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Industry update was lucky to have a wonderful panel of individuals from the Sacramento Bee discussing “State of Online”, as in online marketing. It’s so evident that in today’s world an online presence is an absolute must. According to the panelists, by 2011, 74% of households will be online, but they said this figure [...] IDX, or Internet Data Exchange, is an agreed-upon display of listings of brokers who opt in to the agreement. They can then display their listings and those of all member brokers on their site for search. The fields that are displayed are also agreed upon in advance, and a site can display only the fields that are allowed. Here’s a link to the policy at Realtor.org. So, that’s what it is, a property search display of all members’ listings. How can we “doll it up” to make it better for our site visitor? First, don’t decide before you get into the shoes of your site visitor, a buyer or seller of real estate. Though we generally think first of buyers searching for homes, land or commercial listings, prospective sellers also search to see what’s on the market in their area and compare those listings to their home. But, let’s think here about a buyer who is hoping to locate the perfect home in your area. What are their requirements and desires? IDX stands for Internet Data Exchange. It is a system in which the broker members of a local Multiple Listing Service agree to share their listings in a common database for broker use, as well as marketing release within strict guidelines. All participating brokers can display the IDX on their websites according to the guidelines. What is displayed must be the agreed-upon information fields, and no others. What happens in many MLS’s is the old “hold back information so they’ll call you” mentality. Or, the listing brokers believe that too many fields in the IDX will allow the consumer to avoid contacting a Realtor for more information. When that mentality is in place, the data fields displayed are usually limited, with many not shown that most consumers would consider as necessary. Continue reading: IDX – Using Protectionism Against the Competition for Leads Sacramento Association of REALTORS® is proud to announce that the May 2009 edition of the Newsletter is available here. For those of you that have been visiting the blog using your iPhone/iPod Touch, you may have already noticed that our blog has been tuned for an iPhone application-like experience (including accelerometer support). While we’ve only seen reports of people viewing the site with an iPhone/iPod Touch, the site has also been optimized for viewing with the Google Android and Blackberry Storm mobile touch devices. And don’t worry; the site is still complete with comments, search, login, categories, tags, archives & more. Continue reading: The SAR Blog has Gone the Way of the Touch Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is possibly the most bandied-about phrase on the Web. Gurus are everywhere claiming to be able to get you top search engine positions in a hurry… at a price. Some actually can help you in this regard, but any fast results are usually based on techniques the search engines soon negate once they figure them out. So, how does the average real estate professional approach SEO for their personal or brokerage website or blog? Here are some simple truths: What do you want a website or blog to accomplish for you? Are you only interested in listings? If so, you want to present a nice site that showcases listings well for future presentations and business generation. Do you also want buyers? That expands the need for content to accommodate those who need to learn about the area, the process of buying a home, negotiations, and more. Now, disregard all of the above! That’s the standard thinking that creates “standard” websites. Standard websites create standard business volume. Exceptional websites create exceptional income. Don’t use a thought process that assumes, incorrectly, several things: Continue reading: Location, Location, Location? – Content, Content, Content! The American consumer is going mobile at a break-neck pace. Sometime late last year, according to researchers, the number of people living in households with one or more cell phones exceeded that of people living in a household with a landline. And, it’s only going to move more in that direction. The convenience of the cell phone in our busy lives is just too great. The real estate professional who wants an effective Internet presence should also be carefully following this mobile trend as well. Let’s expand our nomenclature to an “effective technology marketing presence.” It ties together the Internet with the mobile market via SMS text messaging and mobile web sites. There are already a number of major retail marketers using text messaging and mobile web sites to allow their customers to shop from their cell phones. Continue reading: The New Mobile World – How Does Your Web Marketing Stack Up? When you’re developing a real estate website plan, there are a great many things to consider. From a very broad perspective, there are two major areas of concern: Site Look and Design – This is important, but don’t place your planning emphasis in the wrong areas. You want a pleasing site, with colors and presentation that invites the visitor to stay a while. If you’re working with a site design or theme vendor, they have probably researched visitor behavior, and their template and design choices likely are structured with this in mind. [...] The ultimate success of your business will probably be tied closely to your success on the Internet. Your website or blog is your storefront in a very big world. It’s easy to get a dry cleaning customer if they pass your store every day on their way home from work. It’s a lot harder to capture a real estate lead from an armchair buyer or seller clicking around the World Wide Web. Just entering the key phrase “real estate” into a Google search yields a whopping 589 Million results! In your area, county, or town, there are thousands of web search results related to real estate. They’re not going to drive by, so how do you stand out and get found? We all know that we need to continually work on SEO, and many pay to advertise with pay-per-click marketing. Those are fundamental and effective things we must do. But, what else can we do that’s cost effective and will bring us more site visitors? Continue reading: SEO and PPC for Traffic – But There’s More |
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Friday, May 29th, 2009
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