May

13

Is SEO dead? The new rules of the search engine game

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What’s the future of SEO? Jeremy Schoemaker says there’s none at all.

Apparently intent on starting a heated debate, he writes:

My honest answer is there is no future in SEO. From my experiences I am seeing Google SERPS results strongly influenced by Google Toolbar data, Google User history, and Google Analytics data. Google’s combination of SEO and social voting via toolbar/history/analytics will continue to sway more in the realm of social voting. I feel this technology will only get better. I don’t think anyone can argue that core SEO has gotten less valuable over the years and I see that trend continuing.

Well, sorry to disappoint, but SEO is here to stay. It’s just going to be done differently, but for as long as there will be search engines to get ranked in, there will be things you can do to get better rankings. It’s true that traditional SEO is on the way out, but it’s not about to die. SEO is going to evolve. And very drastically too!

The shift to social voting

In the early days of the Internet, getting top spot was easy if you knew which buttons to push. Search engines were pretty primitive back then and had a hard time figuring out what your page was about. In fact, they practically asked you to tell them what keywords you wanted your page ranked for (keyword metatags anyone?) and gaming your way to a great ranking was child’s play.

Modern search engines are way smarter. A lot of the old tricks don’t work anymore and SEO has adapted accordingly to keep up. But now the whole SEO industry is facing a chasm - the shift to social voting, as Jeremy says.

In a nutshell, the people who visit your website are getting an increasingly large say in determining how well you rank in the search engines. Whether your visitors vote for you tacitly by clicking your link in Google’s search results, directly via the Google Toolbar, or endorse your site publicly by writing about it in their blogs - and these are but three examples - the search engines are going to be watching to see what the public is interested in so that they can return the most relevant search results.

Social Media Marketing - The new face of SEO

Using blogs, podcasts, video, and all the latest Web 2.0 technologies to promote your website is going to be vital for those who want to remain in the game. And the emphasis is going to increasingly be on providing the great content that your visitors want - meaning high relevancy, good writing, strong branding. Once upon a time you had to choose between optimising a web page for the Google, or for your audience. Now that the people have power, the way to search engine success is going to be through your audience - which can only be a good thing.

This new way forward is called Social Media Marketing, and Jeremy Schoemaker has unwittingly given you a perfect example of how it works.

As I write this, there are probably dozens of keyboards - maybe more - tapping away in response to the heated debate that Jeremy started with a single, craftily chosen blog post. Some will be commenting on Jeremy’s blog page itself, others in their own blogs. People will be e-mailing his post to friends and colleagues, or discussing it in fourms. And as the discussion rages, Jeremy is in for a boatload of attention and links back to his site.

Of course, as the visits, links, votes, Diggs and what not come rolling in, Google and company are going to be watching. And when they realise that people are interested in Jeremy’s site, they will reward it with more status and better search rankings.

You see, claiming in his blog that SEO is dead is actually a great bit of SEO Jeremy has done for himself!

Of course, the benefits of Social Media Marketing go way beyond search engine rankings, because it has the power to bring you a stream of visitors to your site by other means too. And on the other hand, certain elements of traditional SEO, not directly related to Social Media Marketing, that have to do with making sure the search engines have an easy time crawling and figuring out your website are not likely to disappear any time soon.

It’s not SEO that’s dead, but those websites that fail to recognise the need to keep up with the times. So the next time you’re talking to someone who’s proposing to help you with your search engine rankings, you’d better make sure they know what they are talking about and you’re not chatting with a dodo!

May

1

Gone in 4 seconds! A slow real estate website could be your doom

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Saying that no one likes a slow-loading website is a huge understatement. In one study of online shoppers done in 2006 by Akamai and JupiterResearch, 33% said that 4 seconds is all they are prepared to wait before abandoning a retail website.

Now it may seem a little hasty to automatically apply the 4 second time limit to a real estate website, but you can safely assume that if your real estate website takes much longer to load, your visitors are very likely to leave.

Your website may be loading slow without you even realising!

