Quality Content is what Google is Looking For

Having a successful real estate website certainly entails having high quality content for your website. Creating content for your real estate website doesn't have to be difficult. I always recommend to real estate professionals that they can take the approach of writing a book report in 5th grade. So what do I mean by that? Here are some simple rules to follow when creating real estate website content:

• Keep it short - No need to write a novel. Anywhere from 350-450 words will do just fine.
• Keep it simple - Writing your content at a 5th grade level allows you to reach a broader audience. Newspapers keep it this simple and it certainly plays true on your website as well.
• Pictures - They engage the visitor and they take up space on the page making your content look even richer :)
• Write for your visitors! - You aren't writing these pages for the search engines, you are creating them for people who will visit your website. Keep this in mind and it will help you to avoid concentrating on keywords.

Google provies a wonderful section in the webmaster tools to help you understand more about what quality means to them. If you want to master creating real estate website content quickly then try the complete system at OnlineRealEstateSuccess.com

Use Blogging to Generate Business

Blogging has been all the rage for the last several years and there are several real estate professionals mentioned in a few magazines that say how great it is. Now blogging is great but Realtors and their partners need to do it correctly. Blogging is not a place to shout from the rooftops on what award that you won but it is about your expertise and about the knowledge that you give to your clients when you meet them.

Real Estate Blogging can be used to dominate your local market. It is not only a great farm tool but a great lead generator if done correctly.

While you are providing everyone with great content make sure you give them opportunities to use you. Make sure they can get more information about their property and the local market through tools.

Real Estate Blogging is here to stay but make sure that you get started delivering content today.

Check out a great and affordable blogging system at http://www.onlinerealestatesuccess.com/products_category_success_guides_blog_system.shtml

This system will have you up and running and make sure that your blog generates leads.

FREE Internet Marketing Seminar For Real Estate Professionals

Occasionally we are asked to set-up a seminar where we go over how all those involved in real estate can improve their websites and their online marketing efforts. Now when we say all those in real estate we literally mean anyone who has anything to do with real estate. So if you are occupation is one of the following:

• Real Estate Agent
• Lender or Broker of Loans
• Escrow Officer
• Title Officer
• Home Inspector
• Termite Company or Inspector

If you work in real estate and will be in Orange County, CA on February 27th you will want to attend our Free Internet Marketing Seminar from 2-3:30 in Anaheim, CA. The seminar is FREE you just have to register ahead of time so we can make sure to have enough materials ready for everyone. You can register at
www.OnlineRealEstateSuccess.com/FreeSeminar
We look forward to having you there and helping you improve your Internet Marketing.

Understanding web visitors to make more money

Understanding what visitors are doing on your website is of imperative performance if you want to make sure that your website keeps working for you. Many people view looking at reports as boring, but truly this is where you can see how your visitors are interacting with your website and then you can take action to improve the results. So, what are some tools you can use to see what's going on? Let's take a look:

1. GetResponse - It's not only a direct e-mail drip campaign tool. From the reporting features you can see how many people are reading your e-mails and how many people are unsubscribing. This way you can see if your headlines are working! WOW :)
2. CrazyEgg - Crazy Egg is a great tool that is actually FREE and can show you what people are clicking on your individual pages. Think of it as an enhancement to Google Analytics as you get specific information on the keyword information on a click by click basis.
3. Google Analytics - Formerly urchin, this software is amazing and they continue to upgrade it. Detailed keyword information, tracking of goals, and more. Definitely a must have.
4. ClickTale - See how a visitor is behaving on your website. You will literally see a playback of the mouse movements. Pretty handy so you can see what is and isn't working.

Taking the time to put in these tools and monitor them will help you maximize your conversion rates. Take it step by step and test your improvements on each and every page. Have fun!

3 Reasons to Make an Auto Responder Not Look like one

The Internet visitor today is much more sophisticated than the one of 8 years ago. At that time you could have system respond to your clients and they would believe that a person was on the other end writing back to them right away. Today everyone is aware that software is writing back when the message comes back right away. Now people still want a response so how do you do that and not make look like a machine sent it? Well let's go over some tips.

