I don't know about everyone else, but it's hard for me to get in the spirit when I stay home in Myrtle Beach for Christmas. Trouble is, it's so darned cold back home that I can't make myself drive up to be with family. This year I'm also in the middle of trying out the new "stop smoking" drug called Chantix. So far it's giving me gas, some diarreah, and I'm sleeping 12 hours a day. Pretty good odds to make you quit smoking, isn't it? Hah.
This month has been the worst I've ever seen as far as real estate leads go. All of our sites have gotten the same amount of traffic as ever, but almost no leads at all in the last two weeks. Really irksome! I have picked up a couple of SEO tricks from a really great SEO company called Stomper Net. These guys are really really on the money. They make some hilarious and interesting videos, and if their tips work, it's well worth the couple of hours it takes to watch them and learn. Lest my competition learn from me, I'll leave it up to you to visit their website and spend the time to learn it too.
New on the website front, we finally got a really good IDX solution just about installed on the condos.net site. There's still some bugs, and the company we went with is about as slow as molasses, but it's looking great, and I'm excited about the finished product.
You can search the Myrtle Beach MLS from it, of course. But we decided to go an extra step which most of the local websites haven't done. You can register for free, put in your parameters of what kind of Myrtle Beach real estate you are interested in, and have the new listings sent to you by email as new properties fitting your description come up for sale. It's a cool option, and one I think our customers will appreciate and use often. You can visit and sign up for your Personal Condo Locator right here.
Hopefully when January 1 comes around, these buyers that keep hoping prices will go even lower will see that the bottom is already here, and decide to get their beach homes before the prices start escalating again during the spring and summer tourist seasons.
Learn more about our Myrtle Beach condos for sale and enjoy some beach pictures on our Condostore website. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all!
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Friday, November 30, 2007
Real Estate Ad Budgets Stretched Thin across Copious Media Choices
From MarketingCharts.com
Between the soft housing market and tight budgets, US real estate agents and brokers are facing tougher choices when they divide up their ad dollars - especially when media choices have proliferated - according to a new study of real estate ad spend trends.
Less than half - 47% - of the Realtors surveyed said they are spending more for advertising and marketing this year than they did last year, the study conducted by Classified Intelligence and RealtyTimes.com found. That proportion was 58% in the previous year’s survey.
And despite their complaints about newspaper advertising, Realtors continue to choose print over what is an almost overwhelming number of media-placement options, according to the report, “Real Estate Advertising - Print Fading But Realtors Still Use It.”
Although just 15% of respondents said they still advertise in print, respondents voted newspapers third out of 11 categories for producing qualified leads.
Moreover, half of the surveyed Realtors said the results from national websites are below their expectations - simply not generating enough leads.
Some 39% of respondents said they’re overwhelmed by the number of advertising options; just 5% said they felt they have the decision-making process down to a science.
The study found that the shaky real estate outlook is compelling agents and brokers to use fewer dollars in more productive places, forcing them to reassess their media choices.
Some are turning online: Whereas a year earlier the number of Realtors involved in blogging and social networking was insignificant, some 21% of respondents now say they have their own blog and 25% say they participate on at least one social-networking site.
“Real estate professionals are in a tough spot,” said Peter M. Zollman, founding principal of CI. “The economic considerations in an unsure market are pressuring ad performances to do more, for less. At the same time, choices for those advertising dollars have exploded, causing confusion on where to best spend their budgets.”
About the study: The report was based on responses from 344 real estate professionals, who reported they were everywhere from “overwhelmed” to “scientifically buttoned-down” about their advertising expenditures. The report also reviews companies providing technology to real estate ad publishers, leading European and Asian real estate advertising media, and an overview of the latest innovations in real estate ad technology.
Oct 29-07
###
In Myrtle Beach this is particularly true. When I first started out with Condolux, we were the only game in town with the search engines. Now there are about 25 fly-by-night supposed SEO companies (read link collectors) and quite a few competing sites that give me a run for the money on Myrtle Beach real estate.
Real Estate Marketing by Myrtle Beach Web Design
Between the soft housing market and tight budgets, US real estate agents and brokers are facing tougher choices when they divide up their ad dollars - especially when media choices have proliferated - according to a new study of real estate ad spend trends.
Less than half - 47% - of the Realtors surveyed said they are spending more for advertising and marketing this year than they did last year, the study conducted by Classified Intelligence and RealtyTimes.com found. That proportion was 58% in the previous year’s survey.
