Answer: No… and yes.

You know how a story changes a bit with every person that passes it along until it bears little resemblance to the original?  That is what has happened with the concept that adding content to a website helps that website to rank better in Google. This concept has morphed into a belief that adding content to a website helps that website rank better for the main competitive keywords being targeted. In the case of a Realtor’s website, the belief has become that “adding content will help my site rank better for “my city real estate”. Not really true I am sorry to say.

Much like how template site providers encouraged the misconception about frequently updating a website causes it to rank better, those that help provide content to websites are encouraging misunderstanding about the idea that “content is king” because it helps their bottom line.

Back to basics…

Google ranks pages – not sites. A one page site has the same ability to rank well for a single competitive keyword as a 10,0000 page site has. Often though, a 10,000 page site has tons of unique content. The unique content itself does not cause the main entry page of the site to rank higher. The extra 9,999 pages of unique content may cause people to link to the site though because the content is helpful and can’t be found anywhere else – and it is those links that were attracted to the main entry page that give a 10,000 page site the advantage over a one page site.

The reason the main entry page of a website usually ranks higher than the other pages of the site is only because it has more links pointing at it than the other pages. The main entry page of a website has “Page Rank” because of these links and passes some of the PR on to the subpages that it links to and in turn those subpages pass on PR to the pages they link to. If those 9,999 extra pages are about things people search for then those pages may rank in Google and bring extra traffic. Where those pages appear in the search engine results will depend on the page optimization for the keywords, the competitivness of the keywords, and how many good links are pointing at that particular page that contains the actual content.

Any content that you add will only help you to rank for the keywords that the new content is targeting on the particular page. Such keywords are usually called “long tail” keywords as the combinations are usually several words and only searched for once or twice a month. So, If you add 10 pages of new content you may get 10 or 20 more visitors a month – unless the keywords are quite popular – then the pages could get more traffic as long as you develop links to those new pages that contain the keywords in the link text.

The extra pages themselves offer zero help for the main entry page to rank for the keywords the main entry page is targeting (except for the link bait aspect I mentioned previously). There is one little thing that those pages can do to help – sometimes – and that is if they link back to the main entry page using the keywords the main entry page is targeting as the link text it can give a bit of a boost to the main entry page. More often than not though Google looks at this as “overoptimization” and gives the site a penalty were the site ranks at the very end of the search results. (Often called the -950 penalty)

The “link bait” aspect of those extra 9,999 pages does not really work with typical real estate sites though – who do you suppose would link to those pages? The content is rarely unique and of enough interest that good links would be attracted.

More often than not, what is being sold to Realtors today as a way to add extra content to help their search engine ranking – is custom designed search-engine-friendly IDX systems. The idea is that each listing would be unique content because the system is custom designed for each site and a Realtor would have a site with tens of thousands of pages listed in search engines.

This seems attractive on paper but it does not really work that way. These listings are not considered unique content and are soon dropped by Google as duplicate content. The idea of having tens of thousands of new links to the site’s home page from these listings is touted as good for SEO – but in fact may be inviting the -950 penalty.

Adding new content does not generally help your Realtor website rank for the primary keywords being targeted by your main entry page. Content is indeed king for attracting visitors searching for those “long tail” keywords – and the best way to add that new content is by using a blog.

Once the blog is established, those new pages are usually picked up by Google and already ranking within hours of being published. This is because Google considers blogs (and forums) to be “news” and wants the “news” to be as fresh as possible. If you upload the same new content to a regular website it can take weeks or months before the new page starts to rank.

So, to recap…

- adding new unique content to a website may help with ranking – but for the “long tail” keywords and not for the primary keywords being targeted by the main entry page of the website.

- a custom designed search-engine-friendly IDX system is not necessarily considered unique content – so think long and hard about this before committing the thousands of dollars this costs. (for more on this subject – check out the discussion about $20,000 Realtor websites)

- the best place to add new content to target the “long tail” keywords is in a blog.

Happy Blogging!

