What’s in 2009

I thought I would take the time to write about what I think might be some of the topics of interest in 2009 from my perspective in terms of how the Internet will grow for the REALTOR.

2008 saw the explosion of Social Networking and Blogging.  2009 will continue to see this growth and the smart Agent will embrace this.  Social Networking is the next evolution of the Internet.  Some say it is already here, I say we ain’t seen nothing yet.

I know a lot of people are confused about Twitter but 2008 saw Twitter users explode and the user base will continue grow in 2009.  There are numerous posts on how to use Twitter (or Micro-blogging as some call it).  While not for everyone, Twitter is certainly a tool for people to use.

Social Networks like AR and Facebook will continue to bring together social units for interaction on a grand scale.

You’ll see companies like ning.com pop up in droves.  Ning and sites like them let you to create your own Social Network (kinda of your own Facebook). Why would you like to create a social network?  For the person with a bunch of time or perhaps a company with the resources, having your own social network allows you to create brand awareness, interact with a group of people, share, and connect.  I see it as abranded Facebook or AR group.

As Web 2.0 evolves the Agent website will become a portal for the hungry consumer.  No longer are websites a pretty picture but they are a interactive collection knowledge based on the community.  Don’t mistake it, the consumer is all about community.  Find the niche and you’ll get the viewers.  Blogs will become an arm of the Agent website and the interaction with listing data will evolve.  IDX will continue to grow and we’ll see more VOW’s.

Listing data will be mapped instead of searched and consumers will be more interactive with the transaction more than ever.

The biggest lead generation growth might come from the Social Networks.  Whether it is a blog, social network or micro blog, these tools will produce results and continue to evolve as the networks grow.

From a guy who designs and develops website solutions for Agents, my concentration will be on the interaction of the Agent and Consumer.  Building tools to allow your website to become a true portal to your community.  This will come from an array of back end tools the consumer will have access to and the Agent can data mine.

Well I hope you enjoyed my take on it…. I would love to hear your view on 2009 too, please share.

Happy New Year to all and wishing you a prosperous 2009!

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Happy New Year

To all our clients and readers, we at RE/Advantage would like to wish everyone a VERY Happy & Prosperous New Year!

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A Good Web Page

When you sit down to create a web page you should keep some simple things in mind if you want to keep the page SEO friendly.  Let’s say for arguments sake we are designing a page about Real Estate in Phoenix Arizona.  Here are some things to consider while you are constructing that page.

1. Keywords – Before you even type your first word, think about what keyword phrases are going to be important to you.  So for our hypothetical page we may want to consider phrases like; Phoenix Real Estate, Phoenix AZ real estate, or homes in Phoenix.

   So what are keywords and why are they are so important?  Keywords are a word or a group of words that describe what you are searching for on the Internet.   Keyword queries on Google for example search for web sites using the keywords and try to determine which web page is the most relevant.So when designing a page you need to take into account which keywords you want to use and build your page around them.

2. Page Name – Because you are designing a with SEO in mind, page names also become somewhat important.  Since my keyword phase is Phoenix Real Estate, a good page name would be phoenix-real-estate.htm.  Keeping your keywords in the page name is a good practice.
3. Meta Data – There is an ongoing argument on the importance of all the Meta data but one thing for sure choose a good Meta Title.  A good Meta Title might be Phoenix Arizona Real Estate.  Adding meta keywords and meta description is not a bad idea too.  Can’t hurt.  While most engines don’t even use meta keywords, most use the Meta Description in the display to the user on the results page.
4. Keyword Prominence -Prominence is how close to the start of the area your keyword appears.  Basically a keyword that appears closer to the top of the page, toward the beginning of a paragraph, or toward the beginning of a tag will be more relevant.   Sometimes it helps to have a keyword in the middle of an area, or even toward the end of the area.   For example, a search in a major search engine for the keyword “Phoenix Real Estate” returned the following match:
   

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   Phoenix Real Estate | Phoenix Arizona Real Estate and MLS Search Phoenix AZ Real Estate – Phoenix Arizona’s complete website for Real Estate, homes for sale and virtual tours. Search for Phoenix Real Estate on Phoenix …

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   The keyword, “Phoenix Real Estate,” is the first word of the site title, and a major search engine returned this site as the first match.  Documents that are exactly the same but with keywords as the second or third words in the title may score lower.   Prominence also applies to the words within the body of the document, the headings, and other tags.
5. Keyword Frequency – Keyword frequency is how many times your keywords appear on your page.  In general the more times your keyword sets appear on a page the more relevant they are.  The trick is not to make them appear too many times.  If you use them too many times you might be penalized for keyword spamming.  Each search engine interprets this frequency differently but if you are writing good content and using your keywords wisely you should be OK.
6. Relationships – Having different pages linked to each other will help the search engines not only weigh your keywords better but you will also help establish how they are related.  For example if you have a link on your Phoenix Real Estate Page called Phoenix Housing Statistics and link that to a page called Phoenix-housing-stats.htm you are relating the housing statics to your main page.
7. Link Popularity – In my previous post “Link Popularity” I talk about this subject in detail.  Link Popularity is how many outbound, reciprocal, and inbound links you have.  Each is weighted differently.  To learn more on this see my other post on Link Popularity.

While this is not even close to a complete road map to optimizing your web pages, I hope it will at least guide you to some good practices on SEO design.  These are some real good best practices that you should follow when constructing any webpage.  If you want to explore more on the subject one resource you can take a look at is http://www.webposition.com.  They make a product that analyzes your web pages and also provide positioning reports.  Also I will be writing a bunch of SEO tips so keep checking back.

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Happy Holidays

RE/Advantage would like to send its warmest thoughts and best wishes for a wonderful holiday and a very Happy New Year.

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The Winter Solstice

The Winter Solstice came today, December 21st at 7:04am. But what the heck is it? I kind of knew what is was but for all of you like me who wanted the exact description here it is.

As the Earth travels around the Sun in its orbit, the north-south position of the Sun changes over the course of the year due to the changing orientation of the Earth’s tilted rotation axes with respect to the Sun. The dates of maximum tilt of the Earth’s equator correspond to the summer solstice and winter solstice, and the dates of zero tilt to the vernal equinox and autumnal equinox.

So basically it is when the sun is at its greatest distance from the equator.  In the Northern Hemisphere it occurs when the sun shines directly over the tropic of Capricorn.

The winter solstice marks the first day of the season of winter and is the shortest day of the year.

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Trackbacks

I get asked all the time what a Trackback is. Here is a post that explains it perfectly. Trackbacks Explained.

The author Teli Adlam provides a really good explaination of how trackbacks and pingbacks are used.

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