And despite their complaints about newspaper advertising, Realtors continue to choose print over what is an almost overwhelming number of media-placement options, according to the report, “Real Estate Advertising - Print Fading But Realtors Still Use It.”
Although just 15% of respondents said they still advertise in print, respondents voted newspapers third out of 11 categories for producing qualified leads.
Moreover, half of the surveyed Realtors said the results from national websites are below their expectations - simply not generating enough leads.
Some 39% of respondents said they’re overwhelmed by the number of advertising options; just 5% said they felt they have the decision-making process down to a science.
The study found that the shaky real estate outlook is compelling agents and brokers to use fewer dollars in more productive places, forcing them to reassess their media choices.
Some are turning online: Whereas a year earlier the number of Realtors involved in blogging and social networking was insignificant, some 21% of respondents now say they have their own blog and 25% say they participate on at least one social-networking site.
“Real estate professionals are in a tough spot,” said Peter M. Zollman, founding principal of CI. “The economic considerations in an unsure market are pressuring ad performances to do more, for less. At the same time, choices for those advertising dollars have exploded, causing confusion on where to best spend their budgets.”
About the study: The report was based on responses from 344 real estate professionals, who reported they were everywhere from “overwhelmed” to “scientifically buttoned-down” about their advertising expenditures. The report also reviews companies providing technology to real estate ad publishers, leading European and Asian real estate advertising media, and an overview of the latest innovations in real estate ad technology.
Oct 29-07
###
In Myrtle Beach this is particularly true. When I first started out with Condolux, we were the only game in town with the search engines. Now there are about 25 fly-by-night supposed SEO companies (read link collectors) and quite a few competing sites that give me a run for the money on Myrtle Beach real estate.
Real Estate Marketing by Myrtle Beach Web Design
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Matt Cutts The Google Cat
Matt had this unbelievable picture posted on his blog for Halloween today. He is completely adorable. And all his male fans are giving him hell. You'd think he wore a pink shirt in public or something...haha...
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Building Online Real Estate Classifieds
My friend Bryan Pearl has the unusual background of being in web design and marketing first, and then moving into real estate sales. He writes the below article to share his insight about one of the methods we use for links and marketing...
Building Online Real Estate Classifieds
Placing an ad online can seem intimidating in the beginning. Here are some basic guidelines to follow in creating great online classifieds.
The structure of an AdI use a simple ad structure I call the 4-C model. Capture attention, Create Interest, Cause Desire, and Call to action. In the 4-C structure you can create effective ads to use again and again.
The first C - Capture Attention
You have a very brief moment to capture the attention of a potential home buyers. Design the headline/title with the best description possible, such as UNBELIEVABLE SOUTHERN CHARM IN THIS DOWNTOWN HOME. The right person is looking for this description and you want to get it discovered.
The second C – Create interest
Pick two or three main features of the home and briefly describe the benefits of those features. Don’t go into the boring feature description. Focus on the benefit the feature provides. A good example is a Jacuzzi . The Jacuzzi is the feature but the image some one draws from the Jacuzzi is tranquil peaceful relaxation. A certain level of comfort and luxury is assumed just in the name of the Jacuzzi. Take a few extra words and describe it.
The third C – Cause a Desire
Here you want to tie the first and second C’s together in a question or statement. JUST IMAGINE! as an example. Another could be, WHAT WOULD IT BE LIKE IF YOU LIVED HERE? This can be a short question or several words but this should be the conclusion to the actual ad. Try to tie everything together in the last statement.
The fourth C – Call to Action
This should be simple, but it is another area to highlight some of the benefits. Such as, THIS CAN ALL BE YOURS, CALL TODAY FOR YOUR PRIVATE VIEWING. Then provide your contact information.
I use this format for all of my ads while marketing Huntsville Alabama Real Estate.
Long or short I find it to be an effective ad development process. Feel free to copy this process and use to your heart’s content.
Bryan Pearl is a Real Estate Agent marketing Huntsville Homes for Sale.
To contact Bryan call 256-513-1801.
SEO Tips and Tricks by Myrtle Beach Web Design
Building Online Real Estate Classifieds
Placing an ad online can seem intimidating in the beginning. Here are some basic guidelines to follow in creating great online classifieds.
The structure of an AdI use a simple ad structure I call the 4-C model. Capture attention, Create Interest, Cause Desire, and Call to action. In the 4-C structure you can create effective ads to use again and again.
