It’s good to be back! With this blog series, each week we will take a look at the Beauty Contest that is online marketing of real estate. Just like any beauty contest there is always some good, some bad, and yes, even some ugly! The major difference, real estate online marketing sees a lot of ugly. Each week the post will feature the ‘Wall of Shame’ and the ‘Wall of Fame.’ Our ‘Wall of Shame’ features the bad (…and oh yes, the very bad…) that agents are using to present their listings online. The ‘Wall of Fame’ features some of the more stunning marketing agents are currently using on their listings online.
While recently in California, we saw a lot of beautiful homes. What a great place to buy property, if you can afford it! Therefore, this week we will showcase the Good, the Bad and the Ugly of California real estate.
Wall of Shame
Wow, this place has nice corners!? Some people try too hard to be artistic. Plus, that is one sweet Terracotta Warrior bust these people have on their mantle. No warrior bust in the contract, say bye bye to my offer on this $1.6 Million San Francisco home.
I’m sold! This $850,000 Stockton, CA home has floors! I’m glad that this person felt the need to point that out, particularly because most places lack this essential amenity. Come on people…
This actually might be a better shot if they stood back a little further. Not sure you want to showcase the inside of that garage, well, what you can see of it anyways. There’s no telling what is in the back corner of this $2 Million San Francisco home’s garage.
Wall of Fame
Instead of just focusing on the statue upon the mantle, this photograph shows enough to pique anyone’s fancy. This amazing San Rafael home is listed at $986k by Alva Fall of Frank Howard Allen. Click the photo to view more of this property.
Less focus on just the floor can really open one’s eyes to the key selling features of a home. That’s what Shana Rohde-Lynch of Frank Howard Allen went for, featuring this $1.5 Million Tiburon home’s wonderful view. Click the photo to view more of this property.
If you are going to show the exterior of a home, make sure it is something that will grab a buyer’s attention. The rear view of this $1.17 Million Inverness home truly caught my attention! Click the photo to see more of this property, listed by Melissa Lyckberg of Frank Howard Allen.
Let us know what you think! Which of these do you think is the best/worst and why?
Great cause to be doing something so crazy for, hope all goes well. The new climbers in this story are some brave souls.
Alex Zoghlin, CEO of VHT Inc., a leading provider of technology and services for marketing real estate online, today announced the appointment of Jennifer Ore, 40, to the position of Chief Technology Officer.
Ore’s appointment fills an important, strategic leadership role within VHT at a pivotal time. The company recently launched its breakthrough, VHT ImageWorks platform to support its expansion as a technology-driven marketing company that helps leading brokerages take back control of their online listings and significantly increase website traffic and sales conversions.
Click here to read the full news release.
–Nick Teel
Here is a great list of ten do's and dont's that pertain to your Search Engine Optimization. Always a good idea to keep up with current trends and tips on SEO. Don't just rely on what you learned in the past, you could be hurting your website immensely, and Travis from RealTrends brings up some great don'ts here:
1. Build a Flash Only Website
The days of Flash only websites are probably behind us (thank God). Having said this, as a web developer it’s surprising how often I’m asked, ‘Does that include Flash?’
Search engines cannot read content embedded in Flash files so you shouldn’t use Flash to build websites. It’s perfectly all right to have a flash feature box or slideshow or something like that so long as the rest of your site is built with HTML.
2. Hide all Your Content in Images
This is another sin of the past, although you do still see it occasionally. If you embed your navigation and page copy in images, search engines will not be able to identify this content. Use text-based navigation and semantic mark-up instead.
According to CNNMoney, Permits for housing construction climbed in May, signaling a glimmer of optimism among homebuilders about the future of the housing market. Always a good thing to see positive numbers and optimism in this market!
As the summer months are upon us, we thought we would share this great article from the MatadorNetwork.com. Though, not necessarily applicable to real estate photography, we thought these tips were good enough to pass on to our friends.
