At risk of giving away some of my best secrets, I would like to share some ideas regarding online lead generation. I know many of you are looking for new and innovative ways to spur new business and competition online can be formidable. As scores of REALTOR® begin to look to the Web and alternative methods of marketing there are many questions that have left many seeking direction. It seems that everybody is looking to sell you the "magic bullet" that will attract the teaming masses to line up and buy or list their properties... "You have to do this..." "You need one of these..." "Oh, you haven't been doing _____ yet?" Of course, each so-called "magic bullet" has a price attached.
So how are you supposed to know what is going to work and what is a bag of horsefeathers? How should you spend your marketing dollars to acheive the greatest effect? How can you market your business without actually spending money? Who should you believe, who can you trust?
Well, fortunately, there are some things that you can do that will give you a leg up. All that is required from you is: a fair bit of know-how, time, elbow-grease, patience and tenacity. Oh and a marketing budget is useful (but not necessary).
The first thing you should know is; there is no "Magic Bullet", so don't kid yourself. However, there is a lot that you can do:
Optimize your site –By this I am talking about choosing some key words and phrases that you would most like to promote. Once you have determined your key phrases you can tailor your text to use those words and phrases. Don't go overboard though, if you are thinking about adding your phrase 1,000 times in a tiny font on the bottom of the page the same color as the background (these are known as spider lines) don't. Search engines have caught on to this and many other techniques (known as search engine spamming) and will penalize your site in their listings. The trick is; use your key phrases as much as possible, but write for humans, do not try to scam the search engines. It will most likely backfire if you do.
Be wary of SEO companies –There are some stellar Search Engine Optimization Companies out there, BUT there are many not-so-stellar SEO companies as well and some downright rip-off artists to boot. If you choose to hire an SEO company be very careful. I would look for a money back guarantee or only pay for performance... You will probably be roped into a contract so use as much caution as a naked man climbing a barbed wire fence when choosing ...
Links make the Web go round – Not only do links provide you with direct traffic, they also raise your ranking in search engines as well. Not only do search engines index your text, they keep track of all the links on it as well. Now, that doesn't really matter very much (as long as you don't have too many "outbound" links). What does matter though; how many Websites (inbound links) have links to your site. The philosophy here is simple; Website A has more links to it than Website B, therefore Website A should get a higher rankiing... Be careful with links as well: Links from sites with a high page rank will be given a higher value than those coming from pages with a low rank. If a page is linking to your site from a "link farm" (a Website that is nothing more than a list of links, a.k.a. free-for-all-links, a.k.a. link exchanges ... that exists to allow people to post a link to their site for the sole purpose of increasing link popularity) your site may be penalized in its page rank.
Talk it up online! –This is a big one. It will take time and effort, but it can be fun and rewarding. There are many venues through which you can practice the gift of gab... My recommendation here is; don't set out to market yourself. Provide news, information and your opinion on things, but if you go straight for the "sell" then you will most likely turn your readers off and they will move on... If you provide a genuine service, the will come back in droves.
Blogs –You are really missing the boat if you are blogging regularly. I know some of you are still getting your feet under you in cyberspace and may not fully understand the blogging sensation. In any case, you can grab a free blog at Blogger.com. All you have to do is sign up. It's free, easy and powerful. Just spend 20 minutes a day blogging as part of your routine and you will be surprised at the results. Not only will you gain the respect of your readers as a professional, and possible their business, you will also be promoting your Website and raising it's search engine ranking via link popularity.
Community Forums –These are very similar to blogs, but it is more of an online community where people can post messages back and forth in a message (known as a thread). The remarkable thing here is; the forum doesn't even need to be about real estate. Yep, you can chit chat about golf, sailing, or the price of tea in China. It doesn't matter. The trick here is; put a tagline & a link to your Website in your signature. Then every time you post, it will provide you with a link that will drive direct traffic & increase your link popularity with the Search Engines....
Social Networks –Not just for college kids anymore... Social Networks such as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and others can help your potential clients learn a little more about you & your services. LinkedIn (a business oriented site) provides many tools that you can use to build a network. I recommend putting a profile on all of them, but concentrating on LinkedIn. If you know me, feel free to add me to your network..
MMORPG's –Massive Multi-Player Online Roleplaying Games may seem like they are kid's stuff, but MMORPG's such as 2ndlife & the Sims can be powerful marketing tools. With several heavy hitters in the corporate world gobbling up Online real estate in these games, perhaps you should think about doing the same..
YouTube –YouTube is considered by some to be an excellent venue to get the word out. I personally believe it is a double edged sword. If you can pull off videos that make you appear reasonably professional then go for it. Again, link back to your site!!!
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
How Search Engines Work ...
Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL, Dogpile and a whole gang of other search engine sites all work on the same basic principles. Find Web pages, index the content and return results when a user enters a "search".
