Realtor Websites – Real Web Results Blog

Here is something to think about… as discussed in this article several months ago, Google’s Page Rank likely means little as of November 2003 – at least to all sites that compete for the competitive keywords that were affected by last November’s Florida update and the updates that followed which added even more keywords to the list.

A consensus has been pretty much reached in the SEO forums that sites affected are now being ranked by a variation of the Hilltop Algorithm and the rules for linking for maximum benefit are different. Continue Reading »

No Comments yet »

In the last while I have had a few clients who have lost their domains because they did not renew them. Apparently they never received the renewal notices – which is one of the consequences of email becoming less reliable as mentioned in this blog a few days ago.

Theoretically once a domain expires you should be able to re-register it but that doesn’t happen often. There is a large group of people out there who pay services to let them know which domains are expiring every day and domains like yours (even domains that are your personal name) are snapped up right away because of the link popularity of the domain.

The incoming links allow the domain to rank fairly well right away – no waiting – and the buyers usually put advertising on it or affiliate links. They can earn some easy money because of the effort that was put into exchanging links and listing in directories in the past.

Realtor domains are at the top of their list so remember to keep an eye on your domain expiry dates and don’t rely on receiving a renewal notice because you may never see it.

No Comments yet »

I just finished checking reciprocal links in the Epowered Professionals Realtors Directory and had to remove a couple of dozen Realtors from the directory because they were no longer reciprocating links.

Every time I check it is the same old story – a number of agents put a link on their website, apply for inclusion in the directory and then once they are in they remove the link. I wonder if they are just as dishonest in their dealings with clients and other Realtors? Continue Reading »

1 Comment »

Ever since Google’s big shakeup update last November – dubbed the “Florida” Update – it has been extremely hard for individual Realtor sites in most market areas to rank highly in Google for competitive keywords. This is not isolated to Realtor sites but is a phenomenon that applies to all commercial sites in all industries.

For Realtor sites it does not apply in all market areas either. Google has a list and some market areas are not on it usually because they are very small and managed to stay off the radar. The sites that replaced the missing websites were sites deemed to be “authority” sites or directories for the most part. Continue Reading »

2 Comments »

Remember when you get hit the “send” button and not have to worry about your email reaching its destination? Remember when someone sent you an email you always received it unless they entered the wrong address?

Those days are long gone I’m afraid to say – killed by spammers. Not a day goes by when I hear that someone has been sending me email that I have not received and likewise for emails that I send. These missing emails are seldom found in a spam filter – at least not one that you or I can access. Rather they disappear into the ether – most likely stopped by an ISP or hosting company’s software.

That certainly devalues email and since email is such a big part of the internet – the incentive to use the internet as well. I understand Bill Gates is working on a solution to replace email – it can’t come soon enough.

From my own observations it seems that web mail has a better chance of getting thru than mail from an email program residing on your own computer – not because it is on your computer but because the email is not going thru your ISP and/or web host. Maybe it is a good thing that Gmail, Hotmail, and others are now offering better services for free. I may have to abandon using Outlook and Thunderbird and try using web mail full time.

3 Comments »

I can’t believe how many requests I get for link exchanges that are rejected because they are of no benefit. I bet I reject 80% of requests and you probably should be doing the same. If you are wondering why your search engine positions suck – you should pay more attention to this issue as outlined in this posting at agentsonline.net

When someone contacts you regarding a link exchange you need to:
a) Make sure their links page is actually listed in Google
b) Make Sure the links themselves are indexable – i.e. not in script but plain html.

Instructions on how to do that can be found here.

2 Comments »

Am I the only one waiting with nervous anticipation for Google’s annual fall shakeup? Remember the one last November that was dubbed the “Florida” update? Whoo Boy! That was a doozie!

Apparently Google reps have said that future shakeups will not be as dramatic as “Florida” – I don’t know whether that is good or bad. With Google’s current situation maybe this year will be the first year without a major fall shakeup.

Google must be as happy as a clam as their Adwords revenue is producing record profits and a skyrocketing share price. Since they stopped ranking newer sites for competitive keyword searches the only alternative for some is to purchase Adwords. Where is Google’s incentive to fix their index?

Gee, I wonder if it is just a coincidence that having an old stale index that doesn’t rank new sites also happens to increase revenue?

A few years ago when Inktomi was king they broke their index and then charged for the fix – paid inclusion. They had good revenues as result too until searchers noticed that their results were no longer relevant and left in droves to the new kid on the block – Google. Now Google is following the same path as far as I can see.

That leaves a great opportunity for MSN’s new search engine!

No Comments yet »

I was reading an article today in the National Post – a national Canadian Newspaper. The article states something most of us already know – that it is not a good idea to just take anyone on as a customer. This is something that applies to the web site business, the search engine marketing business, and also the real estate business of course.

The articles lists 7 reasons to say no to a customer: Continue Reading »

No Comments yet »

Welcome to the Real Web Results Blog – where issues pertaining to producing, maintaining, and promoting websites for Realtors are the main topics of conversation. I hope you find some tidbits here that are helpful and please feel free to contribute your own comments as well.

1 Comment »