The first C - Capture Attention
You have a very brief moment to capture the attention of a potential home buyers. Design the headline/title with the best description possible, such as UNBELIEVABLE SOUTHERN CHARM IN THIS DOWNTOWN HOME. The right person is looking for this description and you want to get it discovered.
The second C – Create interest
Pick two or three main features of the home and briefly describe the benefits of those features. Don’t go into the boring feature description. Focus on the benefit the feature provides. A good example is a Jacuzzi . The Jacuzzi is the feature but the image some one draws from the Jacuzzi is tranquil peaceful relaxation. A certain level of comfort and luxury is assumed just in the name of the Jacuzzi. Take a few extra words and describe it.
The third C – Cause a Desire
Here you want to tie the first and second C’s together in a question or statement. JUST IMAGINE! as an example. Another could be, WHAT WOULD IT BE LIKE IF YOU LIVED HERE? This can be a short question or several words but this should be the conclusion to the actual ad. Try to tie everything together in the last statement.
The fourth C – Call to Action
This should be simple, but it is another area to highlight some of the benefits. Such as, THIS CAN ALL BE YOURS, CALL TODAY FOR YOUR PRIVATE VIEWING. Then provide your contact information.
I use this format for all of my ads while marketing Huntsville Alabama Real Estate.
Long or short I find it to be an effective ad development process. Feel free to copy this process and use to your heart’s content.
Bryan Pearl is a Real Estate Agent marketing Huntsville Homes for Sale.
To contact Bryan call 256-513-1801.
SEO Tips and Tricks by Myrtle Beach Web Design
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Search Engine Optimization and Navigation Links
I've had several instances lately with realtors either asking for help, or cutting off their noses to spite their faces, when it comes to the concept of LINKS on their homepages.
It seems we all have our special ideas about how best to have incoming links displayed and where. Since the new algorithim change several months ago where they have almost completely discounted reciprocal links, those of us who know what we're doing have gotten rid of most of these, and particular those endless "links" pages that the ripoff SEO companies have been milking money for over the last couple of years. My group of friends and affiliates have always favored homepage links over interior ones, mostly because they are easier to maintain and it doesn't take hundreds of them to work.
That being said, many realtors even went overboard with homepage links...some having 100 or more at the bottom of their pages. I have a couple of older, possibly "authority" sites that probably have more than they should have...although I've been working to get rid of all but the most important ones.
Real Estate Linking Strategies
In the beginning, we all did reciprocal links that way too. Now most of us are able to find a way to make them one-ways instead, and these are even MORE powerful...requiring even less in number, and if used along WITH a comprehensive linking strategy involving blogs, press releases, article writing, and directory links, they are great for your site's PR. It MUST be done in moderation, and should be done with other realtors that you know and who, themselves, have a concept of proper SEO. Like any other linking, if they screw up and get penalized, it can reflect back on you. The best of all link partners are your competitors, oddly enough.
But as the argument wages on about the number of links on a page, and whether an incoming link from a homepage with 50 others is worth as much, or less than a homepage with 30...or 25...or none, for that matter. Since the beginning, Google has said to keep outgoing links on a page to 100 or less. The question is...WHAT is considered an outgoing link?
Outline Your Website Navigation
If a website has 40-50 great interior pages (with a real estate website, perhaps descriptions of neighborhoods, types of housing, retirement info and such) and also another 50-75 links to other websites...reciprocal or one-way...do you use the total of both? We didn't for a long time. I'm still not 100% sure either way. Most SEO's absolutely think so, however.
But there is a way to lessen the navigation links, and therefore lessen the "bleeding" of PR from the homepage all the way around. So many realtors don't understand the concept of site-maps, themed groups of pages, and how to most effectively link to your inside pages from the homepage. One of the worst culprits are the Advanced Access sites...which all contain scads of pages about schools, population demographics, relocation information, taxes, and all kinds of STUFF, that is important and perhaps interesting to a buyer, is also not necessarily important for most of your viewers...which are there to look at available property! It's good to have alot of content...actually imperative. But you don't need a link to every single one of these pages on your homepage!
