Real Estate And The Internet
Keywords: Real Estate Marketing Tool, Real Estate Marketing Online, Real Estate Internet Marketing, Marketing
Real estate on the internet has become an online phenomenon.
There is a generally accepted trend online, that people will “research globally, but shop locally”. This is especially true for real estate. That’s why it is important for your website to be seen. There is also a recognizable pattern online that, most real estate customers use the first realtor they contact. As a realtor I’m sure that you have said to yourself “hey, I know those people, why did they list with that realtor instead of me”. Chances are, that is the first realtor that they came across.
Real estate online is so hot that Google is talking about creating a whole separate Google directory just for real estate. Yahoo already has a “lead buying” program just for realtors. HomeGain is reporting a record 5.5 million visitors to their website in the first part of 2006. Many of my clients have already gone through the process of buying leads at Yahoo and other real estate “lead capture” portals. Most of these lead buying programs can be expensive to join and the leads can also be pricey. I have spoken with many realtors all over the country that participate or, have participated in these programs. I hear good and bad things about these programs. However it is my opinion that you should spend your money on marketing your website and then all the leads that you get are yours to keep. Technology, especially the internet has forever changed the way people search for real estate and how they contact local realtors. The National Association of Realtors 2004 survey of home
buyers tells us that 71% of home buyers used the internet to start the search for their new home. That is up from 62% in 2003.
Ok, so you know all of this. You have a website, now what?
How do your prospective customers find your real estate website and do business with you. There are two ways. One is “SEO” (search engine optimization) and the other is SEM (search engine marketing). Let’s look at the differences between these two and how they affect you and your real estate business.
SEO, “search engine optimization” is the application of several techniques to help a website rank higher in the “natural” search results.
To begin with let’s talk about “meta tags”. Meta tags are the first things that the search engines will read when visiting your website. Here are the main meta tags that you need to improve if you want to “optimize” your website.
They are your “title tag”, your “description tag” and your “keyword tag”.
Ok, so how do you find the meta tags on your website? You can check your meta tags by going to your website, at the top of the internet explorer window click on “view” and scroll down to “view “source”. A new window will open and you should see something like meta name=”description” meta name=”keywords”.
Let’s begin with your “title tag”, is also known as your “page title”. For example, on many websites if you click on the “about us” link or, the “contact us” link, that’s what you will see displayed at the top of the browser window in the blue bar. It is also known as your “anchor text”.
Search engines read like we do, from left to right and top to bottom of the page. Your “anchor text” is one of the first things that the search engine will read on your website. Your “anchor text” is what is displayed when your website is listed in the natural search results. It is the first thing your potential customers will read when they do a search. Your anchor text should include one or, two of your best keywords. For example: “Pittsford Real Estate 10 Years of Experience” or, “Professional Full Time Realtor, Pittsford”.
So, your title tag is both your page title and your anchor text. Again this is the first thing that your customers will read when reading the title of your search listing.
It should not say “welcome to my website” or “Joe bob’s website”. This is the first thing that your customers will read. It is your first opportunity to catch their attention. Using keywords like “Real Estate” and “Realtor” will tell the search engines that your page is about real estate. Even better, if you are a realtor in Pittsford, it will see the keyword Pittsford and display your website to anyone typing in “Pittsford real estate”.
Next, is your “description tag”. This tag provides the description that you see right under the anchor text. Most search engines will display about two sentences as a description. Both your anchor text and your description should include several of your best keywords.
Speaking of keywords. The next tag that we will talk about is your “keyword Tag”.
Keywords are important! Keywords are what describe your real estate services. Keywords are what people use to search for your website. And, keywords are what the search engines use to determine if they will display your website to someone searching for your real estate services. Including ten to fifteen of your best keywords into the meta tag keyword section of your website can help your page rank and can help people find your website.
So how do you know what keywords are searched for most often? There are many free keyword tools on the internet. Go to your favorite search engine and type in “keyword selector tool”. When you find a free keyword tool that suites you, type in a keyword phrase to see how many times it was searched last month. All the results that you get using this tool are tabulated by the month. Play around with different combinations and you will find that there are specific keyword phrases that are searched more than others. Those are the keyword phrases that you want to use as keywords in the meta tag keyword section of your website. For example, try “Pittsford realtor” or “real estate Pittsford” or try misspelling the word real estate. For example try, “Pittsford real estate”. Yes, misspellings count and can be used as a keyword in your meta tags.
Mike Alves is the Owner of www.Marketing4Leads.com only business is marketing realtor websites.