Simple enough right? At first blush, this is basically all there is to it, however, when you look a little deeper, there seems to be a bit more than meets the eye at work here ...
When a search engine receives a Website submission (usually from the Webmaster that created it) it adds that Website to a queue of Websites waiting to be indexed. Once the search engine is ready to index the Website it runs a program commonly known as a "Spider".
The search engine spider reads the code on the site and removes everything but the text and links. Then it counts how many words exist on the page. Next, it removes common words such as: the, as, if, that, he, she, I, to etc ... and keeps the rest.
Then it counts how many times each word and phrase appears within the text. This is known as the keyword density ratio. For example; a real estate Website may have the phrase "New Homes" appearing 15 times out of a total of 1,423 words. This makes the keyword density of the phrase "New Homes" 15:1,423.
Still with me? Hang in there, it will make more sense in a moment.
The spider adds this information to the search engine database (known as indexing). When a user enters a search for New Homes the search engine looks in it's database and returns the results with the highest keyword density ratio.
Cool.
Finished right?
Well no. That worked in the early days of the Internet. Unfortunately, over time, some unscrupulous Webmasters began to figure out ways to beat the system. They then began to add keywords to their Websites in tiny fonts that matched the background color. This rendered the text invisible to users but since the search engines read the code they see it.
This technique is known as using "Spider Lines". Ultimately it got pretty obnoxious and porn and other undesirable sites began to appear even with the most benign search terms (this is now known as search engine spamming). Therefore, most of the search engines began to filter the keyword density and if it was to high the offending Website would be dropped from the database.
The search engine spammers then adapted to this and began to enter entire dictionaries in their spiderlines rather than the same terms over and over. This of course resulted in very inaccurate searches. Search engines began to allow the use of "Meta Tags" to give the search engines a clue to which terms were actually keywords. This of course, led to more abuse by search engine spamming. The cycle of oneupmanship continued.
This eventually led to "Link Popularity." Link popularity is the method of determining site ranking based upon how many other sites (and the ranking of those sites as well) that link to a particular site. In other words it is a count of incoming links. For example; if you had a Website (we'll call it mysite.com) and 50 other Websites contained links to mysite.com then your link popularity would be 50 (Again, remember that the quality and ranking of the linking site has a bearing also, but let's keep it simple.). A Website such as Amazon.com for instance can have millions of incoming links. By the search engine's reasoning Amazon.com is a more important site and therefore gets a higher page ranking.
Link popularity is the de-facto 800 lb gorilla when determining site ranking currently. It is difficult to falsely manipulate and a fairly accurate indication of the importance of a site.
Simple enough right? At first blush, this is basically all there is to it, however, when you look a little deeper, there seems to be a bit more than meets the eye at work here ...
When a search engine receives a Website submission (usually from the Webmaster that created it) it adds that Website to a queue of Websites waiting to be indexed. Once the search engine is ready to index the Website it runs a program commonly known as a "Spider".
The search engine spider reads the code on the site and removes everything but the text and links. Then it counts how many words exist on the page. Next, it removes common words such as: the, as, if, that, he, she, I, to etc ... and keeps the rest.
Then it counts how many times each word and phrase appears within the text. This is known as the keyword density ratio. For example; a real estate Website may have the phrase "New Homes" appearing 15 times out of a total of 1,423 words. This makes the keyword density of the phrase "New Homes" 15:1,423.
Still with me? Hang in there, it will make more sense in a moment.
The spider adds this information to the search engine database (known as indexing). When a user enters a search for New Homes the search engine looks in it's database and returns the results with the highest keyword density ratio.
Cool.
Finished right?
Well no. That worked in the early days of the Internet. Unfortunately, over time, some unscrupulous Webmasters began to figure out ways to beat the system. They then began to add keywords to their Websites in tiny fonts that matched the background color. This rendered the text invisible to users but since the search engines read the code they see it.
This technique is known as using "Spider Lines". Ultimately it got pretty obnoxious and porn and other undesirable sites began to appear even with the most benign search terms (this is now known as search engine spamming). Therefore, most of the search engines began to filter the keyword density and if it was to high the offending Website would be dropped from the database.
The search engine spammers then adapted to this and began to enter entire dictionaries in their spiderlines rather than the same terms over and over. This of course resulted in very inaccurate searches. Search engines began to allow the use of "Meta Tags" to give the search engines a clue to which terms were actually keywords. This of course, led to more abuse by search engine spamming. The cycle of oneupmanship continued.
This eventually led to "Link Popularity." Link popularity is the method of determining site ranking based upon how many other sites (and the ranking of those sites as well) that link to a particular site. In other words it is a count of incoming links. For example; if you had a Website (we'll call it mysite.com) and 50 other Websites contained links to mysite.com then your link popularity would be 50 (Again, remember that the quality and ranking of the linking site has a bearing also, but let's keep it simple.). A Website such as Amazon.com for instance can have millions of incoming links. By the search engine's reasoning Amazon.com is a more important site and therefore gets a higher page ranking.
