Everyone virtually without exception is telling you content marketing is where it’s at in 2013 and generally they are correct but where are you putting that content? Who is benefiting most from what you do online? Syndications are rolling out more and more schemes with a front end that looks like a great benefit to real estate agents but these schemes tend to work like inverse Trojan horses gathering many elements of the work of individual agents and amassing all those small pieces of effort and energy to themselves to create massive powerhouses that dominate search results.

Trulia [...]]]> Real Estate SEO in 2013

Everyone virtually without exception is telling you content marketing is where it’s at in 2013 and generally they are correct but where are you putting that content? Who is benefiting most from what you do online? Syndications are rolling out more and more schemes with a front end that looks like a great benefit to real estate agents but these schemes tend to work like inverse Trojan horses gathering many elements of the work of individual agents and amassing all those small pieces of effort and energy to themselves to create massive powerhouses that dominate search results.

Trulia Stealing Your Thunder In Search?

 Recent example:  Trulia provided a widget for real estate agents to put on their website that provided home search capability. Once the terms of use are agreed to, the widget can be placed in a website and Voila!  the agent has free home search capability on their website.

 What’s really happening: Trulia has, with your permission, installed a link with targeted anchor text on your website that gives page rank or link juice back to Trulia.com. Beyond that, the widget takes instructions by “calling home” and alters the link keywords to match your specific real estate market, e.g. “Hollywood Hills homes for sale.”   These links aggregate as more people install the free widget and Trulia benefits from an array of links pointing to their website where ever they want them to and with whatever anchor text that they want to have pointing to them. In other words, they control the entire linking profile from a vast number of relevant websites all to do with real estate. What could be more powerful than that? And it works. Trulia shows up as the first search result for more and more local real estate searches in Google. 

 Fighting the Trend:

One thing that local agents have that is withheld from syndicates is Google’s local search. Optimizing your website along with references in Google local delivers high placement in search results, usually above all the syndicate results.

Another is local content. Agents who create content about their community on their website, their blogs and available channels like YouTube will outperform syndicates despite their domain power.

 Google authorship: Nothing speaks to a local audience like the face of the local person in search results. it’s easy to cross-link your Google profile and your website. This will deliver the headshot of your choice in search results attracting attention saying, “Here is a local person who can really help you one on one.” 

I spend countless hours studying and learning what the latest pet peeves and carrot and stick strategies Google is employing to get people to behave they want on their websites. It’s Google’s game absolutely and if you want to be ranked high on Google you will learn the rules or employ someone who knows them well and preferably both. If you should always be informed about what is happening in your business and SEO is no exception.

 One way to get quickly informed and find out immediate strategies that will improve your ranking quickly is to take advantage of my Real Estate SEO Jumpstart this  multifaceted analysis and strategy session includes full website analysis and one on one sessions along with concrete strategies spelled out for you to get guaranteed higher placement for the keywords you are struggling to rank for right now. These are steps you can take on your own, immediately that will make a difference in your real estate business visibility online.

 Get Your Real Estate SEO Jumpstart now. First come, first served.

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There’s an entire section that measures traffic coming in from “Social” and that “Social” is very broad ranging from Disqus to Linkedin to of course, G+.

What is being reported and measured is traffic that engages by clicking through the social media curtain to your website. That is a challenge most people don’t like and don’t want to take on, but the rewards I have found to be high for that very reason.

If you’ve seen my SEO experiment on Google Plus, Most of what I have done has involved attracting people to visit the website.  Social isn’t the end all [...]]]> Likes and plus ones are a game by-in-large but have you looked at the Search Engine Optimization section of Google Analytics lately?

There’s an entire section that measures traffic coming in from “Social” and that “Social” is very broad ranging from Disqus to Linkedin to of course, G+.

What is being reported and measured is traffic that engages by clicking through the social media curtain to your website. That is a challenge most people don’t like and don’t want to take on, but the rewards I have found to be high for that very reason.

If you’ve seen my SEO experiment on Google Plus, Most of what I have done has involved attracting people to visit the website.  Social isn’t the end all but ignore it at your peril. It’s a strong signal when people are actually finding value in what you offer.

