3 Keys to Successful Internet Marketing for Realtors

Attendance is limited and we are expecting this free webinar to fill up fast. The webinar will be held on Friday, July 23, 2010 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM CDT. Simply follow the link below to sign up.

https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/625296259

At Agentopolis we define Internet Marketing Success as, "The right number of the right people finding your website and doing business with you." In the early days of the Internet almost everybody with a business had a website built for them. For most of these sites, no consideration was given to getting the website to rank high in Google and other search engines for relevant searches, i.e real estate, homes for sale, mls listings, etc. More importantly, even less attention was given to local searches like, Minneapolis real estate, Minneapolis homes for sale, Minnesota MLS listings, etc.

As the Internet continues to change and evolve, more and more local real estate agents are discovering that with a little work, they can get their own site to rank well in Google. The trick is that there are only 10 spots on the first page of the Google search results and statistics show that if you are not on the first page, you are probably seeing little if any traffic to your site, which makes your site a bit of a waste of time and money.

The purpose of this free webinar, "3 Keys to Internet Marketing Success for Realtors" is to teach real estate agents about some of the more important aspects and strategies necessary to get your site highly ranked in Google and get your visitors to do business with you.

In this free webinar you will LEARN:

• How to find the 5 best search terms that home buyers are using to find real estate in your area.


• How to organize the content on your web pages to get high Google rankings.


• How to find great free sources for links back to your site.


• How to spy on your competition and see exactly why they are ranking above you in Google.


• How to make it easy for your visitors to share your listings with their family, friends and social networks.


• How to build a list of local home buyer leads.


• How to track your progress and make sure you are moving up and getting more leads.

Who SHOULD attend this Webinar:

• Anyone Realtor who is wondering how the #1 ranked agent on Google in their area got there.


• Real Estate Agents who want to become better website marketers


• Any Realtor who isn’t on the first page of Google for local real estate searches.


• Anyone who hasn’t added or changed content on their web site in the past 30 days.


• Anyone looking for a way to rank higher than their competitors in Google and other search engines.


• Realtors who are just getting started optimizing.


• Real estate agents who are frustrated with their current internet marketing efforts.


• Anyone looking for an easy to follow process for search engine marketing.


• Realtors who are tired of paying someone else for search engine optimization and it’s not working.

Attendance is limited and we are expecting this free webinar to fill up fast. The webinar will be held on Friday, July 23, 2010 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM CDT. Simply follow the link below to sign up.

https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/625296259

Google Local Business Center Video Tutorial

Lately I've been running into more and more internet marketers who are preaching the ease and benefits of using the Google Local Business Listing to get on the first page of the Google SERP. I have also noticed more local listings showing up in front of the organic search results for many of the searches I do. This is especially true for local real estate and MLS listings searches.

If you're looking for a free easy way to get your real estate web site found on Google, watch this short video from Google. It doesn't get much easier or cheaper than this, enjoy!

The Zillow Quandry

OK so Zillow is getting a bunch of traffic, that's a fact but the question for Realtors is what kind of traffic is Zillow getting and how can it help me? Is Zillow getting hits from potential home buyers, potential home sellers or simply from people who are curious about the value of their home? Oh by the way, there is another big user of Zillow, mortgage professionals who use Zillow to determine if there is enough value in a borrowers home to justify a refinance. I'm thinking a lot of mortgage guys are using Zillow everyday which really doesn't help Realtors or home sellers.

My take on the deal is that most of Zillow's traffic is from people who are curious about the value of a home versus someone actually looking for homes to buy. Think about it, any home buyer that has heard the term MLS and has searched for their local mls in Google has figured out that the mother lode of homes for sale is not on Zillow, Trulia or sites like them who are busy trying to build a national database of home inventory, but on the sites of local realtors. So to think of Zillow as a great place to find buyers is a bit of a stretch. I haven't spent any time looking at Zillows Q&A section yet and in fact there might be some opportunities for agents to engage prospects in meaningful conversations that ultimately end in real estate transactions, but this is the same activity that Realtors are being told they should be doing with their blogs.

So what's an agent to do and how much time should an agent spend on Zillow and, what is Zillows ultimate motive in all this? Time will tell but knowing what I know about real estate and the Internet today, As an agent I would be spending my time build my web presence/brand in my local market using tools like a blog and an IDX broker reciprocity feed which gives my visitors access to almost all the homes for sales in their area. At the end of the day, the agent is still the one who makes it all happen!

REDFIN WINS!!! As differentiation among agents disappears.

I read a horrifying article on Inman News today about public facing MLS sites owned by the local MLS. The article I read referred to HAR in Houston Texas and explained all the fantastic marketing things they were doing to drive traffic to their site including billboards, radio, tv, print etc. and they are talking about syndicating the listings and automatically feeding this info to some of the big internet home marketing sites like zillow, google base, etc. All the things a great agent might also do to increase and protect their market share. If the MLS’s around the country start to act like internet marketing companies, what is left for the listing agent to do besides stick a sign in the yard, and how much commission is that really worth, hence Redfin.

While this may be great news for the struggling agents who list fewer than 6 homes a year, (an agent who might want to consider the Redfin gig as I understand it) It is terrible news for the successful real estate agents and brokers who have taken advantage of technology and the internet to further grow their business by doing a better job of selling their clients listings and building a steady stream of qualified buyers.

Think about it, the best buyer magnet in the business is an MLS broker reciprocity IDX solution. If I am a home buyer on the internet, what is the only thing that is important to me when I stumble upon your site through Google or some other method? Listings!! If you spend all the time and effort to build a nice site and drive me their only to show me your current two or three listings, I’ll be off your site in less than 30 seconds. Smart agents know this and incorporate IDX search solutions into their site. The better listing agents know how and where to place their listings on the internet to provide ever increasing exposure to their clients homes for sale. If the local MLSs start doing all this for you, then how will any agent present themselves as any better or different from any other agent. And if this becomes true, than agents become a simple commodity and the value of their service drops like a lead balloon.

Think about it, if I have a $500,000 house to sell do I want to pay $30,000 in commissions or pay a couple of grand to Pro Source, study nights and weekends, to get my realtor license so I can join the local board and let them to a fantastic job of marketing my home for next to nothing?

Recent Google Searches for Realtors

In order to help real estate agents get a better idea of some of the different ways consumers are looking for agents on the web, I thought I would share with you some of the most recent Google searches from the web analytics of Agentopolis. Agentopolis is seeing a growing trend in consumers simply typing in agents names in different combinations in order to get the agents phone number or contact info.
To see the results for any of these searches, simply copy and paste them into Google.

remax canton ohio bartolone

"marsena dixon"

Sonia Hodgin, prudential

lori millard

Dawny Corsaut

floridagreathomes.comcast.net

"daniel c asleson"

"gary mccoy" +realtor

top 100 real estate agents in san antonio tx

larry@newhomesexclusively.com

Nelson Sumner realty listings

rosekeyser@ comcast.net

www.kathyberger.com

www.northwest-wisconsin.com

shelly executive realty milford massach

margaret bouldon realtor, 49230

Jacky Waggoner Realty, Birmingham, ALabama

tracey, anderson , realtors, massachusetts

There are many more everyday. Let me know if you find this information helpful or interesting and I can continue to share from time to time.