Link popularity is the de-facto 800 lb gorilla when determining site ranking currently. It is difficult to falsely manipulate and a fairly accurate indication of the importance of a site.
How to get to the top of Google
Links and Spiders and Indexes ... Oh My!
Let's face it, there are millions of real estate professionals competing for similar keywords. Not only just REALTORS®, but Title insurance companies, lenders and anybody related to the real estate industry. So we are talking about a lot of people that are after the exact same thing you are after. The Websites that are included on the first 3-4 pages of a good keyword are almost bound to succeed. Of course the trick is getting there and you can bet they want to stay.
So what do you do? Shell out the big bucks to a professional SEO company? They can't really guarantee anything. In fact they don't have any more power over your rankings then you do. Before you resign yourself to page ranking #234,567th there is a lot you can do to come out on top. First thing you should know are the basics of how a search engine works.
Search engines at the simplest level are nothing more than a large database (OK, a really, really large database). A database is simply a container for information. Think of a craft organizer, or a tackle box ... Each compartment stores something. The different compartments make it simple to sort things. As far as databases are concerned we are storing and sorting data.
Simple right?
Well, Google, Yahoo, MSN etc... are more or less, massive databases. The web page that you see (or the search field in your toolbar if you like) are what is known as a Front End.
The part you see = The Front EndThe massive, scary database that you don't see = The Back End
OK, so when a user enters a search, they are asking the search engine to look into its' database and return the proper information.
Still with me? Good. Once the search is entered the search engine will return the results sorted by the websites page ranking. In a nutshell; the search engine attempts to return the results in order of relevance to the user. It is a relatively complicated process and it uses many parameters (known as algorithms) to accomplish this. However, to keep things simple let's look at the following guidelines. SEO is a complicated thing and the following guidelines probably aren't going to pole vault you to the top, but it is a good start...
Use as much text as possible.
Search Engines index all text on a website excluding common words like: the, that, then, at, a, I, when etc...
Search Engines don't care how pretty your site is. They can not index pictures or images and can not make a distinction between a picture of a flower and a picture of a fire breathing goat... Therefore, do not skimp on text!
The number of times a word or phrase appears in the text compared to the number of words in total is known as keyword density. For instance, if the phrase "Real Estate" appears 15 times out of a total of 135 words then your keyword density ratio is 15:135
In the early days of search engines this was the primary factor to determine page rank. It wasn't long before unscrupulous webmasters figured this out and began to use "spider-lines"... Text in the smallest point size in a color to match the background. This rendered the text invisible to the user, but the search engine would still index it. Techniques such as this to artificially raise page rank became known as search engine spamming.
Most search engines will either penalize or delist a Website using spamming techniques.
The keyword density should high, but not too high. If it goes past an undisclosed threshold then your site could be penalized
Link popularity is currently the largest factor in determining page rank. Link popularity is based on the number of external Websites that link TO your site.
Try exchanging links with other Websites in similar, but non competing industries. For example: Title Companies, Insurance Companies, Home Warranty Companies etc...
These are just a few of the techniques commonly employed to boost page rank. If you are interested in more advanced techniques
Let's face it, there are millions of real estate professionals competing for similar keywords. Not only just REALTORS®, but Title insurance companies, lenders and anybody related to the real estate industry. So we are talking about a lot of people that are after the exact same thing you are after. The Websites that are included on the first 3-4 pages of a good keyword are almost bound to succeed. Of course the trick is getting there and you can bet they want to stay.
So what do you do? Shell out the big bucks to a professional SEO company? They can't really guarantee anything. In fact they don't have any more power over your rankings then you do. Before you resign yourself to page ranking #234,567th there is a lot you can do to come out on top. First thing you should know are the basics of how a search engine works.
Search engines at the simplest level are nothing more than a large database (OK, a really, really large database). A database is simply a container for information. Think of a craft organizer, or a tackle box ... Each compartment stores something. The different compartments make it simple to sort things. As far as databases are concerned we are storing and sorting data.
Simple right?
Well, Google, Yahoo, MSN etc... are more or less, massive databases. The web page that you see (or the search field in your toolbar if you like) are what is known as a Front End.
The part you see = The Front EndThe massive, scary database that you don't see = The Back End
OK, so when a user enters a search, they are asking the search engine to look into its' database and return the proper information.
Still with me? Good. Once the search is entered the search engine will return the results sorted by the websites page ranking. In a nutshell; the search engine attempts to return the results in order of relevance to the user. It is a relatively complicated process and it uses many parameters (known as algorithms) to accomplish this. However, to keep things simple let's look at the following guidelines. SEO is a complicated thing and the following guidelines probably aren't going to pole vault you to the top, but it is a good start...
