Hey all,

I am looking for some info on a good company you may have used for SEO to get your site more visible in your area on the search engines?

I have had my site for about 7 months and it is still 4 pages deep on most search sites. I'm not savy enough to make the changes and do the little tricks to get it first page so I need help. I don't have a ton of money to spend on this and I know it can be really expensive and that's my fear.

I know many of you have fantastic websites that generate a lot of leads for you and I would love to have my site do the same for me in my area. Any advice or info would be greatly appreciated.

Also here is the link to my website
Greater Louisville Home Sales please feel free to check it out and let me know what you think as well.

Thanks so much!

I do my own. There are a ton of great blogs and tutorials about doing your own SEO. Heck of a lot cheaper than paying someone to do it.

Joe,

If your mom has been doing it for 25 years as you say in your profile then she is your best resource.

If you have no money I wouldn't worry about SEO right now.Even if you ranked and they went to your sight they would immediately log off.There are so many things wrong with your site on so many levels.

It's a canned website not different than the gazillion others out there.

With no money you need to get out there belly to belly and pressing palms to create business and closings.Once you have that then start looking at messing around with SEO and your site.

Decide if you wan to be a lister or a buyers agent.Being a buyers agent is easy for new agents to land new business. Getting listings and the trust of sellers is harder without experience.

Why not shadow your mom and co-op on some of her listings??

Yes I agree. Unfortunately your website isn't that great. Plus yes you can do your own seo. If you don't know about it then you should really start doing some research because it is where everything is headed. What real estate company are you with? We have a class just about every week about seo, etc. We have one this week on Advanced Google. Awesome

I'm with Century 21 and unfortunately they don't have classes or workshops on how to improve your net pressence. I would gladly attend them if they offered, but they don't.

I guess I'll just have to do some more research on how to SEO myself.

Could you all possibly point out some things on my site that are wrong or things I could do to improve it's quality. I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks again!

[quote=DC Realtor]Could you all possibly point out some things on my site that are wrong or things I could do to improve it's quality. I'd really appreciate it![/quote]
OK...I'll chime in.

1. "You" seem to be missing. Since this is your personal site, it should be immediately clear that you're promoting yourself. Unless I actually read what's on your site, I can't even tell this IS a personal website. What I see when I click is something that looks entirely generic. I assume you aren't generic.

2. Along that same line, I don't see anything that tells me how you're different from any of the countless other agents. Great, you grew up in Louisville, and your mom has been in real estate for a long time...but what does that MEAN to the buyer/seller? Surely many other agents grew up locally, and many of them (not just their parents) have themselves been in real estate for nears.

3. Getting back to the generic part of my first statement, you probably couldn't have given me a more boring visual experience. It's entirely forgettable. I would recommend hiring a graphic designer to do something spectacular; it won't be cheap, but it will be highly worthwhile if your goal is to use your website as an actual driver for your business. A "look, I have a website" website will only waste your money. Trust me on that one!

4. Perhaps I'm a grammar freak, but I've always thought that no buyer or seller will trust me with the responsibility of representing them in a huge financial transaction if I can't get my wording right. If the phrase "Do to my mothers work in the industry" didn't immediately turn me off from choosing you as my agent, the fact that you claim to be a cancer research "doner" certainly would. As a buyer or seller, I for one would expect attention to detail.

I'm afraid the site is amateurish and will scare most clients away. For starters, your MLS search is beyond useless. You click on it and get dumped on to the terrible MLS.com. Clicking on an MLS search should lead the customer to a branded page where they can construct a search using a map or by specifying location, price, etc. You need to subscribe to an IDX search provider like Wolfnet so customers can do a proper home search. Dumping them to a 3rd party with a bad site will not cut it.

Then if you click on featured listings you get an "Under Construction" page. That went out in 1997. If a link is not working, take it down until it is working.

Your picture also looks like a strange white Realtor ghost. Humans have skin that ranges from light tan to dark brown, and you do want to look human if at all possible.

Also, does your site comply with state regs that specify the prominence of your brokerage in advertising? If you were in my state, you would have been fined already for not having proper and prominent identification of the brokerage with which you are affiliated.

I'm sure others will have more, but you do NOT want SEO until you do the total renovation necessary to make it into a competent and professional site.

Good luck!

There is no point to putting the link to the MLS.com thing. If someone finds a house they aren't going to contact you, they will contact whatever agent is the listing agent.

I agree w/ the grammar/spelling. You are asking people to trust you with their most valuable assets. If you can't spell simple words then why should they trust you with the important things?

Your local MLS should be able to provide you with a relatively low cost IDX solution. My MLS is FlexMLS and they have a terrific system; I pay $120/year for custom IDX links. They also provide a free basic search, branded w/ your contact info, as well. Well, it's free with your dues..lol

IMHO I would ditch this site and start a blog, that you can add pages to. http://www.realestatetomato would be a great place to start (no affiliation with them at all. I have learned a TON from their free articles though.)

Good luck.

One of the best ways to learn SEO is to research the topic on the Internet. Once you gathered enough knowledge to get started then just start working on small projects. Start posting questions on forums and ask others for advice. Forums are one of the best sources for SEO. If you cant get the answer in the forum you can probably be directed in the right place to get the answer.

Joe,

You need align yourself with a top producer "ON THE GROUND" in your area.

This isn't simply we give you a few pointers and your off type thing. It looks like at your brokerage you are not getting much guidance and I find that troubling.

I tell my agents what they need to do every week to create success.Some will do it and get results and the rest don't want to do it and are looking for a silver bullet.