Whether you are a do it yourselfer or an SEO pro (like me!) there are times when you may want to tinker with a site to improve your SERP's on a KW or two. Sometimes making a few changes works out. Other times, especially if you are not familiar with some of the intracacies of SEO, it can have a negative cascading effect with other keywords and phrases on your site.

The challenge can be to undo the changes that you made that caused the negative results. Some people save multiple copies of the pages that they changed with a slight renaming of the original document name. This works fine, but it can cause confusion when you have hundreds of web pages and need to sort through pages to upload yo your site.

I have a better way that works well for me. I start a new file in MS Word to record my changes. The first entry, listed in bold, is the name of the file that I changed. Then I create a table with two columns. In the left column I list the original content or code of the section that I am working on. In the second column, I record the changes that I made. If there is more than one change on the page, I continue with a new row in my table.

If I change another page, I start with another section of bolded text and another table. When I have completed my changes, I save the document as the date (i.e. 05182005). I usually save these in a sub directory off of the web root on my PC to keep the clutter out of my working web directory. This way I have progessive records of the changes that I have made. I can easily cross reference these files with the dates of when I checked my search engine rankings.

Keep track of every little change that you make to the site, whether you are simply bolding a few words of text or adding new pages to your site. With a little bit of studying afterward, you may notice a few trends that can help you in the future.

That is very technical and I am in the dark. I want to get my first website I am new to real estate and my web budget is small, what do you recommend?

If you are looking to generate prospects and leads from your web site and you do not have money to spend, you should not invest any money in a web site. Let me explain.

If you are tech savvy, you can build your own web site. Through trial and error, over an extended period of time, you may be able to develop decent or even good search engine rankings. But more often than not, for the average agent, their time, resources, and money can be better spent elsewhere.

You can also decide to use your web site as support for your print media advertising rather than for internet lead generation. This passive real estate internet marketing strategy involves directing people to your web site through print media. For this purpose you can buy a cheap template web site, or design the site yourself.

On the other hand, investing in a custom real estate web design, search engine optimization services, and/or pay per click campaign are a great way for new agents to gain exposure and helps to level the playing field versus the more experienced agents - at least as far as getting your name out there is concerned.

Even if you do not have any listings of your own, you can always include the MLS on your site. Through proper web promotion, you can obtain prospects using the MLS. Making them clients and closing the sale will still be a function of your own skills and training.

So, my final advice - scrap paying for a web site unless you want to do it the "right way" by investing in SEO or PPC. Otherwise, the only cash benefit of your site will be to the web designer. You can always do it yourself if you have the knowledge.

The most important item, especially for new agents, is to get your name out in the public. Besides web and traditional marketing means, make sure you attend functions around town (church, fund raisers, youth soccer, anything out in the public. When you can, wear a shirt with your name and logo on it, and pass out business cards if the opportunity presents itself.

A web site is only good if you have the time and money to invest in the product and the process. Many agents have even found that they can all but do away with print media and radio advertising because of their web success.

If you don't have the money and the time and resources to cultivate internet prospects, then find other ways to achieve your own brand recognition.

excellent reply thank you for your time two quick questions though.
Would having a basic website and using PPC or SEO be a good idea?
What would it cost per month starting out to do this?

Johhny,

I received your email and tried to call you, but you were out of the office. I'll try again shortly.