Neighboroo.com - "Know Your Neighbor"
Just found a great little visual demographics tool compliments of the
Transparent Real Estate Blog.It isn't overly detailed, but it does give a pretty good indication on county and city wide statistics. Here are some of the things it will display:
Lifestyle
Politics
Crime
Elem School Rank
Air Quality
Home Price
Apt Rent
Cost of Living
Commute Time
Household Income
Tax Rates
Unemployment
Population Density
White
Hispanic
African American
Asian
American Indian
All of this is shown in a snazzy click and drag Google map.
Want to know if you live in a predominately Republican or Democrat neighborhood, or what the average commute time is for your county?
Now all they need is a way to integrate it into other websites. I'd pay to have a cool map like this on my sites... hint, hint.
The CREN Blog has a new URL!
Our Blog URL has moved! Please make a note of it. Our new permanent blog URL is now: www.Hismove.com/blog
We have also opened up the ablility to comment on posts. We'd love your participation!
Sincerely,
The CREN Staff
Google Launches New Blogger Friendly Search Service
Google has just launched a specialized Blog only search portal. http://blogsearch.google.com From what I can see it looks like a very cool way to search for blog content. So often blog content can get watered down and not rank well in the standard serps. It seems like Google is trying to change that. All of the search results come directly from blogs all over the internet.
There were some people that speculated that Google would only include results from it's Blogger.com blogs, but Google seems to be clear that they will include content from any Blog that has an Atom or RSS feed. Here is a quote:
"The goal of Blog Search is to include every blog that publishes a site feed (either RSS or Atom). It is not restricted to Blogger blogs, or blogs from any other service."
One cool feature I noticed right away was the ability to search for posts by time frame. So, if you wanted to lookup a specific news story that you know was posted in the last 12 hours, you can search for it and not have to worry about irrelevant results from posts made 2 years ago.
I look forward to seeing how this service will evolve. Google seems to have a winner here.
Behold! The New Digg for Real Estate is Born
It was only a matter of tme...
The crafty fellows over at HomeThinking.com have launched a digg like service that lets users post articles and rate them. The new service is calld Real Estate Voices which I am officially dubbing: (REV) I have officially added it as an acronym The obvious slang terms will eventually follow i.e. - "REV up your engines", "
Once this new service catches on, I beleive it will be a great way to get news and real estate stories from around the web. Hopefully they will be able to avoid some of the problems that digg has had recently.
Here is what they have to say for themselves:
"RealEstateVoices is a social real estate news site. Social news what? Think about it like this: Instead of a team of newspaper editors dictating what are the most interesting stories you should read, you and your fellow users submit and vote upon stories - whether from newspapers, blogs or elsewhere - to form a sort-of frontpage of real estate reading for that particular day."
Your secret treat for the day: sign up for their RSS feed; it will get you all the most popular stories from the new (REV) website. Viola! Instant real estate news aggregated from the wide ocean that is the real estate blogosphere...
The REAL Haunted Mansion is up for Sale
The original mansion that inspired Disney World's "Haunted Mansion" is officially up for sale for 1.75 mil. This famous mansion named the "Harry Packer Mansion" is located in Jim Thorpe, PA.
Supposedly, according to their website this mansion was used as a model for Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom in Orlando, FL. Personally, I think it looks very similar to the original haunted mansion at Disney Land in California (I grew up 10 minutes away)...
In recent years, the mansion has been host to weekend murder mystery weekends:
"
The Murder Mystery at the Harry Packer Mansion is based on factual events with a creative twist. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to rub elbows with the elite? Now's your chance...
The characters in our scenario of murder and mahem are Packers or intimate friends of the family. The plot revolves around the Packer fortune - literally millions amassed on the Lehigh Valley Railroad - and its hopeful heirs.
We offer the mystery each weekend for up to 12 couples."
Review: Sex Offender Database Search & Informational Websites
A few months ago, someone sent me a link for a local Douglas county, CO website that allowed you to search for your address to see if there were any registered sex offenders near your home. I was shocked to see that there was one only a block away! This really scared me since my wife and I just had our first baby, a girl.
Over the last couple of years it seems like the gov't has finally been cracking down on their sex offender registries and requiring past offenders to register a new address when they move. But it's still scary to when you hear on the local news about an incident with a past sex offender that didn't register a new address... scary.
Anyways, I thought I'd compile a list of the best websites that have a national database of sex offenders. Pulling up your address everyone once in a while to see if there are any new offenders in your area is something everyone should be in the habit of doing. This is especially true if you have kids. Make sure you know who your neighbors are.
Here are the top 5
(as far as I can tell, the data on these sites is all the same since they are pulled from national and local databases that are updated often, but some are easier to use than others, and some provide better information.)
1. www.mapsexoffenders.com Search nationwide - has integrated easy to use google map.