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 I have no idea if GoDaddy’s security is any better or worse than other hosting services like Bluehost, Hostgator, iPage and many others but I have never been a fan of GoDaddy hosting. [...]]]> It’s noon on the West Coast and Godaddy is still down as I write this. Godaddy hosts one of my clients’ websites and a typical database error message greeted me when I began to work on the website this morning. It didn’t take long to find out that not only was his hosting down but the entire GoDaddy website is down too.  That is a definite 1st in my experience. A tweet from an alleged member of the hacker group, Anonymous claims responsibility for the outage on behalf of the group.

 I have no idea if GoDaddy’s security is any better or worse than other hosting services like Bluehost, Hostgator, iPage and many others but I have never been a fan of GoDaddy hosting. Since there is no Cpanel,  you are already starting out with one hand tied behind your back.

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You can see for yourself who is behind it, but there is a link wheel appearing to promote a page on Switchlabel.com. Right now the Switchlable page has some chalkboard scratching painful to read if at least grammatically correct article espousing the wonders of hiring “Orange County SEO professionals.” Only problem is, gee wiz, the rest of the website is in Latin. One category link is named “Epic Winning.” Yeah, just like Charlie.

The link wheel wanders all over the low quality spectrum and finally ends up there at the site that who knows what will happen with it. A 301 redirect? Who cares. [...]]]>

You can see for yourself who is behind it, but there is a link wheel appearing to promote a page on Switchlabel.com. Right now the Switchlable page has some chalkboard scratching painful to read if at least grammatically correct article espousing the wonders of hiring “Orange County SEO professionals.” Only problem is, gee wiz, the rest of the website is in Latin. One category link is named “Epic Winning.” Yeah, just like Charlie.

The link wheel wanders all over the low quality spectrum and finally ends up there at the site that who knows what will happen with it. A 301 redirect? Who cares. My own website ranks above this thing and also above the sponsor of said thing by even more places.

It isn’t that I’m so opposed to so called black hat strategies that don’t necessarily conform 100% to Google’s wishes. They’d like you to never “create” or “build” a single link but do some kind of awesome outreach and create such awesome content that everyone will be linking to you because you’re so awesome.

Awesome. What would Google do without that word? Well, anyway if you create pure garbage to put into any system, including the monolithic database that Google is, you’ll certainly get garbage out and Google will filter that garbage in the next rinse and repeat of its algorithms.

My site? It ranks ahead of this so called contender because its content is something different and unique and of some kind of value to those wanting to get information about SEO in Orange County or anywhere else, especially if it’s related to real estate marketing. Yes, you can build or create links but shouldn’t there be some kind of quality involved?

The website that’s behind all this recent Chinese drywall of link building effort looks itself like a link site. Everything on the home page is just a link to something else on the site, usually just a sales proposition. That’s OK, and I heartily support sales propositions but there is content on there masquerading as something valuable but it doesn’t look that way to me.

{End Rant;}

Oh, not yet. One more thing. Since when is “Orange County SEO” understood to be one of a list of cities served? 

One more gratuitous link: Real Estate SEO help

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SEO for real estate can be enhanced by use of free websites.

While posting on, and linking from web 2.0 sites are useful, don’t rely on them for your whole strategy. Sometimes, however, when you need an equalizer against some competition, they can provide the tipping point to get [...]]]> I spoke yesterday at the Upland Claremont  Real Estate Professionals meeting about leveraging specific high PR posts and videos for search engine visibility. Sometimes a few links are needed and most real estate agents are not aware of the many resources where new content can be created and new links from new sources can be embedded in your content that point to your content on a video site or other high domain authority sites.

SEO for real estate can be enhanced by use of free websites.

While posting on, and linking from web 2.0 sites are useful, don’t rely on them for your whole strategy. Sometimes, however, when you need an equalizer against some competition, they can provide the tipping point to get  you ranked higher.

This is a list of some of my favorite sources:

1. http://wordpress.com – be careful with this one. They don’t particularly like commercial intent and if you go to far or get to aggressive with links, they will shut down your account.
2. http://webs.com
3. http://squidoo.com (be prepared to create ample high quality content here- worth the effort)
4. http://jimdo.com
5. http://yolasite.com
6. http://weebly.com
7. http://orbs.com
8. http://posterous.com
9. http://livejournal.com
10. http://blogspot.com (Google’s blogger platform- I find this still packs a punch)

Another way to find free web 2.0 websites where you can create content and links can be by searching Google for: List of free web 2.0 sites. The resources are out there for anyone willing to take the time to sort out the offerings.

