Real Estate Marketing SEO Blog

The Top Ten Real Estate Websites...

... in My Head

Years ago my College Football Coach, Tyrone Sperling, an ex USC footballer introduced me to one of my favorite Lines.

"Opinions are like *******, everybody has one."

Ty was a special man. He definitely did not follow the herd and was more interested in results than opinion.

Over the past month I have participated in, and witnessed a number of website critiques thru email,  at Inman, and Top Ten Lists. A recent list by Real Trends and 1000 Watt made me wonder what criteria might prompt them to rank a real estate website higher than the other.

The title is called: "The Top Ten Real Estate Brokerage Websites in America." Here

The report lists some pretty "cool" websites with "neat" features. However, as a web marketer my siren went off when someone claims superiority over anything else without some sort of attempt at supporting evidence.

So to read the reports intro I see that “The Top Ten Brokerage Websites in America” are thus so because:

" ..a detailed examination of the corporate websites maintained by the 500 largest brokerage companies in the Unites States as established by Real-Trends’ annual RealTrends 500 list. Every website was reviewed based on several criteria including Real Trends 500 companies franchisor websites in this report as their basic requirements place them in usability, content, features, and design. ...The results are placed in the context of a larger discussion of brokerage Websites, which notes that good brokerage websites are few and far between. The report offers reasons why this is the case, and suggests a pathforward. ... The websites discussed within this report stand out as excellent examples of how a real estate brokerage company can use the Web to connect with its marketplace, drive business and enhance its brand equity."

Huh?   Says who?... and based on what? So if they are really the top ten at usability, content, features and design, then how is that defined and really how meaningful is that?

The implication being that these are good things without explaining why. I thought the title said the Top Ten. I assumed it means they are the best. Which in business means they make money. Otherwise the fuzzy dictates of design can only be opinion, subject to context and identity.

Jerry Maguire Where Are You?

When did a good business tool mean anything other than it makes the business money?  Which would have been in my humble opinion the better place to start this report. And just because these are big brokerages does not mean their site makes an acceptable ROI.

If in fact the discussion centered on the almighty dollar then the criteria would have changed from usability to commissions. Not far from commissions would be number of leads and lead capture. Further down the slope would be lead followup and conversion to appointments and to sales. These have a much higher attachment to a home sale than does usability. All those elements as defined by the report are in the end meaningless unless surrounded by the context of dollar generation. Otherwise it is nothing more than a beauty contest.

Where is Substance Over Style?

The reports title implies that these real estate websites are successful at generating leads or sales. Are they? I cannot tell from the report. We can get some idea by looking at compete.com or alexa.com. But that is only a guessed measure of traffic. Anyway at best just an implication of success. Because we all know traffic is only one of the steps to a successful website.   So are these sites successful? The best I can gleam from the reports criteria is that they are successful at achieving high 2.0 design standards.

Unfortunately, that does not put food on the table. In the real world the salesman that comes back to the office wearing his $2,000 Armani suit and Double 00's for sales is soon to be interviewing for a job. While the C&R special guy who comes back with leads and sales will be a rising star.

The Best Free Analytics...

Do Links Even Matter Anymore?

Links are like a healthy addiction. And if you are to survive in the online marketplace you need lots and lots of links.

Injecting Links!

But links are like the U.S. Dollar (especially lately!). The Treasury keeps printing dollars and what happens to the value of the dollar? It goes down. Simple supply and demand right?

So if Google bases its valuations of link value on who links to who link to who links to you (ad infinitum). And that is related to how many total pages are on the web. Then we have to consider the fact that the minute you get a link, its value has diminished almost instantly.( If only fractionally). Just last year there was close to 1.5 blogs created a second! So your links over time diminish in value. Thus, your linking must continue on a consistent basis.

Therefore linking is an addiction you should never quit if you are to succeed online.

Get Your Link ON!

Why SEO is Dead

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or Off Page Equity?

Huh? Have you ever thought about what that means? Going back to its roots, SEO meant to optimize a page so an engine like Alta Vista would like it and rank it higher than the next guy or gal. Words like density, proximity, metas all were part of optimizing a page.

Then along came Google at a time when the web was getting more and more tangled. Meaning it was ginormous!

Realtors started building two and three websites in some cases. And non Realtors-SEO guys like me were building real estate websites for affiliate money.

So what makes your site any better than your competitors?

