Bart Wilson

On a few other blog posts, I'm seeing some thanks and some confusion on Google Page Rank.

If you want to seriously kick Broker Bob's ass on line, and get your site ranking above his... here are some coveted secrets that you should know.

This information is pure White Hat SEO and is used for every SEO client I do work for. Like Jamie Mades of Keller Williams who right now, is enjoyng life at the top of his game in Colorado Springs. He is page one on Google for several search terms like:

colorado springs military relocation

colorado springs short sales

His site is ColoradoSpringsTeam.com -- But notice these links above do NOT go to the home page. Too many of us link everything to the home page and this is just not a good idea.

If you want to INCREASE your Page Rank to your site, there are three thigns you can do right now to get better visibility on Google.

1.) Get a different domain name WITH one or two of the key words in the domain (built in).

Buy one from GreatDomains.com that follows the formula: Your City + Real Estate. Or, Your City + Homefinders. Or, Your City + Moves. Here are some choices:

SantaFeMoves.com

SantaFeHomefinders.com

SantaFeSelect.com

SantaFeLuxury.com

etc.

You can BUY an old domain that has been around for five or so years. If you have to pay $300 or more for the domain, GET IT. It is worth every dime.

2.) Build your site organically.

Stay away from Joomla and other CMS building products. Remember, people judge a book by its cover. If you have the SAME website design as 15,000 other agents do... WHY is a buyer going to trust you to be different, or give them red carpet services. There's a lot of template companies out there to watch out for, too. A La Mode. Advanced Access. Homes.com and countless others. These are good website firms if you just need a quick and fast website to get up. But if you plan on being in the business for a few more years, you have to go organic and there's no better way to gurantee your climb to a top page rank on Google than to break out the bull dozers and build from scratch.

Bottom Line: If you're a cheap skate on your look and feel, buyers will pick that up and click the Browsers's BACK button. Today's next time home buyers are like the Soup Nazi. Cheap website? No IDX? Okay -- No Soup For You!

Rule of thumb: You GET what you pay for.

Rule of thumb #2: It takes money to make money.

These rules never change.

3.) Put the Twitter Widget on your website like NEXT to your IDX search page.

Let folks know that if they sign up with you, and follow you, that you promise to Tweet them notifications on houses at rock bottom prices. Foreclosures. Stuff like that.

Build a custom Twitter theme for your Twitter home page. These are not hard to do.

Exercise: How many times does your wife or significant other prod you when they see the JC Penney White Sale TV commercials, or the big Sale at Home Depot? People like to buy things when they are on sale.

Real estate should not be treated any differently. If you have a list of followers on Twitter, chirp them a broadcast message from time to time letting them know about great buys in your neighborhood.

4.) Press Releases

You have to get PR out there if you are going to get your website to the top of the game on Google. As you ass more incoming links, your Google PR value can go up. As your PR value goes up, take a good look at the top dogs on Google right now. Deduce Trulia, Realtor.com or Homegain if you see them. Look for the broker or agent websites only. Click on them. Look at their home pages. Count up the total number of words then look at the density of the key phrases. You must be within 4 - 6% key word density for any relevant search term. And you are limited to (3) key search phrases per page. These are the rules of Google SEO and if you do not know them and abide by them -- then you will never get a top page rank on Google.

If all of the top dogs in your area have a PR value of say 5/10 on the first page of Google when you search for say: house real estate, then when your site gets to a Page Rank of 4/10, you might see yourself now on Page two of that key word search.

WHEN you get a Page Rank of 5/10, this means you can then reach the tipping point. Your site with a big push can then move up. But here's the secrete: You need to do a few more pages, optimzie them, you need a rush of traffic, too.

So launch a good PR blast or two, get more incoming links, build more pages and the next time Google PageRank updates are done (which they do 3 - 4 times a year) your site might appear on the bottom of page one in the #10 position. There are lots of great PR places on line. My Favorite is 1888PressRelease.com

When that happens, then you simply make micro changes to your site, carefully adding relevant key words to your home page and try to get your key words HIGHER up on your page than Broker Bob down the street who is still higher ranked than yours.