Not all web 2.0 sites are equal. Check that the links on the website are not no followed- the won’t do you a lot of good.

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One thing Google loves is freshness and change. Something new to offer its searching audience. The BSO (bright shiny object) is what people like and Google knows it. They want a steady stream of them to hand out on their portal. You could make a case for the different as a marketing strategy. There are lots of opportunities in niche content creation and page one, even #1 [...]]]> Set it and Forget it? Forget it!

One day soon, somewhere, someone will wake up and check on their local business listing and find it has disappeared. Google will have removed it without a trace and without fanfare. No, they didn’t take a punitive action against an offending product or behavior, but rather the lack of one.

One thing Google loves is freshness and change. Something new to offer its searching audience. The BSO (bright shiny object) is what people like and Google knows it. They want a steady stream of them to hand out on their portal. You could make a case for the different as a marketing strategy. There are lots of opportunities in niche content creation and page one, even #1 search results that would surprise you like: California business cash flow solutions

Keeping it Fresh for the Search Market is SEO in Action

Google wants you to keep up and keep it fresh. That simple. Take that places page you created last year. If you leave it alone, you may find that Google has decided that if it isn’t relevant enough to you to update it, it isn’t relevant to others either and they’ll go ahead and let if go with the purge that happens with any healthy data management system whether it is the human mind or a virtual system like Google. Memory and data get pruned, trimmed and purged routinely in human minds and in Google. What color was the car parked next to you in the parking lot this morning? If you do remember at all, what about yesterday? Eventually, information is purged and consolidated.

From the Google + TOS page: Google may, without notice, remove your Google+ Pages if they are dormant for more than nine months.

One thing you’ll want to do is keep up with your potentially most valuable online asset. A local listing that places above competitors goes a long way. SEO is becoming PR a little bit more every day. Keeping it fresh isn’t just an SEO tactic, it’s a necessary strategy and plan.

It may be convenient to set some processes in business and have to give minimal thought to them afterward but Google local and SEO in general aren’t among those set it and forget it processes.

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So the frenzy in SEO circles and search related media is all about Google ending the use of Google Places in favor of Google Local. Sort of. Google has started a transition toward its unified console, adding Local to the lineup. Places isn’t gone so much as its functions have moved toward consolidation of Google’s user control panel or whatever you wish to call it. What’s important at this stage is to remember that most of search starts in Google’s core organic search engine. As I overheard Steve Wiideman say, “The #1 search on AOL is ‘www.google.com.’” [...]]]> Google Places Has Been Canned! read one email I received in a breathless announcement of the inevitable. Google continues to consolidate its channels into one: Google Plus.

So the frenzy in SEO circles and search related media is all about Google ending the use of Google Places in favor of Google Local. Sort of. Google has started a transition toward its unified console, adding Local to the lineup. Places isn’t gone so much as its functions have moved toward consolidation of Google’s user control panel or whatever you wish to call it. What’s important at this stage is to remember that most of search starts in Google’s core organic search engine. As I overheard Steve Wiideman say, “The #1 search on AOL is ‘www.google.com.’” Google is still entrenched in the minds of the public as where you go to look up something. 

Let’s keep things in perspective. Maps, Places, Local, whatever you wish to call it will perform well for your local business if you take the time to claim, develop and connect your Google identity across whatever channels they provide as their front end, user interface, back end or anything else you wish to call it. 

It’s simple, really. Get into Google’s interface(s) and fill in all the blanks. Then validate that information in every way that Google recognizes.