How can that be? Simple. Your typical web browser stores images and other parts of the websites you visit on your computer’s hard drive for the very purpose of quickly loading websites you visit often without having to download everything from the Internet each time. This means that since your real estate website is probably one you visit regularly, you could very well be viewing much of it from a copy stored in your PC, giving you the false impression that it loads fast, when the real experience for a new visitor could be very different indeed.

Fortunately, there is an easy test you can do by forcing your browser to reload your page from the Internet so that you can see its real performance. Just visit the page on your real estate website that you want to test and hold down the Control key and then click on Refresh in Internet Explorer, or hold down Shift and click Reload in Firefox.

What can you do to make your website load faster?

Get a faster web host: One of the most common causes of a slow loading website is that the server it is hosted on is not up to the job, so your hosting service is the first thing you have to test if you are having loading time problems. While moving to a better web hosting service could solve the problem, proper web design is paramount to giving your visitors the fastest experience possible. The following points are just some of the things that a professional web designer will be looking at to make sure your real estate website has what it takes to make it in the speed department.

Optimise your images: While it is not always practical to cut down on the number of images on a real estate website, you can make sure they load as fast as possible by optimising them for the web. A common mistake is to take photos of properties and upload them to your website without making sure they are as small to download as possible.

Avoid unnecessary bells and whistles: Flash animations and other fancy widgets may look nice on your website, but if they take too long to load, few people will stick around long enough to see them anyway. If you use any of this, make sure it is well optimised and test to see how it affects your website’s loading time.

Keep your site design simple: We said simple, not plain! In fact, an experienced web designer should be able to build you a professional-looking real estate website that has a clean underlying structure that allows it to load quickly. It is also very important to make sure that the HTML code (the backbone of your website) is also efficiently written for best results.

So remember, speed is one of the keys to keeping the visitors you get to your website. Go ahead and test your website as we describe above, and see how it measures up. If you want to learn more about how to improve your website’s loading speed or otherwise make the best of your real estate website, please contact us at Sorted Sites for a free and no-obligation consultation and assessment of your needs.

Apr

23

How to make an e-book out of your real estate blog posts

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Let’s face it: writing for your real estate blog takes time and effort, and month after month, this adds up to a significant amount of both. So why not plan ahead so that you can compile some of your posts into an e-book at a later date? This will give your old posts a new lease of life and let you get even more value from the work you have put into your property blog.

But would anyone be interested in an e-book made from material that is already in your real estate blog? The answer will surprise you!

The thing is that many of the e-books you see out there began their life as blog posts, and a good few of these are actually sold for cash, even going on to become bestsellers in some cases. The reason for this is that people want to have information at their fingertips, meaning that organising a group of your blog posts into one volume and presenting it to your clients on a silver plate will fill a very important niche.

However, in your case, as a real estate agent, you stand to gain more from using your e-book as a marketing tool by giving it away and encouraging people to share it, rather than if you try and sell it for a profit. In fact, once you have your real estate e-book ready, you should make sure it has all your contact details on, including website, e-mail and telephone number and market it aggressively so that it reaches as wide an audience as possible.

What kind of blog posts will make good e-book material?

Keep in mind that you want your e-book to be valid and relevant for a good time to come, so it is best to choose timeless topics related to the real estate market you are operating in. The idea here is to write some of your blog posts along a common theme, in such a way that each post can be reused as a chapter in your e-book (or part of one).

You can choose as wide a scope as you like for your e-book posts, either concentrating on strictly property-related topics and advice, such as the buying process, finding a good lawyer, taxes, inheritance and so on, or you could even expand and write about your area in a way that will interest property hunters and entice them to look at your market - things like attractions, nightlife, beaches, and so on.

Of course, once you get down to editing your e-book, you will probably have to update some parts, tweak others to make it all flow, and even write a short introduction and conclusion. But that should not be a major job if you plan it out beforehand and think about how all the individual chapters will fit together in the end. This also has an added bonus of providing you with a ready sequence of topics when it comes to writing your blog.

Don’t let your e-book take over your blog

Of course, you should not let your e-book enthusiasm get the better of your blog, and you should still write other posts about current events and topics related to the real estate markets you operate in.

