Marketing Realtors Online – The Six Basics Template Sites Miss

Hi all - 

Over and over I keep getting asked “What can I do to improve my web site?” by clients using template web site services.  You know who I’m talking about.  Ubertor, MyRealPages, and (ewww) MarketLinx.  These services are fine for small and part time realtors.  They do the basics, albeit poorly.

Full time realtors know better.  It’s not Rocket Science.  So for those of you with a static web site you can edit – here are the Six Basics for Marketing Realtors Online.  Note that RealtyFolio (our solutions package does all of this automatically.)

1. Page Title – so simple, so basic, yet still effective.  Include information – your name, contact number and property details.  Keep it under 26 words.  Edit it on any page you want people to see on your web site.
2. Link Titles – Yes, anything that’s linkable can also contain a title.  The best choice for words to use would be content you are linking to.  Think of it as a short description of where you’re sending someone.  DO this to every link, and don’t cheat by using terms not found on the targeted page.  Google hates that.
3. Relevant Content – it’s hard to believe, but yes many of your web sites contain virtually no information of value to anyone.  So add something of value.  Realtor.org has hundreds of articles you can republish in their entirety.  Check out my articles on reposting others information.
4. META Description – now this has been downgraded in value with search engines because of all the abuse.  It’s still used though as that 1 short sentance below you link on most search engines.  Again, the shorter it is, the better it is.  And don’t forget your phone number!
5. META Keywords – this has also been downgraded becasue of abuse.  What it’s used for now is to establish your sites ‘classification’.  
6. sitemap.xml – yes, this is massively important.  This is not the site map humans see, it’s the site map the search engines see.  This is very big, and really should be installed by a professional.
7. Google Analytics - okay, we’re past 6 now.  Add Analytics to get a REAL IMPARTIAL view about how your site is used.

Now you can do all of this manually, or you can get RealtyFolio to do it for you automatically.

On a static web site, this is a time consuming process.  On a rented template site, you might get 2 of these features.  We have yet to find a template provider that cares about these important elements (or reciprocity for that matter).

Here endeth my rant.