will certainly for for your product. Wordpress is used by everyone from local softball teams to Fortune 500 companies. Hosting fees are only $7.95 per month. Call me for a quote at 612-296-0007 to have your site built for you. We can probably build the site in about a week or so. This is a Wordpress platform that I will FTP to a server and completely build for you. I will help write search engine friendly pages for you. The one-time fee includes training for maintaining the site. In most cases I can meet with you at your house or office for an inital consultation, and then for a hands-on training session when your website is completed. Phone support comes with the package. The Wordpress blogsite platform is extremely search engine friendly.
For same one-time cost as about a dozen Sunday newspaper photo classifieds (that nobody will even read,) you can have your own high-performance website! Your blogsite can contain unlimited static pages, unlimited posts, easy ways to update the site, unlimited photos, and custom forms. If your are a real estate agent, you can have an mls/idx search function. The website will be attractive, have a simple, logical flow, and be easy to read. It will also have a code that is extremely light and can be easily indexed by Google.
Make the Switch!
Some of my first websites were template sites I purchased from Homes.com and Real Estate Home Pages. These folks were nice to work with, but the sites just did not perform well. My last real estate website was developed by Advanced Access. I was spending an extra monthy fee for a “Gold” marketing program that gave me conflicting advice. After several hundred frustrating hours of my own work creating several hundred pages, I found my site on page two of Google for “Minneapolis Real Estate.” Then I dropped completely out of site. Advanced Access could offer no explanation! I parted ways, and built a web on a system similar to this one, and the next day, I found myself at number three on page one of Google for the same term!
Web Development for Everyone!
Word press blog posts are highly indexable by Google, and will rank quickly. Frequently, my posts appear on page one of Google within 24hrs. The site makes it as easy as possible for major search engines to crawl your posts and cache your data in their systems so that your site appears as high as possible on the search engine results pages. Sites will include Google-compliant site maps, photos, simple contact forms with spam control, and as many static pages as you want. Blogs are excellent tools for developing a loyal readership, communicating with clients, and posting your listings. It is also a way to gain backlinks. Google loves backlinks!
Have a site with custom content completely built and optimized for you!
Contact me for a free consultation.
(612) 296-0007
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{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
Advance Access site, need to overcome the inertia of sitting unchanged on the internet.
Wonderful information to share about cheap web hosting for us all! You are right, Google loves fresh content, and the best way to do that is with a blog you update regularly. Photo blogs can be great for that as well.
Leon Belenky@Miami Homes For Sale´s last blog ..Luxury Homes on the Sunset Islands Miami Florida
Great article on the benefits of ahcving a blog. Google truly does love new information that is relevant. I have had websites for years and never got anywhere with rankings. I switched over to wordpress 2 1/2 weeks ago and I am already on page 3 and climbing everyday. And I havent really even begun my SEO.
Ryan Jones´s last blog ..Sacramento Property Management: Folsom Corridor Market Update
You are correct, fresh content is the key to increasing your ranks and retaining visitors. Thanks for sharing all the great benefits a blog can give to your search results and key word links!
I agree 100% – keeping fresh content on your site is the best way to grab Google’s attention. The hard part is finding the time to keep adding the content!
Thanks. I’ll look into this.
While seemingly everyone under the sun is trying to sell us agents SEO services these days (and every day I feel myself getting closer and closer to caving in and forking out big bucks), I could scarcely believe my eyes when I read you say, “The truth of the matter is, you can do your own SEO. You just need a simple website structure, fresh and original relevant content, and backlinks”. WOW! Thanks for articulating this so clearly and concisely. It’s a refreshingly different perspective I haven’t come across until now. Hmmm. Maybe doing my own SEO really isn’t as hard as I’ve been telling myself…nor as difficult as the myriad of SEO experts out there would otherwise have me believe!
Updating website with fresh content regularly is essential these days at least from SEO point of view. It is good have fresh information and provides job opportunities for the content writers world wide as well.
I totally agree! Its best to have fresh contents every now and then and those contents should have keywords on it. For realtors who have search engine friendly websites, they will likely make it to the top spot in search engine and outrun other competitors.
SEO is finding its importance almost in every field online. It is very important for attracting potential customers to the site and also get better sales out of it. Content is one best way to develop the site in SEO point of view.
Nice sharing and keep posting.
I agree as well, If you wanted to be on top on search engine’s list you have to develop your site in favor of search engines. The design of your website is not of priority. The internet is all about content, to get great rankings in search engines you have to have fresh content on added on your site on a regular basis.
This is a great article. It is always good to consider what is going on to a web page. Keeping it fresh and high quality makes all the differnce in the world… Getting your web page and information out there is huge, and besides who wants to read old articles and useless information. Great reminder for everyone involved with the internet.
Having a website that ranks has been my most important asset in the last few years. The information age has totally changed the way that real estate is done and how people find the homes they want to see!
I dumped Advance Access last week. My first site was a Z57 site for about three years, then it was the Advance Access for six years. My new site is a Word Press.
It has helped put me in control of my content. Even though there is content provided on the template sites, it’s stagnant. The content hasn’t changed since Advance Access was bought a few years ago. The only changes that were made were in the virtual office with features that took forever to load, and then didn’t work properly.
Oh, and I forgot about the propoganda that replaced the news feed. As long as you are paying to have some one make up the news it should have some reality thrown in.
It’s important to get help. I’m pretty well versed in Word Press, but I have taken classes, and hired a consultant. The results I’ve gotten in just a couple of months is much more than years of baby sitting those templates at Advance Access and Z57.
yes, You are right, Google loves fresh content, and the best way to do that is with a blog you update regularly.
turkey
I agree that content is gold. Fresh contents makes good sites popular and updating your blogs will make you up in the arena of search engine. Right keywords should consider as it increases the chance of getting on top of search engine. Nice post! It helps a lot!
Californiahomes´s last blog ..California Home Sales increased by 16.7%
Your site is very well done. Custom development is so worth it. Most people who buy a template end up spending many more hours or dollars adjusting the format than they would have starting from scratch…sort of like buy a home and reconfiguring it, versus building custom…custom result is always better.
I agree with you………. yes, content is the most important thing and Google likes fresh content.Excellent blog with valuable tips! Thanks for posting.