RealTown's RealTalk

Mike Parker wrote in part:

Hi John,

I do like to use PPC on a site that is set up to convert traffic.  If there is anyway that you can make your homepage more user friendly, that would be a good idea.  Keep is simple.  You have links to searches underneath "area information."  Move those valuable links above "renter" information."  Organize your site so that it has listings & the individual search links within the fold. 

I love your domain name "Crown Platinum" ~ matches you :)  Go for more of an elegant, easy to use style and your conversions will be higher.  I'm not a big fan of the type of registration that you are requiring for the MLS searches, but understand that may be all you have to work with.

A new site that was just launched about a week ago is www.EvaMeier.com.  This site is set up to be large in the future, yet easy on the eyes and nice to navigate.  Try not to overwhelm visitors with so much info on the homepage.

I'm curious, what is your bounce rate?

You have good info, organize it and you will get a better return on your PPC $$$.

Sincerely,

Cherie Young
Online Marketing Strategies
www.CherieYoung.com
760.782.0103

Hi John!

I have seen your reply to Mike Parker. Let  me tell you it works. I been with Blackwater for two years and I'm on Page one on all search engines. Started in July of 06 and and by September same year, moved from page 14 on Google to page one.  I'm here to stay.This is a great investment. People find me on the Net and 85% of my business comes from my Web Site. You can check on my web site in doing some searches for Cookeville TN.

Randy Eager wrote:

John,I do know more than a little bit about SEO as that is what we do
for a living. To give you an idea of how many 1st page rankings you can
achieve, go to the following link to see several of our client websites
. . . and no, I am TOTALLY not objective in this. ;-)

www.webstarget.com/webstarget.pdf#reeves
<http://www.webstarget.com/webstarget.pdf#reeves>;

**************

And, as another totally NOT objective observer, I'm thrilled to report
that Barbara is still very busy showing houses in spite of the downturn
in the market. Thanks to SEO work by Randy and Dirk Johnson of
DomainDrivers.com and great content that Barbara and her assistant Marci
have written, Barbara is still staying CRAZY busy! Even though traffic
to her Poin2Agent sites at http://www.BarbaraReevesRealtor.com and
http://www.BarbaraSellsDaphne.com has dropped off about 30% since last
summer, she still gets high enough traffic to generate plenty of leads.
A very smart lady, Barbara invested heavily while times were good. Now
her sites are so well positioned in the search engines that she is
cruising while other agents are suffering. She is an inspiration whose
success at Web marketing has derived from six years of on-going hard
work and investment in professional services such as those offered by
Dirk, Randy and myself.

Suzanne

--
Suzanne Hathcock Stephens
Point2Agent Design Partner
http://www.SuzStephens.com
360-666-0881

John,

I see that Randy Eagar chimed in here.  He's great and I refer clients to him for their SEO. 

Cherie

John,

You asked: How can you guarantee permanent first page organic placement when the number of sites competing for first page placement exceeds the number of positions on the first page?

In my experience, the answer is this:  real estate websites are notoriously poorly optimized for SEO.

And, yes, it's true that the more competitive the term, the more difficult it is to rank well.  But, really, all you have to do is "outdo" the competitors in terms of the ongoing SEO work, and keep it going.

Many people do their own SEO, start strong, then life and business get in the way and they slack off.  In my opinion, real estate professionals already have a job.  And, doing SEO effectively IS a full-time job.  So, those who think they can do it themselves really have to want to stay with it, and usually they don't.

I work with Mike Parker and the Compass folks to offer SEO services to my clients, and it is possible to get on the first pages if you do it right. 

The great thing about SEO vs PPC is that SEO work expands your Internet presence while PPC does not.  Once the search engines get to like your site for the specific phrases you're going after, you'll find that you will end up on all kinds of first pages for related terms.  Or, even terms that aren't really all that closely related, for that matter.

One of my clients who is also a Compass client is on the first pages for (as an example), Atlanta real estate.  We were talking today and she was wondering if she should add some keywords for first time home buyers.  We checked Google and found that she is already #1 for first time home buyers atlanta. 

She does have a page we wrote that targets first time home buyers, and the page was set up well in terms of targeting that phrase.  But, the ranking just came along because her site is a strong authority in her city, which isn't actually Atlanta to protect the innocent.

Kathleen
www.buildrealestateresults.com

Hi --

What does SEO stand for?

John E. Bonnett

CRM Solutions Consulting

3601 Algonquin Rd., #620

Rolling Meadows, IL 60008

E-mail: John@CRMsThatWork.com

847-670-8000 (Office)

630-632-5400 (Cellular)

Editor's Note
Search Engine Optimization