Since search engines love blogs and especially love Real-Estate-Blogs.com – I would also expect these SEO friendly blogs will soon have your posts and articles ranking well in search engines and generate extra business for those who make full use of the blog.

How do you get one of these exclusive blogs? These exclusive one-blog-per-market-area blogs are being included with the package of Realtor Websites we provide. Our package of websites is also on a one-Realtor-per-market-area basis so the addition of blogs fit in the package nicely.

The blogs will not be set up automatically with each website package but on request for new and existing customers. This is because many agents have no interest in maintaing a blog and having a blog sitting there being ignored would be counterproductive.

Existing customers can simply email me if they are interested in having a blog set up for them – there is no charge. New customers will be made aware of the option to include a blog when they sign up for our program.

We are just in the process of setting up the very first blog for an existing customer. To get an idea of what the blogs are like you can check out Jerry Hart’s Denver Real Estate Blog

Since the blog is so new there are no posts yet and Jerry is still moving stuff around and setting it up the way he likes it but you will get the general idea. We make several templates available at the click of a button and there are hundreds more that can be downloaded so you are bound to find a design that you love.

If you are looking for a complete SEO friendly web promotion package including a primary website, 3 promotional websites, PLUS a search engine friendly blog – check out our system. We have been providing Realtors with a proven successful solution for over 10 years!

Many Realtors spend hundreds of dollars each month on pay-per-click advertising such as Google Adwords and even Homegain’s BuyerLink product to generate traffic to their website. I have a bunch of existing well-ranked Realtor websites currently without Realtors – why not use those websites to direct traffic to the IDX Search and lead generating pages of your existing websites that perhaps are languishing in the search engine results?

I have some existing clients that have been doing this successfully for quite a while already – one has been doing it for over 4 years. The idea of redirecting traffic to the IDX search and lead pages of the website a Realtor has elsewhere – that is not one of ours – is not something that I ever offered before but was willing to do if asked.

The Realtor website landscape has changed a lot in the last couple of years however and I realize that often agents are spending many thousands of dollars on customized IDX searches and websites – which is not something that we offer. Agents can always use a little help in directing traffic to those high priced websites and IDX search services – and perhaps that is where our system can be of help.

The traffic that comes to our websites is high quality traffic that arrives by searching the big 3 search engines  for “city real estate” and other popular real estate keywords. It is not traffic that comes from deceptive advertising and popups etc. It is the same traffic you strive for when you work to have your current website ranking well in search engines. When visitors to sites we provide click on links to the search forms and listing searches on our sites – they can be directed to the IDX search and forms on your current site. The websites we provide would be personalized with your information – just as if you were not redirecting the traffic – so visitors would know right from the start that you are the Realtor providing the information to them. It would not be like Homegain’s BuyerLink service where visitors are redirected to a totally different Realtor (surprise!).

If this is an idea that holds some interest for you, check out our website for more information on our Realtor Websites.

Ever since the inception of the web, there have been many opportunities to participate in activities that are a waste of time. I first wrote about this long before there was such a thing as blogs – but the issues were the same. Back in September 1999 I wrote an article titled “Get off the computer and back to work!” in my newsletter that was subscribed to by thousands of Realtors at the time – the forerunner of this blog.

Spending your time maintaining a real estate blog at one of the many blog communities may just be a colossal waste of time. Yes, I know that statement is politically incorrect but I did not say blogging was necessarily a waste of time – just the reasons most agents give for frequently writing blog posts at blogging communities may no longer be valid.

If you check, you will find that I have been writing this blog since 2004 – so I am not anti-blogging!

If you are spending your time blogging at real estate blog communities because you enjoy the socialization – rock on! However, Realtors often give other reasons for their time there and those reasons need to be looked at a bit more closely.

One of the main reasons given for maintaining blogs at blogging communities is for the “link juice” – one can always find ways of getting links back to your main website within your posts.