2. FBI's full listing of state sex offender websites.
3. National Sex Offender Public Registry
4. www.sexcriminals.com portal for information on sexual offenders.
5. www.stopsexoffenders.com information on child safety in regards to sexual predators
What is Page Rank, and Will it Effect My Website Ranking?
Through some of my other SEO posts, I've had quite a few questions about Google's page Rank (PR). What is it? How does it work? Why don't I have any? Does it affect my site's ranking?, etc.
What is it?: In short, PR is a system that Google uses to weigh the importance of a website. It is based almost entirely on incoming links, and the importance of those links. Each website is given a "rank", 0-10. The easiest way to see your rank and the rank of others is to install a toolbar on your browser. You can download them here: Firefox or Internet Explorer
How Does it Work?: There have been many speculations as to the actual algorithm used to calculate PR... but for our purposes, we don't need to get too into details. Basically, each site is assigned a weight or rank based on incoming links from other sites that are also ranked. Based on the rank of those incoming links, your site will be assigned a certain rank. Sites are also ranked based on the number of incoming links. If you have thousands of incoming links, your PR will go higher simply by brute force.
- Example 1: If you have 20 incoming links, and all the links are from websites that only have a page rank of 2 or lower, your sites PR will not exceed 2.
- Example 2: If you have 20 incoming links, 5 with page a page rank of 4, 5 with a pr of 3, and 10 with a PR of 2, your rank will probably be around a 3.
- Example 3: PR is evenly distributed. If you have a page with a PR of 5, and there are 50 outgoing links on that page, the pages that you are linked to won't get as much PR weight assigned to them because that PR 5 is being distributed across 50 other pages. But if you have a PR 5 page that has only 3 outgoing links, those pages will get a big chunk of that PR weight.
Here is a very simple chart that shows how PR is distributed:
Now that you are thoroughly confused, I'll try to give you some more insights into PR:
- In general a link from a site with a PR 5 is better than a link from a PR 4.
- In general, a site that is nearly identical to another site, but has a higher PR will rank better in Google.
- If you have a PR of 8 or better, you are on your way to Search Engine Nirvana
- When you get into the range of PR 8 and higher it is almost always because there are a very large number of links coming in to the site. It is almost impossible to acheive a high rank from a few high ranking PR sites being linked to you. Higher PR pages will have many thousands of incoming links, and will achieve a high PR based on "brute force", as mentioned before.
- If you can help it, try not to get links from pages that have a PR of 0, or from pages that make your PR toolbar grayed out. When the toolbar is grey, it is usually because that page has not been given a PR because it's not in the index, or it may have been penalized for something and thus is not assigned a PR as punishment.
- If you don't have a rank yet, don't worry, it will come as you naturally get more incoming links. There isn't anything you need to do to start getting a PR. As long as you are in the index, you will be fine... if you don't know if you are, just do a search for your domain name in google. If you aren't, please don't submit your site to Google... they hate that. All you need to do is get one incoming link from a site that is indexed, and then your entire site will be crawled.
- According to Google and Matt Cutts, PR is updated every couple of weeks, but the changes are only made public about every 3 months. So, most of the time, what you are seeing on the toolbar is probably not accurate for the present time.
- Pay attention to the number of outgoing links on pages that link to your site. Fewer outgoing links is almost always better. This has to do with the distribution of PR. Fewer links means more PR weight to your site.
- When you are building your own site, pay attention to your linking structure. Make sure that you link back to your home page (or the page that you want to have higher PR) on every page of your site. If possible, use javascript to hide your links so that the PR is directed in a more focused way.
- Now to contradict alot of what I've just said... ;-) .... don't pay too much attention to PR. According to statements made by Google and many SEO experts in the last year or so, PR doesn't play as much of a role as it used to in ranking sites. Google found that it was just too easy to manipulate. This included things like people purchasing links specifically based on their PR.
- So, based on the above, yes PR is important, and it does play a role in ranking, but don't lose any sleep over it. In my opinion, page rank is a good tool to show how good a site is in general. Sites will usually have a higher PR based on length of operation, number of links, number of quality links, etc.
Whew.... that was alot harder to explain that I thought it would be. Since I'm not the most articulate person around, you may want to consider some other outside reading. Here is what I recommend:
Google's Definition
Wikipedia's Definition
For the technically inclined: link 1, link 2, link 3
For the Beginner: link 1, link 2, link 3
Please comment if you have any questions or.... comments.
Here is a great link for the work at home professional
How to Scope out a Competitors Website -- And Learn From it!
It's always fun and interesting to check out what your competitors are up to. When you type in a search for your keywords, who comes up? Are your competitors ahead of you or below you? Why? Do you know what kind of traffic they get? Do you know how many liks are coming into their site?
These are all important questions to ask. In order to be competitive in the online world, you have to know the strategy of your opponent.
