Search Engine Happiness

It used to be that in order to get your website ranked on the first page of the search engines, you needed to fill your website with keywords and use appropriate meta tags on your site. One could create ranking for a bunk page through this. Search engines caught on. With the advent ofWeb 2.0, this is no longer the case.

Now, search engine placement is all about LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION. You know that mantra, don't you? Search engines want to see that you have a real prescence online, not just a web page that you stuck up there and forgot about. They are looking for content, yes, but they are really looking for how many other websites link to yours AND crawlers will also rank those sites to make sure they are relevant sites and not simply pointers. So, if YouTube.com links to your site, you get mad kudos for that. You page rank goes up. If ActiveRain links to your site, your page ranks goes up. Take it further- if the Chamber of Commerce, Craigslist, REALTOR.com, etc link to your site your page rank goes up.

So, how do you utilize web 2.0 (see definition in the link above) to increase your page rank?

1. Start and maintain a blog
2. Join social networking sites and use them - comment on others' blogs and put your web address in your signature (if the site allows this). Such networking and blogging sites include:
   - ActiveRain - My profile
   - MySpace - My profile
   - Facebook
   - Twitter
   - Blog service providers: Typepad, Wordpress, Blogger
3. Change the name of your website to brand yourself. Don't name your home page 'South Bend real estate'. When people search 'South Bend real estate' almost every link in the results say something generic. Nothing stands out. Instead, use something like 'John Smith Getting Real Estate SOLD in South Bend'.
4. Market your listings online using any of the classified site outlets. My favorite is Postlets. Use them, use them, use them. Search engines & your sellers will love you for it.

You need to have a presence online in order to have a presence online. Sounds a bit like a Catch-22 but it really helps searchers to find relevant sites from people who really ARE online and not just throwing out blank/outdated/irrelevant pages.

I can help you with any social networking you may need. I can get you set up with a MySpace, Twitter, ActiveRain and Blog account and can even maintain them for you or I can just answer questions if you have them.

Do You Twitter?

I know. There are so many new programs/interfaces/networks popping up everyday and it's a daunting task to sort through them all. One of those new applications is Twitter. With Twitter, you can post what you are doing at any time throughout the day. My first thought was, "why would anyone care what I'm doing?" After giving it some thought I figured it could be a great way for me to subtly remind agents about what I could be doing for them as their VA. I am planning on posting the projects I am working on (without the customer's name of course). That way, an agent may think of hiring me for the same type of project or it may give them an idea. My second question was, "how could real estate agents use this app?" I can't think of any. Can you?

P.S. I've also added my Twitter to my website and blog.

A 'Widget' WHAT??

We all know to get listings on the internet because that is where the buyers are looking. Period. My Assistant provides a service to our agents that syndicates their listings to 10-12 classified websites. We do this via a Postlet (www.postlets.com). It's a free site (we charge $7 for the input, maintenance, and upload to Craigslist). We also design a flyer for the agent to give to their sellers (printing costs extra). Postlets provides a property widget (3 size samples below). I'm trying to find ways to use these widgets and would love your input. Here are my ideas thus far - 1) websites to feature listings, 2) blogs 3) would love to be able to embed in an email - any ideas?

Small:

Medium:

Large: