Let's be honest, Search Engine Optimisation or SEO is not be a glamorous subject. Estate Agents are constantly reminded by web design and SEO companies that their SEO is bad because of one thing or another so it is understandable why so many Estate Agents switch off.
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Showing posts with label seo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label seo. Show all posts
Thursday, 24 December 2009
Estate agents, it's time to reflect on your achievements
Estate Agents, give yourself a good hard pat on the back. According to research by The Local Data Company, One in six Estate Agents closed down between October 2008 and October 2009. Showing that this year has been long and hard and arguably only the best Estate Agents have survived.
Estate Agents have one more task before relaxing into the holiday spirit. Some see it as a chore, some find it intriguing and some Estate Agents never do it, but now is certainly the time to do it.
'It', in the paragraph before, refers to checking your Google Analytics.
Before you groan, Google Analytics gives Estate Agents an insight into how their customers interact with their website, which as we all know, is the modern tool for displaying your property portfolio. Therefore the end of the New Year is the perfect time to analyse how your Estate Agent website has performed over the year.
In a hurry? The top 5 things Estate Agents need to check on Google Analytics are:
- Map overlay - Map overlay shows Estate Agents the catchment area for their website. If your website is optimised for the right keywords the majority of your customers will come from the surrounding areas. Do not be surprised if you have a random visitor from South Africa or Japan!
- New vs. Returning - This shows Estate Agents what percentage of users accessing the website are new customers or ones that revisit the website.
- Referring Sites - This is to check to see which websites sent you the most traffic. Remember that Google accounts for around 92% of the search engine traffic in the UK. Do you stats reflect this?
- Keywords - What Keywords did people type to get to your website? Check your Google ranking for the most popular and see if your website is targeted towards the right keywords.
- Content by Title - see which properties generated the most interest and then try to figure out why they generated that much interest.
Troy Stanley, CTO of Resource Techniques comments, 'Estate Agents that regularly check Google Analytics have a greater insight into their customer's online movements than the Estate Agents that never check. We recommend all Estate Agents use this free information at their disposal.'
Tuesday, 1 December 2009
Google search - how would you change it this Christmas?
Estate agents, imagine the power if Google suddenly appointed you as head of their search function for the Christmas period. Would you change anything or would you finally get that alteration that you've been dreaming of ever since you first pressed that search button?
Matt Cutts is well known in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) circles as being the head of Google's web spam team. From his many videos, he can be seen as a very likable person and when he speaks, the internet listens.
On the 24th of November Google posted up a video of Matt Cutts talking about 'which search feature would you add to Google' on Google's Webmaster channel on YouTube.
His answer was something that may not be noticeable to estate agents. As Matt is the head of Google's web spam team, he stated that he regularly emails links to other people. These links include extra text in the URL from parameters which he considers is not relevant to him.
Estate agents, how would you change Google? Would you change the search function or the design of Google? Let us know via our Facebook or Twitter page.
Wednesday, 25 November 2009
You've heard of SEO, but what about YTO?
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is everywhere on the internet. Any agent looking at web design or a new website will have heard of SEO, but have you heard of YTO?
YTO does not stand for 'Your Total Overlord' or even 'You're Too Old', but YTO stands for 'YouTube Optimisation'.
'Why do estate agents need to optimise their YouTube Videos?' It boils down to the same reasons as to why websites are optimised; being found in search engines and within YouTube.
YouTube was established in February 2005 and by April of this year 5 Billion videos had been viewed in the UK alone. Worldwide, YouTube now streams a staggering 1 billion videos every day and an overwhelming 20 hours of video are uploaded every minute.
In recent news, YouTube has upgraded into HD whilst Google will also be adding speech recognition technology to every English speaking video by the end of the week, which is great news for people with hearing disabilities.
By next week every English YouTube video will have subtitles which will be used when indexing content.
Troy Stanley, CTO of Resource Techniques comments, 'This could mean that a new wave of YTO will be ushered in. Estate agents must plan a deliberate script with intentional keywords so that it shown at the top of Search Engines and by YouTube's own search function.'
This script isn't the only way estate agents can optimise their YouTube videos.
Below Resource Techniques will take estate agents through the process of YTO.
Firstly estate agent agents need to organise the video files that they take. Excellent for personal organisation but also YouTube will automatically add the file name into the video title.
Changing the file as soon as estate agents load it onto their computer means that they will be able to keep track of the videos that they upload and they can evaluate their chosen video title when they upload it to YouTube. Putting themselves in the shoes of a property searcher, estate agents will be able to contemplate keywords such as the address, type of house as well as the word 'video'.
For example, estate agents can use '52 Web-Design Street, London NW4 4DD [Company name] estate agents viewing video'. Although this is full of keywords, it is not very user friendly. Why not try, 'House for sale 24 Design Street, London, Video by [Company name] estate agents/estates.' Estate agents must design the title for both the end user and search engines.
Next, fill in the description section with lots of keywords describing what the video is about such as; estate agent, property, viewing, one/two/three bedrooms, garden and the estate agent name. Widespread advice suggests that a link should be inserted at the start of the description linking to the property. This gives users a chance to view in-depth property details on your website.
Last thing on this page is to fill the tags section. Here estate agents need to insert individual keywords that have been used in the description of the video.
Once finished, estate agents should click on the link 'My Videos'. Estate agents will be able to overview, edit, delete and add captions to their video.
Once there, click on 'edit'. From here estate agents can edit broadcasting options. Ideally estate agents will want to edit the security settings so the video can be commented on, rated, have video responses and embedded as possible. This means that your video will be able to be shared, talked about, reviewed and embedded as much as possible.
The last thing for estate agents to consider is captions and annotations as they can also be used towards their YTO. Agents need to be aware that although they can provide useful links and extra information, many YouTube users find them annoying and in the way of the video. Overusing them will cause users to click away from your video.
Troy Stanley gives a final comment on how estate agents can improve their YTO even further, 'Any estate agent that is serious about uploading property videos to YouTube needs to use YouTube Insights which is available in 'My Videos.'
'This is an analytics feature that gives information that will help estate agents to optimise their videos. Areas such as location, discovery and daily views will help estate agents to become the leading YouTube estate agent in their area.' - Troy Stanley.
Do you use YouTube to market your properties online? Are you considering starting to market your properties through YouTube? Let us know via our Twitter or Facebook page.
Wednesday, 14 October 2009
Are social networks replacing search engines?
Social media is everywhere. There are even references to Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and Wikipedia on TV and in movies. There will even be a Facebook movie called 'The Social Network' due to be released next year starring Jesse Eisenberg, Justin Timberlake and Andrew Garfield.
A new report has emerged underpinning the concept of estate agents connecting to new and existing customers through social networking. By Nielsen Wire, the report surveyed 1,800 people on the acquisition of content through social media.
The first question started off the survey with 'When looking for new information online, on what type of website do you start your search?' Out of the 1,800 participants, 37% used search engines, 34% used portals such as AOL or yahoo and 18% of respondents used 'social media' which includes Facebook, Twitter, blogs, Wikipedia etc. That is almost one fifth of people using social media for new information.
This information will vary greatly from person to person, depending on their situation, but what is certain is that some of these people will use social media to look for new property. Wikipedia and blogs can be ruled out, leaving social networking as the primary way for people to look for new properties online through social media.
The report concluded that it is very possible that social networks will replace search engines and portals in the future. Respondents found there is too much information on the internet to take in so the next step is to trust peers, relatives and other online 'friends' to ask them for their opinion.
How can estate agents benefit from this? Troy Stanley, CTO of Resource Techniques comments, 'Embrace social networking and implementing it into your marketing strategy. By communicating to online property searchers, estate agents are able to directly influence where property searchers are looking online. '
'Services such as posting the latest property or building a portfolio of users that you contact directly online will all help towards creating a desirable service that will keep property searchers coming back again and again.' - Troy Stanley.
Do you want to find out more about social networking? Read our other articles, 'Estate agents, who are you more likely to communicate with on social networks? Men or Women?' and 'Damn good reasons why estate agents should invest time and effort into social networking.'
A new report has emerged underpinning the concept of estate agents connecting to new and existing customers through social networking. By Nielsen Wire, the report surveyed 1,800 people on the acquisition of content through social media.
The first question started off the survey with 'When looking for new information online, on what type of website do you start your search?' Out of the 1,800 participants, 37% used search engines, 34% used portals such as AOL or yahoo and 18% of respondents used 'social media' which includes Facebook, Twitter, blogs, Wikipedia etc. That is almost one fifth of people using social media for new information.
This information will vary greatly from person to person, depending on their situation, but what is certain is that some of these people will use social media to look for new property. Wikipedia and blogs can be ruled out, leaving social networking as the primary way for people to look for new properties online through social media.
The report concluded that it is very possible that social networks will replace search engines and portals in the future. Respondents found there is too much information on the internet to take in so the next step is to trust peers, relatives and other online 'friends' to ask them for their opinion.
How can estate agents benefit from this? Troy Stanley, CTO of Resource Techniques comments, 'Embrace social networking and implementing it into your marketing strategy. By communicating to online property searchers, estate agents are able to directly influence where property searchers are looking online. '
'Services such as posting the latest property or building a portfolio of users that you contact directly online will all help towards creating a desirable service that will keep property searchers coming back again and again.' - Troy Stanley.
Do you want to find out more about social networking? Read our other articles, 'Estate agents, who are you more likely to communicate with on social networks? Men or Women?' and 'Damn good reasons why estate agents should invest time and effort into social networking.'
Tuesday, 13 October 2009
Top 15 need-toknow news articles for a modern agent
In June of this year, Resource Techniques has increased the number of news features. Our team is dedicated to providing the latest news for estate agents including general internet news, social networking news, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) news, latest gadgets, website design for estate agents and many more. To celebrate this, we have complied our top 15 news articles that will help today's modern estate agent.
1. Estate agents, Generation Z are slowly growing up
2. Estate agents, SEO services are not just for Christmas
3. Estate agents are you having a social networking burnout?
4. Estate agents who are you more likely to communicate with on social networks? Men or Women?
5. Estate agents, me too positioning won't cut it with social networking
6. The crucial SEO secret that has been over looked - by almost everyone
7. 25 captivating Google internet Stats for estate agents
8. Top 5 Sat Navs for estate agents
9. Minesweeper and solitaire - the hidden education from the misunderstood demon
10. Estate agents, internet users love animations on your property website
11. Resource Techniques conclusion from our free website review for estate agents
12. 5 Killer songs for bored estate agents
13. Getting website design wrong will harm your business
14. Did you know that websites can bounce?
15. The end for newspaper advertising? Many estate agents ask this question
Troy Stanley, CTO of Resource Techniques comments, 'Our news archive is growing by the day!'
'My favourite articles include, 'Estate agents, Generation Z are growing up', 'getting your website design wrong will harm your business' and 'estate agents, SEO services are not just for Christmas'. Troy Stanley continues.
'We upload all our articles onto our Twitter page and Facebook page. Check daily to see the latest news relating to property professionals.' - Troy Stanley.
1. Estate agents, Generation Z are slowly growing up
2. Estate agents, SEO services are not just for Christmas
3. Estate agents are you having a social networking burnout?
4. Estate agents who are you more likely to communicate with on social networks? Men or Women?
5. Estate agents, me too positioning won't cut it with social networking
6. The crucial SEO secret that has been over looked - by almost everyone
7. 25 captivating Google internet Stats for estate agents
8. Top 5 Sat Navs for estate agents
9. Minesweeper and solitaire - the hidden education from the misunderstood demon
10. Estate agents, internet users love animations on your property website
11. Resource Techniques conclusion from our free website review for estate agents
12. 5 Killer songs for bored estate agents
13. Getting website design wrong will harm your business
14. Did you know that websites can bounce?
15. The end for newspaper advertising? Many estate agents ask this question
Troy Stanley, CTO of Resource Techniques comments, 'Our news archive is growing by the day!'
'My favourite articles include, 'Estate agents, Generation Z are growing up', 'getting your website design wrong will harm your business' and 'estate agents, SEO services are not just for Christmas'. Troy Stanley continues.
'We upload all our articles onto our Twitter page and Facebook page. Check daily to see the latest news relating to property professionals.' - Troy Stanley.
Monday, 12 October 2009
Read all about it: The lightest laptop ever made
From working at a coffee shop to working at a service station, or even on-site, having a laptop can be seen as more of a necessity than a luxury for estate agents on the go. What about weight though? Does lugging around a huge laptop for the slightly higher memory, processing speed and extra functions a good enough reason to justify a bad back?
Good news! Sony has just revealed a new laptop that is the lightest one ever built, perfect for estate agents on the go! It's called the Vaio X a laptop is just a tiny 655g and half an inch thin.
This laptop is perfect for any commuter on the go. The battery life is claimed to have up to 16 hours, which is more than enough for the well-travelled estate agent.
Sony describes it as, 'a perfectly balanced package for style-aware business travellers'.
One downfall (and there was bound would be one), is that this weight comes at a price. To achieve this minuscule weight, estate agents must have a particular battery called the 'S battery' and no modem.
Not satisfied? Estate agents can also choose from the MacBook Air, Averatec 1579, Asus Eee PC or even the Toshiba Protege R500, which are all light choices.
Did you enjoy this article? Why not read '5 killer songs for bored estate agents', 'Top 5 sat navs for estate agents reviewed by Resource Techniques' or even 'UPDATE: our website screenshots on the iPhone!'.
Friday, 2 October 2009
Noticing people increasingly using their mobile on the train, on the bus, or cafe? Mobile internet usage is on the rise!
The Neilsen Company has just released some interested mobile internet user statistics. Total internet mobile usage has increased by 34% to a total of 56.9million page views just in the month of July. More men are using mobile internet, but compared to last year, women have started to use mobile internet more.
The largest group using mobile internet is, unsurprisingly the 35-54 year olds, but surprisingly the largest growth is the 65+ age group with a 67% yearly increase of users (overlooking the tiny 3% overall usage by the 65+ group).
This is fantastic news for people who people who already use mobile internet, phone companies will notice this increase in usage and the great mechanism of capitalist competition will kick in and lower prices. Lower prices, in turn, will increase usage for mobile internet.
Will an increase in usage, more and more people will use their spare time or commuting hours to search for properties on their mobile. This comes at a time where uSwitch have also reported that the British public spend an average of 30 hours online in one week, 18-24 spend almost 7 hours a day online and 93% of the British population shop online.
As the processing power and internet speed increase for mobiles the next step for websites is to either have a mobile version of the website or estate agents need to make sure that their website is mobile friendly.
Resource Techniques is a specialist in providing IT services for estate agents. Services include web design for estate agents, SEO for estate agents, SEO services, web sites for estate agents and estate agent software. Visit our portfolio page for our estate agent website designs or contact us page for more information.
Resource Techniques is a specialist in providing IT services for estate agents. Services include web design for estate agents, SEO for estate agents, SEO services, web sites for estate agents and estate agent software. Visit our portfolio page for our estate agent website designs or contact us page for more information.
Wednesday, 23 September 2009
The crucial SEO secret that has been overlooked - by almost everyone
Estate agents must be careful, once this Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) secret has been revealed, your estate agent website will never be on Page 5 or lower again. This secret has been stated by Google over and over again but no one has listened.
Web masters and SEO consultants all over the globe have been telling estate agents that their Meta Tags must be optimised, proper headings must be used, site maps must be built etc... (These tips do help, Resource Techniques isn't telling you to stop using SEO techniques!) But there is still one secret that either has been ignored or web masters just don't believe it to be true.
Are estate agents ready for this? Remember that this secret has been declared before...
Content.
That's the big secret.
"Content is King".
The best way to get to number one in Google is to produce compelling and relevant content. Once your estate agency website has content that people want to read, people will start to automatically link to your content. So what does this mean for estate agents?
A news section, with local and national news, is the easiest way to have relevant content on your estate agent website. Ideally this local news can include local building work, local new developments, or estate agents can write about national news that will affect property searchers in the UK will want to read. The main thing here to keep it relevant, creating content that is related to the property industry means that property searchers will want to access and read your estate agency website.
Do not fall down at the first hurdle. A few estate agents have outsourced their news feature to countries such as India where the quality of the content will be significantly lower than what is required for your website. Try writing estate agent and property industry news first hand. Firstly try to create content with your visitors (online UK property searchers) in mind then try your utmost to create content that you will want to read yourself. Once you have mastered the art of creating content that users will want to read, you will find your estate agent website teetering at the top end of Google.
Looking for a new website? Demand an industry specialist. Resource Techniques has been an IT specialist for estate agents and property professionals for over 20 years. We specialise in web design for estate agents, SEO for estate agents, SEO services, web sites for estate agents, software for estate agents. To get more information, visit our portfolio page for our range of estate agent web site designs or contact us.
Thursday, 3 September 2009
8 Common SEO mistakes
Search Engine optimisation or SEO is important for every part of the estate agent website design. It moves the position of the website up the natural listings (rather than the websites that are advertised) and provides targeted property searchers whilst not costing an arm and a leg. The internet is full of SEO consultants telling estate agents how to improve their SEO but there are also many common mistakes that are repeated again and again. Troy Stanley, CTO of Resource Techniques, has provided estate agents a list of common SEO mistakes that greatly punish the estate agent's move to the top of search engines.
Over optimisation - Search engines want to show the best estate agent websites in their results so that users searching for estate agent websites will continue to use the same search engine. Websites that do not have relevant content for property searchers or a website that has sacrificed usability and user experience for SEO will be flagged by search engines.
Integrate into website design - Website designers also need to know the intricacies of SEO so that the web design can also help towards the website SEO as a whole. Resource Techniques has previously reviewed a website with no Meta tags and the estate agent was using 'tables' (which is an outdated way of constructing a website).
Websites completely in flash - Flash is a useful tool. It is pretty and website designers are able to create interfaces that users love. One major downfall is that website's completely in flash are bad for SEO. Flash is useful but it should be used in conjunction with other elements. Check out our visually impressive animations.
Duplicate content pages - Search engines dislike duplicate content. Avoid at all costs.
Too little content - Search engines love content. Estate agents that have little information about the company and then have all their properties on a property portal will suffer. Estate agents that include local news relevant to the property industry will watch their website shoot up Google.
Keywords - There are two mistakes here. Many websites either use one word keywords or is stuffed with too many keywords. One word keywords are not reflective of what users put into search engines to search for estate agents. Whereas keyword spamming was identified a long time ago by search engines and estate agents still suffer from keyword crazed SEO consultants to this day.
Starting early - Estate agents need to establish their website as early as possible as search engines trust websites that look like they're going to stay around for a long time. SEO that is properly done takes time. Do not trust SEO consultants that will guarantee immediate results.
Poor grammar and spelling - This is an obvious mistake but it still happens today.
Has this article interested you? Try reading 'website design for estate agents and SEO'. Resource Techniques provides web sites for estate agents and professional SEO services as well as a free website review. Interested in upgrading your website? View our portfolio or visit our Contact us page.
Over optimisation - Search engines want to show the best estate agent websites in their results so that users searching for estate agent websites will continue to use the same search engine. Websites that do not have relevant content for property searchers or a website that has sacrificed usability and user experience for SEO will be flagged by search engines.
Integrate into website design - Website designers also need to know the intricacies of SEO so that the web design can also help towards the website SEO as a whole. Resource Techniques has previously reviewed a website with no Meta tags and the estate agent was using 'tables' (which is an outdated way of constructing a website).
Websites completely in flash - Flash is a useful tool. It is pretty and website designers are able to create interfaces that users love. One major downfall is that website's completely in flash are bad for SEO. Flash is useful but it should be used in conjunction with other elements. Check out our visually impressive animations.
Duplicate content pages - Search engines dislike duplicate content. Avoid at all costs.
Too little content - Search engines love content. Estate agents that have little information about the company and then have all their properties on a property portal will suffer. Estate agents that include local news relevant to the property industry will watch their website shoot up Google.
Keywords - There are two mistakes here. Many websites either use one word keywords or is stuffed with too many keywords. One word keywords are not reflective of what users put into search engines to search for estate agents. Whereas keyword spamming was identified a long time ago by search engines and estate agents still suffer from keyword crazed SEO consultants to this day.
Starting early - Estate agents need to establish their website as early as possible as search engines trust websites that look like they're going to stay around for a long time. SEO that is properly done takes time. Do not trust SEO consultants that will guarantee immediate results.
Poor grammar and spelling - This is an obvious mistake but it still happens today.
Has this article interested you? Try reading 'website design for estate agents and SEO'. Resource Techniques provides web sites for estate agents and professional SEO services as well as a free website review. Interested in upgrading your website? View our portfolio or visit our Contact us page.
Wednesday, 2 September 2009
B.I.N.G (Bing Is Not Google); Google respond
It's not like Google to stand by and watch as a possible competitor was about to enter the search engine market, possibly taking a larger market percentage than any company would be comfortable with. Bing, Microsoft's replacement search engine for Window's Live search and MSN search, was launched on the 3rd of June 2009. With an advertisement budget of $100 million, they weren't planning on creating a small wave.
It was widely believed that Google will have to respond alike and that increased competitiveness for the search engine market can only benefit the end users in the long run, but nothing happened straight away. Finally there have been rumours of Google using code name 'caffeine' and until now, people weren't sure what Google was up to.
Code name 'Caffeine' has apparently been in the pipeline for several months now. This secret project has been revealed as 'the next generation' of online search. It has been hailed as the next-generation of search. In other words, the face of Google will still look completely the same but the software under the hood will be upgraded. This could suggest that even though Bing is a new search engine, Google is updating to an even better search engine than before!
Troy Stanley, CTO of resource Techniques, is excited about the change: "Google, the most popular UK search engine, is basically giving a better basic search facility. This is the primary reason why people started using Google in the first place."
"The upgrade will have enhanced search whilst crawling and indexing the internet at a much faster rate. This allows them to narrow the real-time search gap to provide one of the best up-to-date search results."
So how does this affect estate agents?
Troy Stanley continued, "Currently Google is used by 90.55% of people in the UK whereas Bing has a 2.71% market share. With that in mind it is easy to think that Bing can be dismissed or ignored, but still almost 1 out of every 37 people in the UK use Bing. With a population of 61 million people in the UK, roughly 1.6 million people in the UK use Bing (give or take a few, as not every single person in the UK has the internet)."
"This million or so will be, at one point or another, using Bing to search for their local estate agents to search for property. Estate agents with an estate agent website should be asking their website designers or website providers what they are doing to make sure they capture this amount of people. Ignoring any search engine, even one with a smaller market share, can cost estate agents business." - Troy Stanley.
To try out the new version of Google, go to www2.sandbox.google.com and see how your estate agent website performs.
We at Resource Techniques, regularly cross checks search engines, to guarantee that estate agents that we supply for have Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) that they can be proud of. SEO, for those that are unsure, is the process moving each individual estate agent website is as high as possible on a particular search engine. SEO is important part of every website design for estate agents.
Resource Techniques is dedicated to staying on top of any industry changes regarding SEOest or website design for estate agents. Click to read more on 'website design for estate agents and SEO' or 'estate agents, SEO services are not just for Christmas'. To see how we can help your estate agent website design, ensure that you are getting as many people accessing your website and searching for property on your estate agent website by contact us.
It was widely believed that Google will have to respond alike and that increased competitiveness for the search engine market can only benefit the end users in the long run, but nothing happened straight away. Finally there have been rumours of Google using code name 'caffeine' and until now, people weren't sure what Google was up to.
Code name 'Caffeine' has apparently been in the pipeline for several months now. This secret project has been revealed as 'the next generation' of online search. It has been hailed as the next-generation of search. In other words, the face of Google will still look completely the same but the software under the hood will be upgraded. This could suggest that even though Bing is a new search engine, Google is updating to an even better search engine than before!
Troy Stanley, CTO of resource Techniques, is excited about the change: "Google, the most popular UK search engine, is basically giving a better basic search facility. This is the primary reason why people started using Google in the first place."
"The upgrade will have enhanced search whilst crawling and indexing the internet at a much faster rate. This allows them to narrow the real-time search gap to provide one of the best up-to-date search results."
So how does this affect estate agents?
Troy Stanley continued, "Currently Google is used by 90.55% of people in the UK whereas Bing has a 2.71% market share. With that in mind it is easy to think that Bing can be dismissed or ignored, but still almost 1 out of every 37 people in the UK use Bing. With a population of 61 million people in the UK, roughly 1.6 million people in the UK use Bing (give or take a few, as not every single person in the UK has the internet)."
"This million or so will be, at one point or another, using Bing to search for their local estate agents to search for property. Estate agents with an estate agent website should be asking their website designers or website providers what they are doing to make sure they capture this amount of people. Ignoring any search engine, even one with a smaller market share, can cost estate agents business." - Troy Stanley.
To try out the new version of Google, go to www2.sandbox.google.com and see how your estate agent website performs.
We at Resource Techniques, regularly cross checks search engines, to guarantee that estate agents that we supply for have Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) that they can be proud of. SEO, for those that are unsure, is the process moving each individual estate agent website is as high as possible on a particular search engine. SEO is important part of every website design for estate agents.
Resource Techniques is dedicated to staying on top of any industry changes regarding SEOest or website design for estate agents. Click to read more on 'website design for estate agents and SEO' or 'estate agents, SEO services are not just for Christmas'. To see how we can help your estate agent website design, ensure that you are getting as many people accessing your website and searching for property on your estate agent website by contact us.
Wednesday, 26 August 2009
Website design for estate agents and SEO
Estate agent website design is important for your business. Not only does it have to look spotless and show exactly what the brand is about, but it also has to provide a large amount of traffic. There's no point spending valued resources on a website design if no one is there to access it, irrelevant on how the website looks. Therefore website designers today have to appease to the mighty search engine giants and also to the everyday internet user that has a range of knowledge and experience. With 72% of customers seeing you first on the internet, you cannot underestimate the importance of getting this right.
The everyday user
People searching for estate agents online will have a wide range of experience with websites. Some of the younger generation will have been using websites all their life and others will have limited experience. Since more and more people will be using the internet for property it is important to cater for everyone. This is done by using certain techniques.
Firstly you need to greet the user onto the website. Having a lot of content and images flash up will disorientate the user and increase the chance that they will simply click off the website and move onto another estate agent website. Therefore having an animated introduction to greet the user and establish your brand name or logo gently introduces them into the website. Next you naturally guide the eye to a 'Call to Action'.
A Call to Action is where the website gives the user a clearly defined route to take. For estate agent websites, the Call to Action is the property search. This is because over 97% of users visiting estate agents websites are just simply looking for property. With this fact in mind, why would you make it difficult for them? Providing a large and clear 'Property Search' will give both you and the user exactly what you want. They want to view the available properties and you want them to contact you for viewings.
So you've got the user viewing you're properties, whats next?
Things have moved on from just having 'property listings'. The savvy internet user wants a bit extra. They want:
* Large quality images
* Full search options
* Enhanced mapping - indicating local amendments
* The latest viewer technology
* Floorplans
* EPC
* A printable PDF brochure
* Virtual Tour or Video
* Email alerts
* News Section
* Google Street View
All this plus a simple design that lets everyone make use of any feature they want to use. Some users will want to receive emails of similar properties whereas others will prefer just to keep coming back and using Google maps to see the houses for sale nearest their children's school. It is the option that counts.
Modern trend
Website design has continued to evolve and modern estate agents understand that brand image is reflected from what is on their website. A tawdry website with cheap gimmicks won't do your brand justice. Whereas a website that reflects the colour scheme and the underlying brand image could strengthen your overall brand and keep people coming back again and again.
The modern trend at the moment is to use large imagery combined with simplistic navigation process to guide the user to each Call to Action. For a website selling clothes, the Call to Action would be to go to the checkout and then finally purchase the items of clothing. Property website's call to Action (as mentioned above) is primarily the 'Property Search' button, then after viewing each property the Call to Action would be to contact the estate agent. For this to happen there has to be clear contact details with every listing.
Search engine optimisation (SEO)
So far the user side has been covered. As equally important is getting people onto your website. This is done by putting yourself onto the results listings of search engines and hence the birth of SEO.
Search engines were made because of the need for people to try and find websites that they did not know the addresses for. While defining exactly how to list websites, Sergey Brin and Larry Page produced an algorithm that created the search engine giant Google. This algorithm is a way of putting ranking weights on different aspects of how the website is constructed. The more a website fits the algorithm the more likely it is to appear on Google's results page. Therefore SEO is optimising or modifying websites so that it complies with the most up to date algorithms. By doing this your website will be higher up the rankings and therefore have more traffic.
One major way of utilising SEO is providing relevant current content. Even Google has gone on record and stated that "Content is King". Better content means a better user experience which means the higher up the rankings you will go. One way of doing this is to have a 'News feature'. Google's programs will see that not only your website has content from local or national news but it will also notice that it has been updated recently.
Another way to do this is to have particular keywords within your website. These keywords are embedded into your website as a whole and represent the terms in which users would search for. For example, people in Watford finding a house to buy would most likely search for 'estate agent in Watford' or 'property in Watford'. Utilising your website to these search terms means that you can maximise the amount of people (traffic) that views your website and pin point exactly the type of people who go on your website.
Another way is having many in-bound links to your website. The more links you have pointing to your website the more your website can be viewed as popular. A popular website will have content that people want to read and therefore these are the websites that Google wants to list, popular websites with relevant current content.
Resource Techniques is dedicated to providing estate agents with website design that will be visually impressive while also performing well in search engines using the latest SEO techniques. To enquire about web sites for estate agents, SEO Services or any other services we provide, contact us on 0208 457 4777 or visit our contact us page.
The everyday user
People searching for estate agents online will have a wide range of experience with websites. Some of the younger generation will have been using websites all their life and others will have limited experience. Since more and more people will be using the internet for property it is important to cater for everyone. This is done by using certain techniques.
Firstly you need to greet the user onto the website. Having a lot of content and images flash up will disorientate the user and increase the chance that they will simply click off the website and move onto another estate agent website. Therefore having an animated introduction to greet the user and establish your brand name or logo gently introduces them into the website. Next you naturally guide the eye to a 'Call to Action'.
A Call to Action is where the website gives the user a clearly defined route to take. For estate agent websites, the Call to Action is the property search. This is because over 97% of users visiting estate agents websites are just simply looking for property. With this fact in mind, why would you make it difficult for them? Providing a large and clear 'Property Search' will give both you and the user exactly what you want. They want to view the available properties and you want them to contact you for viewings.
So you've got the user viewing you're properties, whats next?
Things have moved on from just having 'property listings'. The savvy internet user wants a bit extra. They want:
* Large quality images
* Full search options
* Enhanced mapping - indicating local amendments
* The latest viewer technology
* Floorplans
* EPC
* A printable PDF brochure
* Virtual Tour or Video
* Email alerts
* News Section
* Google Street View
All this plus a simple design that lets everyone make use of any feature they want to use. Some users will want to receive emails of similar properties whereas others will prefer just to keep coming back and using Google maps to see the houses for sale nearest their children's school. It is the option that counts.
Modern trend
Website design has continued to evolve and modern estate agents understand that brand image is reflected from what is on their website. A tawdry website with cheap gimmicks won't do your brand justice. Whereas a website that reflects the colour scheme and the underlying brand image could strengthen your overall brand and keep people coming back again and again.
The modern trend at the moment is to use large imagery combined with simplistic navigation process to guide the user to each Call to Action. For a website selling clothes, the Call to Action would be to go to the checkout and then finally purchase the items of clothing. Property website's call to Action (as mentioned above) is primarily the 'Property Search' button, then after viewing each property the Call to Action would be to contact the estate agent. For this to happen there has to be clear contact details with every listing.
Search engine optimisation (SEO)
So far the user side has been covered. As equally important is getting people onto your website. This is done by putting yourself onto the results listings of search engines and hence the birth of SEO.
Search engines were made because of the need for people to try and find websites that they did not know the addresses for. While defining exactly how to list websites, Sergey Brin and Larry Page produced an algorithm that created the search engine giant Google. This algorithm is a way of putting ranking weights on different aspects of how the website is constructed. The more a website fits the algorithm the more likely it is to appear on Google's results page. Therefore SEO is optimising or modifying websites so that it complies with the most up to date algorithms. By doing this your website will be higher up the rankings and therefore have more traffic.
One major way of utilising SEO is providing relevant current content. Even Google has gone on record and stated that "Content is King". Better content means a better user experience which means the higher up the rankings you will go. One way of doing this is to have a 'News feature'. Google's programs will see that not only your website has content from local or national news but it will also notice that it has been updated recently.
Another way to do this is to have particular keywords within your website. These keywords are embedded into your website as a whole and represent the terms in which users would search for. For example, people in Watford finding a house to buy would most likely search for 'estate agent in Watford' or 'property in Watford'. Utilising your website to these search terms means that you can maximise the amount of people (traffic) that views your website and pin point exactly the type of people who go on your website.
Another way is having many in-bound links to your website. The more links you have pointing to your website the more your website can be viewed as popular. A popular website will have content that people want to read and therefore these are the websites that Google wants to list, popular websites with relevant current content.
Resource Techniques is dedicated to providing estate agents with website design that will be visually impressive while also performing well in search engines using the latest SEO techniques. To enquire about web sites for estate agents, SEO Services or any other services we provide, contact us on 0208 457 4777 or visit our contact us page.
Monday, 24 August 2009
Back to basics for estate agents, Search engine optimisation (SEO): Part 2
Before you can stun a customer with visual imagery and functions that will enhance their online property search, estate agents must have a website that performs well in search engines so that there is a healthy stream of users looking for property. Without a healthy stream of online property searchers, the website is useless.
There are a wide variety of things a web designer can do to help or hinder a website's SEO. Below are the top ways estate agents can make sure that the SEO on their website is on the right path.
1). Content is King
This rule is generally undisputed. If you have original and desirable content, your estate agent website will be indexed higher. Estate agents who have websites that have more content on their website, such as staff profiles, local area information and services provided, will have better SEO than estate agent websites that have a homepage and a property listings page. The news section on your estate agent website is a perfect way of increasing your SEO as search engines are looking for websites that have relevant, updating content.
2). Keywords
There have to be certain keywords within the content that show search engines what your estate agent website contains. Having major keywords for estate agents such as 'property in..' or 'estate agent in..' and the local area. When considering keywords, estate agents have to think of the words or phrases that users will type into search engines. Over using keywords for SEO can flag your estate agent website as spam.
Resource Techniques will personally advice every new customer the types of keywords that they should be thinking about.
3). Meta Tags
Meta Tags are invisible to anyone viewing the website. They are within the code or html within the website. Again, just like keywords, the keywords in the Meta tags can be overused and this will count against the SEO of your website. The two main Meta tags are the description and keywords. The role of Meta tags in SEO is low but does count towards your website's overall SEO.
4). Links
Links that point to a website help towards SEO. It shows search engines that your website has content that people not only want to see, but also point or 'link' to. Estate agents have to be wary of sites claiming 'link building services' as Google sees that these sites are directories and therefore lower the importance of the links going out.
5). Site Map
Search engines love estate agent website organisation. By providing a sitemap, estate agents will help search engines index their site quicker, which will help your estate agent website SEO. Resource Techniques provides a sitemap for every estate agent website we design which helps their SEO.
For the part 1 of our SEO back to basics, click here.
