Real Estate Marketing SEO Blog

Page Rank is Moving

Page Rank is updating, so your green bar might shake and rattle a bit over the next few days.

How Blogs Can Get You Press

A consulting client of mine was recently mentioned in an article by the Herald Tribune in Sarasota.

Turns out John Allen "spilled the beans" on a local Realtor PR campaign called Time2Buy "CampaignTime2Buy". The effort touts the benefits of owning real estate in the Sarasota and Bradenton areas. The local Sarasota Realtor wrote that the campaign is about getting out the message that the media is not.

Sold!

I talk to many Realtors throughout the day and they are telling me business is jumping!

This seems to be better than my typical real estate market thermometer which is drive down the street and count the sold vs for sale signs on front lawns. ;-)

Now I read over at the Contra Costa Times that the experts are smelling the rosey side of the real estate sales.

UCLA Anderson Forcast:

"Prices will come down a little, but they will come down so slowly the strategy of waiting and waiting will not work," Leamer said, adding that in the past, prices dropped 25 percent -- but over five years. "They need to lock in that mortgage rate and stop reading the real estate page."

WOW here is some sale fodder for you:
They need to lock in that mortgage rate and stop reading the real estate page.

SEO and Metatags

SEO Myth #3

SEO is all About Metatag Manipulation

In the Golden Years of SEO, one aggressive marketer could stuff their keywords into their page and pretty much dominate.

Changes in algorithms brought on in the name of relevancy and because of more and more pages, caused the engines to get a bit more sophisticated with their formula to rank a website.

In the old days you could put the title tag two or three times down a page along with  an abundance of words into your keywords metatag. You could also stuff the alt tag of a picture, to help out your cause.

Housing Slump Over

So says the LA TImes:

Bubbles Pop Akin to a Slow Leak

All of this suggests that the 18-month market correction that followed the four-year housing boom has just about run its course. From a national statistical perspective, we're somewhere near slack tide - but no one's looking for another frothy high tide anytime soon.

My Favorite Business Book of 2006

I rarely read a book straight thru anymore. Time and commitments force me to "speed read".

However, the book I am about to mention was authored by a childhood hero of mine.

If you are a guy, and around 40ish+, you might concur.

However, maturity and wisdom is what prompts me to recommend what I believe to be one of the best business books I have ever read.   Why?

Street Cred

I love Robbins, I love Tracy, I love Zig Ziglar and their ilk. But what business did they start other than off the back of their guru status? The guy I am about to mention played in "the best Rock and Roll band of all Time! You asked for the best you got the best...."

Joe Blogger is Hungry

Richard Nacht recently wrote his response to the Gartner and WSJ predictions of the demise of the blog.

I must admit that this post caught my eye. It rang true for me in a way that I do not believe the authors intended. I must say that I do believe that blog death, just like traditional website death is a certainty for many agents across the country.

From the Wall Street Journal about blogs:
"written by fools to be read by imbeciles"

Its About the Big Bucks

The blogs that are most usually referenced by the big media are your traditional Sports or Political blog. These types of weblogs have brought down careers of politicians and even journalists.So who is the imbecile?

But I do believe there will be a drop off in blogging as I believe the reason for the demise will be more along the reason that Gartner posits:

The reason: Most people who would ever dabble with Web journals already have. Those who love it are committed to keeping it up, while others have gotten bored and moved on, said Daryl Plummer, chief Gartner fellow.

"A lot of people have been in and out of this thing," Plummer said. "Everyone thinks they have something to say, until they're put on stage and asked to say it."

In the end it is always about the mighty dollar. A blogger who does not make money, will blog as a hobby, until they get a real job.

So I would agree that many blogs will eventually die of non posting. But the disease is more symptomatic of the model that is employed than it is a growing trend of disinterested readers or disinterested posters.

The fact is when you get broke from using a non profitable medium you tend to move on from that losing project.

A friend of my programmer recently scrapped one of the most popular liberal blogs on the net. How popular? Enough to get him a personal audience with John Kerry and his posse one on one. I was so sad for him that he dropped it. But he could not turn a profit.

The blogger may or may not be an idiot, but the journalist can afford to be an idiot because of his or her subsidy called a job.

SEO Myth #4

The Continuing Series; Realty Search Engine Optimization Myths:
Content is King

As in most one liners in  SEO, This is a half truth. This post will stay real simple. Other engines mileage will vary, but you can do very well in Google with a Title tag, and good linkage into your site. All the while with very little content.

Long story short, if you want to compete for competitive words, you had better have links with Page Rank and Reputation.

1. PageRank & Metatags are everything
2. A top ten position will solve all your sales problems
3. SEO is metatag manipulation
4. Content is King
5. The engines love blogs more than regular webpages
6. Get ranked for the top 20 most voluminous words and you will be successful
7. If you just get rankings and Traffic you will be Successful
8. SEO is the single most important action  you can do for your website
9. Its all about more links!
10. There are magical shortcuts to getting SEO traffic

#5 SEO Myth

The Continuing Series; Realty Search Engine Optimization Myths:
The engines love blogs more than regular webpages

For our discussion Google, Yahoo, and MSN are primarily Search Engines.  When we discuss search, we mean the main SERPS. Not Google Blog Search, Yahoo News, or any Image or Video site.

The big prize is still overwhelmingly from the main search.

Let's look at what gets a search engine spider to visit a page.

• Updates
• Newly Fresh Pages
• Growing Content
• And most importantly Links

In the eyes of Google you can update all day long and if you do not have valuable citations (links), your page does not exist.

At the end of the day, a page is a page is a page. The engine can care less if it is a blog. It is just more text for them to index.

So why did this myth come about?

Well for one, a blog is set up to be somewhat search engine friendly. Somewhat.

If set up properly it also can auto ping directories, and services like Technorati. So you get some backlink love almost immediately.

Power of the Blog

Blog Power

The influence of the collective conscience of the blog is indisputable. This has been  obvious in politics the last few cycles, and I was reminded of blog power just a few minutes ago.

I witnessed my favorite College Football Team deflate an otherwise very respectable team called the Michigan Wolverines to win the Rose Bowl. My ears perked up as the announcers wondered what the bloggers back in Michigan will say about this poor performance.

Huh? That was Brent Musberger a respected College Football announcer that has been calling games as long as I can remember.

Blogging has really come of age.

We have a voice.