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Set up, Get In Or Loose Out.
2007-06-25 16:01:00
Given an equal playing field, a real estate site with a history will out perform a new site, hands down. For search engines, the longevity of a site is important because it shows that there is a desire to update the site regularly, a client/visitor base, and a imperative to provide related content. Conversely, there are movie sites. These sites will see millions of visitors for about 2 to 6 months while the movie is promoted and then they lapse into digital obscurity as the fans turn their attention elsewhere. Based on content, traffic and popularity, by all rights these sites should be marking their territory at the top of the search charts. However, because they are such flash-in-the-pan projects; here today, gone tomorrow, they never really make it. This can be very prohibitive for real estate professionals looking to develop a website. When looking in from the outside, most aspects of real estate search engine optimization seem manageable if not a little daunting. The ma...

An ear to the ground, making the most out of ad servers.
2007-06-22 16:58:00
There are many ways to make money online these days. Almost every business worth its salt, has a website and at least some kind of tie into a sales opportunity. There are day traders buying and selling penny stocks right through to blue chips. Savvy merchants buying low on Craigslist and selling high on Ebay. Empires built on buying and selling domain names or running massive affiliate sales programs. One model in particular has recently come to my attention and considering it can be applied to real estate websites, its worth talking about. People are smart. If you tell people that something is unbreakable, they break it. Tell them it is secure and some one finds a way in. As a mass, we are incredibly intelligent and creative. So it should come as no surprise that when given the opportunity to use several competing online adservers that someone has found a viable money making opportunity. The premiss is simple. Buy traffic at a lower price and sell advertisements at a hig...
More About: Servers , Ground , Round , Maki , Makin

The Story of Joe and the SEO No-no’s
2007-06-20 16:04:00
This is a how-not-to-do-it post featruing some of the currently frowned upon SEO tactics that if you are caught using will get your URL banned, blacklisted and completely ignored by search engines. This post is filled with doom and gloom wrapped up in a nice little story. While it may seem like a good idea at the time, the long term costs of using some of these SEO tactics can be dire. You have been warned. This is a story about Joe the easy going web coder who is under the impression that he can out think the brainy people who fill the halls of every search engine office across the land. Joe is a nice guy, he doesn’t trip old ladies, he doesn’t eat endangered animals. He is friendly, courteous and polite to friends, family and strangers alike. Joe has slightly elevated cholesterol levels, but he doesn’t know it yet, so he still enjoys eating his cheeseburgers and fries while he contemplates sneaky SEO work-arounds. Joe is a contrarian which is not always ...
More About: Story , The Story , Tory

Asking for inbound links for your real estate website.
2007-06-19 00:44:00
If you are real estate webmaster already, you already know how many link exchange requests you get in your inbox. They have become apart of the quasi spam landscape and more often then not they get deleted long before they see the light of day. If you are not a real estate webmaster, or have just recently become one, the real estate link exchange email is a coming of age rite of passage. Once you start getting these emails you know you have something to offer the internet. Why are these emails so annoying? Why do they end up in the trash without a second glance? Aren’t link exchanges important, how else am I going to reach out if not by email? All good and valid questions. The first is simple, the majority of these link exchange emails are from automated emailers. They are not personal, are often rife with mistakes and very rarely have anything worthwhile to offer. A classic example goes a little something like this: Hello Webmaster, I have looked at your website, ht...
More About: Website , Estate , Real Estate , Links , Real

Orginal Content Vs. Duplicate Content On Real Estate Websites
2007-06-15 16:58:00
For some reason, this week I have heard more, read more and seen more posted on duplicate content then ever before. Im not sure why it is and I am sure its coincidental. However, one this is for sure, it is a great blog post so here we go… The Debate: Search engine optimization purists contend that search engines penalize your site for having duplicate content. The less fanatical claim that many a real estate webmaster is over worried about duplicate content penalties that will simply fail to materialize. The Cases: The argument against using duplicate content is straightforward. If search engines are in the business of providing the most relevant and important information to their search clients then having the same content on your site that is found elsewhere on the internet, simply defeats that purpose. Further impact, they claim comes from the constantly evolving process search engines use for organizing the sites they crawl. As the need for more accurate listings in...
More About: Estate , Real Estate , Websites , Content , Real

Search Engine Modeling: Another Step Toward Real Estate SEO
2007-06-14 22:26:00
There is something to be said for looking at your competition and seeing what they are up to. The internet is good for this kind of corporate snooping. With very little you can determine your competitors SEO strategy and all the elements that make it up. A guaranteed way to out perform your competition in the search rankings is to out perform their search engine optimization efforts. For example if they have 100 pages of content, ensure that you have 101+; if they have 100 inbound links from PR2 pages, make sure you have at least 100 inbound links from PR3 pages. This is called SEO modeling. SEO modeling is simply out doing your competition after putting them under a microscope. Effective SEO Modeling has 9 steps. Step 1. Locate and determine your competitors sites. There are a few ways to do this, but a really good place to start is with Google. Choose your most important keyword and do a search in Google for it. Unless you are the number one listing, you have competition...
More About: Estate , Real Estate , Search , Search Engine