Here are a list of some things you can do really KNOW your competitor:
1. First of all, you must decide who your competition is. Do some searches on Google. Try to focus on the websites that rank higher than yours. These are the ones that you'll want to zero in on. It will give you a goal... how do I out rank, and out sell these guys.
2. Do a thorough examination of their website. What do you like or don't like? Write down your findings. This step alone should give you plenty of things to work on. Go over your thoughts on the competition and take the best parts of both sites, and try to implement them to your advantage.
3. Why is that competitors website ranking so high? Find out. Here are some tools to use:
a. Check out their link popularity with the free market leap link popularity tool
b. Analyze their back link with the free Back Link Analyzer
c. My personal favorite and by far the most effective for analyzing links is: Optilink
d. If you want the cheaters method, use this all in one tool: SEOmoz Page Strength Indicator
4. Examine the titles, content, and linking structure of their site. How is it different than yours. See if you can narrow down the reason why they rank higher than you.
5. Is your competitor paying for positioning on the search engines? What terms are they using? Pay attention to the titles and descriptions. This will give you an idea of the audience they are trying to target.
6. Periodically check out their rating on Alexa. This will give you an idea of their traffic trends, and tell you instantly if they are getting more traffic than you.
7. Research the competitors themselves... either an individual real estate agent, or maybe the ceo or founder of the company. Get in their head. What is their ultimate goal for the site. Pick apart their strategy... Don't be afraid to implement their good ideas on your site. Don't let them corner innovative ideas.
Hopefully these tips will allow you to understand your competition...
If all else fails, try one of these Japanese inventions
Del.icio.us -- Do You use an Online Bookmarking Service?
Ok, so, does anyone use an online bookmarking services like
Del.icio.us? It is a great tool that allows you to post all your bookmarks or "favorites" as they say in the dark world of
ie.
Here are some useful things that you can do:
1. Import all of your existing bookmarks instantly
2. Create a a free account so that you can login from any computer to access your bookmarks
3. Share your bookmarks with other people through your "network", and through a customized URL given when you start your account:
del.icio.us/hismove4. Tag your sites with keywords for easy future lookup
5. Give all of your bookmarks descriptions.
6. Browse popular subjects and topics and discover sites that are popular to other users.
7. Bookmark your own site to see how many other people have it saved.
8. There is evidence to show that Google may look at sites like del.icio.us in the future to see what sites are popular and it may become a part of their search results.
9. Intall the Del.icio.us button on your browser so you can easily add your bookmarks.
10. Send private messages to other users with these 2 tricks:
1,
211. Create an RSS feed of your bookmars to let others know when it has been updated.
Here are a
few tips on how to best search through del.cio.us:
- Tags: http://del.icio.us/rss/tag/
TAGNAME - Combined tags: http://del.icio.us/rss/tag/
TAGNAME+TAGNAME - Popular: http://del.icio.us/rss/popular
- Popular tags: http://del.icio.us/rss/popular/
TAGNAME - Users: http://del.icio.us/rss/
USERNAME - Someone’s inbox: http://del.icio.us/rss/inbox/
USERNAME (hint: use YOUR inbox) - Media: http://del.icio.us/rss/tag/system:media:MTYPE+
TAGNAME - Filetype: http://del.icio.us/rss/tag/system:filetype:FTYPE+
TAGNAME
Have fun...
And, oh,
don't forget your anniversary...
A Rare Look Into the Mind of Google...
I came across a great post today on some SEO tips. It compiles some of the best quotes from the famous Matt Cutts. Matt has worked at Google for a while now, and is known for his SEO prowess. When he speaks, people listen because he holds the keys to eternal Search Engine Nirvana... The Google Algorithm keys that is. If he doesn't like you, you can say goodbye to your online presence.
Anyways, this post is great because the quotes by Matt contain some rarely given insight into the mind of the Google monster.
A couple of excerpts:
9. LinkAssign unique, descriptive title tag and headings to every page. Vanessa Fox. 2006.
3. Link Google updates their index data — including backlinks and PageRank all the time. However, they export and publish new backlinks and PageRank data approximately every three months. New backlinks and PageRank are meaningless — it is not an update. The information is likely already factored in for awhile before you see it. 2005.
15. Link Google’s is against selling/buying links, and Matt indicates they are good at spotting them — both algorithmically and manually. Sites that sell links can lose their trust in search engines. 2006.
Do you Pay for Search Engine Positioning?
As a followup to my post earlier today, I wanted to write about the ins and outs of paying to have your website listed in the search engines. I haven't met too many individual real estate agents that use pay per click, but the ones that do seem to do pretty well if they know what they're doing.
When you visit a popular search engine like
Google or
Yahoo, you'll notice that the first few results for a search are usually in a special box called
sponsored links. The advertisers in this section are paying every time a person clicks on their link. This is known as pay per click marketing, and it can be a great way to get traffic to your site.