I create, publish and manage pay per click campaigns on Google full time, for real estate agents all over the U.S. I can start sending new real estate customers to your website in 48 hours.
Previous Articles Highlighter:
Realtors, Start Using Google Analytics (1)
Setting up a Google advertising account only takes about ten minutes and the start up cost is five dollars. Once your real estate advertising campaign is in place Google analytics will show you what is working and just as importantly, what's not working.
Realtors, Use Googles New "click To Call" To Get Your Next Listing. (2)
In real estate, one good listing or buyer can turn into thousands in commissions. Now with Goggles "click to call" your potential customers will have the luxury of speaking directly to you.
Google AdWords For Realtors (3)
The "natural" search results listings will most likely be dominated by the big companies, but guess what? Glance over to the right and you can see your ad for your real estate website right along side the big boys.
Search Engine Optimization For Realtors (4)
you don't have to wait to be on the first page of Google to start making real estate commissions. A professionally created and managed pay per click advertising program can start sending potential customers to your website within 48 hours.Google's pay per click advertising program is called "Google AdWwords".
Photo Blogging May Be The Pinnacle Of Modern Tech (5)
If the best thing about web technology is that it allows people to reach each other in a very personal way from across great distances, then in many ways photo blogs are the most successful kind of web sites.
A Great Idea For A Blogging Web Site Is No Longer (6)
Of course, you will also need to add a unique flair to your project in order to stand apart from your competition. Many people agree that the web sites that do the best in today's market are the sites that have the most personality.
3 Quick And Easy Ways To Building A Profitable Opt-in List (7)
Just because you wrote people from the list does not mean they are going to buy instantly. Here I will offer more advice, for those who have started an opt-in list and have failed, you can rejuvenate your failed venture.
Magnetize Your Affiliate Marketing Site (8)
You must have an internet marketing website that loads quickly. Minimize on non-essential graphics. Flashy graphics with Flash, streaming audio/video must only be added if absolutely essential. However, a quick audio clip describing you and your site can be helpful.
Keywords Are The Key To Success (9)
Another important point is that you need to keep the motivation of the user in mind. If you have a choice between two keyword phrases, you should use the keyword phrase that the internet user is more likely to use in search engines, and will most probably prefer.
Writing Article Reviews (10)
Many companies would love the chance to get a review, if they knew it could bring them some business. It can't hurt to ask. A second way, is to take a survey of others who have used the product or service before.
Successful Strategies For Marketing (11)
This marketing strategy can take you from driving a Volvo to driving your dream car. Write and publish online press releases. What better way to get your company heard than to have someone praise your company with words?
How To Beat Marketing Competitors (12)
From waiting tables to millionaire at 29, Mike Dillard, is a professional marketer who has taught over 100,000 entrepreneurs from around the world how to tap into the power of his attraction marketing techniques.
Google Page Rank Is It Relevant To Your Websites Placement? (13)
Google usually makes a major Page Rank update every three to four months. Its servers around the globe have to compare there information and the Page Rank is not complete until all of Googles servers have been updated with the new Page Rank scores.
7 Internet Marketing Secrets That Will Curl Your Toes (14)
Therefore, do not send your prospective buyers to a generic website, reason being they will not know what to do next. Whenever you are creating a marketing campaign online, provide a specific page for leading customers to your product or service.
How To Create A Content Rich Website (15)
Use research tools like overture to find out what keywords people are hitting up in search of information pertaining to your niche and make sure that you make use of the appropriate keywords when it comes to your content.
How To Start A Digital Information Business On The Internet (16)
This is not a hard thing to do. In fact selling digital information products is one of the easiest businesses you will ever set up. Here's why. Do you have a product of your own to sell.
How To Make Your First Web Form (17)
As a result, creating a simple web form that can email the form responses to the webmaster can be a difficult and frustrating task. If you just posted a new website, but you do not have a web form uploaded and you need to quickly provide a way for your visitors to contact you, then you should simply post your email address on your Contact page.
How My Website Became Popular (18)
If you are persistent and use all of these methods, you will continually increase your traffic over a period of time. It will probably take approximately 3 years of performing each of the tasks outlined in this article, on a daily basis, to get where you want to be.
Internet Marketing For Beginners (19)
The more inbound links you acquire, the higher your search engine ranking will be. There are several ways you can increase your number of inbound links. You can submit your site to free directories, or join a link exchange and trade links with other sites, or, you can author articles and press releases and submit them to article directories.
Your First Web Form (20)
Formmail has been used to process and email the results of web forms since 1997. When you download Formmail, make sure it has code that prevents spam from being sent through your online form.