I always wonder this same thing, MatadorNetwork states, “Ever glanced in exasperation at travel photographs wondering why yours taken of the same landmarks or subjects never turn out as stunning?” Well, with these ABC tips of better travel photography, hopefully my summer vacation photographs will turn out a little better this year. Let us know what you think.
My added tip, make sure your thumb is not in front of the lens!
Visit here to read more on the ABC’s of taking better travel photos!
–Nick Teel
This pool once belonged to Richard Gere in his full floor New York spread. Many believe that Gere was snubbed by not even being nominated for his supporting role in the musical Chicago. His few standout performances were in Chicago, Pretty Woman, and An Officer and A Gentleman. At the time of this photograph, the home was listed by Debbie Korb of Sotheby’s International Realty. Click on the photograph to view more of Richard Gere’s former home!
This is a former home of Will Smith. Smith was an Oscar Award Nominee for his brilliant performance as Chris Gardner in The Pursuit of Happyness. I personally thought he was snubbed for this role, while the award went to Forest Whitaker. At the time of this photograph, this New York home was listed by Maria Lopez of Prudential Douglas Elliman. Click on the photograph for more of Smith’s home!
And Lastly,
This beautiful kitchen was once owned by, most likely one of the bigger snubs in Oscar history, Glenn Close. She has been nominated multiple times for various roles but has never won. Three of her top roles that I can remember, were in, Dangerous Liaison, Reversal of Fortune and my personal favorite, her role in Fatal Attraction. This former New York home was listed by Robert Browne of the Corcoran Group. Click on the Photograph to see more of Close’s home.
Let us know who you think the biggest snubs in Oscar history have been!
Online marketing initiatives can be confusing, but they do not have to be. The key is understanding the results. Since most buyers start their search for a home at one of the major search engines, where you rank on search engines results is critical. Most buyers start their search through a main search engine, such as Google. If you are not showing up as a result for those searches, you are missing out on business opportunities.
While pay-per-click (PPC) and search engine marketing (SEM) can get buyers to your site, they cost you money. Search engine optimization (SEO), or in other words, increasing where you rank in search engine results, doesn’t cost you anything. In a previous editorial, we explained what Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is and how to utilize tactics for implementing it on your site (Click here to read that article). Your next step is comprehending the results of your SEO tactics, mainly, what people are searching for, what search engines you are showing up on and how many people are coming to your website from those keyword searches. This month, we will explore how to determine what people are searching for and how it applies to you.
Keywords are king in the game of SEO. Keywords are terms buyers put in the search box of a search engine to get the results they want. (For example, homes for sale in IL, homes for sale in FL, Chicago Real Estate, Atlanta homes, etc.). Typically, there are hundreds and even thousands of ways to search for homes in certain cities. We found 200 ways someone could search for a home in Mt Prospect (See List Here). Wouldn’t it be beneficial to know how people are searching for homes in your area? Well, Google has a tool, Google Adwords Keyword Tool, which can help you do just that.
How to use Google AdWords Keyword Tool:
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- Simply enter a word(s) or phrase(s) that applies to your specific message (Example: Homes, Houses, Chicago homes, Chicago Real Estate)
- The finder lists the various keywords people are using to search that are similar to what you entered. The keywords are sorted by the frequency in which people searched for each specific word/phrase.
- Try to be as specific as you can, depending on your niche in the market. If you are the go-to for luxury homes in your area, try including the word ‘Luxury” in your search and see how the keywords generated differ. Geographic area is probably the most important item to add when investigating keywords i.e.’ Naperville Real Estate’, because just using ‘Real Estate’ will provide results for every area in the country, which doesn’t help you.
Once you know how people are searching, you can better understand the results of your SEO. Now that you know what people are searching for, you can make sure to add any pertinent keywords you are missing to your website. By adding these keywords, you are increasing your chances of the search engines recognizing your content if someone searches for those words. In our next issue, we will discuss how to track your rankings in Google for the terms people are searching, by using Google Webmaster Tools. So, until next month, have fun keyword hunting.