In school, most of us learned the basic concept of doing "the OUTLINE". I can't think of a better time to use an outline than for a website that has more than 25-30 pages of content. Try to decide which of your inside pages are more important to your customer and will promote sales. Put these in your navigation and sprinkle the links in your homepage text. You probably don't have more than 10 or 15 pages that are really important. Concentrate on promoting these from the homepage, from your blog, and from press releases as well. They will end up often with as high of a PR as your homepage, and in the best cases, may show up as extra listings in search results! THIS IS WHAT YOU SHOULD BE AIMING FOR.
If you have a page about schools, about weather, about local attractions....relocation resources, businesses, government information, etc...then create a main page for the area. Call that page the name of the area...such as www.yoursite.com/your-city.html. Lump all those "reference" pages together on THAT page, and have one link on the homepage to IT...not 6-8 separate links.
If you live in an area that encompasses 3 counties, 6 cities, and 10 sub-divisions, try to make an outline. Have separate paragraphs in your text with a teaser and heading for the 3 counties.
On that county page, link the city pages....and the sub-division pages if you want. Or have another main page for the cities, and link the sub-divisions off there. Besides the ease of navigation, you are also adding great, themed, and optimized pages for each area, and it gives you another chance to rank FOR that area. Call the pages something like "/randolph-county-real-estate.html" and then "myrtle-beach-condos-for-sale.html".
You'll have only 3 homepage links in this case, instead of 19. If you feel that some of the cities are more important than the county, then add a column on the homepage with direct links such as "North Myrtle Beach Real Estate" or "Myrtle Beach Condos". Keep it limited to important pages! When you do a blog post, do one just about Myrtle Beach's real estate offerings, and link to that interior page from the blog. If you have a featured home in one sub-division, go to one of the classified ad sites such as Backpage.com and do an ad for it...free, or for pennies a day. Put a link on the ad back to that interior page, and you get PR to it!
You end up with an easy to navigate, CLEAN homepage, that doesn't overwhelm the visitor with too many options, yet makes it easy for them to find the area or home they are looking for. And no less important, you help the search engines to more easily focus on your most important search terms on the homepage instead of confusing them as to your main area theme... DILUTING your search terms!
So now your navigation and text links on the homepage are counted more like 15 or 20 instead of 40-50. You've got room to put some outbound homepage links to other realtors...or local businesses, or whatever themed links you find to help you with Google's important PageRank.
Remember that outgoing links are like pin pricks. You lose a drop of blood with every one. Be sure you are getting an equal or greater drop of blood BACK from a link for any that you link out to. Keep in mind that your inner pages usually don't have equal rank to your homepage. So if your homepage is a PR4, and you link to that inner city page that is a PR2, even though it links back to the homepage, you only get a half of a drop of blood instead of a whole one. You want as many great pages of content as you can get, yes! But you don't need to link them all from your homepage. You only defeat your SEO efforts when you do.
One last, very important must.... BE SURE YOUR INSIDE LINKS TO THE HOME PAGE ARE TO YOUR DOMAIN NAME. Don't do the old-fashioned "Home" links to index.html or default.html. Use your main search terms in the links whenever possible, and if you use graphic buttons for your navigation, be sure to use additional TEXT LINKS at the bottom of all inside pages.
I'm off the soapbox now...:-)
Stay tuned for more Real Estate Marketing Tips and Rants from Myrtle Beach Web Design.
It seems we all have our special ideas about how best to have incoming links displayed and where. Since the new algorithim change several months ago where they have almost completely discounted reciprocal links, those of us who know what we're doing have gotten rid of most of these, and particular those endless "links" pages that the ripoff SEO companies have been milking money for over the last couple of years. My group of friends and affiliates have always favored homepage links over interior ones, mostly because they are easier to maintain and it doesn't take hundreds of them to work.
That being said, many realtors even went overboard with homepage links...some having 100 or more at the bottom of their pages. I have a couple of older, possibly "authority" sites that probably have more than they should have...although I've been working to get rid of all but the most important ones.
Real Estate Linking Strategies
In the beginning, we all did reciprocal links that way too. Now most of us are able to find a way to make them one-ways instead, and these are even MORE powerful...requiring even less in number, and if used along WITH a comprehensive linking strategy involving blogs, press releases, article writing, and directory links, they are great for your site's PR. It MUST be done in moderation, and should be done with other realtors that you know and who, themselves, have a concept of proper SEO. Like any other linking, if they screw up and get penalized, it can reflect back on you. The best of all link partners are your competitors, oddly enough.
