Wow!

The featured is quickly turned on and now I am seeing “important” emails at the top of my inbox.
As with the ability to manage SPAM, GMAIL will learn whats important to me as I mark emails as important or not.
Based on my experience with the GMAIL’s spam filter … I am expecting this to be very effective within a few days
Lets see!

Here’s a video that shows you how to send your TWEETS to your FACEBOOK fan page.

Roles – Who Does What?

If this website represents your business, then YOU should do the research and know your market place, website competition, keywords and so on. Do not pass this off to your webmaster!

This knowledge will help you then brief your webmaster so that they can then interpret your marketing needs and make sure all the following elements are correctly coded.

Content and Pages:

A website needs to have many pages with unique content (text that can be read) to be taken seriously by the search engines.

Keyword Research:

Start by using GOOGLEs external keyword research tool to find the most relevant keywords for a site.
When creating home page and key external links to the site, construct sentences and phrases using these keywords

Webmaster Tools:

Set up in Google, Bing and Yahoo webmaster tools with validation META tags added to header.
XML site maps should be submitted to webmaster accounts.

Title Tags:

Every page must have a unique non-empty TITLE tag. Every page must be different
No more than 12 words.

Meta Description:

The page description should describe, briefly, what the page is all about.
Construct sentences careful to use appropriate keywords – but don’t lie about the page and don’t overkill on keywords.
2 snappy sentences at most.

Meta Keywords:

Use the most relevant sets of keywords from your keyword research.

Keep this to about 15-20 unique words

H1 and H2:

The Home Page H1 is best set the same as the TITLE tag or close to it.
H2 Tags also give search engines great clues about a page content.

The H1 tag should be close the beginning of the page top code as possible.
The CSS can ‘display’ the H1 tag anywhere on the page

Anchor Text in Text Links

The anchor text in a text link should reflect the keywords and the content of the target page.

Site Maps:

All sites should have site XML site maps submitted to Webmaster tools

The robots.txt file should have an entry that points to the site map

Images:

Images should have ALT tags filled in – don’t leave ALT tags as ” ” (blank)

If an image has a particular meaning on a page (for example the house this page is all about) then its worthwhile adding a TITLE to the IMG tag too.

This should apply to property images, agent images etc.

Internal Linking:

Its very important to create many internal cross-referencing links on lots of pages within a site.

Best way to start to do this is a text link footer menu.

But text on pages should have links to other pages too.

Footer links back to home page:

Always have a full “http://YOUR-URL” address link with the keywords on it going back to the index page, on every page footer

Long Tail URLs

If possible – the URLS should contain the keywords relevant to the page in the page name

Five years ago few people were using the web to search for homes, two years ago the estimate was 75%, and today, its as high as 85% or more.

This section is dedicated to helping Real Estate professionals find out more about the significant marketing opportunities presented by the Internet and IDX in particular, as well as to exchange information, views and experiences.

Someone recently said that real estate agents spend most of their time and effort trying to generate sales leads.

So where are these leads coming from? Well, with an explosion of buyers now using the Internet, and that trend set to continue, the new market place is on the web.

The conclusion is simple – if you want sales leads, you better have a serious and effective way of generating leads from the Internet. IDX is a new technology development that allows any real estate agent to aggressively address this issue.

A 2002 survey by KB Homes in California, showed that 58% of home buyers used the Internet to find information on homes. According to NAR (National Association of Realtors 2000 Profile of Buyers and Sellers) Internet buyers spend 20% to 50% more on homes, close deals in half the time and are more likely to use an agent to buy or sell.

Internet Data eXchange (IDX) is the formal title for what has been called Broker Reciprocity. IDX participants agree to share active listing information with each other for the purpose of internet advertising.

The concept of IDX is simple: Each participating broker contributes their listings to the IDX database and is in turn, able to display listings from all other participating brokers on their web site. Click here to read the NAR policy on IDX.

Denver has practically all Brokers signed up which means that nearly 100% of properties are included in the IDX database. This eliminates the need for VOWs (Virtual Office Web sites) in the Denver area. For a complete discussion of VOWs see IDX Options and VOWs.

NAR made reciprocal Internet Data eXchange a mandatory policy effective Jan 1 2002.

Thoughout 2002, most MLS providers made IDX available to brokers and Associate Brokers and Agents whose Managing Broker has opted in to IDX.

Many of the regional MLS systems are also providing IDX solutions – check back regularly for updates in our News Section.

Internet Data Exchange, or IDX, delivers Brokers a significant advantage by keeping visitors on their web sites without having to go elsewhere to see all available properties within an area.

IDX will enable consumers looking at a Broker’s web site to access thousands of properties listed on Metrolist, instead of being limited to just that Broker’s listings, without leaving their web site.

Transforms Web Sites into Service sites for Buyers

Imaginative IDX solutions provided by vendors allow websites to have an entirely new proposition to buyers. A web site need no longer be passive or advertising oriented. With a database of listings to work with, interactive applications can be created that create high value services to buyers and capture them as sales leads.

Such solutions have the advantage of maintaining first contact with consumers.

See our sponsors for examples of these typs of solutions.

IDX is a technology that levels the marketing playing field.

Small Brokers and Associate Brokers, can now display as much inventory as large corporate Brokers. Now all Associate Brokers, no matter how small or big their business operation, can look like a substantial real estate business.

Historically, web sites have been run by Managing Brokers and they contained only their own listings. Other Broker’s listings were never really included as it was considered a competitive issue. However, the web has a way of leveling the playing field. Consumers who use the web to search for homes use sites where they get the most information. Realizing this, Brokers have continued to look for more content – specifically listings – to make their web site strategies more effective. This has led to cooperation amongst Brokers and ultimately the creation of IDX.

Wider Exposure for Sellers

For Sellers, IDX can be provide significantly improved effectiveness when marketing their listings. IDX allows you to advertise your listings on all sites using IDX.

IDX will give more exposure for your listings. More exposure usually means more and faster sales.

Summary of Benefits

Lead Generation

While the service itself is valuable to the consumer, IDX can be implemented in ways that generate leads for the Broker.

Maintain Contact

Brokers can invest in marketing their personal web sites knowing that they can maintain the first contact with the consumer – they won’t need to go to another site for property listings.

“Stickiness”

The IDX search engine maintains the Broker’s site navigation so the consumer never looses the ability to navigate to another area of their web site and should find all their information needs met in the single site.

Branding

The framing of IDX ensures all pages are still branded keeping the Broker’s identity and message in front of the consumer at all times.

Service

With IDX presenting all available properties, this high value content will attract consumers to go the Broker’s private web site.

Retention

As all properties are available. This, combined with highly targeted content on your web site, makes it the obvious, quick and convenient place for the consumer to come back to in the future.

Better educated

Consumers are now empowered by the Internet to find information never before made available. Now, when they make contact with Brokers they come more prepared, better educated about the market with more realistic expectations which makes the home buying process more efficient.

Local service

The consumer may feel more comfortable using a property search tool that is offered by a local service provider vs. using a national portal such as www.Realtor.com.