Website101

You might want to add a listings page that just contains listings that are vacation homes, condos or are in a specific area.   Creating a Custom Listings Page helps your visitors find what their looking for quickly.

To create this page  click on Listing   from the Add New Page section of the Page manager.

This opens up the Page Editor “ Listings screen.

First give your page a name;  this is what will appear on the button on your website.   Next, give your page a title.   Try to be as descriptive as possible here.   You can also go in to the page options and add you key words and description as well.

Next, add your web boxes.

In the Types of Listings section, you have several choices.   The first three, active, sold and custom, pull the listing information from your Top Producer Website Listings Manager.   To create a custom listing page you must choose custom.

When you click on the Custom radio button, a list appears showing you all your listings in your listings manager.   Simply check off the listings you would like to put on this page,  then click  OK at the bottom of the page.

Okay, so now you have this great, optimized website,  what else can you do to  help get you found, promote your listings and generate more business?   There are several popular websites that can help you in promoting your services, marketing your listings AND drive more traffic to your website.

One of the best ways to promote your property listings is craigslit.org.   Craigslist is an excellent way to market your property for free.   Anyone can use it.   Craigslist real estate pages will get ranked by Google with real estate search terms and millions of people read the site on a daily basis.   Not only will you get leads directly from craigslist but you can also generate traffic to your website through craigslist.   There is also a new classified resource website that is similar to craigslist that you may want to check out called backpage.com.

Google™s YouTube.com and MSN™s LiveVideo.com are excellent ways of advertising a property as well.   If you have a digital camcorder and know how to upload your movies to the internet then you will find these to be effective ways to not only promote your property but also helpful in directing traffic to your website.

Other websites that you may want to look into are social websites such as myspace.com or facebook.com.     Also, there are some real estate websites such as lakehouse.com, and the creativeinvestor.com.

If you have a local newspaper online, you may benefit from any advertising that you do there.   Your Chamber of Commerce site can also be helpful as well.

Remember,   you need to have optimized your website BEFORE you start your external marketing.   This blog has information on Search Engine Optimization, Writing Content and Planning.

This week at a glance:

• Strategies to Improve Your Website Traffic

 Strategies to Improve Your Website Traffic

Your website is not only a source of referrals but also a resource for potential customers. In addition to referrals through search engines, you can also drive traffic directly to your Website through online and offline means.   You can advertise your services in an online directory or in a printed directory; you can also list your URL on a bus shelter or on Realtor.com.   More >>

Once you’ve optimized your website you may want to start using Google Webmaster Tools.   Before you get started, you must first set up a Google Account.   Google’s Webmaster Tools will  diagnose errors, help to improve  your site™s visibility and allow you to set up some preferences.

The first step is verification.   Follow the instructions to create and  upload a blank HTML file so that Google can verify your website.

Once you’ve verified you site you can check the Top Search Queries.   Google will show you which search queries returned pages from your website most often and also which pages were actually clicked.   Top Search Queries will also show you the search engine result position (SERP) for each of these pages.

You can also find out what information Google has indexed from your site in a section called What Googlebot Sees.   This includes phrased used by external links to your site, keyword in your site’s content and the actual content on your site in order by keyword density.

The Crawl Stats section shows you how your site is PageRanked and which page on your site has the highest PageRank.

Index Stats – provides Shortcut links  for the following operators:

• site:
• link:
• cache:
• info:
• related:

Use the Google Sitemaps section  to upload and manage XML based Sitemap files to show Google which pages you’d like to have crawled and hopefully indexed.

For more information about using Google Webmaster Tools see the Help section of your Top Producer website or go to Google Webmaster Tools.

There are actually two different kinds of sitemaps.   The first kind of sitemaps is a web page that lists all the pages on your web site.   This can be useful for their visitors if they are trying to find a specific page on your website.

The other kind of sitemap, is an XML Sitemap or Sitemap with a capital S.   This type of sitemap is used to give Google information about you web site.

A Sitemap is also a list of pages on your website, but it is not a list for you visitors.   You must first create a Sitemap and then submit it to Google.   This helps to make sure that Google knows which pages to spider and hopefully index on your website.

XML Sitemaps can also provide additional information about you web pages such as how often you update them, when the page was modified, and how the relative importance of the page.

For more information visit Google’s Help Page on Creating a Sitemap and Working with Sitemaps.