But as the argument wages on about the number of links on a page, and whether an incoming link from a homepage with 50 others is worth as much, or less than a homepage with 30...or 25...or none, for that matter. Since the beginning, Google has said to keep outgoing links on a page to 100 or less. The question is...WHAT is considered an outgoing link?
Outline Your Website Navigation
If a website has 40-50 great interior pages (with a real estate website, perhaps descriptions of neighborhoods, types of housing, retirement info and such) and also another 50-75 links to other websites...reciprocal or one-way...do you use the total of both? We didn't for a long time. I'm still not 100% sure either way. Most SEO's absolutely think so, however.
But there is a way to lessen the navigation links, and therefore lessen the "bleeding" of PR from the homepage all the way around. So many realtors don't understand the concept of site-maps, themed groups of pages, and how to most effectively link to your inside pages from the homepage. One of the worst culprits are the Advanced Access sites...which all contain scads of pages about schools, population demographics, relocation information, taxes, and all kinds of STUFF, that is important and perhaps interesting to a buyer, is also not necessarily important for most of your viewers...which are there to look at available property! It's good to have alot of content...actually imperative. But you don't need a link to every single one of these pages on your homepage!
In school, most of us learned the basic concept of doing "the OUTLINE". I can't think of a better time to use an outline than for a website that has more than 25-30 pages of content. Try to decide which of your inside pages are more important to your customer and will promote sales. Put these in your navigation and sprinkle the links in your homepage text. You probably don't have more than 10 or 15 pages that are really important. Concentrate on promoting these from the homepage, from your blog, and from press releases as well. They will end up often with as high of a PR as your homepage, and in the best cases, may show up as extra listings in search results! THIS IS WHAT YOU SHOULD BE AIMING FOR.
If you have a page about schools, about weather, about local attractions....relocation resources, businesses, government information, etc...then create a main page for the area. Call that page the name of the area...such as www.yoursite.com/your-city.html. Lump all those "reference" pages together on THAT page, and have one link on the homepage to IT...not 6-8 separate links.
If you live in an area that encompasses 3 counties, 6 cities, and 10 sub-divisions, try to make an outline. Have separate paragraphs in your text with a teaser and heading for the 3 counties.
On that county page, link the city pages....and the sub-division pages if you want. Or have another main page for the cities, and link the sub-divisions off there. Besides the ease of navigation, you are also adding great, themed, and optimized pages for each area, and it gives you another chance to rank FOR that area. Call the pages something like "/randolph-county-real-estate.html" and then "myrtle-beach-condos-for-sale.html".
You'll have only 3 homepage links in this case, instead of 19. If you feel that some of the cities are more important than the county, then add a column on the homepage with direct links such as "North Myrtle Beach Real Estate" or "Myrtle Beach Condos". Keep it limited to important pages! When you do a blog post, do one just about Myrtle Beach's real estate offerings, and link to that interior page from the blog. If you have a featured home in one sub-division, go to one of the classified ad sites such as Backpage.com and do an ad for it...free, or for pennies a day. Put a link on the ad back to that interior page, and you get PR to it!
You end up with an easy to navigate, CLEAN homepage, that doesn't overwhelm the visitor with too many options, yet makes it easy for them to find the area or home they are looking for. And no less important, you help the search engines to more easily focus on your most important search terms on the homepage instead of confusing them as to your main area theme... DILUTING your search terms!
So now your navigation and text links on the homepage are counted more like 15 or 20 instead of 40-50. You've got room to put some outbound homepage links to other realtors...or local businesses, or whatever themed links you find to help you with Google's important PageRank.
Remember that outgoing links are like pin pricks. You lose a drop of blood with every one. Be sure you are getting an equal or greater drop of blood BACK from a link for any that you link out to. Keep in mind that your inner pages usually don't have equal rank to your homepage. So if your homepage is a PR4, and you link to that inner city page that is a PR2, even though it links back to the homepage, you only get a half of a drop of blood instead of a whole one. You want as many great pages of content as you can get, yes! But you don't need to link them all from your homepage. You only defeat your SEO efforts when you do.
One last, very important must.... BE SURE YOUR INSIDE LINKS TO THE HOME PAGE ARE TO YOUR DOMAIN NAME. Don't do the old-fashioned "Home" links to index.html or default.html. Use your main search terms in the links whenever possible, and if you use graphic buttons for your navigation, be sure to use additional TEXT LINKS at the bottom of all inside pages.
