How to Get More Out of Your SEO Campaign

SEO does not work in a vacuum. It takes a broad effort to push results to the top. Our successful lead generating websitesbelong to clients who were patient in waiting for results, and/or are supplementing our efforts with their own web traffic buildingstrategies.


Age of Domain: Newer domains take longer because of Google Sandbox / Trustbox

Web Marketing: The more traffic you have, the higher your rankings. Are you advertising your website online? Are you making use of alternative other web traffic generators?

• Realtor.com
• HomeGain
• Homes.com
• Trulia.com
• Craigslist.com
• Web Ads on other sites
• LuxuryRealEstate.com
• Move.com
• Yahoo.com
• Local Newspaper Ads (Online)
• PostYourListings.com

Email Newsletters: Are sending a regular, informative email newsletter to a relevant audience in effort to attractvisitors to your website? Do you have a Email Drip Campaign in place?

• Are you using the Lead Engine to contact existing clients and potential clients?
• Do you have a regular Email Newsletter going out to your clients and prospects?

Web Network: How strong is your local web network?

• Are you registered with local Chamber of Commerce?
• Do you donate to local causes and obtain web publicity and links back to your website?
• Are you networking within your community to create a buzz about your website?
• Have you offered to write a blog or column for your local newspaper?
• Do you have a compelling reason for anyone to visit your website?

Off-Line Marketing: What are you doing off-line to drive traffic to your website?

• How are you advertising your website off-line?
• Is your website set as the default home page for the internet use of everyone in your office?
• Do you send out postcards driving traffic to your website?
• Are you running off-line ads? Newspapers? Billboards? Flyers?

Who is accessing the website day-to-day? How can you increase the activity of your website?

Social Networking:

• Are you blogging regularly? (The more you blog, the higher your rankings)
• Are you engaging in online communication with others in your field?

LINKS & CONTENT

Right now your website needs inbound links and content. That’s our goal and we’re going about it as fast as we can, but it mighttake us a while to reach our goal. The more you help us by implementing the above, the faster you will achieve results.

New Website Leads

I can assure you that once your site achieves top rankings, you will begin to acquire more leads from your SEO, however, as I stress from day one, getting to the top is hard-as-can-be. This is why we stress that you may not see strong lead results for six months to one year. The length of time has to do with a number of factors such as:

SEO does not work in a vacuum. It takes a broad effort to push results to the top. Our successful lead generating websitesbelong to clients who were patient in waiting for results, and/or are supplementing our efforts with their own web traffic buildingstrategies.


Age of Domain: Newer domains take longer because of Google Sandbox / Trustbox (I’ll explain in another email)
Web Marketing: The more traffic you have, the higher your rankings. Are you advertising your website online? Are you making use of alternative other web traffic generators?- Realtor.com- HomeGain- Homes.com- Trulia.com- Craigslist.com- Web Ads on other sites- LuxuryRealEstate.com- Move.com- Yahoo.com- Local Newspaper Ads (Online)- PostYourListings.com
Email Newsletters: Are sending a regular, informative email newsletter to a relevant audience in effort to attractvisitors to your website? Do you have a Email Drip Campaign in place?
Web Network: How strong is your local web network? - Are you registered with local Chamber of Commerce?- Do you donate to local causes and obtain web publicity and links back to your website?- Are you networking within your community to create a buzz about your website?- Have you offered to write a blog or column for your local newspaper?- Do you have a compelling reason for anyone to visit your website?
Off-Line Marketing: What are you doing off-line to drive traffic to your website? - How are you advertising your website off-line? - Is your website set as the default home page for the internet use of everyone in your office?- Do you send out postcards driving traffic to your website?- Are you running off-line ads? Newspapers? Billboards? Flyers?
- Who is accessing the website day-to-day? How can you increase the activity of your website?
Social Networking:

- Are you blogging regularly? (The more you blog, the higher your rankings) - Are you engaging in online communication with others in your field?

LINKS & CONTENT

Right now your website needs inbound links and content. That’s our goal and we’re going about it as fast as we can, but it mighttake us a while to reach our goal. The more you help us by implementing the above, the faster you will achieve results.