Recently however Google has lumped blog posts at blogging communities in the same category as link exchange directories and article sites, and has awarded them all the “grey bar” on the Google Toolbar. This greyed out Page Rank indicator is used by Google to show that no Page Rank has been awarded to the page being viewed.

It seems that Google has abandoned their campaign to have us all use “no follow” to render links valueless and has instead decided to make the pages themselves valueless – making the links on the pages of little or no value whether they use “no follow” or not. Blogs maintained independent of blogging communities often fare better – the posts in blogs on your own website for example are more likely to have Page Rank .

If you are maintaining a blog at a real estate blogging community for link juice purposes – there would be better ways to spend your time.

Another reason often given for blogging is because blog posts often show up in Google quickly for what is called “long tail” search terms. – i.e. search terms that are rather obscure and seldom searched for. That may not really be a valid reason for spending time in blogging communities either as such terms are generally only searched for once in a blue moon and each term usually would bring just one or two visitors a month. Those one or two visitors could be directed to your site using pay-per-click for mere pennies instead.

If you spend a half an hour writing a blog post that will generate the same traffic to your site as a few pennies will – I would argue that your time is better spent elsewhere.

Another reason given for frequenting blogging communities is the opportunity to network with other agents and perhaps pick up a buyer or seller referral. I was an active participant in one of the first networks of Realtors on the internet a decade ago ( the E-Team Referral Network) and I did receive a referral or two in the process. In order for this to happen though I had to spend a hour a day at least working on the network and participating in the community.

When you take all this time into account – I probably would have been better off and made more money just spending that time marketing the old fashioned way – calling past clients for example. It seems that the other members came to the same conclusion as the network did eventually die.

Within the real estate bloging communities only a miniscule number of agents in a very few select cities will ever have clients moving to your area. You would be better of spending the time zeroing in on the cities that produce the most newcomers to your area and “farming” a large number of agents that work those cities.

With the spring market approaching it may be a good time to evaluate your use of time. The reasons why you spend time in real estate blogging communities should be one of the things considered during this process.

It seems that the barriers to entering the web hosting business have lowered to the point where almost anyone can now set up shop as a web hosting company and present the appearance of a large, stable, and experienced web host – even though they may have entered the business only a few months ago and be flying by the seat of their pants.

Competition has increased and as a result and the cost of acquiring web space has dropped dramatically in the past few months while the amount of space and bandwidth included has increased just as dramatically. This has made some long-time web hosts unprofitable and takeovers are common. A reduction in support services has also been noticed as cost-cutting programs reflect the new pricing structures.

In the past few weeks one hosting company I had recently signed up with basically closed up shop – websites stopped working and the company became unresponsive. Their support ticket system forms went nowhere, their online help was not online, and their telephone went to an answering machine (calls were not returned). Most hosting companies offer a discount if you pay for the year rather than pay month to month. I lost a years worth of hosting fees because I pre-paid for the year up front.

At the same time as this was happening, another hosting company also became unresponsive – their support ticket system stopped working and emails were not answered. Oh, no! Not again! I had paid them for a year in advance as well. After 10 days or so, a phone number appeared on their site which led to an answering machine and to my surprise I did receive a response to the message I left. It seems that spammers had forced them to shut down their email and support ticket system.

Also at the same time as I was having problems with these two hosts, problems developed with another host that I had also paid a year in advance. This particular host was chosen specifically because the the large amount of webspace and bandwidth offered with the account. Within a month I began to to run into problems with the host turning off my services even though I was using just 10% of the web space and bandwidth I was entitled to. It seems that the host oversold the server so every time the server was overworked they chose the busiest website to shut down to relieve the pressure. Since I had the highest traffic, my site used the most server processes and ram and I would be shut down on that basis.

A couple of points to consider from my experiences these past few weeks – first, paying for a year instead of monthly to save a few bucks may not be a bargain after all. Second – the amount of webspace and bandwidth offered is really meaningless unless you plan on filling up the space and plan on having little traffic coming to your site.