• IDX. Check
• Community Data. Check
• School Data. Check
• Crime Data. Check
• About You. Check

So what makes your website so unique? Every website has this stuff to some degree or another.  And honestly can we expect a machine  (Google, MSN/Live, Yahoo) to act human and judge the quality of your website? Seriously what makes your site any better than the next agents?  And honestly do you even want a machine actually judging what you offer?

So the engines in all their wisdom have come to rely on links to your real estate webpage to act as judge and jury.

Oh sure they have other quality scores to make sure your stuff matters over the other gals stuff. But when the main main SEO levers are in place, links are everything. I even know people who have made blank-empty pages rank high in the engines by just linking to them.

So ........Get Your Link On!

Selling Fear & Entitlement To The Culture Of ME

With CNN in the background I hear an "expert" explain that Wall Street is based on "fear and greed. And fear is a much more powerful driver for investors."

What does this have to do with real estate?

Its about confidence.

Mommy Congress and Daddy Bush have asked Granddad Paulson to give the markets a "loan".   Seems we all overspent a little too much over the past few years and need some help to get by."Rock a bye Baby, it will be OK".

Its also an election year. I ran scared when I heard one candidate say in an interview he has  "a little something for everybody". But this bailout package eclipses any "giving" our candidates could ever promise.

So it is a confidence issue. Confidence game as in con job. We all know granddads loans are really gifts in the real world. With low interest and no due date.

However Government money comes from two places. Taxes or they just PRINT MORE.

So my point is to not think that our parents in DC are going to help. As I implied in a recent post. Prospecting and selling will take care of you and yours.

The reporters are all whining this is the biggest meltdown ever. On the same broadcast I heard at least a couple misrepresentations of the AIG bailout. Puleeze. Aren't you tired of people explaining this thing after just learning the meaning of LIBOR a few days ago?

They will overhype. However, they also over hyped the run up. Good for goose I guess. But, it is time to take matters into your own hands.

Online we can cause geometric attitudinal change. This blog alone is syndicated all over the place. What are you doing online?  Are you making good things happen in your market? Isn't it time?

Financing ran the last market. What about now?It is is still about financing. The agents who know financing will not only survive they will position themselves to dominate their markets as this thing turns the right way. Pre-1980 agents had to do all kinds of creative deals. Pull out those old sales training manuals.

Assumptions, carry backs, wrap arounds. Get comfortable with these ideas as it may be your way to transact as banks freeze your deals. Oh by the way, when you are the only one who knows how to get a house financed, the "will you cut your commission?" question quite insulting.

The only ones that will create real confidence in the real estate market is YOU.

Capital Consideration For SEO

Many know that a search for home is different than homes (plural).

However, did you know that a Capital letter can show a unique result in Google?

Upper Case S:

Lower Case s:

Who Was This Guy Chatting With My Wife?

So a few nights ago I came home from football practice (I volunteer as a football Coach) with my oldest son to find the door of my house wide open. As I looked inside I saw a man I did not recognize chatting with my wife.

As it turns out it was a Kirby vacuum salesman and he had my wife sold. He had talked her into believing that our Dyson was worthless and we really needed his super high powered carpet machine.

His offer had all the elements going for it. Lifetime guarantee, and well, it shampoos and actually picks up the dirt. Soooo. Long story short I had to ask him after he was done selling me on how he canvasses.

He and his team doorknock....All day and into the night.

Now I don't know about you, but I have always thought doorknocking a bit beneath me. Back in my house selling days I was a Mike Ferryite and a couple of his Superstars was Daryl and Kim and they walked neighborhoods all day long. I thought that was stupid. They sold lots of properties, I struggled (until I started working expireds).

I then met an agent years later at a barbecue in the same town as Darryl and Kim. Long Beach. And that is all he did. Doorknock and he was doing deals. More than most.

When the Kirby guy was at my house it was smack dab on the darkest day of the recent bailout talks. He told me he sold 4 Kirbys that night. Ranging in price from $1600 to $2200.

Sales professionals don't starve. They prospect and they sell.

Bottom?

It will get better, sooner than later!

This sounds like the mom telling her son that the swelling and welt on his face will go away minutes after just getting pummeled by the school bully.

Nevertheless, we see some positivity even while stock plunge.

The U.S. economy will recover from the current recession in the second quarter of next year, assuming the credit squeeze in global financial markets improves gradually, according to a survey of 48 economists released Monday.  And social media man and market watcher Patrick Kitano just wrote a post claiming that capitulation means we have hit bottom.