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Category: Bloodhound SEO (page 2 of 2)

Hunting down the best ways to be found

November 17, 2008

The Difference Between the Best Website and Results

by

Realtor, Internet Entrepreneur

Author website

The Web Marketing Association has an annual competition in 96 industries to recognize what they believe are the best websites. In the real estate section, they list 7 criteria they look for:

  1. Design
  2. Ease of use
  3. Copywriting
  4. Interactivity
  5. Use of technology
  6. Innovation
  7. Content

All seven are subjective, which is fine: the organization giving the award gets to set the criteria. But looking at the winner last year, their award is doing a great disservice to any real estate agent who uses that site as their inspiration. Here is a link to the site.

Now I don’t know the people who built the site, and I don’t know those agents or their company. Nor do I have anything against them, or the award.

Personally, I think the site is fine but not spectacular in execution for what it is: a nice-looking website.

But there’s not one mention in seven criteria of results.  My assumption is that most businesses want a website that is going to help them get results (i.e. generate visitors and turn them into leads). And here’s why this site is at a severe disadvantage.

It is invisible to search engines.

To you, me, and anyone else with a Flash plugin, this is what the site looks like to human eyes:

What does this site look like to Google? Here’s a visual of the actual page using a text-based browser:

It looks like nothing. Want proof?

One entry.  Name.  Rank.  Serial Number.

A site exists.  Beyond that?  No information.

This site leaves money on the table. For my real estate site, according to Google Analytics, 73.4% of my 150-250 visitors per day come from search engines.

But the only way to find their site from Google is by its own name, “Elizabeth Lofts”, and if one goal of marketing is to get people who don’t already know your name to contact you, then this site had failed by that criteria.

And as of today, you won’t find it under “Pearl District” or “Pearl District Condominiums” (until the purgatory of page 5) so it wouldn’t have generated leads from people who express interest in that district.

Worse, this site has plenty of information Read more

November 10, 2008

Basic SEO: How to Choose a Domain Name

by

The Real Estate Group, Virginia Beach and Chesapeake VA

Author website

Lately I seem to be getting this question a lot. At BHB Unchained it was asked of me several times. Finally, a good friend asked me today: I am looking getting a site and choosing a domain name and I KNOW I need to get one full of keywords.

“How about CityRealEstateStateHomes.com?”

My response?
“How about
CityRealEstateStateHomesCondominiumsSaleBestAgentHomeSearch.com?”

I mean, if you are gonna get (what we call at EricOnSearch) a marketing turd, why not go all the way? (grin) ( I know, I am being absurd…but hopefully this helps illustrate the point.) I think THAT one is available.

I made the statement at Unchained. From an SEO perspective, QUIT trying to keyword stuff domain names, thinking that you’ve just helped yourself in a hugely meaningful way to get great rankings. I said it. I meant it.

If there is ANY benefit, it is small (there are exceptions to this, which I will explain.) and it is MORE than offset by the marketing damage that you are doing by SOLELY looking at your domain name through SEO eyes. Notice I am NOT saying there is NO benefit. I AM saying simply that it isn’t worth it.

Do yourself a favor and use marketing eyes and not SEO eyes alone when buying domain names.

Now before people start throwing tomatoes, please allow me to explain in detail:

Search engines are smart.

Depending on how you break them down, there are hundreds of variables that make up a typical search engine’s algorithm. The name of the domain is only ONE (1) of those. So even if ALL of the possible variables carried the same weight, it would still NOT be a big deal.

Google (and other search engines) evaluate apply different weights to these characteristics to determine where your site will rank. They KNOW which of these characteristics are easily spammed. They know which ones are NATURALLY self correcting.