My “real estate SEO expert” listing as it looks today after the big Local shift looks much as it did yesterday after I found it in Google maps and clicked through to edit it:

The yellow notification area has a link to Google support that states this: 

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See below, broad, phrase and exact match search volume:

So, whatever, I don’t get near the percentage of traffic that you’re supposed to get according to the 2006 Cornell Eye Tracking Study. Position #5 is supposed to get a few points worth of traffic but it doesn’t because I think most of that traffic is other SEOs checking their position. We’ve all inflated the search volume out of the stratosphere. In fact, [...]]]> Yep, a position #5 ranking for “Orange County SEO” which is like some kind of coup de feat in SEO because of all the traffic it’s supposed to generate according to the Google Adword Keyword Tool

See below, broad, phrase and exact match search volume:

So, whatever, I don’t get near the percentage of traffic that you’re supposed to get according to the 2006 Cornell Eye Tracking Study. Position #5 is supposed to get a few points worth of traffic but it doesn’t because I think most of that traffic is other SEOs checking their position. We’ve all inflated the search volume out of the stratosphere. In fact, a lot of my recent traffic is coming from someone in Atlanta who keeps searching for images related to www.orange-county-seo.com to each his own I guess.

Anyway, most of the links come from content I wrote and a smattering of no follow comments and posts on other websites.

Here’s what I didn’t pursue:

• A crapload of directory links. I see another site above me who did that and they rank for now. I don’t think it will last that long.
• Automated comment links
• Forum links
• Xrumer and scrapebox
• Fiverr links

Mostly, I just posted an occasional post about what I’ve been observing in the SEO industry just like now, with a little focus on Orange County. SEO, in case you didn’t know is transforming by necessity because Google is cornering the spammy link industry. They are actually trying to rank websites with content that’s at least real and above a third grade level- like this post.

I care less about links every day and more about content. Oh don’t get me wrong. I love a good link and I’m not above creating them myself but a few good quality contextually embedded links go further than ten thousand xrumer comment links.

Eric Ward is right. Links are inversely valuable related to their ease of acquisition. If you can buy it for $5 per 1000 how useless are they really? Almost completely.

I can give myself or my clients a powerful link from better sources I created myself. 

Well, that’s all I have to say about that. Go create content. Link sparingly and effectively.

Dave Keys, expert in my field of real estate search optimization.

Pretty picture below

Now you’re going to ask, what does a picture of a sunset have to do with SEO? Plenty. This sunset is in Maui. I took it in 2005 with a consumer camera. I haven’t taken a better Maui sunset photo since even though I’ve bought several increasingly expensive cameras and lenses. Why? This photo is “pure content” without expensive technology. This was a moment that was perfect and I captured its essence. SEO really starts with marketing. Content of value. Without it, SEO is pretty much worthless. With great content and marketing, SEO is exponentially more effective. 

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… I want SEO recommendations for [...]]]> I participate in a forum for SEO advice. Mine isn’t always in the professional vernacular but I focus on clearing up major issues fast for websites. Real estate websites are close neighbors of Bed and Breakfast websites so I thought I’d share some observations on this particular website just for people in real estate to gain some perspective into what should and shouldn’t be happening on their sites as well. I hope you gain some benefit from this review of a B&B website.

I have a client at http://www.shorecrestbedandbreakfast.com/ with a blog at http://www.shorecrestbedandbreakfast.com/blog/ I could use some advice on how to get this site up in rankings.

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Quality still beats brute force- maybe not immediately but over the longer term, it’s going to win. Google can sort it [...]]]> I’m as much in favor of article syndication as the next anti-Panda advocate but thin content is thin content. I’ve seen competitors in recent months for keyword Orange County SEO expend resources on creating more and more spin content and thin and even unintelligible, out-of-control so-called article marketing that is really just spam, trying desperately to rank for the old OC search optimization keyword but my site rises in the Google search results to page one with just the creation of a few original posts and links from a few of my blogs- not the boilerplate anchor text kind but natural links. Why?

Quality still beats brute force- maybe not immediately but over the longer term, it’s going to win. Google can sort it out and sooner or later, it does just that.

Every day, cheap “SEO” consultants and firms offer this kind of cheap temporary spam as SEO but any decent campaign that employs all of the known current Google preferred SEO methods in Orange County and everywhere else will come out ahead.

Hey, it looks like this now:

Don’t let the SEO spammers fool you with three keywords and ten thousand boilerplate low quality links.  They begin and end at temporary search rankings and never touch marketing at all. Where’s the ROI? Why spend money on temporary ranking that’s going to get consumed by quality competitors?

Contact me for a shot at a real, quality SEO campaign, especially SEO for real estate. It won’t be cheap but it will be an effective progression toward marketing to clients who provide you with something that really helps your business- income!

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