Google SEO will look for WHERE your key words are as compared to the other sites. This is the #1 secret that gets your site to rank higher than others and is something that Danny Sullivan, Bruce Clay or Frederick Marckini at iProspect will never tell you. But this is the one finishing strategy that allows SEO professionals to make a boatload of money as this advice is the finishing touch that brings smiles to clients' faces when they finally reach the top of the real estate food chain by being #1 on Google.

These are some of the best secrets I use to get my clients to the top. It's not an over night thing, and it will take 4 months. Sometimes 8 months or a year. But the facts are, once you are page one on Google for a year, you tend to stay there and then your site only needs minor updates from time to time. Add a few new pages here and there. Add a few more links TO your site. Always do a new PR from time to time.

Follow these steps and I'll see you at the top.

-- bartman

Okay the big thing I posted about Kutcher cheating by using Lamar billboards pro-bono to get the word out created a lot of interesting comments.

Several agents asked about the value of Twitter. There is a single value word that sums up Twitter.com. micro-blogging

Just as many of you have discovered the value of seeing your dull and boring website spring to life and jump up a page or two on Google a few days after you linked some text here on Active Rain and pointed it to your website.

Twitter is going to do the same thing.Here's some of the REAL value-add things you can be doing to Tweet your way to better Google visibility.

1.) Post your properties on Twitter like this.

Just Reduced! Chef's kitchen w/new appliances. Brick home, 3BR, 2BATH, and is $32,000 under market value. http://www.mysite.com/listing123

That link above can help generate some traffic to your site especially if you have BUYERS following you on Twitter.com

Help! I have a military couple needing to move quickly. Short sale on new construction. Visit http://www.aliceagent.com/home123.php

Short sales? Military family relocating (PCS) to another state? No problem. Chirtp-Tweet your way to finding a buyer for your short sale.POST it on Twitter.com using the format I gave you above.

1.) GET people (buyers - sellers) to find you on Twitter.

2.) Add the box on your website, and add the Twitter widget and your account name.

3.) TELL BUYERS to follow you on Twitter so they can benefit by being the first to know about new homes, distressed sellers, foreclosures, short sales, etc.

Trust me. Your followers will GROW. Today you start off with you and your husband or mom. Tomorrow a few friends show up. But in a month, your Twitter followers will start to really add up.

I speak to a lot of agents and brokers that sort of look at me with the puppie eyes and tell me how crappy the economy is and then it just turns to whining. There's no need to be a victim of the current Buyers' Market. Use my advice and get with the program.

To show some help, I will personally coach (3) agents on Active Rain for FREE. Call me at the Santa Fe office at (505) 466-2483 or cell, 505-204-8097. I will teach you how to Tweet and I will create a custom Twitter Theme with your logo, your information and branding at NO CHARGE (a $150 value FREE).

- bartman

A question to my fellow ActiveRainer's on this question. How many of you PAY for an on-line newspaper subscription?

My guess is that many of my colleagues do not hit the Newspaper Association of America (NAA) so this might come as interesting news as many REALTORS still run newspaper ads and real estate guide (print) ads, ad nauseum. Meaning we run the ads simply to appease the demands of our listings, but we hate paying for them.

Many of you might know the two founders of Google are Sergey Brin and Larry Page. But neither one of them are the CEO at Google. That role goes to Eric Schmidt. He was one of the key speakers at the NAA show which was just held in San Diego. If you attended it, it was dismal. Most of the newspaper executives I ran into all had the "Deer in the headlights," look. Many newspapers are going bankrupt, and many of them were selling their newspaper or entertaining deals at the show. Others were trying to figure out how to stay in business by stopping their print edition and go fully electronic like the Rocky Mountain News did in February this year.

Eric Schmidt was right. Nobody wants to pay for on-line news. I guess I'm one of the few who don't mind. I pay an annual fee for Advertising Age and the Wall Street Journal and that's all. I cannot tell you when the last was that I sat down for a Sunday breakfast and opened up my local newspaper -- the Santa Fe New Mexican. There is one advantage to subscribing to the Wall Street Journal or many other newspapers on line. I don't get the crap advertisements from Lowes', Smiths and JC Penney to spill out all over the table when I get my news. I get only the news articles I want covering advertising, business, travel and that's all I want. Unfortunately, you can't customize the Sunday Edition of the Los Angeles Times in advance. Whether you like it or not, you get the Life Section. Sports, Real Estate Guide, blah blah blah.