I'm off the soapbox now...:-)
Stay tuned for more Real Estate Marketing Tips and Rants from Myrtle Beach Web Design.
Monday, July 16, 2007
Website Hosting and Domain Name Nightmares
The Website Hosting Ripoff
High-priced hosting costs and unethical domain name registration is rife in the website industry. Learn what you should be paying and what NOT to do when you hire a webdesigner!
I have been helping real estate agents and vacation rental companies in Myrtle Beach, SC for over 5 years now. In the last year or so I've gotten out of the designing end and more into SEO and copywriting. But since the beginning I've seen and heard more customer horror stories than seems natural in this day and time. There are a few basic Do's and Don't's that everyone should know to avoid this problem, and I'm surprised that it isn't broadcast more often. If you are planning to have a website designed, please READ this and do a little "due diligence" to protect your own interests now.
Buying Your Domain Name
I won't go into how to choose a domain name here, although it is something to consider. What I want to uncover is one of the worst, most unethical, and COMMON practices I've seen in this area, and make you too smart to fall for it.
High-priced hosting costs and unethical domain name registration is rife in the website industry. Learn what you should be paying and what NOT to do when you hire a webdesigner!
I have been helping real estate agents and vacation rental companies in Myrtle Beach, SC for over 5 years now. In the last year or so I've gotten out of the designing end and more into SEO and copywriting. But since the beginning I've seen and heard more customer horror stories than seems natural in this day and time. There are a few basic Do's and Don't's that everyone should know to avoid this problem, and I'm surprised that it isn't broadcast more often. If you are planning to have a website designed, please READ this and do a little "due diligence" to protect your own interests now.
Buying Your Domain Name
I won't go into how to choose a domain name here, although it is something to consider. What I want to uncover is one of the worst, most unethical, and COMMON practices I've seen in this area, and make you too smart to fall for it.
Before you hire a designer, go YOURSELF, to one of the major domain register sites. Open an account. Choose a user name that you use often. Choose a password that you can remember. WRITE THIS INFORMATION DOWN. Give it to your wife or husband. Give it to your secretary. Just be SURE you have it where you can find it again. I can't emphasize this enough.
After I've yelled about keeping the login information, let me again say, DO THIS YOURSELF.
You should never, ever, have a webdesigner or website company do this for you. Inevitably, at some point, you are going to either become dis-satisfied with your designer, or find someone else that provides more services, such as SEO. No matter how much you trust the person you hire to do your website, do NOT expect them, or allow them, to register your domain name for you.
This is one of the oldest nasty tricks I've seen, and is still one of the most prevalent. The web designer registers the domain in HIS OWN name. All goes along smoothly until such time as you want to change web companies. All of a sudden you find this "nice guy" you hired laughs in your face and refuses to give you your own website. Or he tells you he will for several hundred or thousand dollars more. Much of the time, you've hired someone locally and don't even have a contract. To my knowledge, you don't have much recourse. You may even have a contract that says in the small print that your designer owns the site.
I had an older gentleman call me one day to ask for help resolving a situation like this with one of the more well known companies here in Myrtle Beach. When I looked at the "Whois" information and told him the designer owned that name, he literally cried on the phone. He had had the website for 2 or 3 years, and was a small sign company whose business practically relied on that website. It broke my heart, but I had no solution for him except to start over.
Buy your own domain name. Keep your login information safe, and be sure you pay for it when the yearly bill comes in. Godaddy.com has domain names for as litte as $8 a year. Pay for it for several years, and be sure your email address is always correct with the registry company. Maybe it's something you would rather not be bothered with...but it's a small bother if you end up with a website that literally makes or breaks your business.
Hosting Your Website
This is another area that I continually see agents and others being taken advantage of all the time.
NEWSFLASH: You can choose your own hosting company!
I have been using Pair.com since I started doing websites. They are the best in the business as far as I'm concerned. If you have a small website that won't have a million visitors a month, you can get a hosting package for under $10 a month. Hosting packages are based on total file size and something called "Bandwidth". Bandwidth concerns how many times your website is visited, plus the size of each page that a visitor looks at. The more large files such as photos, music, or video that you have, the more bandwidth you will use. If your website will contain videos or many photo galleries, you may have to go to a larger package...say $20 a month...to handle the volume. But a normal small website will hardly ever cause an overage.