More to come...

How to Help Us Get Your Website to the Top

Many of my clients are anxious to achieve top rankings and always interested in ways they can help us reach our goals of page #1 on Google and Yahoo. You can do much to help us optimize your website achieve top rankings, such as:

• Blogging everyday (See What to Blog About)
• Advertising on other websites such as local newspaper sites, Realtor.com, etc...
• Paying for submissions to higher-priced directories such as BBB Online ($800) and Yahoo Directory ($299)
• Becoming a member of your local Chamber of Commerce which gets you a link back.
• Donating money to a local cause, when it will get your name and website address on a local website.
• Writing news articles that get you a link back.
• Sending Email Newsletters.
• Optimizing your Lead Engine for sending auto email newsletters.
• Sending direct mail campaigns.
• Anything that increases your site's traffic / visitors, will increase your rankings.
• Putting your Web Address on all marketing materials.
• Making your website URL the default page on everyone's computer in your office.
• Networking with owners of other sites to include ads / banners from their site to yours.
• Sponsoring anything local to get a link back to your site.
• Write articles about your local real estate market and submit them to article submission sites with a proper anchor text bio.
• Create a marketing campaign or free offer that gets people to come onto your website.
• Increase the stickiness of your site by continuously adding content.
• Making sure your site is current, updated and correct.
• Adding fresh content and photos as often as possible.
• Market your blog by submitting to Blog Directories.
• Make sure your blog is syndicated by sending to ping sites.
• Submit all your listings to a listing submission service (more info later).

What to Blog About

Blogging is an important part of marketing yourself and your real estate practice online. Once you get started, it's impossible to stop. It is very fun for most of us, and I'm betting you enjoy it too since you're reading this now. So, here's a list of things to blog about I'm compiling for my readers.

• Current events in the city
• Current real estate market
• Real estate trends
• Area suburbs as a group
• Area suburbs one-by-one
• Holiday events and attractions
• Theater and cultural events
• Your opinions about elections, votes, events
• Major events
• Weather
• Recipe for regional cuisine
• Reiterate an article of local interest
• Local sports teams
• Parks
• Listings
• Typical house
• Cost of living tidbits (gas price, gallon of milk, auto ins.)
• Local attractions
• Home sales - If you can obtain a list
• Police Blotter - If you can obtain a list
• Area commercial developments
• Local elections & votes
• School district news
• Individual School news
• Teacher of the Year
• Awards of the City in Money Mag, etc...
• Park Improvements
• Road Improvements
• New retail outlets & shopping
• New Construction
• Neighborhood Crime Watch
• Home Owners Associations
• Streets, Traffic & Traffic Lights
• Road construction
• Notable residents
• City History
• Local weather
• Golf tournaments
• Upcoming Developments
• Environmental Affairs - Green causes
• Gyms, atheletics, marathons
• List fire stations
• Dog Parks, Events & Contests
• Police department News
• Local utilities
• Local Book Clubs
• Local airport(s)
• Transportation
• Hotels in the area
• List of restaurants
• Restaurant Review
• Opinion article about city issue (editorial)
• Why is your city great?
• Neighborhood parties & concerns
• Water quality
• Trash pick-up data
• New Home Builders
• Custom Home Builders
• Map of the area
• Fun things to do

Sponsored by: Real Estate Websites

The Marketing Shop.com Active Rain Blogs

Check out our client blogs on Active Rain!

• Long Beach Real Estate - Shannon Jones, Shannon Jones Team
• Breckenridge Colorado Homes - Jason Long, The Long Group
• Chino Hills Homes for Sale California - Tricia Parido
• Dallas Real Estate Agents - Keith Dobbs, Re/Max Dallas Suburbs
• Arlington Texas Homes & Foreclosures - Margarita Leslie
• Southlake Real Estate - Judy M. Brooks
• Arlington TX Real Estate - Will & Deanna DeBose
• Plano Homes of North Dallas - Brenda Mancil
• McKinney TX Real Estate - Trey Teichelman
• Frisco TX Homes - Dale Corbett, Century 21 Frisco
• Colorado Springs Real Estate, Shawn Jardine, eSalehomes
• Richland Chambers Lake Homes - Stuart Smith, Harper Smith Team
• Salt Lake City Real Estate - Jen & Hannah
• Real Estate Websites - Jenna Ryan, The Marketing Shop.com
• Fort Worth Homes - Sharon Mays, Mays Realty
• Preston Hollow Real Estate - Bernice Edelman
• Houston TX Sienna Plantation - Team Riddle