Is it any wonder why Apple Computer took off with their iTunes service? You can buy the one song you like from Don Henley and the other 13 songs you can forget about and not pay for them. Newspapers in the traditional print media form cannot do that. Online newspapers can.

Google (last year) experimented with taking some cities and running Google AdWords in them. The results were so dismal, they stopped the program. Google also experimented with radio ads. Meaning you could scan a market for bottom feeding -- doing a media buy (to place your radio spots) in radio stations that were starving to sell their open inventory (ad slots).

In today's eat or be eaten Internet economy, many newspapers that are moving to the web have two fundamental problems facing them today;

1.) How do we make it profitable?

Many people want to read news for free on-line. So the rub is, how do we get people who used to pay for newspapers, now change their minds about paying for news on line? The problem here is the hundreds of thousands of photojournalists and writers who don't want to get grafted onto the rear end of the unemployment line. Who pay for their salaries when the newspapers go to on-line content?

2.) Copyright Protection

How do we police news stories that were posted on line for a subscription, to not have it's text copied and pasted onto a blog or somewhere else? This brought up the very real possibility of forthcoming lawsuits, as it was posed as a possibility by the Associated Press. They would threaten or file lawsuits against the sites what used it's content without written permission. So for you BLOGGERS out there, it's time to be CAREFUL about what you copy from one site and paste into your own site.

I consult with a lot of agents and brokers on real estate SEO who want to get better visibility on their websites. Incoming links from high traffic websites are a great way to do this. Getting mentioned in the electronic version of the newspaper and a text link pointed to your website is how you get more visibility.

- Bart :)

Help Help Help. My IDEA bank is running on empty.

Paul Orphaela, the man who launched Kinko's more than 25 years ago once said this, "All of us are smarter than any ONE of us."

I actually met Paul in Dallas when I worked with my first female boss, Blanche Dillon in 1989.

We ran a few of those computer graphics full service computer graphics centers in Dallas with a bunch of Macs and PCs. Paul loved what we were doing at the Dallas Montfort Kinko's store -- so he flew all the way from his home office in California to see what the secret to our success was.

I have a new client in Ohio who wants to build an incredible team of million dollar producing agents.

So borrowing on Paul's idea... all of YOU brokers who are hiring top producing agents can probably help me with generating a marketing idea.

Here's the idea I did for an agent recruitment piece for ERA two years ago. It is here.

This client, I also did the SEO for and they have been holding page one on Google in the top #1, #2, and #3 positions.

I am looking for IDEAS from the Active Rain REALTOR Community on where YOU think the BEST Website has a really COOL Agent recruitment page... so SEND me your links.

If I pick your IDEA... you will win $100 in FREE gasoline (card) from my advertising agency courtesy of Voyager International.

Here is an agent recruitment piece I did for GMAC (Santa Fe Office)

It was fold over card that had some Alka Seltzer on the top. When you opened up the card, it had the hidden message about calling Santa Fe GMAC office.

FRONT of card. INSIDE of card.

I am looking for the BROKERS to help me on this one.

When you look for a million dollar producer, what are the three qualities you are looking for?

Please share your thoughts and Ideas.

The winning idea I pick will win $100 in FREE Gasoline (card) courtesy of Voyager International.

Thanks to all.

- Bart

Voyager International

The Real Estate Marketing Company

I admit it. My job is a lot of fun sometimes. After my 2nd book on Real Estate Marketing was published, I was invited to test drive a lot of new products and services. I get the latest toys and cameras from Nikon, Sony and the other guys. When Google has new products I often get them way in advance of any public test.

Google has a new browser in BETA and I love this new browser. A lot.

It's called CHROME and it's very Google simple. Stupid simple. Lots of white space. Intuitive to be sure. In my mind -- a potential assassin for Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

Why Is Google Launching its own Browser?

Steve Balmer made some dumb moves not long ago. Like the one when he got all pissy and attempted a hostile take over of Yahoo! when the board didn't agree to Microsoft's offer. No means no. Apparently one of the golden rules that Steve didn't learn when he was growing up.

Microsoft's dominance can't last forever. Nothing lasts forever except, styrofoam. The cup you threw away today will still be here 50,000 years from now (Source: Los Alamos National Labs).