Resource Techniques provides SEO services for estate agents, website design for estate agents, domain name hosting, and many other services for property professionals. To hear the full range of services, visit our contact us page or call us on 0208 457 4777.
There are a wide variety of things a web designer can do to help or hinder a website's SEO. Below are the top ways estate agents can make sure that the SEO on their website is on the right path.
1). Content is King
This rule is generally undisputed. If you have original and desirable content, your estate agent website will be indexed higher. Estate agents who have websites that have more content on their website, such as staff profiles, local area information and services provided, will have better SEO than estate agent websites that have a homepage and a property listings page. The news section on your estate agent website is a perfect way of increasing your SEO as search engines are looking for websites that have relevant, updating content.
2). Keywords
There have to be certain keywords within the content that show search engines what your estate agent website contains. Having major keywords for estate agents such as 'property in..' or 'estate agent in..' and the local area. When considering keywords, estate agents have to think of the words or phrases that users will type into search engines. Over using keywords for SEO can flag your estate agent website as spam.
Resource Techniques will personally advice every new customer the types of keywords that they should be thinking about.
3). Meta Tags
Meta Tags are invisible to anyone viewing the website. They are within the code or html within the website. Again, just like keywords, the keywords in the Meta tags can be overused and this will count against the SEO of your website. The two main Meta tags are the description and keywords. The role of Meta tags in SEO is low but does count towards your website's overall SEO.
4). Links
Links that point to a website help towards SEO. It shows search engines that your website has content that people not only want to see, but also point or 'link' to. Estate agents have to be wary of sites claiming 'link building services' as Google sees that these sites are directories and therefore lower the importance of the links going out.
5). Site Map
Search engines love estate agent website organisation. By providing a sitemap, estate agents will help search engines index their site quicker, which will help your estate agent website SEO. Resource Techniques provides a sitemap for every estate agent website we design which helps their SEO.
For the part 1 of our SEO back to basics, click here.
Resource Techniques provides SEO services for estate agents, website design for estate agents, domain name hosting, and many other services for property professionals. To hear the full range of services, visit our contact us page or call us on 0208 457 4777.
Wednesday, 19 August 2009
Back to basics for estate agents, Search engine optimisation (SEO): Part 1
Search engine optimisation or SEO is the process of organising the design on the estate agency webpage so that they agree with the mathematical formula that searh engines have in place to organise the internet. This mathematical formula is extremely complex but there are some basic rules that estate agents can follow for SEO.
Let's start at the beginning. If someone decides to search for property on the internet, they will start with a search engine (unless they have the estate agent's website address in mind). Once on the search engine, they will to type in words that best describes what they are looking for. For property searches, our years of experience has found that majority people will type in 'Estate agents in' and their local area.
When people type in 'Estate agent in...' or 'Property in...' and their local area, you want your estate agency website to have SEO so that you appear at the top of any particular search engine. Estate agents want their website to be at the top of Google search results page because this means that more people will be accessing the website and viewing the properties that they have to offer.
There has even been eye tracking studies to confirm this. What has resulted is the Golden Google triangle where the most concentrated views by internet users are on the top left hand side of the results page. These sites will have the best SEO.
In the next article, 'Back to basics for estate agents, search engine optimisation (SEO): part 2' Resource Techniques will be showing estate agents how SEO is implemented in the design of their estate agent website.
Don't forget that Resource Techniques provides a free website review on the design of your estate agency website with useful SEO information. To get your free website review, please visit here.
Let's start at the beginning. If someone decides to search for property on the internet, they will start with a search engine (unless they have the estate agent's website address in mind). Once on the search engine, they will to type in words that best describes what they are looking for. For property searches, our years of experience has found that majority people will type in 'Estate agents in' and their local area.
When people type in 'Estate agent in...' or 'Property in...' and their local area, you want your estate agency website to have SEO so that you appear at the top of any particular search engine. Estate agents want their website to be at the top of Google search results page because this means that more people will be accessing the website and viewing the properties that they have to offer.
There has even been eye tracking studies to confirm this. What has resulted is the Golden Google triangle where the most concentrated views by internet users are on the top left hand side of the results page. These sites will have the best SEO.
In the next article, 'Back to basics for estate agents, search engine optimisation (SEO): part 2' Resource Techniques will be showing estate agents how SEO is implemented in the design of their estate agent website.
Don't forget that Resource Techniques provides a free website review on the design of your estate agency website with useful SEO information. To get your free website review, please visit here.
Tuesday, 18 August 2009
Back to basics for estate agents.
Don't be afraid or confused about technology. As soon as you, the estate agent, understand the fundamentals of estate agent website design, Search engine optimisation (SEO), estate agent social networking and many others, you will be fully prepared for the imminent digital golden age.
During the next following articles, Resource Techniques will be going back to basics. Letting estate agents completely understand the foundation of knowledge that will help them in the future. We will cover everything that the modern estate agent will need to know about technology in an easy to read guide.
If you have any questions on SEO, website design, social networking or anything that confuses you, a free website review or would like a topic to be included, please do not hesitate to contact Resource Techniques or email us at design@restech.co.uk
During the next following articles, Resource Techniques will be going back to basics. Letting estate agents completely understand the foundation of knowledge that will help them in the future. We will cover everything that the modern estate agent will need to know about technology in an easy to read guide.
If you have any questions on SEO, website design, social networking or anything that confuses you, a free website review or would like a topic to be included, please do not hesitate to contact Resource Techniques or email us at design@restech.co.uk
Monday, 17 August 2009
Social networking is growing up.
Social networking now has an older audience. No longer will it be known as a teenage fad that stops them doing their homework, but an adult passion that will be integrated into their everyday lives. So much so, social networking could be replaced by emails. To read more on social networking replacing email, click here.
A recent study by Ofcom found that social networking website Facebook is the most popular in the UK. This shouldn't be shocking but the study also found that social networking demographic showing that 35 to 54 year olds regularly checking their social networking profile has risen to a staggering 46% and the number of British adults who have a social networking profile is 30%.