How do you tell a good host from bad? It is pretty hard nowadays as some hosts that used to be good and have been around for many years are now feeling the pressure of competition and their services have deteriorated or may be doing so soon. You can however increase the odds that the host you choose will be good by checking for a few things…

1) How long has the host been in business? Check the Wayback Machine at Archive.org

2)Is there a phone number on the site in addition to email and a Support Ticket System?

3)Do they have Community Forums? That is a big one for me as it is evidence that the host is open about their business and is willing to communicate with their customers. You can check the forums to research how long they have been in operation and how responsive they are to complaints. Most Hosts with forums use the forums to post server announcements as well so if you are having a problem you can quickly check whether it is a server problem or just you.

If a host checks out well on the above three points, they usually check out well on all of other items that may be important such as the quality of their servers, frequency of backups, etc.

You may notice that I did not mention price as an important thing to look for – it isn’t really. You can pay too much of course – but you can also pay too little. By trying to save too much you usually end up with more trouble than you can bear. Be willing to pay a competitive price.

Paying monthly gives you the peace of mind that you can make a change at any time if the service is not good – on paper it may cost a bit more but it increase your flexibility.

When Realtors do express concern over linking out from their site, here is my usual response…

Concerns about people clicking on links and leaving your site never to return are really groundless. It is a myth that has been circulated over the years by “gurus” who base their pontifications on their speculation and not their experience and by template site companies trying to sell their framed environment as a benefit.

Here is what really happens… people do not arrive at your website due to random surfing – they arrive because they search for specific word combinations in search engines and your site ranks for those words. Although people will use and find a Realtor’s site for well over a hundred word combinations they all have something in common – almost all are looking specifically for listing information.

When they arrive at your site they head directly for your Home Search Form and your MLS Listings page – with laser precision. I am sorry to say but the rest of your site (especially information about you) is ignored for the time being so there really is no danger of losing prospects to another site. How do I know this? From over a decade of studying log files and the patterns they reveal.

The other pages and links on your site are not useless though. Aside from being important in search engines they do prove beneficial to your clients – after they become your client that is (when there is little danger of your losing them).

After a prospect has visited your Home Search Form and submitted it they usually leave your site to continue their quest for homes. Your receive the form and respond and begin a relationship with the prospect. At that point the prospect (especially out of town prospects) returns to your website and starts to go thru the rest of your content and really do appreciate it at that point.

The links to informative resources outside of your site are important to your clients – and there is no danger in losing a client because of them. In fact, they help to cement the relationship because your website becomes an important resource for them. You will find that people will time after time tell you exactly that when they are sitting in your car while you are showing them homes

Links leaving your site are also important to search engines when they are trying to figure out how to rank your site. If you link out to other real estate sites – especially those that are recognized by search engines as authority sites – and local information sources, it is a good thing and does help your ranking. Who you link to is as important as who links to you.

If you link to off topic sites (gambling and Viagra sites and the like) you will never rank well. It is a rare site indeed that will rank well in a competitive market with no links to other relevant resources leaving their site.

So if your site is properly designed to attract clients looking for real estate in your market area – pay no attention to those fears that that links leaving your site are just avenues for your visitors to escape. Those links are really an important component of your site’s success.

A triangular or 3 way link is one where website A links to website B but instead of B linking back to A – a different website – C – will link to A. The way this scheme is always offered is that the link you provide to B is valuable but the link you receive in return from C is worthless or at best worth a lot less.

The only such triangular link exchange I would recommend my clients accepting would be in the case where C is also a real estate site, the links page is listed in Google, and the links page has Page Rank at least as high as what you are giving in return. That way it is a win-win exchange rather than a “you lose, sucker!” exchange.

The only likely way to find such a win-win exchange is probably in a situation like my own where one person (me for example) controls many real estate sites. That way sites B and C can be equal and C is not just a low value site set up for links. Hey! Maybe I will start doing some triangular win-win trades myself this fall! If you can offer a link on a page in your real estate site that is actually listed in Google and has PR and want to receive the same in return in a triangular exchange – email me referencing this post and maybe we can get something going. I could do bulk trades with dozens of sites as well.