This week at a glance:

• Reports
• Sitemaps

Reports

Included with the Website are reports on how your site is performing.   The included information includes unique visitors to your site, number of referrals from search engines and keywords used in the referral.   The reports provide you with direct feedback on the changes to content that you are making to your Website.   More >>

If you are searching for information on how to improve your site™s visibility, take advantage of Google™s Webmaster tools. They provide you with detailed reports and diagnosis about your site. Before you can use these free tools, you need to follow a series of steps to verify your site. More>>

Sitemaps

Did you know that there are two types of sitemaps? A sitemap (lower ˜s™) lists all the pages on your site.   A Sitemap (capital ˜S™) is an XML file used by Google to index your site. Creating a Sitemap will enable Google to intelligently crawl your site. Both types of sitemaps help visitors (human or bots) to navigate your Website.   More >>

Writing content for your website can seem like a huge task at first.   I’m going to provide you with some ideas that you can use on your website but keep in mind the importance of researching the most effective key words for your website.   The determination of effective key words is based on what words web searchers are using to find YOUR website and ultimately generate potential leads.

Writing about local events is a great way to bring traffic to your web site but will it bring the kind of traffic you need to build your business?   Keep this in mind when choosing which topics you are going to invest your energy in writing about.

• Communities and Neighborhoods:   What are the hottest areas in your real estate market?   Create a page or pages that paint a picture of these areas.   Are there any landmarks?   Interesting history?   Outstanding recreation facilities?
• Property Types:   Are there types of properties that are unique to your area?   Vacation homes or waterfront?   Lofts?   Specialty commercial property?
• Buyer and Seller information:   Who is your customer?   Is relocation prevalent in your area?   What is the demographics for your area and what kind of information are they looking for?   Downsizing?   Settling down?
• Market Statistics:   What are the recent market trends in your area?
• Government Information
• MLS and listing information:   provide a guide to how to use the MLS, helpful maps and area information.
• Real Estate Specific information:   What do your prospective buyers and sellers need to know?

Remember you don’t need to write a book.   Make your information captivating, short and sweet.   Don’t forget to ask your visitor to contact you on every single page.   Once you’ve written your content find out how to make this information even more attractive using Search Engine Optimization.   And keep writing.   Search engines love fresh content.

Good content can have your phone running off the hook.   Content is  the foundation of your website’s success.    By including interesting and valuable information, you will capture your reader’s attention.   Every visitor you capture will help you build your position in the search engine results, which in turn will bring you more visitors.

So what is good content?   Your content needs to be customer focused.   You need to know your customer, understand what they’re looking for and present it to them  in a way that you capture their attention.   What do they want to know?   Not, what do you want to tell them.

What are the benefits you are offering to them?   Write from the point of view of your new potential client.   Providing useful information is an excellent way to get them to pick up the phone and call you.   Keep in mind that real estate consumers spend about 8 weeks researching before they contact a Realtor ^®.   If your website is full of valuable information, they will bookmark your website and visit again and again.   This increases the chances that they are going to call YOU when they are ready to take the next step.

Make sure to include clear benefit focused calls to action through your content.   Once you’ve hooked them with your content find ways to get them to call or email you.   Whether it  is to get more information,  see a property or a market report.   Ask!

Change your content, change your results.   Do not copy content from elsewhere or settle for the boilerplate content that comes with your website.   Google has been around the internet millions of times.   It will know if your content matches the content of other websites.   When this happens, you will not show up in the search results.   Your web page will be exiled to the dreaded ‘similar pages’ link in the search results.   This is not as bad as being black listed but is a virtual no man’s land for web sites.   Avoid at all costs.

The good news is that writing for your web site doesn’t have to be a chore.   Internet users are looking for compact and concise information.   You’re not writing a book.   In fact, one effective approach to writing is to give your visitors just enough information to make them want more.

Get in the habit of looking out for topic ideas and start a list.   Do your research.   Once again, what are your future customers looking for?   Once you have your topics, make an outline of the key points.   Then write a paragraph or two about each of those points.   Have someone proofread it for you and then post it on your website.   Make sure to optimize your content.  

And don’t stop there.   Put aside time to write and update your website on a regular basis.   Always make sure that the information you are providing is fresh and up to date.   Google likes to see fresh content.

Your website is a powerful marketing tool.    It is not a business card or brochure. Committing your energy and time to it will bring you more internet traffic and ultimately improve your success.

This week at a glance:

• Good Content
• Tips for Writing

Good Content

In week 4, we stressed the importance of content but you may have been tempted to use material found elsewhere.  Unique, relevant content keeps visitors on your site and repeat return visits; search engines also reward you with new referrals.   More>>

Tips for Writing

It™s always easier to write about what you know.   Information specific to a neighborhood such as your family™s experience with neighborhood schools, great restaurants, special character homes in the area, showcase your expertise with the local markets.   Writing about your neighborhood sprinkles in the necessary keywords you™ve selected for search engine optimization.   More >>