Newer Articles Highlighter:
Your Real Estate Website Template Or Custom Solution? (1)
Next you have to decide if a "template" website is right for you or, should you look for a "custom built" solution. There are several online companies that have excellent, Real Estate templates available.
Why Article Writing Is The Best Home Business Running (2)
The type of content a website has can often times make or break it, which is why article writing is becoming ever so popular right now. There are plenty of people with great ideas that want to develop a home business online, but they simply don't have the skills to develop and deliver fresh and enticing content.
How Do You Increase The Backlinks To Your Sports Site (3)
One: Directory submissions. You want to make sure that you submit your website at the popular directories such as MSN, Dmoz, and Yahoo. Your pages need to have relevant information and they have to meet the rules and regulations of each of the directories but they will gladly accept your website if you meet these two things.
Automated Prospecting Systems- Your Uplines Dirtiest Secret To Making The Big Bucks! (4)
Vanessa Simpkins is a professional network marketer who specializes in teaching others how to be successful with network marketing. If you want to get in touch with Vanessa or learn more about network marketing success please visit:www.automated-prospecting-systems.com
The Power Of Brandable E-Books (5)
My latest creation (and yes, it is 100% brandable and resalable!). Contains a link in the footer of the document. The e-Book allows you to brand that link so it is your very own affiliate link.
Make Squeeze Pages An Integral Part Of Your Business (6)
Capture only the minimum amount of information needed for the follow up - name, email address is all you really need. Asking for state, country or phone should only be done if it is important to the follow up.
Search Engine Optimization For Freelance Ghostwriters (7)
You can choose keywords for your client by visiting Wordtracker.com and typing in the topic of your article. Wordtracker will then produce a number of options for keywords and give you the KEI value of each.
Using Public Data To Create Websites (8)
Whatever you're interested in, there are other people who share your interest. Make money by creating the place to go when those people need information about the issues or hobbies that interest them.
Affordable Small Business Web Site (9)
If you have writing skills the inter net world is your oyster. If you have written lots of articles, stories or other materials the inter net will be a natural for you.
Public Domain Can Make You Millions (10)
public domain work examples? list of free public domain work? free public domain books? public domain web site A note of caution: don't trust everything you read on the internet.
Blogs For Sale: Is This Online Business The Next Big Thing? (11)
Instead of subjecting your home business to the rigors of buying a new domain name, creating back links and promoting it, why not simply buy an expired domain and use it?
Google Adwords And Negative Keywords (12)
That means that your ad will display at a higher position for a lower cost, and will give you higher profits! Also, your offer will convert better as those people who do click on the ads are exactly what you are looking for.
Confused & Don't Know Where To Start In Internet Marketing? (13)
It's an embarrassment of riches. No wonder many people don't know where to begin their Internet Marketing efforts. Most of them end up doing nothing. The confused mind always says, "No", or at least, "Not yet." Fortunately, there's a no cost (or low cost, if you prefer) way to begin that will teach you the basics and allow you to see the value of a long-term approach to your business.
Article Writing: Duplicate Content VS. Reaching Your Readers (14)
People buy; search engines don't. This means that you should post your articles to as many article directories as possible so that your articles have the widest reach possible.
Digital Signage: The Battle Between LCD And Plasma Panels Intensifies, And You Are The Winner (15)
In-Stat predicts DTV revenue will climb from $72 billion in 2006 to $76.7 billion in 2011 -less than a 5 percent increase on unit growth of more than 100 percent.
Knowing "The Secret" Will Help You Make Money At Home Online (16)
This is the first part of "The Secret" and how it can help you make money at home online. Remember that you create your own life with your thoughts, so think happy thoughts and you will get what you ask for!
Website Traffic Meter Explodes Using 5 Accelerated Traffic Strategies (17)
Do you have a quality product? Do you have a solid amount of traffic? Do you convert the traffic you get well? This formula is your business plan summed up into one simple formula.
How To Use Ezine Advertising To Your Advantage (18)
You may be very happy with the results. Cliff Posey, owner of CRP Marketing, owns and operates webbusinesstoolsonline.com. Cliff Posey has also operated several other successful web businesses including Love Song Cards and Radio Career Consultants.
What Is Fax 2 Email? (19)
Receiving fax machine printed out the document in the normal way. Computers could also receive faxes if they were connected to the telephone line and relevant software was running at the time.
9 Ways To Keep Your Online Identity Secure (20)
If they offer it, use it! #5 - Avoid Email Scams. - Different than spam, email scams use social engineered methods to convince you to trust the sender.