Real Estate Websites by The Marketing Shop.com

Benefits of Active Rain

Active Rain is a social networking platform for Realtors that is extremely valuable for your website's optimization. A later article will discuss what to do once you get started, but for now, let's just consider the benefits of Blogging in general.

SEO Benefits of Active Rain Usage

• If you blog regularly about topics relevant to your website's geo-target area, you will boost your website's rankings.
  
• If you create links on your blogs that go back to your own website, you will boost your website's rankings.
  
• If you use keyword anchor text in your links (see below), you will boost your website's rankings.
  
• Blog articles are webpages that will show up in search results themselves, thus serving as a web lead generation tool.

JOIN ACTIVE RAIN NOW!!!

Here is my Real Estate Blog on Active Rain.

• Arlington TX Real Estate Blog
• Fort Worth Real Estate Blog
• Corsicana Lake Property

Should I register multiple domain names?

It is not beneficial to register more than one domain name. The only way it may help you is if you already have the domains listed on existing marketing collateral. It does not help one bit to have more than one domain name pointing to your website, in fact, Google considers it spam and could give you penalties.

Lead Email Reliability

"Some of my leads did not make it to my email inbox."

This is because the email system itself is highly unreliable. The email was sent, but did not make it to your inbox for some reason. There are many things that can happen to an email message in route. Sometimes your own ISP will delete emails coming your way if they suspect it may be spam. Other times, an email will land in your Junk Mail file without your knowledge.

Our recommendation when it comes to leads is never to rely on your email inbox alone. Always check your Lead Databases to recover leads that you may have missed via email.

To access your leads in the Lead Engine, login to your control panel and go to the Lead Button. http://www.themarketingshop.com/clients.

Link Exchanges Are No Good

If you get an email from another agent or webmaster requesting a LINK EXCHANGE, please just disregard it. We are no longer exchanging links because it is something Google frowns upon. Google wants to see links coming to your site naturally, and has stopped considering reciprocal links when ranking websites.

Anytime the masses find out "tricks," Google changes its algorithm to prevent sites from being ranked unnaturally. Any benefit proffered by link exchanges is not worth the time they take to do. Our strategy is to build content so good that people start linking to your site naturally.

The emails you get requesting links are dwindling as people find out they are not worth anything. Plus, most of them are just mass-emails. You can either let the person know we don't do exchanges or you can ignore the email altogether.

iHomefinder - Adding Supplemental Listings

If you choose to upload additional photos to your Featured Listings in your iHomefinder account, you need to size them correctly to achieve optimal results.

Photos larger than (350x240) will not show up correctly and/or may cause scrolling on the page. Resize your photos for the right effect on your site.

Will My Website Ever Get Leads???

If your site is not getting leads, it can be due to a number of reasons. It could be a technical error on our part, or more often--it's just due to the natural time it takes to achieve top rankings. Sometimes, your lack of leads is your own fault. Like anything else, "you get out of it what you put into it."

Here's a few reasons your site may not be getting the results you expect:

1. New sites in competitive areas may be subject to Google Sandbox.
2. Google updates only once per month.
3. Your competitors hold the rankings you're trying to achieve and it takes time to beat them.
4. Your site could need tweaking to uniquely drive traffic and court leads.
5. Your site may require additional marketing in the form of Pay-Per-Click to be successful.
6. You may need to increase your involvement with the SEO of your site by blogging, reviewing your statistics and checking the accuracy of the content.
7. The real estate market may be dry in your area (no leads if no one is looking)
8. Your site's geo-targets may be too broad.
9. During development, you could have chosen not to allow us to fully optimize your site, thus delaying your site's success.
10. Your site may need more relevant content to make it the best for the search performed.
11. You may need to buy links to climb higher.
12. You may need to up-your Monthly SEO Program.
13. You may be making so many general content updates and maintenance requests that all your points are not allocated for SEO work.
14. Basic Websites with less content naturally take longer to achieve top rankings than do Premium sites.
15. You may need to invest in one of our SEO Bundles to keep up with the competitors in your area.
16. You may have requested alterations to the layout and content that are not optimal for generating leads.
17. Your website may need a better or more updated photo of you.
18. Your website may need attention to make it more personable.
19. Your website may need more photos of your area.
20. Your corporate colors may turn people off.
21. You may need a professional logo.
22. Your lead form may need testing.
23. You may need to check your iHomefinder & Lead Engine (you never know... maybe there are leads in there!!!)
24. Your phone number may be wrong on your website. Please check it.
25. Your leads may not be reaching you because your Lead Email needs to be updated.

Your website should definitely be successful eventually, however, it's important to understand that organic search engine optimization takes time and patience. Beyond that, it may take you getting involved in the SEO process and increasing your monthly SEO budget.

Building your website to the point where it produces leads can be long and expensive, but take it from our clients who get new leads and business almost daily--Getting to the top of Google is worth every minute and every dime. "No Pain, No Gain."

Our goal is to help you generate business from your website. Let us know what we can do to help. support@themarketingshop.com.

Adding SEO Content to Your Website

Please note that we charge $299 to add new SEO pages to your website. Each SEO Page is researched and written for search engine optimization and contains 250 words.

Adding Content to Existing Pages
If you want to add content to an existing page, please send us the exact wording you want included on the page and we'll work that in as part of your monthly SEO Maintenance. There will be at least a 1 point deduction for adding client-provided content.

Webmail Access

Access your email anywhere in the world using webmail access.

All you need to login to your WEBMAIL account is your email address and email password.

http://webmail.themarketingshop.com/horde/imp/login.php

If you do not know your email password, you will need to reset it in your Hosting Control Panel.

Client Spotlight - Judy M. Brooks

Judy Brooks has been with The Marketing Shop.com for nine months. From the beginning, her site has been a huge success. She recently sold her first home that came from a lead on her website, looks like there's lots more where that came from!

Wednesday Judy called and said, "I just want you to know...I get compliments from my site all the time. People tell me how easy it is to use... I get clients almost every day from my site."

Wow! This is so good to hear. We work very hard to hear this from you all. Nothing makes us more proud than to see you be successful with sites that we build for you. It isn't always a fast process to getting exposure on the web, but once your site starts getting etched into the rankings, it's all downhill from there--as Judy M. Brooks proves.

Southlake, Grapevine & Colleyville Homes

Blogging Dos & Don'ts for SEO

Now that you're blogging, you probably have more questions--including what to blog about. My answer to this is ANYTHING RELATIVE TO THE TOPIC OF YOUR WEBSITE. In your case, your topic is real estate, so you want to write about real estate in your area. Here's a few tips to get you going.

BLOGGING DOS

• DO write about real estate in your area.
• DO use real estate related keywords when appropriate.
• DO use keywords related to your area (City, State, Abbreviations)
• DO write about real estate related topics.
• DO cite sources of information.
• DO provide links pointing to valuable resources off your blog.
• DO write short snippets or thoughts if that's all you have time for.
• DO use keywords in your titles whenever possible.
• DO use spellcheck.
• DO try to provide original information in your own unique way.
• DO insert photos if you know how.
• DO take photos of your area if possible.
• DO use personal pronouns to keep things light and casual.
• DO talk to the person one-on-one rather than to a group.
• DO discuss items on your website
• DO link to pages on your website, such as your MLS Search

BLOGGING DON'TS

• DON'T write about your personal life.
• DON'T forget to stay on topic.
• DON'T over-use keywords (spam).
• DON'T ramble.
• DON'T plagiarize by copying your competitors.
• DON'T forget to save often.
• DON'T get caught up in perfection--just get it done!
• DON'T worry about people seeing your blog--chances are it will be a while.
• DON'T forget to link to your own website using the hyperlink button.
• DON'T use long sentences--short ones work best.