These are the x and y gen property buyers that estate agents should be targeting online. 30% of adults own a social networking profile. It is a statistic that cannot be ignored especially since it is completely free for estate agents to use and has a global audience. People from all over the world (that has a profile themselves) will be able to access your online profile.
From there you need to entice them. Users will click from your online profile to your estate agent website, but you have to give them a reason to. Estate agents need to be imaginative with social networking. Having a stagnant profile that is gathering digital dust will turn potential customers away. Either use it, or lose it!
Resource Techniques is able to provide a personal service to guide estate agents step-by-step through the process of understanding, creating and maintaining an estate agent social networking profile along with our estate agent website design as well as a specialist SEO service for estate agents. To see what is possible, visit our contact us page.
A recent study by Ofcom found that social networking website Facebook is the most popular in the UK. This shouldn't be shocking but the study also found that social networking demographic showing that 35 to 54 year olds regularly checking their social networking profile has risen to a staggering 46% and the number of British adults who have a social networking profile is 30%.
These are the x and y gen property buyers that estate agents should be targeting online. 30% of adults own a social networking profile. It is a statistic that cannot be ignored especially since it is completely free for estate agents to use and has a global audience. People from all over the world (that has a profile themselves) will be able to access your online profile.
From there you need to entice them. Users will click from your online profile to your estate agent website, but you have to give them a reason to. Estate agents need to be imaginative with social networking. Having a stagnant profile that is gathering digital dust will turn potential customers away. Either use it, or lose it!
Resource Techniques is able to provide a personal service to guide estate agents step-by-step through the process of understanding, creating and maintaining an estate agent social networking profile along with our estate agent website design as well as a specialist SEO service for estate agents. To see what is possible, visit our contact us page.
Friday, 14 August 2009
Estate agents, SEO services are not just for Christmas
SEO services are easily forgotten once they are implemented.
Clients of SEO services end up forgetting the work that SEO service providers do, but it isn't their fault.
For those that are unsure, search engine optimisation or SEO is the process of changing a website so that it will appear higher in Google's search results. The reason why web site designers would like their website higher in Google is that the higher up a website is in Goole's search results, the more likely people are to access their website.
SEO is a very important starting point for company websites or websites that are looking to make money as web site designers need people to access the web site. Without SEO, members of the public won't be able to find your website unless the website designer or estate agent pays for PPC (Pay-Per-Click). Per-Per-Click literally makes the website owner pay money every time a member of the public clicks on an advert that relates to the search term that they're looking for.
Troy Stanley, CTO of Resource Techniques, says 'Pay-Per-Click is useful for infantile websites. They provide a good initial boost of visitors but it is expensive and will not be able to support the long term goals of your website. The best way is to get a reliable source of new and returning visitors is to use the latest white hat SEO techniques.'.
Once SEO has been implemented for a website, the web site designer or SEO services provider should continue to monitor the website's SEO progress and adjust the website design or add more content accordingly. What tends to happen is that estate agents will have either never checked their website or stop checking their position in search engines.
Troy Stanley says 'this is not their fault. Estate agents are very busy people and some estate agents may not have the technical knowledge needed to check up on the SEO of their websites.'
There are two ways that estate agents can overcome this:
Firstly estate agents can ask their SEO service provider for a weekly or monthly PDF report on the website's progress. In this report there should be not only search engine placements and search terms used but also the progress from last month.
Secondly estate agents can check themselves. Think about the search terms that people will use to access your website and type them into a search engine. Note down the results and then talk the SEO service provider. Ask them for the search terms they optimise for and compare notes. Opening these lines of communication will increase the SEO service that estate agents receive and in turn provide estate agents with more business.
Troy Stanley, CTO of Resource Techniques says 'Estate agents need to work closely with website developers to ensure that their websites will be high enough in search engines to generate organic visitors.'
Resource Techniques provides ultimate website design for estate agents, IT services for property professionals and the latest SEO services for estate agents. Visit our contact us page or for more information check out รข€˜estate agents, are social networks replacing email?'
Clients of SEO services end up forgetting the work that SEO service providers do, but it isn't their fault.
For those that are unsure, search engine optimisation or SEO is the process of changing a website so that it will appear higher in Google's search results. The reason why web site designers would like their website higher in Google is that the higher up a website is in Goole's search results, the more likely people are to access their website.
SEO is a very important starting point for company websites or websites that are looking to make money as web site designers need people to access the web site. Without SEO, members of the public won't be able to find your website unless the website designer or estate agent pays for PPC (Pay-Per-Click). Per-Per-Click literally makes the website owner pay money every time a member of the public clicks on an advert that relates to the search term that they're looking for.
Troy Stanley, CTO of Resource Techniques, says 'Pay-Per-Click is useful for infantile websites. They provide a good initial boost of visitors but it is expensive and will not be able to support the long term goals of your website. The best way is to get a reliable source of new and returning visitors is to use the latest white hat SEO techniques.'.
Once SEO has been implemented for a website, the web site designer or SEO services provider should continue to monitor the website's SEO progress and adjust the website design or add more content accordingly. What tends to happen is that estate agents will have either never checked their website or stop checking their position in search engines.
Troy Stanley says 'this is not their fault. Estate agents are very busy people and some estate agents may not have the technical knowledge needed to check up on the SEO of their websites.'
There are two ways that estate agents can overcome this:
Firstly estate agents can ask their SEO service provider for a weekly or monthly PDF report on the website's progress. In this report there should be not only search engine placements and search terms used but also the progress from last month.
Secondly estate agents can check themselves. Think about the search terms that people will use to access your website and type them into a search engine. Note down the results and then talk the SEO service provider. Ask them for the search terms they optimise for and compare notes. Opening these lines of communication will increase the SEO service that estate agents receive and in turn provide estate agents with more business.
Troy Stanley, CTO of Resource Techniques says 'Estate agents need to work closely with website developers to ensure that their websites will be high enough in search engines to generate organic visitors.'
Resource Techniques provides ultimate website design for estate agents, IT services for property professionals and the latest SEO services for estate agents. Visit our contact us page or for more information check out รข€˜estate agents, are social networks replacing email?'
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