1. Don't have the first message go out immediately - Many software allow you to delay when the message gets sent. Delay the first response for a few hours if possible or if you want to send an immediate message make it short and make it look personal.
2. Personalize every message - Today's software such as getresponse allows you to insert many personalized fields. Use these fields appropriately.
3. Don't send out the same content as everyone else - it is easy to grab a list of 10 e-mails that "every" buyer wants but these are what everyone has. Take time to create e-mails that work in your area and show your expertise. Make sure to provide a link back to your website or blog as well.

For more information on how to use an auto responder to your advantage take a look at http://www.onlinerealestatesuccess.com/getresponse and they have put together some information that will is useful on the subject.

Top 5 Tips for Writing Powerful Real Estate Website Content

Writing content for your real estate website is one of the easiest ways to improve your results in the search engines. Many companies, like Diverse Solutions who provides hosting for real estate websites, understand this and even offer this as a service. As the services can charge upwards of $250 a page, I thought it would be helpful to mention some tips so you can create your own content!

Before diving into the tips, I wanted to mention something very important. The mindset of creating content for your website will determine your success. I want you to think that each page is as easy to create as a simple 1 page book report that you completed in 5th grade :). It really is that simple! Now that you know the mindset, let's get into the tips to creating real estate website content.

1. Keep the pages short and sweet! - A page for your website need only be 300-450 words to have great impact.
2. Use Pictures - After all people are purchasing a home :), enable them to see what homes in the area look like. Take at least 2 pictures to put up on the page.
3. Call to Action - Give the user a reason to contact you and make it easy.
4. Links to other pages in your site - the page they landed on might not be the page that is right. Link to other quality pages within your website.
5. Power Page Titles - Keep them reading the page with a great title at the begining of your page.

Following these simple rules will help you to write content that dominates the search engines and causes visitors to become contacts! If you want more help writing real estate web content try our Complete Guide to Writing Successful Content which gives you a 20 point website checklist and you get the FREE Succeed Online CD.

Instant Audio Converts Visitors on Your Website

Although many of our clients use Instant Audio to display for testimonials there are also some other ways you can leverage the power of voice on the web. Having easy to use audio on your website can enhance your visitors experience and lead to more conversions! Here are some other ideas of how you can use Instant Audio on your website:

• Introduction - Put an instant audio message on the first page of your website! This way you can tell visitors what to look for in your website. Whether it is directing them to your MLS feature or tell them about new content, you can tell them where to go :)
  
• Answer Questions - If you have an FAQ on your website you can answer the questions with your voice instead of just text. Create a question page and then record all of the answers. This will give your visitors the aspect that they are speaking with you.
  
• Neighborhood Information - Just as you would write about an area you can also speak about it. Provide audio on your area pages and your visitor will feel like they are already out viewing properties with you.

Instant Audio can give you an easy way to enhance your user experience throughout your website. If you have read our other posts then you know there is no HTML knowledge required, just copy and paste! Have fun with your website and using the power of voice to gain more conversions.

Real Estate SEO simpler than you think

There are many companies out there currently that want to charge real estate professionals thousands of dollars in order to perform SEO (Search Engine Optimization) services. While many real estate agents and loan officers are eager to get their businesses going in full swing, paying thousands of dollars to an SEO firm may not be the best choice. Focusing on the fundamentals of having a good performing website and understanding enough to do your own real estate SEO work are 2 of the items you can do before hiring anyone!

What is a good performing website?

A good performing website is one that converts visitors to leads! Sounds simple right? Most people never focus on the conversion rates of their website. Focusing on converting 3-7+% of your visitors to contacts will help you to get value out of your visitors. This can be tested using affordable real estate pay per click advertising or through the organic traffic you are already getting.

Performing your own SEO

Yes you can do your own SEO work! SEO at it's most basic form is making your pages clear and understandable to the search engines. Just knowing how to write your own content for your website can help you to achieve this. The big secret is just knowing a few page elements to focus on and to keep updating your website. A wonderful 21 page success guide was written about writing content for real estate websites which has really helped many to achieve success.