Read Jakob Nielsen's opinion of 10 Blogging Mistakes.

Blogging: Does It Help My Rankings?

We have gotten several inquiries this past month regarding blogging. The answer is, yes--blogging will help the search engine optimization of your website. Even though we are constantly updating blogs connected to your website, we welcome all the help we can get. The more blog content you create, the better your website will fare in the search engine rankings.

How Blogging Works
Blogging is the fastest and quickest way possible to get content up on the web. Unlike a website, which requires technical skills to manuever, blogs are so easy-to-create, even an newbie can do it. If you know how to send email, you can be blogging in minutes. It really is that easy.

Blogs are a web medium that separate content from the layout so you don't need to know how to arrange html to post a blog on the web. Free blogging software such as Blogger.com offer easy set-up. Of course, there are fancier ways to blog for advanced bloggers such as WordPress, that require programmer set-up--not recommended for beginning bloggers.

Posting to your blog is both fun and familiar. You simply add write into a text editor similar to what you write emails in--think Microsoft Word. Press "Publish" and viola! Your thoughts are on display for the world to see. Who knew?

The blogging system will track the headings, the titles, the dates and everything. It's a great way to organize your thoughts and communicate to your clients, target market, prospects and competitors.

Why Does Blogging Help My Rankings?
Blogging helps your current website's rankings by infiltrating the web with fresh content and links that relate to your existing content. Google goes ga-ga for good content, especially when it's updated on a regular basis; and unique; and related to a particular topic. There's really no better way to get Google's attention than to supply a steady stream of easy-to-publish content by blogging.

How to Set-Up A Blog

Set up your free blog by...

1. Go to http://www.blogger.com/.
2. Create an Account
3. Think of a Unique Blog Name
4. Start Typing

What is the RSS Subscribe Feed for?

Some of you may have noticed that starting in March we have been adding RSS Subscribe options to your website. The RSS Feed subscribe is a search engine optimization technique we are testing as well as a way for people to subscribe to your website. We will be working on perfecting the feeds over the next few months, as well as adding them to sites that don't have them as a part of the Monthly SEO Plans.

iHomefinder MLS Feed

Most TMS websites rely on the iHomefinder MLS System because we've found it to integrate seamlessly with our existing website layouts. This MLS System is only available in approved areas. It is up to your local real estate board to determine if iHomefinder can supply your MLS Feed. We cannot run iHomefinder in the following locations:

- Houston Association of Realtors - HAR

- Salt Lake City Association of Realtors

- Fort Hood, Killeen & Copperas Cove Texas Association of Realtors

TMS Real Estate Network

The TMS Real Estate Network is a powerful network of websites with pages built by The Marketing Shop.com. When you start your Monthly SEO Plan, your site is hooked up within our network and all new web pages are linked to you. Due to the number of websites we're currently creating, we're in the process of working on an alternative network system. Until then, having these links on your site means that each page we build will link to your site. In other words, this network will boost your rankings...

How to Check Leads in Lead Engine

You should make it a habit to check the leads coming into your website regularly, even though the leads are set to be sent to you by email. This is important because sometimes the email may be deleted before it hits your inbox by your ISP, or by your own Outlook program. It never hurts to double check your leads--just in case.

To Get to the Lead Engine, follow these steps:

1) In the upper right hand corner of your site, you will see an Admin link – click on it
2) Then click on Lead Engine
3) Login with

a. User Name
b. Password

4) Go to Manage Leads

Email is not always perfect. We recommend you regularly log into the lead engine to verify your leads.

Adding SEO Pages to Your Website

If you are interested in generating leads in a specific target area not covered by your current website, you may consider ordering an additional web page or section to cover the area. As you know, the more information you have on your site about a particular area or topic, the more leads you are bound to generate as the content is soaked up into the search engine results.

If you would like to order an additional page or section for your website, contact us today at SUPPORT at TheMarketingShop.com for a quote.