A Title Tag is somewhat self correcting in that it forms the TITLE that you see in the SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages). Characteristics that affect how text looks on the screen are also likely to be self correcting since it makes Read more

October 26, 2008

Want to learn how to pull maximum search-engine results from minimal SEO efforts? Come see Eric Blackwell at Unchained Orlando

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Are you coming to BloodhoundBlog Unchained in Orlando? Bloodhound Eric Blackwell will repay your investment all by himself with a talk he has prepared on using easy-to-implement SEO tactics to drive traffic to your web site or weblog. This is guerrilla marketing at its best, and Eric will bring his own unique perspective on the topic: What works, what doesn’t, dumb stunts that will hurt you more than they help and traffic-building techniques you may never have thought of.

This is right up our street, maximum benefit, minimum spend. Click on the PayPal button below to join us in Orlando.

Click on the PayPal button shown below to get your $99 ticket for BloodhoundBlog Unchained in Orlando on Friday, November 7th, 2008


















When: Friday, November 7th, 2008, 8 am to 8 pm

Where: Crowne Plaza Hotel and Conference Center, Orlando Airport, 5555 Hazeltine National Dr, Orlando, FL 32812

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August 18, 2008

Are we looking for (link) love in all the wrong places?

by

The Real Estate Group, Virginia Beach and Chesapeake VA

Author website

I wrote a PG-13 rated post about 10 months ago about a few sites that only had links to each other (grin), but rather than point at what not to do and be negative and all that, I would like to throw out some (possibly) new thoughts and ideas on building online authority.

WHY NOT BE HYPERLOCAL ABOUT IT AS WELL AS REALTOR TO REALTOR??

Good SEO requires effort at building online authority (read: LINKS from other sites into yours). It was the basis of how Google’s algorithm was founded. Simple as that.

Great SEO builds authority and relationships (and PROFITS) and take links into SECONDARY consideration, but finds creative ways to do it in a DEFENSIBLE way that others cannot match, duplicate or replicate.

I don’t find it strange that MUCH of today’s REALTOR online authority (links) are built like a referral network from REALTOR to REALTOR. It is the most efficient way to build authority that Google would recognize.

But if you REALLY wanted to impress the search engines, why wouldn’t you build LOCAL online authority ? This means that you would be able to bring much of the chamber of commerce to recognize YOU as the real estate authority. They would link to YOUR blog or YOUR site. If they link to you because they know you, or you have done something nice for them, why wouldn’t they REFER you to their friends?

That would bring BUYERS and SELLERS to you as well as links! It would be true authority IMO.

I DO find it strange that less REALTORS use THAT approach as well as vying for respect among PEERS.

I have prepared some specific techniques and ideas on this subject for the REW conference in September, but IMO the specific techniques are NOT AS IMPORTANT AS STARTING WITH THE RIGHT GOAL. THE GOAL IS TO BUILD ONLINE AUTHORITY AND EXPOSURE AMONG YOUR CUSTOMER BASE AS WELL AS YOUR PEERS. It is about a diverse and defensible reputation. (And a cash flow POSITIVE one (from referrals) as opposed to paying others for links). In my opinion, it is not just about seeing how many peers Read more

July 27, 2008

Do You “Knol”? Utilizing a new Google Offering

by

Real Estate Broker

Author website

It looks like Problogger has mixed opinions on the launch of Google’s Knol. Meanwhile, Seer Interactive shows Knol already ranking for some keywords.

Search Engine Land compares Knol to Wikipedia and gives you step by step instruction on setting up your own Knols. I love the ability to have a collaboration but be able to moderate and control content edits. I have an ongoing feud on Wikipedia with someone who does not feel that a link to a hyper local blog full of community information belongs on Wikipedia – I put it on – he takes it off – one year later – 15 edits and I get incredible traffic to my local blog from Wikipedia. I just have to check it every few weeks!

For me it Knol is another tool in my arsenal of online marketing. I’ve got my start and am committing to adding fresh information at least weekly. Currently I’m ranked number 3 for the search “Real Estate” and the only one for “Athens, Georgia” who wants to join me? What content do you think will be most applicable and how do you plan to leverage this new tool?

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