After all, a key purpose of your blog is to keep your clients up to date with the latest property news, and at the same time show them that you are real estate expert with your finger on the pulse of your market.

Still, having an e-book to your name can be a very powerful marketing strategy that will get you both exposure and credibility, and planning to republish some of your posts in the future will mean that you get even more out of the effort you put into your blog.

Apr

15

Is your real estate website senior friendly?

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One of the keys to successfully marketing your estate agency online is, of course, to make your primary audience the main target of your website. And as an estate agent, you will know better than anyone else that the people who have most disposable income to invest in property tend to be seniors, who are more likely to have substantial savings or a considerable equity in their home that they can make use of. In other words, unless you are only selling property that is exclusively directed at young people and families, the baby boomers and up is one age group that you absolutely cannot afford to cast aside as you design your estate agency’s website.

In a blog post called How to sell to seniors online, Todd Follansbe says that, while today’s older generation are ever more likely to be using the Internet, there are several things to keep in mind for your website to be successful at winning their business.

Clear web design for old eyes

Many of the issues involved in appealing to older people are design-related. Take into account that seniors are more likely to be unfamiliar with newer technologies and also begin to suffer from diminishing physical capabilities with age, including vision and, in some cases, cognitive abilities. This means that your website should use well-sized and clear fonts, and also be simple to use. Instructions should be clearly explained, particularly when it comes to using property searches and contact forms, or downloading brochures and other files.

Of course, a lot of these are things that you should be doing anyway for all your audience, but unless you specifically test your real estate website on a group of seniors, you will never know if you are unwittingly excluding this vital demographic group because of inadequate web design.

Avoiding technical jargon is always a good idea (unless your website happens to be aimed specifically at technical people) but this applies so much more in the case where your typical visitor is someone older. At the same time, remember that old people are no fools either and there is no need to be condescending or to talk down to your audience.

Targetting a different mindset

A very interesting point Todd raises in his post is that most of the older generation will remember severe market recessions and possibly even outright market crashes. He also adds that they tend to be more sceptical and put off by flashy promises and hype. These issues apply particularly to the word of real estate, where the tendency is to place emphasis on the investment potential of the property for sale. What it all means, in a nutshell, is that an audience of seniors will take a great deal more of convincing, so be prepared to back up your claims with credible, solid facts.

As you plan your real estate website, you will also have to take into account other ways in which seniors think differently, including the fact that they tend to be more cautious, and hence less likely to take risks. Also, as you will surely know, older property investors will have a totally different set of reasons for buying property, be it as a retirement home or as a sound legacy to leave to their children. Your real estate website will have to be designed to appeal to this different frame of mind too if it is to be successful.

Of course, all these principles also apply to your real estate blog and you ought to keep them in mind as you write new posts. Also remember to test well and regularly to make sure that all the different aspects of your web presence will work together to win you the confidence and custom of this large and influential group of property buyers.

Apr

4

How to market your real estate website on Flickr – and get away with it

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Flickr, the popular photo sharing website can be a very useful social networking tool for your real estate business. Not only is it a place to store your photos for publication on your blog, but it is also a great way for you to participate in a community of like-minded people and share photos not only of your properties for sale, but also of company events and functions as well as of the general area your estate agency operates in.

What’s more, we have found from experience that Google indexes new images posted to Flickr very quickly indeed and because these tend to get high rankings on the search engines, your Flickr account could very well be another great way for people to discover your estate agent website.

But can you market on Flickr?

Strictly speaking, Flickr’s Terms of Service Agreement says that you cannot use Flickr for any commercial purpose. And while many people go by the Devil’s Dictionary definition of Terms of Service, which is, ‘a long contract in legalese specifically designed to make you scroll down and agree to it without reading a single word’, Flickr does enforce this rule to some extent, as we found out when one of our client accounts was deleted recently.

But in practise the use of Flickr for commercial purposes is a very big grey area - for example, Flickr seems ready to close an eye to the many professional photographers, artists and web designers who display their images and works on the website. So, the million dollar question about marketing your real estate website on Flickr…

How do you get away with it?