Realtors Can do their own SEO

Realtors can do their own SEO if they just knew where to begin. Many professional SEO companies want anywhere from $280 a page to as $500 per page to help real estate professionals write a single page of Internet content.

The key part to real estate professionals doing their own SEO is to understand that there are some tasks that are considered SEO (Search Engine Optimization) that are simple enough that just about anyone can do.

In fact if real estate professionals focus on just a few simple tasks they will find that they can do SEO in as little as 60 minutes every single week.

There are a number of real estate SEO activities that we would recommend real estate professionals following up on and those are listed over at:

http://www.onlinerealestatesuccess.com/seo_for_realtor.shtml

In addition there is a free teleseminar coming up on real estate SEO activities that real estate professonals can do on a weekly basis to not only improve their rankings but improve their results through more leads and more sales. The teleseminar is being held this Wednesday and is a can't miss. We will be having James Bridges, real estate coach and SEO expert on the call.

EVENT: How Every Realtor Can Dominate Google
DATE & TIME: Wednesday, February 13th at 5:00pm Pacific
FORMAT: Simulcast! (Attend via Phone or Webcast -- it's your choice)
TO ATTEND THIS EVENT, CLICK THIS LINK NOW...

http://instantTeleseminar.com/?eventid=1797924

Audio Testimonials Lead to Conversions

Testimonials on a website are essential in order for visitors to see how you have been able to help people achieve their goals. Hopefully after each and every client that you help you ask them to at least give you written testimonial so you can post it on your website. The neat thing is, you really can't have too many! As the web has continued to grow though, it is now easy to provide your clients with a way to give you an Audio Testimonial!

Some of the benefits of the Audio Testimonial are:

• There is no doubt they are real! - People can listen to your different clients and hear their story.
• There is no implied tone - When reading people put "tone" into different words that may not be there. With audio your visitors will be able to clearly listen and understand where that person was coming from so they can feel the frustration (before they met you :) ) and the victory in their voice when they accomplished their goal.
• It Provides a Reference - Sometimes prospective clients want to speak to your past clients. While I certainly encourage this you can also send them to your website to listen to some of the experiences your clients have had.

Put the audio testimonials on a "Testimonials" page for maximum impact. Another way to do it is to put testimonials on pages in the areas you helped someone achieve their goal. For example, if you helped someone purchase a home in La Marina Estates (in Long Beach), then put a link to the testimonial of someone you helped there! What a powerful way to show you are an expert in that area then one of your clients speaking about how you helped them there!

Why You Can't Pay for All Your Traffic

You know with the ability to pay for traffic via Google Adwords, Yahoo, or even MSN some people believe you should just pay for all of your traffic. After all they claim those are the most interested people. There are a few issues with paying for all of your Internet traffic and I thought I would cover some today.

1. You will miss out on people - there are those out there who don't believe in clicking on the ads. They believe they are only helping make someone richer and as a result they only click on the organic results.
2. The cost - when you are paying for each and every click you have no chance to get someone at a lower cost than what that click is costing you. SEO is not free by any stretch but it's long term results will be there.
3. It's not the best way to get the most people to your website - The most affordable long term traffic is from SEO because as advertisers come into your space they will bid up the price of the ads. You want to focus on both Adwords and SEO.

As a real estate professional you can do your SEO with simple steps and you can find out more about these steps at www.OnlineRealEstateSuccess.com.

Real Estate SEO Dominates Google

The key to successful real estate SEO (search engine optimization) is to make sure that you deliver quality content on a regular basis. Most real estate professionals hire out their SEO to professional companies for a set of 10 pages or 20 pages and think they have it made. There is nothing wrong with having a professional handle your SEO but it must be a continuous effort and not a one time deal.

Real Estate SEO is about consistently delivering quality content that visitors and the search engines deem of quality. To be honest if real estate professionals just wrote content and added them to your website you would be performing a very common real estate SEO task.

So how do you dominate in Google? Well make sure that you are consistently updating your real estate website with quality content that your visitors are looking for.

Good luck and we wish you the greatest success online!