Apple's introduction of the Intel chip into the new Macs means we can now install Mac OS X and a true running Windows XP on the same computer. Someone right now, is taking another look at IBM's dead operating system: OS2 Warp. It failed miserably but it's time for an alternative to Microsoft's Operating System. The VISTA operating system isn't anything to write home to Mom about. Apple's TV commercials poke fun at the pitfalls and bugs that still to this day remain a headache for many PC users. It's time for new and improved. Unfortunately for Microsoft, they just ain't delivering.

Let the Search Engine Wars Begin. The latest interation of Microsoft's Internet Explorer has a great feature for end users -- but a crappy one for advertisers. IE now allows users to surf in private (AD free.) A scary proposition when you consider billions of dollars is made in on-line advertising every year.

I'm fed up with interruption marketing ads. I especially hate them on TV. A new Satellite company called SelectStar is about to do the same thing to TV satellite owners that Microsoft allows now for many users -- see the stuff you want -- AD FREE.

Remove the stupid commercials from all of your favorite TV channels. Any President who promises me that will certainly get my vote. I'll happily trade $4 a gallon gas if you just give me TV with no more stupid ads! I want to watch Discovery, TBS and SciFi channels ad free. And why not? I'm already paying $70 a month for the service so why do I have to pay to watch ads I don't want to see? Am I paying for the ads? I don't want to. I want to pay for programming. I want to watch my TV shows like I see in the theatre. Commercial free.

The SelectStar dish looks more like a bent plus sign and it has a neon blue glow to it. So when you look out your living room window at night and scan the horizon for your neighbors roof tops, you can easily SEE who has the SelectStar Dish. It's a combination dish reception and Internet broadband product. It's the first satellite company to do away 100% with all advertising. Even your local channels will be ad free. But there's a tiny catch. The programming will be ten minutes delayed. And if you're really sick and tired of Bravo and Spike or A&E advertising what's coming up in four hours placing tiny animation ads on the bottom of your TV screen while you're already watching another program -- this goes away too. That stuff really bugs me. I wish I still had my TV brick to toss at my Sharp LCD TV. It was a cool, RONCO sort of product when you wanted to toss a real brick at your TV, but this was nerf foam. Like the indoor foot ball.

The revenues for the programming will come purely from subscriber dollars. So if you were in a coma from 1974 when you had a huge 12 foot dish in your backyard and you wake up in December 2009 (when Select Star launches) you'll be right at home. You won't see a single TV commercial. Ever.

Sorry for getting into the weeds, but I've said more that I should have about SelectStar. Back to Google and Microsoft here.

Google retaliated against Microsoft with a beta version of their browser. Microsoft points a pea shooter at Google. Google comes back and points the equivalent of a Scud Missile back at Microsoft and they have a lot to lose here. Microsoft currently dominates 72 - 74% of the browser market.

But Microsoft has failed to deliver many needed upgrades such as a Desktop to Cell Phone / iPhone or other WAP enabled device. Apple's Safari works great on the iPhone but can you imagine a Google browser that offers direct access to Google search, Google widgets and allows all the benefits of accessing your documents, appointment calendar and a lot more.

The promise of Web 2.0 stuff for Real Estate has been largely talked about, but few companies are innovating an all in one Web 2.0 experience for listings management, virtual tours, Showings appointments, broker/agent notes, transaction management and drip email marketing tools.

The problem with Real Estate 2.0 has been the browser. Many browsers cannot handle the latest release of AJAX, XML and a lot of the new server side goodies with nifty tools like drag and drop saving of (favorites) in a SuperIDX system. You develop a web-based form and it works just fine for IE Explorer 7.x users. But the people using Safari cannot see it, nor can the people using FireFox or Opera. We've all been there. You hear about a great website, you go there and all you see is a white page. Or it rudely informs you -- That you have to be on a PC running FireFox, or Explorer, etc.

I applaud the Google effort to build a better browser. I'm quite frankly fed up with the sneak attacks and security loopholes in Microsoft's Explorer. It is the most hacked program out there and I'm getting fed up with seeing my Outlook Express file get stolen along with my other Microsoft files from time to time.

Way to go Google. Way to go.

- Bart