The distinction lies in the approach you take to marketing your properties for sale on Flickr. The trick as we see it is to embrace the Flickr community, become part of it, and contribute in a positive way, and there are many ways you can do this:

  • For a start, make sure you are not only posting pictures of your properties and company activities. As you move around your area imagine you’re a tourist and take general photos of the places you visit: landscapes, famous landmarks, interesting details, random streets, even just people going about their daily lives - things that have nothing directly to do with your business- and upload them to your Flickr account. Giving back to the Flickr community in this way won’t cost you anything but will earn you kudos and add value to your account.
  • Join one or more groups on Flickr, or start a group of your own, teaming up with other estate agents in your area. We have just started a group of Tenerife Estate Agents, so any of you reading this, you’re more than welcome to join.
  • What’s more, encourage your clients to start their own personal Flickr accounts and join your group. This way they can share photos of themselves enjoying their new property and the surrounding area and also get to know other people who have bought near them.
  • Comment on other people’s photos - not only real estate photos, but even general photos of your area that would be of interest to your target audience. The idea is to become a part of the general Flickr community and get your name out there by actively participating.

Going for a hard sell on Flickr is likely to get you the boot very quickly - if it is obvious that the pictures you put up are for the sole purpose of marketing your properties or your estate agency, or if you’re just spamming links all over the place, your account won’t last long. Besides, Flickr has recently stopped making search engines follow some of their outbound links so the value of linking on Flickr is somewhat diminished (although people can still click through to your website).

Still, there is still a lot your estate agency can gain from having its own Flickr account. Read this excellent article for more tips and ideas on the right way to market on Flickr.

Mar

17

Embrace your competition and win the real estate game

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Have you ever wondered why similar, competing shops tend to gather around each other on the high street or at shopping centres? The fact is that people like choice and will prefer to go wherever they can find it, and this is what pushes up the prices of top commercial real estate property.

But how does this apply to your real estate agency’s online marketing?

Your website may seem to be an isolated presence - you type in www.yourrealestatedomain.com and it shows up in all its splendid glory, alone and unchallenged. But the picture is so very different the moment a potential client runs a Google search and you (hopefully) show up next to several other real estate websites, many of which are trying to woo your very same client.

No matter how high in the search rankings your website is, your prospects are going to be looking at your competitors’ websites too. Once you accept this fact, you can use it to your advantage.

Become part of the online real estate community

The idea here is not the old maxim of ‘keep your friends close and your enemies closer,’ but rather to form strategic alliances with other estate agencies so that you work together to help each other’s businesses prosper through the tough times, to the detriment of those other estate agents who choose to brave the storm alone.

Blogging about other estate agents does send traffic away from your website, but it also makes your own website so much more valuable as a resource that people will want to bookmark or subscribe to. Blogs like Off Plan Property Exchange have their own property listings but, because they blog about and link to other developments too, they are able to attract a much bigger audience and regular readership whom to advertise to.

Likewise, posting comments on the blogs of other estate agents in reply to what they are saying will of course help them and the discussion they are trying to create, but it also helps you by getting you noticed and raises awareness about your own estate agency and website.

What goes around comes around, and your linking to other websites will ultimately mean that other websites will link back to you, so it’s a win-win situation. This sort of alliance can be implicit - you do your thing and hope others notice - or else you can directly initiate communication with other real estate marketers through your comments or via e-mail etc. and discuss ways of working together.

Team up with other estate agencies and offer more to your clients

The Internet also makes it very easy for you to work directly with other real estate agencies and match each other’s clients with each other’s property listings on a commission basis - even to the extent of listing other agents’ properties on your website.

Your clients will most probably find the other agents anyway on the Google high street, so in such a case you win by getting your share of the commission, you win by being the one who helped the client find the property in the first place, and you win by turning your website into an even greater source of properties that people will want to come back to. What’s more, you also win when other estate agencies return the favour and send business your way.

Once again, this gives your agency so much more power compared to those who insist on going it alone because, by teaming up with other real estate agencies, you offer a much better service to your clients. Sellers sell their properties faster because you have access to more buyers, and buyers realise that you are serious about finding them the right property and that you have the commitment and connections necessary to achieve that. This can only be good for your business!