My response….

The idea the a website should be “touched” or updated frequently is for the most part an old-wives tale I am sorry to say. Most of the so-called experts who recommend such a thing actually have no idea what the roots of the frequent updating pastime are and are just repeating something they heard from someone else years ago.

Many, many years ago (9 to be exact) the most favorite search engine on the internet was AltaVista and AltaVista’s spider would “learn” which websites were updated often and then return to re-spider those websites more often than websites that were not updated often. It was thought at that time that if a spider returned to your website more often then your website would rank higher (which was not true anyway).

Along came the template website industry and they needed to find some benefits to sell to prospective customers. Since just about the only thing a template site has to offer is that it allows an agent access to the website to make changes themselves whenever they want – the idea that a website should be updated frequently to be more successful was a perfect fit! The fact that any changes done to a template site could not be spidered by search engines anyways was ignored and the “spin” was changed a bit so the idea became just updating – period – was a good thing. So, the idea that websites should be updated frequently in order for a website to be successful grew legs and started to run because it helped sell template sites.

Altavista stopped being the most popular search engine on the planet many years ago – well before the turn of the century but the myth of frequent updating has been kept alive by the template site providers. All of it is unnecessary. Actually, “Guerrilla Marketing” says the opposite – that marketing should not be changed – that the public never tires of your old campaign and changes actually cause you to lose prospective customers – that the biggest mistake marketers make is making changes just for the sake of change.

I have clients who have not touched their website in 9 years! In fact, they hesitate to do so because they think making changes could ruin the good thing they have going – if it works why make changes? The fact that they have made no changes in 9 years has not hurt them at all – of course it wouldn’t since the idea that a website should be frequently updated is not valid and is not based on any sound marketing or SEO ideas.

Actually nowadays Google looks upon changes with suspicion and if you make big enough changes they will actually drop your site from the search results for several months until they make sure you are not trying to “game” them and that your website’s focus is essentially the same.

So, relax! You have no reason to waste your time fiddling with your website – go sell some houses instead

The links we were providing to these cheaters were all good links on a PR3 page – which was way better than we were getting in return in the first place. There was no reason for these sites to remove their link back. I guess some people just like to take advantage of others.

So, even if you carefully check out potential link exchanges (as outlined in other posts here) to ensure that you are getting a fair trade – you need to keep checking to make sure you are still getting value and are not being taken advantage of!

A blog is really just a web page you can post content to even if you do not have any web development skills.

A Realtor can use a blog to post listings, real estate news, interest rates, and it can be branded and publicized to reflect a local real estate market to attract regular visitors. A blogger just needs to find something good to write about everyday, but can be short.

Blogs are easy to set up and there are tons of good free blogging software out there, like blogger.com which hosts this blog.

Now there is a brand new search-engine-friendly directory that lists real estate blogs and also blogs of industries affiliated with and servicing the real estate industry. The directory is brand new – in fact this blog is the first one to be listed. You can find it at http://www.real-estate-blogs.com.

By “web directory” I mean where they have multiple categories not related to the actual theme of the site – so if a real estate site has a links directory that has categories for travel sites and health insurance sites etc. – you probably get no benefit from the exchange.

Also, if a site uses popular links programs like Linksmanager you most likely get zero benefit from from the link as Google would recognize such programs and ignore links from them.

It IS getting harder and harder to find link exchanges that are of value but there still are some out there.

If you design your website (especially if you use a Microsoft product to do so) and never check to see how it displays in some of the more popular non-Microsoft browsers like Firefox and Netscape you may be interested to know that your website may look horrible to 30% of your website visitors. In some cases it looks so bad that visitors will leave immediately.

It is probably not a good idea to be turning off a rapidly increasing number of website visitors!

If you only check your site in one other browser -I would suggest you do so in Firefox which is available for free at http://www.mozilla.org/. Firefox and Netscape display pretty much the same as far as I can tell and those two browser’s make up the lion’s share of MSIE’s competition.