The beautiful thing about search engines is that they deliver targeted traffic. A customer that goes to a search engine and types in a specific title for a book is much more likely to purchase that book than if another person clicks a banner ad because they are interested in the same book. That is an example of targeted advertising vs. passive advertising. Search engines have provided better closing ratios than any other marketing in the history of mankind.
So, the question is... does your site come up in the natural search results? If not, are you willing to pay for traffic coming to your website? Maybe you get good search engine placement already, but just want that extra boost in traffic and leads.
The first and most obvious problem is the competition. On Google for example, you can expect to pay an arm and a leg for the more competetive real estate related terms. Terms like: "miami real estate listings" can cost you upwards of $10-$15 per click. And at that point, you have to ask yourself, is paying that kind of money worth it? Will my website be able to convert this traffic?
Here are some practical ideas for real estate agents that want to try their hand at search engine pay per click marketing:
1. Make your website a lead generating monster. If you are serious about internet marketing, then you need to spend the time and money it takes to build a quality website. You need to have useful information about the community, and good blog content about your market. This will let your customers know that you are an expert on your community. Don't just have a website that lists your contact information and tidbits about yourself. That is basically useless, and if this is the case, a pay per click campaign is not for you.
2. You need to have free access to MLS listings in your area on the website. And if possible, don't make your visitor complete a lengthy application to view the listings. Since they don't know you, why would they give you a huge list of contact information? As an act of good will, just give them free access with an email and first name. They will appreciate it, and it will set you apart from the other sites that show listings.
3. Make sure your contact information is very clear on all of the MLS listing pages. I usually say something like: "to schedule a showing for this listing, please contact: your name, etc."
4. For your pay per click campaign, choose keywords that are very specific to your market. Don't use keywords like: "miami real estate", "miami real estate agent" etc. As a general rule with search engines, you don't want to use broad keywords. Specific keywords always produce better leads. Try narrowing down your area to specific sub markets (using Miami as our example) "westchester homes for sale", "coral terrace real estate listings", etc.
5. Another benefit to using specific keywords is that there aren't as many people paying to be listed, so the prices are almost always cheaper per click.
6. Do not use one title and description for all your keywords. Customize the title and description for each keyword so that it correlates to the person's search. People that search for "coral terrace real estate listings", will most likely click on a title and descriton that contains those actual keywords as opposed to a title that says: "miami real estate agent".
7. Almost all real estate agents I've met have the best success using keywords that advertise the fact that they show MLS listings on their site for free. I've never met anyone that has had success using keywords like: "miami real estate agent". You have to realize that the average consumer isn't going to be looking for a real estate agent online, but for listings. And if they find a site that is really easy to use, and lets them look at properties in your market, there is a good chance that they will call you when it comes time to look for property
8. Feature your listings on your website. Post as many photos as you can, and have a virtual tour whenever possible.
9. Being first in the search results is not always favorable. There was a study done a while back showing that a huge percentage of people... I think it was like 30%, do something called impulse clicking. Which means that they almost always do a search, then click on the top result no matter what. This may sound good, but it almost always means traffic that doesn't convert as well. It is not always a bad thing especially if you want to set yourself up as the dominating presence for a particular keyword... but just something to keep in mind.
10. Make sure that your landing page, (usually your home page) somehow relates to that specific keyword. For example, if you are using keywords like: "Westchester homes for sale", make sure there it is clear on the landing page that the visitor can search for listings for free in Westchester. If you have more time, and want to really get sophisticated, create a custom landing page for each keyword that has information about the particular market that person searched for.
11. Get on
Google,
Yahoo, and
MSN. This way you will cover approx. 95% of all internet searches.
I hope this was helpful, please comment if you have any questions.
Post Blog Content onto your Website Through RSS
Do you find that your website lacks a certain stickiness? Do you only have information about yourself, contact information and links on your site? Are you blogging yet?
If the answer to those questions is yes, you might want to consider making a few changes to your website that would include adding the content from your blog directly to your website. This will allow your visitors to see the current things you are writing about without actually having to visit your blog. They could read the headlines on your home page and decide whether or not it is something they are interested in.
You could also have feeds from other sources as well, like real estate news headlines, or feeds from your favorite real estate blogs.
This is how to do it:
First you will need to be able to make small changes to the html of your website. I've discussed this in previous posts. If you don't know where to start, just ask me.
Then, take the URL for the feed you want, in this case we will use the feed from our blog: http://activerain.com/blogs/hismove/rss
Go over to this website:
RSS-to-Javascript and follow the directions to create your feed. Once you are done, the site will spit out some html code that you will need to copy and paste into your website. That's it! Here is a sample of the finished result:
http://www.hismove.com/test4This code you just pasted will automatically update itself when the content changes on your blog. Presto! You now have dynamic content on your homepage that ads more value to your site.
