Building A Better Real Estate Web Site For Buyers
By HHI Golf Guy | November 6, 2007
The most common mistake of real estate web sites is that they are designed as billboards for the agent rather than focusing on the buyer client
If you have ever shopped for real estate on the internet or checked out your competitor’s web sites you will find that most have one thing in common - they focus on the real estate agent instead of on the buyer client. The fact is, most people just don’t trust real estate agents (maybe that’s why some agents promote themselves so heavily instead of concentratinbg on buyers).
Realtor web sites have improved over the past few years, adding items such as video, virtual tours, and maps. They help to give a better visual representation of each property and the surrounding area, but they still fall short of letting the buyer know what it’s like to live, work, and play in each community.
To combat this problem, some agents do provide community descriptions for their visitors, but most fall short of painting a complete picture. And when there are dozens of towns and residential communities in the service area, most people don’t have the patience to read page after page of community information, demographics, and school reports. When you combine all of that information with thousands of MLS listings, it can lead to information overload.
That’s where technology and the web can help users quickly find locations that suit their needs and lifestyle. For example, this Austin real estate web site features an advisor section called “Ask Julie”. The concept is quite simple, ask the user a dozen questions about their preferences including commute time, schools, and recreation and then display the resulting areas that most closely meet their criteria.
The above example is a simplified version of what can be accomplished. The next step is to provide a more in depth survey, or better yet offer two versions of the survey. One version is quick and easy like the one above, while the second asks for more details. This information can be used not only to pinpoint specific towns, but it can also be used to pinpoint specific residential communities or neighborhoods within those towns. With a little more coding, this feature could also display a list of available properties within those communities and plot them on a map for visual reference.
Actually, the programming for this application is not that extensive. It’s nothing more than a complex database query. However, the difficult part is setting up all of the criteria, especially if you are looking for comprehensive results. Web developers will need to work closely with their clients to ensure that the data is both comprehensive and accurate. But once it is complete, it is an ultimate sticky for a real estate web site.
The Kosloff Group will be adding this feature option to their web design packages beginning in 2008 in conjunction with the realease of their new CMS web suite.
Topics: Real Estate Marketing, Web Design | No Comments »
Why Site Structure Is An Important Part of SEO
By HHI Golf Guy | October 24, 2007
We recently took over the SEO services for an Austin Real Estate web site. One of the first items that I look at is the overall indexing of the web site. Specifically, I look at the site titles and descriptions picked up by the search engines as well as the total pages indexed and the cached results of each page.
What I found on this site was typical of most web site designs. The site had a decent amount of information, and thousands of real estate listings. But almost every page had the same title tag (HomeCity). That’s a big no-no in the world of SEO.
Another problem occured with the page descriptions being picked up by Google. For the thousands of listing pages, the descriptions were almost identical. To combat these problems I had their programmer go back and create dynamic title and description tags based on the page content pulled from the database. To date, they are still working on this feature, although it should be completed within a week or so.
The problem with this site is that the when the search engines see the same title tag on all pages (and oull the same basic info for descriptions) is that the search engines no longer consider these pages to be unique. When that happens, they lose their relevance and importance and no longer provide a good foundation for the overall keyword themes of your web site. It also means that a search engine like Google will place less crawling importance on these pages. For example, I was seeing cache dates that were more than a few months old.
One the programming changes are complete, the next step will be to upload a robots.txt and create an XML sitemap. Right now the site is enough of a mess where implementing these items won’t really help. There’s a lot more to do with this site, but improving some basic on page SEO will help with crawling, indexing, and rankings.
Topics: General SEO | No Comments »
The Bowflex Challenge
By HHI Golf Guy | October 24, 2007
My 43 year old body just isn’t what it used to be. And now that my son is a very active two year old, I have the obligation to get myself in shape and take better care of myself. So the other week I purchased the Bowflex Extreme 2SE.
The manual provides you with a list of over 60 different exercises and a number of different workout routines to choose from depending upon what you hope to accomplish. Since I am 30+ pounds above my weight from my days playing college hockey, I chose the Body Leanness Program.
Of course, one of the key components of this program is changing your diet. The manual provides you with an eating guide, and during the first two weeks of the six week program you are limited to 1,500 calories per day. By week 5 you are down to only 1,300 calories per day. You also need to drink water - a lot of water. I normally drink a half gallon of water per day, but with this program you need to start off at 1 gallon each day. By week 5 you are up tp 1.5 gallons each day.
The workout routine is quick and basic for the first two weeks, and takes only 15-20 minutes. By week five the routine is a bit more intense, and it looks like it will take 20-30 minutes to complete. Interesting enough, workouts are limited to only 3 times per week, and you are not allowed any other excercise on your off days.
The program states that the average weight loss at the end of the 6 week period is 27 pounds. My goal is to lose 30-35 pounds, so if this works it will be a nice start. I’m in week one of the program now, but I will post an update or two with my results.
Topics: Miscellaneous Ramblings | No Comments »