Now, why would you want your designer to host your website? There are some good reasons. Your website will also usually control your email(s). When there is an email problem, or you need to make a new one for a new office person, it's easier to pick up the phone or email your designer to handle this. Sometimes it can be complicated. It might be worth paying a little extra for them to host it and handle this. But how much is legitimate, and how much is highway robbery?
I have a few clients and even friends that I host a website for. I buy a larger package, and can have multiple websites in my account. It's very important that your website has its own separate dedicated IP number also, but I'll save that for another article. It may be that some designers will offer you a cheaper package to share hosting. They may not even TELL you that you are on the same IP with a dozen other websites. It's much cheaper for them to host them all on the same IP... and worse, many of these designers are actually hosting your site on a private computer in their basement! Ask them where they are hosting it and get the details. Verify what they tell you with someone else if you can. If not, and you trust them to do the right thing, then figure on paying an average of about $25 a month for most designers to host your site. That is the going rate around here.
This means the designer is probably making about $20 a month at a minimum.If they are hosting it on their own server, it may not cost them a dime.
My average price for hosting a regular to large website is $15 a month. If the company has 30 employees that constantly worry me about emails and problems with forgetting passwords, I might increase the price to $25 a month. I never have done this so far. And they DO bug me fairly often...:-)
If your design company is charging you more than $25 a month for an average website, then you are paying too much. If you have a small site and can take care of basic email setups online yourself, then open your own hosting account and save the extra monthly amount. If not, then at least question the amount and make sure it's reasonable - and with a reputable hosting company that provides multiple backup and very low downtime.
If you plan to have a website with an IDX database, or are going to invest heavily in video or virtual tours, then choose a real estate web design company that provides this, and be prepared to pay considerably more than what I've described here. But if you are going to have an ordinary website, little or no video displays, and a reasonable amount of traffic, don't fall into the trap of being overcharged.
You can have a great website for a very reasonable amount of cost if you do your homework up front!
Copyright 2007 by Jan Chilton
If you are interested in website hosting or want help with choosing a domain name, I'll be glad to answer an email question. My website at Myrtle Beach Web Design can provide more information as well. Bone up on real estate marketing tips at http://www.echoforum.com/.
Thursday, June 7, 2007
The Smoke Screens of Ripoff SEO Companies
I conferred with a very large, well-known, and even pretty good real estate website design company yesterday for a friend who asked me to evaluate their Search Engine Friendly (or not) templates and database features. I had looked through the portfolio they presented, and was impressed with look of their custom websites. I am always suspicious of any database driven websites as far as being able to rank them well. I've only seen a very few that did rank, and it's usually because they've found a way to integrate the dynamic pages into a very large and well optimized html website, that consistently presents new content. Even when some of the database pages seem to be spidered, the query strings, or URL's they produce are long and cumbersome, and seldom rank well for anything.
This particular design company boasted of being search engine savvy, and indeed even had several pages and offered a higher end product with ongoing SEO services. After seeing that, I assumed that the person I talked to would be well versed in the shop talk, and I could ask for a few examples, make sure of a few major points, and advise my friend to use them or not.
The conversation I had with this sales rep was littered with smoke-screens and impressive BS that would convince any but the most well-informed realtors that they knew their stuff. And I would bet that even their customers would argue that their search engine placement was ideal, even while bemoaning the fact that their leads were few and ROI was low.
As we progressed into the telephone conversation, the water got murkier and murkier, and I was appalled enough in these techniques to try and air them to the public. My questions and the programmed answers they gave are a lesson in why SEO companies have such a terrible reputation these days...
Templates
I started out the questions by inquiring about the templated sites they offered at a discounted $1600, as versus custom designed sites that were another $1800 in addition to that. So I said, "Do you find that your templated designs rank as well as your custom ones? Templates often have too much coding and a very limited ability to tweak for SEO techniques..."
He assures me that there is very little difference and he thinks my friend is going with the custom design anyway. Our templates do "pretty well" in the searches, though....
Right there I got a sinking feeling.
Without using true URL's, let me explain that this company specializes in For Sale By Owner, Do-it-yourself, directory type sites that customers can pay a fee online and upload their photos, verbiage, amenities and such into a form, which becomes a page on the website. My questions to him were like this:
This particular design company boasted of being search engine savvy, and indeed even had several pages and offered a higher end product with ongoing SEO services. After seeing that, I assumed that the person I talked to would be well versed in the shop talk, and I could ask for a few examples, make sure of a few major points, and advise my friend to use them or not.