We recently read a great post on Tech Savvy Agent regarding backlinking and why it is important. Essentially, backlinking provides inbound links to your Web site and the more inbound links you have, the greater your chances of showing up higher in organic search results. They also explain how to determine if the site to which you’re looking to post your backlink has a ‘Nofollow’ tag assoicated with it. If they do, the backlink is rendered useless.
But ‘Nofollow’ tags affect real estate agents in more ways that just backlinking on blogs. ‘Nofollow’ tags can be found on very popular real estate sites like Realtor.com and Trulia as well. With those virtual stop signs present, your Web site posted along side your listing has no effect– in the eyes of a search engine, you are not referenced as the authoritative source on that listing.
Click here for an illustration and a little more info on ‘Nofollow’ tags
Click here to also read Tech Savvy Agent’s post regarding backlinking–it’s a good one!
1. Do some research in Google AdWords to locate keyword ideas that will make your property description more ‘searchable’
It is no secret that the vast majority of potential home buyers begin their searches online. With this being the new reality, making your listings and property descriptions as searchable as possible for online buyers is key– the buyers are out there and you want to be sure that it is your listings they are finding. There are tactics you can apply to help with this, like applying searchable keywords, that won’t dip into any of your marketing budget.
Check out the below link to the Google AdWords Keyword Tool. You can enter in different phrases and keywords to see what is searched most often.
2. Create a Blog
Going along with our #1 tip on the list, the goal is to make your listings very searchable and easily found by the large number of potential online buyers. A terrifc way to optimize your brand and your listings is to create a blog. The good news is that there are hundreds, maybe even thousands, of easy to use blog templates out there…many of which are free!
Here is an few example/source with information on creating your blog:
http://www.blogger.com/template-editor.g?blogID=4010125631613458355
3. Posting your Listings on Social Networking Sites and on YouTube
You may be sensing a theme here– online optimization of your listings is critical. With so many free options to help you accomplish this, it’s becoming more and more accessible to successfully market your properties online. You just need to take advantage of the tools that are available.
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We’ve discussed posting your listings to your social networking sites, and posting your video tours to YouTube, in a couple of our RE Marketing Revolution Newsletter articles. Please click the below links to read those articles.
Will Posting Listings to YouTube Really Attract More Buyers?
‘Liking’ and ‘Sharing’ Your Way to Online Optimization
4. Create a Single Property Web site
For our final tip regarding online optimization of your listings, we recommend creating a single property website, and using this in conjunction with the first 3 tips. Make sure your text is searchable, link this to your blog, and post it on your social networking sites. Some of the single property sites have built in tools to help with linking your property site to your blog and social networks.
Again, there are number of sites you can use to create a property Web site. But here is one example to get you started. This site is free when using for your listing presentations, and then when you get the listing and want to make it live, they charge a very small monthly fee (we recommend to further assist in online optimization, to also think about adding the custom domain name if it’s still being offered): http://www.singlepropertysites.com. We tested this site when a team member had their home up for sale and we thought it worked well– fairly easy to use. It also has a gallery of pre-branded templates for a number of national brokerage firms.
5. Learn and apply light staging techniques
Mastering light staging will not only help attract more buyers to those all too important online photographs (after all, you’ve just done some great optimization tactics to help buyers find your listing… now it needs to look the part and motivate them to call for a showing)– it also helps create an enjoyable (and hopefully memorable) in-person viewing experience.
We liked this AOL Real Estate article regarding staging, it has some helpful tips and suggestions: http://realestate.aol.com/article/improve/_a/styled-to-sell/20070404104909990001
This article was originally posted in the July edition of our RE Marketing Revolution e-Newsletter. If you would like to sign up to receive this free e-Newsletter, please click here. You can unsubscribe at any time.
