I/E Speaks

Once upon a time, long before the advent of the Internet, a person just like you had a great idea for a service to sell.

It didn’t matter that others had the same idea and had already begun to capitalize on it. This person just knew that he could do a much better job at it and success was in the bag.  The fledgling entrepreneur spent the requisite time to learn about the real estate industry and get the required licenses to begin.

A location for an office was chosen, a lease was signed and a shingle proclaiming the business for the world to see was proudly hung outside the office. All that was needed now was an advertising campaign designed to lure in prospective clients.

The entrepreneur drew on his savings and invested a lot of money in fancy brochures and mailing lists, to say nothing of the stationery imprinted with the company name.

Stamps were purchased, envelopes were stuffed, sealed and taken to the post office. Unfortunately, many of the addresses were wrong or the recipients pegged them as junk mail and didn’t bother to open them. This meant that the return was minimal.

The entrepreneur also tried cold calling, playing the odds that at least a small percentage of those that were phoned could be converted to clients. This brought some rewards, but was hard work and rejection was the usual result. Eventually, with perseverance and a lot of investment in time and money, the gamble paid off and finally success was achieved.

Today’s entrepreneur’s have it much easier than those of the pre-Internet generation. The Internet puts literally millions of prospective clients at your feet and all you really need to know is how to work the system.

In the olden days when a person was looking for a product or service, they turned to the yellow pages. Now, most go online where they can easily search and compare prospective companies.

When you initiate a search on the Internet, typically multiple pages will turn up, listing millions of web sites designed around your particular keywords. The majority of those searching will rarely go past the first page of results.

This is why it’s important to make sure that your website is on that first page and hopefully at the top of the list so that you can gain their attention and secure their business. That’s where search engine optimization comes in.

By utilizing Search Engine Optimization, you will be able garner clients from those Internet users that are searching for the service that you are offering, in this case real estate. With so many people using the Internet to find what they need, this could equate to big profits for both you and your company.

We will explore SEO for websites, and in particular SEO for real estate agent sites in future blog posts, so add us to your RRS feed, and enjoy!

posted by Kim Hadley

Your website is a great marketing tool, but it’s not just about how it looks, it must be made available for potential customers to view.

So marketing your website through what is called; “search engine optimization” (SEO) is just as important as the way your website looks and functions. Your website is a great marketing tool, but it must be made available for potential customers to view.  If people can’t see it, well we don’t have to tell you what happens then.

SEO is the process of achieving top rankings in the search engines for a website’s most relevant search terms or what is often referred to as “keywords”. The most relevant search terms or key words are the phrases that people are most likely to type into a search engine when looking for what the website has to offer. You want your website to be recognized by the search engines for the keywords most associated with your business.

Why are we so focused on search engines, because they are one of the primary ways that internet users find web sites. That’s why a web site with good search engine listings may see a dramatic increase in traffic. SEO is a way of ensuring that your web pages are accessible to search engines. So page titles, body copy and other elements all play a role.

Page Titles

Make your page titles simple, yet descriptive and relevant. This will make it easier for search engines to know what each page is about, and people scanning through search results can quickly determine whether your document contains what they are looking for. The page title is also what is used to link to your site from search result listings. Because of this, the title element is one of the most important elements on a page.

A good example is as follows: Document title | Section name | Site or company name

Body copy – writing good content – it’s all about people returning to your site – Get Linked to

This is one of the most important things you need to do if you want to be found on the web. Even if your site is technically perfect for search engines, it won’t do you any good unless you also fill it with good content.

Amongst other things, good content brings return visitors. Return visitors who like your content will eventually link to your site, and having lots of inbound links is great for search engine rankings, especially if those links are from highly ranked sites. Incoming links are very, very important for SEO, so we’ll say it one more time; get linked to!

OTHER ELEMENTS

Use real headings

Use the h1 – h6 elements for headings. Using graphics for headings may look pretty but search engines aren’t looking for pretty so they won’t pay much attention. Even if you (as is required) use the alt attribute to specify alternate text for heading images, that text will not be anywhere near as important as real text in a heading element

Flash

Flash and JavaScript are fine, as long as they aren’t required to navigate your site and to access vital information. Don’t hide your content inside Flash files or behind funky JavaScript navigation.

Frame Smame (no offence)

Avoid using frames, while it is possible to provide workarounds that allow search engines to crawl frame based sites, frames will still cause problems for the people who find your site through search engines.

When somebody follows the link from a search result listing to a frame based site, they will land on an orphaned document, outside of its parent frameset. This is very likely to cause confusion, since in many cases vital parts of the site, like navigational links, will be absent.

Behind the Scenes – A bit more technical – The Tags

The title tag, make sure that the page’s search term is contained in this tag.