Blogroll
2007-06-13 23:16:00
Hello to all my fellow bloggers out there in the blogosphere. I am in need of some blogroll partners. If you have a real estate, technology, search engine optimization or web design/development blog feel free to drop me a line. I look forward to hearing from you. Contact me here.
More About: Blogroll

SEO Monitoring Software
2007-06-12 18:27:00
Our Real Estate SEO Monitoring is making a splash. To keep the momentum going, we are offering a full month of FREE tracking. Thats right, for a limited time only, we are offering up our industry leading SEO Monitoring software for a full month free of charge. For 30 days we will track your site, your competitors and your keywords and offer it up to you in two stunning reports delivered right to your inbox. To take advantage of this very special limited time offer, simply send us an email to info@paperclipcms.com with ‘FREE SEO OFFER’ in the subject line. In the body of the email please include the following: 1. The URL for monitoring. 2. Your contact email info. 3. Your keywords (max 10) 4. Your competitors (max 10) Your customized seo report will be sent to your inbox within 24 hours. The next report will arrive in 30 days. This is a great opportunity to see you sites movement (or lack there of) in search engines. As well, you can see what your competitio...
More About: Software , Tori

The lighter side of real estate forcasting.
2007-06-12 18:12:00
I just stumbled across this little video clip. Its amazing what people will do when they have free time. Its a great representation of real estate prices over the last hundred+ years. It takes about 4 min. to watch but it is definitely worth it. For me it really hit home the power of the market these days and how high the bubble has taken us.
More About: Estate , Real Estate , Real , Side , Stat

How do I Manually find my real estate website in the major search engines?
2007-06-12 04:04:00
Finding your website in the major search engines (Google, Yahoo and MSN) can be time consuming and boring to say the least. Worst of all, you probably want to find multiple keywords and keyphrases and you probably want to search in more than just one search engine, meaning searching for your real estate website ranking is going to be much more difficult and time consuming. We have just released our website search engine software that can track your website in all the major search engines and rank you against your competitors (as well as track your historical ranking), but for those of you who want to do it the old fashioned way we want to make sure it’s as easy as possible to find your site in the “majors” so we’re including a short tutorial to help you streamline the process. First: Go to Google and click on “advanced search” Second: In the upper right hand corner of the screen where it says “10 results”, change it to say “100 results”. When you search in Googl...
More About: Website , Search Engines , Estate , Real Estate , Search

Real Estate Websites: Some of the Best & Some of the Worst
2007-05-26 17:55:00
While real estate websites hold the position of some of the most impressive, cutting edge and prestigious websites online, they can also hold the reputation for the ugliest and least intuitive sites as well. Zillow is a great example of a new media giant. What started out as a highly secretive startup by the ex CEO of Expedia turned into one of the most talked about sites of the year. It has already been branded by the public the “EBay of real estate sites”. Their site technology has resulted in many industry innovations and in fact is changing the real estate industry as we know it. Redfin and Trulia are another two up and comers in the real estate technology arena. Redfin has already dominated a 60 minutes show recently and Trulia has just received another 10 million in financing. In fact in January 2007, all three of these companies were listed in Swanepoel TRENDS Report as part of the “Top 10 Trendsetters” online. Academics report that with over 100+ million websites o...
More About: Estate , Real Estate , Websites , Real , Stat

Inbound Links: The Backbone Of Real Estate Website Popularity
2007-05-19 17:15:00
This is another real estate website search engine optimization piece. I was thinking about SEO yesterday and I decided that I needed to talk about the importance of inbound links. Inbound links are probably one of the single most important elements of real estate website search engine optimization. They are a primary indicator of popularity. Popularity, is of course, a very subjective thing so let me rephrase that. Inbound links are a primary indicator of web saturation. In other words, how connected your site is with the rest of the web. Further, inbound links show search engines that a site contains enough quality information to make it popular amongst outside users. Inbound links are simple and easy to use. They consist of a simple hyper text link that points to particular site. “Real Estate Website Design” is an example of an inbound link from this blog to www.paperclipcms.com. There are two major parts to an inbound link. First, the url or address. This ...
More About: Real Estate , Links

Patients is a virtue - especially when it comes to real estate websites.
2007-05-15 17:04:00
You don’t need to look far to realize that we live in an age of instant gratification. The modern world has gone out of its way to make it as easy as possible to get the things you want instantly. The enemy here? Time. Time is the one thing no one wants to deal with. Time is the enemy. Why wait when you can have it now? In the online world time has been marginalized. Instant messenger services, almost instant email, 24 hour information flow etc. all negate the effects of traditional time. There is one area that time still holds sway over online and that is the maturation of sites. The bottom line is that for your site to mature and really start to reach its true potential it takes time. A very basic bit of advice goes like this, build your site, promote your site and forget about your site for at least 6 months while it comes into its own. What exactly is site maturation? Site maturation is the process by which your real estate website begins to integrate itself wi...
More About: Estate , Real Estate , Websites , Patients , Real