The conversation I had with this sales rep was littered with smoke-screens and impressive BS that would convince any but the most well-informed realtors that they knew their stuff. And I would bet that even their customers would argue that their search engine placement was ideal, even while bemoaning the fact that their leads were few and ROI was low.
As we progressed into the telephone conversation, the water got murkier and murkier, and I was appalled enough in these techniques to try and air them to the public. My questions and the programmed answers they gave are a lesson in why SEO companies have such a terrible reputation these days...
Templates
I started out the questions by inquiring about the templated sites they offered at a discounted $1600, as versus custom designed sites that were another $1800 in addition to that. So I said, "Do you find that your templated designs rank as well as your custom ones? Templates often have too much coding and a very limited ability to tweak for SEO techniques..."
He assures me that there is very little difference and he thinks my friend is going with the custom design anyway. Our templates do "pretty well" in the searches, though....
Right there I got a sinking feeling.
Without using true URL's, let me explain that this company specializes in For Sale By Owner, Do-it-yourself, directory type sites that customers can pay a fee online and upload their photos, verbiage, amenities and such into a form, which becomes a page on the website. My questions to him were like this:
- Will the created pages have independent title and meta tags?
The customer can enter that information, he answers.
- Is there any control at all over the URL's created by the program? (Some of the pages he showed me looked like www,mysite.com/123_dz_12345_/here_is_one_for_miami_ florida/)
- Can the font tags, header tags, alt tags, photos, etc be optimized?
You can change the fonts and colors, he answers. He isn't sure what the rest of that means.
***Long sigh coming from me. Can you imagine going into a popular site with hundreds of pages, and you, the customer, knowing how to optimize title and meta tags for each page? Obviously they know very little about on-page optimization, and it's not built into the programming.
So here's the clincher. "OK, I say. Show me a customer that ranks. Any customer."
He fumbles a bit, and says, "scforsalebyowner.com" (not the real name)
I type into the Google search "SC For Sale By Owner" and bang...it shows for number 2. I'm almost impressed...:-) It does show for its own URL anyway. He explains that she paid for the whole premium package with their SEO services and all.
But, I say to him, that isn't a search term. Is there a special city they service? He says that it's the main city in that state. (Remember, I'm not using the real location or website here) I type in "Charleston SC Real Estate For Sale by Owner", and it's not there. Bottom of the 2nd page, actually. I type in "Charleston SC FSBO". Not found. I type in "SC Real Estate For Sale By Owner". Again, nothing to be found.
Now he's backstepping. But she is optimized for SC For Sale by owner! And her homepage title tag is even SC For Sale By Owner. There are 1,470,000 searches for SC For Sale by Owner!
Huh???
Yes, he says. Look at the Google search results! 1,470,000 searches!
He means PAGES in the search results that are relevant enough to the term that Google shows them.
But to a clueless realtor or anyone not informed about search engines, this sounds like manna from heaven. I quickly check the old Overture Keyword Tool, and the number of searches for that exact term shows 38 a month. Take away the 25 website owners that are checking their own placement, and it's probably more like 5 or 10 searches...maybe less. So here is the smoke-screen.
At this point let me add that the charge for their SEO services is explained on the site thusly:
Setup Fee $500
These fees are used to submit your website to link directories and search engines to gain link popularity.
Additional Yearly Fees $499/yr.*
This fee is the monthly fee required to maintain your real estate websites optimization on a monthly basis. (Further down it explains this includes buying PAID links...Matt Cutts, where are you?)
Monthly Price $179/mo.
This is the start up costs and total of all the above costs. Total Costs to Start-Total of Above Items $1178
So this customer is paying $179 a month and paid almost $1200 to rank for a search term that gets 10-20 hits a month MAYBE. A search for the city and the words "real estate" number in the 30,000's.
I did a little more checking in Google, thanked the boy, and hung up. This is how these fly-by-night SEO services not only talk a customer into trying their services, but actually convince them that it's working. And this is why so many realtors think that SEO services are useless and they are better off to use pay-per-click or some other method of advertising.
I don't know what the answer to this smoke-screen selling of SEO is, but it saddens me to see a legitimate web design company using the same tactics as Traffic Power and other completely bogus services that are well known now. We, as real SEO practictioners, must find a way to educate the public somehow. The information on basic SEO and even Real Estate Marketing is everywhere on the internet...but seldom do you find easy to understand guides to the ripoff techniques.
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