The Description Tag <meta name=”description” content=”a nice description”>
Write an appealing description for the page and incorporate the page’s search term into it at least once and, preferably, twice.

The Keywords Tag <meta name=”keywords” content=”some keywords”>
Put plenty of relevant keywords into the tag and include the search term once at the front, and a second time further along the line. There is no need to seperate keywords and keyphrases with commas, as is often done, since the engines ignore commas.

Bold Text
Bold text is given more weight than ordinary text but not as much as H tags. As much as is reasonable, enclose the search term in bold tags when it appears on the page.

Text
Use the search term as often as you can on the page whilst not detracting from the page’s readability. Make sure that you use the term once or twice very early in the page’s body text and as often as possible throughout. Reword small parts, and even add sentences, to make sure that the search term is well represented in the text.

So there you have the basics about Search Engine Optimization. Please contact us if you have any questions or want to discuss what we can do to get your site in amongst the high rankers and easily accessible for all those folks out there looking for you.

posted by Kim Hadley

A well designed, professional and informative website is your front line in marketing. Your website is a vital connection between your business and future customers. Even if you’re not selling goods online, a website can attract business from far away, promote your company, and save you time and trouble.

The internet today is the research center of choice for potential customers and decision makers due to the non threatening nature of the internet. Potential clients can check you and your business out just with a click here and a click there, and can still remain anonymous while reaching a decision to buy your goods or services.

Here are 10 top reasons to have a website for your business:

1. Establish a presence – more and more people are shopping on line
   The Internet is changing the way people shop.  More and more people are looking for services and products on-line than every before. Peoples’ habits are changing. People move to a new area and very often rely solely on the Internet to learn about the new area, research and find out whom to go to for what. Many people research and find their homes and jobs over the Internet. Most people are coming to expect that any professionally run business will have a web site. With a well-designed site your small business becomes a real player both on and off the net.
2. Expansion into a global market
   with a website you can reach a global market. It’s an inexpensive way to reach out around the world. Many businesses feel that the internet has opened up new markets for their business, and a high percentage feel that it has lowered their cost of doing business.
   
3. To capture the local internet audience.
   The internet has become more and more local. Today instead of looking something up in the yellow pages many people just “Google it”. If you’re not listed in that first page or two forget it.
4. Respect in the marketplace & distinguishing yourself from your competitors
   Websites have become standard marketing tools.  A website that you are proud of can convey your specialized knowledge, your personality, and your commitment to quality. To provide basic information that establishes credibility – just as a listing in the Yellow Pages shows you are serious about your business, having your own company domain reinforces your legitimacy as a serious business.
   A website can help express or establish your company’s personality.  Design, information and graphics can get your message across in unique and memorable ways. 
5. To let your customers communicate with you via the internet.
   New and existingcustomers want to reach you via e-mail. Your website allows your clients even greater access to communicate with you, find out more about your company or get an answer to their question.
6. Centralized spot to provide company and service information – Limitless information
   Keeping current with your products and or services and offering advice, tips, and your industry specific insight will bring your customers back to your website for more. Your website can keep your company constantly in the forefront of your customers mind.
   A typical print ad is not going to convey all the nuances of your business due to their limited space and cost constraints. Your business website has much more flexibility in getting across the finer points of your company’s product and/or services. By carefully making your web address accessible in your print advertisements, you have pointed your prospects to a plethora of information that will influence their decision.
7. Easy and fast updates – Customers getting information when they want it and feel informed when contacting you. Think of how much time and effort (and money!) you spend keeping your clients informed. Web pages are easily changeable and updated with new information. Now think how easy it would be to let people know about your latest updates by just emailing them the web address. Having a website means that all the information you have, downloads and company forms, can be easily accessed via your website – and that cuts down on printing costs!
   
8. 24/7 visibility – The internet never sleeps and neither will your website
   your website is a 24/7 tool to reach your customers. You can’t say that about even your hardest working sales person. By having a website, you can offer your services 24 hours a day, seven days a week to your customers. A website provides your business the ability to be eternally available for frequently asked questions, to provide directions to your business, hours, anything any customer would ever need to know!
9. Because it saves you money!
   Use your site to answer your most frequently asked questions. How much time do you spend answering the same questions? Post a Frequently asked questions portion to your site. And show your products over the web instead of printing brochures. Send out emails to let your clients know of your company news. Save money in printing & postage. Provide information that otherwise would have needed to be mailed out.
   
10. The Bottom Line
    If you don’t have a Web site, you’re losing business to other businesses that do.

Imaginations Everything is in the business of making your business work online. Give us a call (514-449-6250), or send us an email khadley@imaginationseverything.com and let’s see what we can do for you.

posted by Kim Hadley