In the light of all this, it seems like madness to go it alone with brute force online marketing and be limited by whatever budget you can afford to pump into your real estate advertising. Rather than spending all your money and energy trying to jump above your competitors and be seen, you could be much better off climbing on each other’s shoulders and leaving the stubborn go-it-aloners to fight for the low-hanging fruit while you enjoy the lofty rich pickings waiting to be had.

Mar

6

Start a real estate podcast and get personal with your prospective clients

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Marketing your real estate agency is all about building trust with your audience, and the Internet gives you tons of tools and opportunities to do so. We have already discussed how your real estate blog is one way to give property hunters the chance to get to know you even before they step into your office. Here’s another idea: start a property podcast.

What’s a podcast, and why bother?

Behind the geeky name lies a simple concept - ‘podcast’ comes from ‘iPod’ and ‘broadcast’ and quite simply means a audio recording (much like a mini radio broadcast) that people can download and listen to on any MP3 player (not just iPods). In other words, you can think of your real estate podcast as a kind of ‘blog post’ that you record instead of type out. This gives you an excellent opportunity connect with your audience in a more direct way, thus building a stronger relationship.

If you have any doubts about the importance of the Internet as a medium, or think that making podcasts would be a waste of time, take a look at the latest addition to the real estate podcast scene: Phil Spencer On the House. If the same Phil Spencer who presents the popular real estate programs Location, Location, Location and Relocation, Relocation on Channel 4 and More 4 thinks it’s a good idea to  start his own property podcasts, that’s a sure sign that you should be doing so too!

Creating a real estate podcast is easy

All you need is a microphone connected to your PC and some recording software and you’re set to go. Google ‘how to make a podcast‘ and you’ll find a ton of technical guides on making and publishing your podcast so we won’t go into that, except to say that you can contact us at Sorted Sites if you need any help setting things up. One site we have found good for publishing podcasts is www.freeiq.com.

Still, there are a number of things to keep in mind about when creating your real estate podcast:

  • Give out insider real estate knowledge. Give your podcasts real value by offering honest insights into the property market you operate in. This will also foster your image as an expert in your field.
  • Choose a topic for each podcast and stick to it. Avoid the temptation to let your thoughts wander all over the place. Choose a topic related to your particular property market and discuss that. For example, you can talk about  something that’s in the news, or talk about your own experiences as an estate agent.
  • Rope in a colleague, or maybe even a client. Inject variety into your podcasts by having someone else record the podcast with you so you can discuss the topic and offer another opinion on the matters at hand.
  • Make your podcasts about your listeners. Your property podcast are not advertising so avoid the temptation to keep promoting your services too often - no one is going to subscribe to anything like that. Having said that, do offer ‘scoop’ information on the best property developments and investments, but always do it with the listeners’ interests in mind.
  • Respect your clients’ privacy when giving examples in your property podcasts. In other words, make and examples or anecdotes general to avoid revealing confidential information.
  • Find the right length for your real estate podcasts. It’s difficult to specify an optimum length for your podcasts, but anywhere between 5 and 15 minutes should be adequate. In any case, don’t make your podcasts any longer than you need to and avoid going off on a rant.
  • Listen to your property podcasts a couple of days later to hear them with a fresh pair of ears so you can better judge how they sound.

Publish your property podcast on YouTube

While podcasts are strictly speaking audio only, there is nothing to stop you adding a still image and converting your property podcast into a video file. This will allow you to upload it to your own YouTube channel as well as offering it as an MP3 download. Better still, you can record the podcast with a video camera or webcam and put a face to your estate agency.

Why YouTube? Simply because it is extremely popular as a medium and is thus a very easy way to find an audience. What’s more, YouTube videos to get indexed very well on Google and other search engines, so be sure to include a good description of each podcast when you upload it.

So, plug in those mics, and get chatting to your prospective customers before you even meet!

Mar

5

Canary Islands has a new Property Portal

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We are delighted with the results from our new look Property Portal.  With a quick and easy navigation it easily brings together prospective clients looking to buy property in Tenerife, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote and Gran Canaria with prominent Real Estate Agents throughout the Canary Islands. 