Use as much text as possible.
Search Engines index all text on a website excluding common words like: the, that, then, at, a, I, when etc...
Search Engines don't care how pretty your site is. They can not index pictures or images and can not make a distinction between a picture of a flower and a picture of a fire breathing goat... Therefore, do not skimp on text!
The number of times a word or phrase appears in the text compared to the number of words in total is known as keyword density. For instance, if the phrase "Real Estate" appears 15 times out of a total of 135 words then your keyword density ratio is 15:135
In the early days of search engines this was the primary factor to determine page rank. It wasn't long before unscrupulous webmasters figured this out and began to use "spider-lines"... Text in the smallest point size in a color to match the background. This rendered the text invisible to the user, but the search engine would still index it. Techniques such as this to artificially raise page rank became known as search engine spamming.
Most search engines will either penalize or delist a Website using spamming techniques.
The keyword density should high, but not too high. If it goes past an undisclosed threshold then your site could be penalized
Link popularity is currently the largest factor in determining page rank. Link popularity is based on the number of external Websites that link TO your site.
Try exchanging links with other Websites in similar, but non competing industries. For example: Title Companies, Insurance Companies, Home Warranty Companies etc...
These are just a few of the techniques commonly employed to boost page rank. If you are interested in more advanced techniques
Faster!
Perhaps you have been noticing that the "Ol Gray Box" ain't what it used to be. Web pages are loading slowly... It seems to take a lot of time to boot... The computer freezes if you have more than three windows open, etc...
Assuming that you don't have a virus, or an overheating issue, then you are probably low on RAM.
Random access memory, or simply "memory" is what the computer uses to store files that are currently running. This is not to be confused with the hard drive which stores files that are not currently in use. So for clarity's sake, it doesn't matter (at least not regarding memory) how many programs you have on your computer, but rather how large they are and how many you need to run at the same time...
By adding more RAM to your computer you allow the processor (the "brain") to have more workspace. This allows the machine to operate more efficiently. You see, when a computer does not have enough memory (working space) then it has to access the much slower hard drive more often. This results in a big performance degredation.
It is fairly simple to install new ram yourself. However, most decent computer shops will not charge very much and may be the way to go if you are computer phobic. Make sure they are not charging more then 10-15 bucks for the service and that they are putting in the correct type of RAM (they should know).
RAM modules are relatively inexpensive and offer a substantial performance boost. For today's Rich Internet Applications I recommend at least 1 Gigabyte of RAM. You can get away with 512 Mb but you will be much better off if you have at least 1Gb.
Good luck and happy computing!
Assuming that you don't have a virus, or an overheating issue, then you are probably low on RAM.
Random access memory, or simply "memory" is what the computer uses to store files that are currently running. This is not to be confused with the hard drive which stores files that are not currently in use. So for clarity's sake, it doesn't matter (at least not regarding memory) how many programs you have on your computer, but rather how large they are and how many you need to run at the same time...
By adding more RAM to your computer you allow the processor (the "brain") to have more workspace. This allows the machine to operate more efficiently. You see, when a computer does not have enough memory (working space) then it has to access the much slower hard drive more often. This results in a big performance degredation.
It is fairly simple to install new ram yourself. However, most decent computer shops will not charge very much and may be the way to go if you are computer phobic. Make sure they are not charging more then 10-15 bucks for the service and that they are putting in the correct type of RAM (they should know).
RAM modules are relatively inexpensive and offer a substantial performance boost. For today's Rich Internet Applications I recommend at least 1 Gigabyte of RAM. You can get away with 512 Mb but you will be much better off if you have at least 1Gb.
Good luck and happy computing!
Google Chrome
Google® Chrome®
Don't look now, but Google® just upped the ante online ...
Yep, Google® just launched a brand new web browser. They are calling it Chrome® and it is now available in beta (a soft release for testing purposes). This is a significant step forward for Google and raises the stakes in the competition between Microsoft®, Yahoo® and AOL® in the all out battle for your attention.
While a Google browser has been long rumored, the actual launch of Chrome brings a new contender to the browser wars. You can download Chrome Here. It is a very simple approach to Web browsing and offers a simple easy to use interface.
Don't look now, but Google® just upped the ante online ...
Yep, Google® just launched a brand new web browser. They are calling it Chrome® and it is now available in beta (a soft release for testing purposes). This is a significant step forward for Google and raises the stakes in the competition between Microsoft®, Yahoo® and AOL® in the all out battle for your attention.
While a Google browser has been long rumored, the actual launch of Chrome brings a new contender to the browser wars. You can download Chrome Here. It is a very simple approach to Web browsing and offers a simple easy to use interface.
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