Finding you real estate website in search engine listings.
2007-05-14 16:27:00
Keeping tabs on your real estate websites natural search listings is an important thing. As a webmaster, knowing where you stand is the first step in improving your real estate websites search standings. There are many ways to find out where your real estate website is ranked in the natural search listings. Everything from software monitoring programs to web based scripts can all be used to find out how your real estate website ranks. One of the most accessible and accurate means to do this checking is simple and requires nothing more then your favorite browser. Step 1. Open your browser. Step 2. Go to your favorite search engine (or the search engine you wish to check) Step 3. Most search engines have an ‘advanced search’ option. This will allow you to set the number of results displayed. In Google, for example, the maximum number of search results displayed is 100. Select the max number of search results. Step 4. Enter your search. Remember you wa...
More About: Website , Estate , Real Estate , Search , Search Engine

An interesting test…
2007-05-11 17:10:00
I just came across an article from The Economist that talks about how Americans use technology. Essentially, the article revolves around a poll conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Some of the findings were surprising. For example, of those polled, 49% are reluctant to adopt new technology because they cannot afford it, are not interested in or actually fear and hate it. The article was interesting, however, what really spurred me this morning was the Pew Internet & American Life Project website. The site has a really great little test that really helps to identify your openness to technology. The survey is quick and painless, and the results were quite surprising. As a base line exercise I highly recommend it. Pew Internet & American Life Project Test .
More About: Interesting , Eres

Real Estate Website Design: Form vs. Function
2007-05-10 17:13:00
Seeking inspiration for your real estate website? Is your real estate website looking a little dated? There are many sites on the internet that are dedicated to nothing but the art of web design. In many ways these sites are an inspiration to look at. Overall they showcase color combinations, layout and theme integration that are at the cutting edge of web design. The real challenge when working with real estate website design is combining good looks with efficient functionality. A real estate website is much more then a business card on line. The real estate websites of the here and now are powerful tools; investments that generate a great return on money invested. It has to pack an arsenal of lead generation tools that can effectively seek out and capture the attention of quality visitors. Ten years ago, back in the day, when the internet was just emerging from the in primordial goo of the geek age, websites and their functionality were basic at best. Posting information, send...
More About: Design , Website , Estate , Real Estate , Real

Real Estate Websites & Search Engine Optimization
2007-05-08 17:19:00
Search Engine Optimization or SEO is the foundation of a sucessful real estate website. But for many real estate webmasters it is a ghost, a rumor buried in the code. The truth is, SEO is not a mystery, it is not hard and I cannot stress how vitally important it is. Look at it this way, 90% of people online use a search engine to find what they are looking for. Obviously, the higher ranked a page is, the more traffic it sees. In terms of real estate websites, this is a golden opportunity. People looking for properties are in need of information. If your site can provide them that information, you have just generated solid lead potential. In other words if someone searching for “real estate in the ‘x’ area” finds your site in a search engine, and they find the information that they are looking for, you have your foot in the door. In a very real sense, you have just made a connection with someone specifically looking for what you have to offer - and tha...
More About: Search Engine Optimization , Estate , Real Estate , Search , Search Engine

The Rise Of Real Estate Websites
2007-05-07 15:19:00
For the longest time, real estate websites were the anomaly within their field. After all, real estate is a people driven profession and it became apparent very quickly that trying to sell real estate online was a lost cause. Further, people are very reluctant to spend so much on in an exclusively online medium. Early real estate web pioneers succumbed to this very quickly and real estate websites all but loss their momentum. Most early real estate websites became the digital equivalent of business cards and contact sheets. In the past few years this has started to change drastically. As the internet saturates and becomes a daily tool in peoples lives, the demand for real estate websites has surfaced again. Wisely, this new generation of real estate websites are in the business of generating leads rather then trying to sell properties outright – a big difference to be sure. I found a great article on the Real tor website entitled “Connection Between Tech Spending, Leads....
More About: Estate , Real Estate , Websites , Rise

And away we go.
2007-04-30 23:38:00
Welcome to our blog. This is our humble blog. Take a look around and check it out. I am Rob, your humble blogger. Every day I will be posting information, thoughts and observations about the world of real estate and more specifically the online world of real estate. A bit about me. I am a geek. All my life I have been enthralled with all things tech. I got my first computer when 128k was considered a big deal. Lets just say the disk drive had not yet been invented and I stored everything on a cassette tape. Growing up my family was always involved in real estate investing. Sundays were often spent wandering through homes and doing cost analysis on rental properties. Needless to say, along with computers, real estate has long been in my blood. So landing here is a bit of a treat for me. I can put two passions together really treat myself. The folks here at paperclipcms.com have been kind enough to let me do my thing. I have pretty much a free reign on my posts. Which means yo...
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