Estate Agents can easily network their properties with this portal and other portals such as  Canary Property, Think Spain, Freedom4Sale and Kyero. If you have any questions about Property Base or would like further information please contact Phil Evans at phil@propertybase.net or give him a call on 677 806 800.

Feb

29

Build your estate agency’s credibility with customer reviews on your website

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Word of mouth has always been an essential part of getting business and in today’s Internet era, where total strangers can communicate across time and distance, it is a more powerful marketing tool than ever! A couple of weeks ago, we discussed Social Markers and why you really should be aware of what people are saying about your real estate agency online - on forums, in their blogs and wherever they care to put fingers to keyboard.

But have you thought of allowing your own clients to post reviews of your services on your website itself?

More and more people researching online reviews

Just like an increasing number of people browse the Internet looking for property, the number of people who base their judgement of products and services on online reviews is ever on the rise, and this applies to real estate agencies too.

The thing is that dealing with an honest and trustworthy estate agent is at least as important for property-hunters as the properties themselves - and there is no better way to build your credibility than to let your previous clients do it for you. You can blow your own trumpet as much as you like, but in the eyes of prospective clients that can never compare with the influence of the collective voice of people who have bought property through your estate agency.

Beyond simply publishing customer testimonials

Publishing customer testimonials is indeed one of the most underutilised marketing tools in any business sector. However, because you have absolute control of what you put on your website, this tactic may be seen to lack credibility. What we are talking about here goes beyond that and involves allowing your customers to post their own comments directly on your website and even modify them as they deem fit (there is a variety of inexpensive software that will allow you to do this).

A negative review can actually be a good thing

Don’t let the thought of getting a negative review bother you. A large percentage of people who shop online are used to reading online reviews and will realise that occasionally someone does happen to have a bad experience. The odd negative comment in a sea of positive ones will only help to add credibility to the whole system - after all no estate agency is perfect, and  if every single word that is said about you is a shower of praise and glory, people will think that your whole customer comments is probably rigged.  Moreover, when pretty much all of the reviews about a service are positive, a negative review is perceived more as a reflection of the client, than of the estate agency itself. Besides,  depending on the review software you use, you could be able to respond to any negative feedback with a clarification.

One thing to bear in mind, however, is that it is probably a good idea to not make the system totally public, but to manage the logins yourself and hand them out personally to clients. This will make sure that your reviews are not sabotaged by an unscrupulous competitor.

So go for it! Give your clients a voice on your website and allow them to give you feedback and sing your praises. This one should be a no-brainer for any real estate agent who is devoted to complete customer satisfaction!

Feb

21

Why a bad real estate website could be the downfall of your estate agency – and what you absolutely must watch out for

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Just a couple of weeks ago, our Real Estate Pay Per Click Management partners blogged about the importance of facing the real estate recession head on with an effective marketing strategy. There’s no doubt that this is the time to take stock of the situation and make sure every bit counts - and one of the most important pieces of your real estate marketing jigsaw is, of course, your website itself.

This is why we were delighted to read Jim Cronin’s excellent post on the Real Estate Tomato blog, titled, “Is your website working against your real estate career?”

If you’re thinking that that title is there just for shock effect, think again! Or better still, click the link and read every word of that blog post. You’re sure to learn a whole lot from the vital list of do’s and don’ts that will make or break your website - complete with reasons why and merciless real life examples of those unforgivable practices that do your real estate business more harm than good.

This post resonated with us so much because it just about summarises everything we have been telling our web design clients over the years about how to market their real estate websites and how to make them relevant to their visitors and easy to use at the same time.

Things like:

The only one thing we do not totally agree with is where Jim advises against property request forms. We find from experience that a simple, but prominent, quick enquiry form makes it easy for property-hunters to contact with you and is an invaluable means of generating those extra leads.

But all the rest is one bit of invaluable advice after the other.

Is your website working against your real estate career? That really is the question you should really be asking yourself, so if you only read one other real estate marketing article this week - or even this year - make it the Real Estate Tomato blog post.

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