Real Estate Internet Marketing

If you’re like me, you had a full plate during the holidays.  And now that you’re back to work, you’ve spent most of your time trying to plow through your email and inbox.  You’re finally ready to start thinking about your 2009 real estate internet marketing.

Well, I’m giving you the very first task to add your real estate internet marketing to-do list.  Change your dates.

Anything on your website or real estate blog with a 2008 date will make your site appear old and outdated.  That’s why you’ll want to make sure dates appearing on your sites are current.

For example, if you display copyright dates on your web pages (which you should), make sure they read 2009.

Same is true with content containing dates.  For example, the phrase ‘New for 2008′ already sounds outdated – while ‘New for 2009′ sounds fresh.

Change these date references in your postcards, flyers, email drip campaigns, brochures, listing presentations – in fact, everywhere.

These small changes can freshen the look of your entire website – and keep your site from becoming stale.

To success with your 2009 real estate internet marketing,

Kathy Goughenour

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Linking text, often called anchor text, is the clickable text that takes people to another web page.  The use of keywords in linking text is a simple but powerful way to improve your search engine ranking and thus improve your real estate internet marketing.

For example, if your keyword phrase for a web page is “Cincinnati real estate,” you should be using “Cincinnati real estate” as linking text on that page.

What can you link to?

• A page on your web site with specific information about Cincinnati real estate such as the types of homes that are available (i.e., condos, townhomes, ranch, 2-story, raised ranch, etc.)
• Your Cincinnati IDX
• Your Cincinnati Featured Listings
• Videos of Cincinnati homes for sale
• A page containing photos or virtual tours of Cincinnati real estate
• Your blog about Cincinnati real estate (more…)

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Is your real estate marketing online bringing in leads? If you answered no, one of the things you’ll want to do is discover the answer to the following question…

Who is visiting your website or blog, where are they coming from and what are they doing while on your site?

By tracking visitors to your site, you’ll get the knowledge you need to improve your real estate marketing online and start bringing in leads.

The best free tool available today for tracking visitors is Google Analytics. This free tracking tool provides tons of valuable information for determining where your guests come from and what they’re doing. (more…)

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Do you think only a word like MLS reaches real estate listing leads? Read on to learn why you may want to change that thinking…

In case you haven’t heard, there’s a legal, and ethical, debate going on regarding who is allowed to use the term “MLS.”

Apparently, the NAR and some MLSs are against REALTORS using the term MLS on their websites or marketing materials. That would include domain names, email addresses, text on websites, and any other marketing materials.

Sometimes it’s easier (and more profitable) to change than fight the system. So, instead of jumping into this debate about whether REALTORS should be allowed to use the term MLS, I’d like to give you ideas on how to avoid using the term, and still have wording that generates real estate listing leads.

By the way, if you want to read more about this issue, Inman News Blogs has a good post about it at: Use of MLS in a Realtor Web site: An ethical dilemma

Now for my suggestions:

Domain Name

To help get your website ranked higher on search engines, the keyword phrase people search on the most is what you want to use in your domain name. In most markets, that keyword phrase is some combination of “YourCityRealEstate.com”

For example, I’m currently writing web content for an agent in the greater Jackson Mississippi area. After searching for an available domain name, we came up with www.RealEstateJacksonMS.com.

Domain name bottom line: choosing a domain name with some combination of YourCityRealEstate.com will drive more traffic to most sites (and bring in more real estate listing leads) than a name with MLS in it.

Email Address

This should match your domain name. So, if your domain name is www.RealEstateJacksonMS.com, your email should be name@realestatejacksonms.com.

Website Wording

Instead of a button that reads “Search the MLS” use a button that reads “Search for Homes.” Believe it or not, some people don’t even know what MLS means, but everyone knows what “Search for Homes” means.

Instead of writing “Use this site to search the MLS” write “Use this site to search like a REALTOR.” Which sounds more powerful to you?

If you have a question about how to reword any uses of MLS on your website or marketing materials, post a comment to this blog. I promise to respond!

To Boosting your Business,

Kathy Goughenour

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