Estate agents, is your online brand image fading fast?

Web sites are regularly compared to houses, which is perfect when you're a web designer specialising in websites for estate agents! Now imagine you are trying to sell a house that hasn't been lived in or touched for 50 years. The disrepair, vines and cobwebs will be instantly recognisable and could easily put off anyone considering living in it. Sadly the exact same process can happen to your website but within a shorter space of time.

Try not to cry too much. Your neighbourhood friendly website designer is here to help. So how do estate agents keep their online brand image fresh?

Although websites do not grow vines or cobwebs, there are clear indications that clearly show that the website has been left to decay in the World Wide Web. Below are the top 5 ways Estate Agents can easily keep their online brand image fresh without breaking a sweat.

• Examine your keywords - Look back at previous search terms on Google Analytics to show you the various terms property searchers use to access your Estate Agent website. Re-evaluating your keywords maximises traffic from changing attitudes.
• Replace old text - Search engines love new content. Checking your website's text and changing it will spark search engine interest and cause them to scan your website more often.
• Role-play - pretend that you are a first time buyer or an elderly couple looking for a house to either buy or rent in your area. Testing your own website design in this way enables you to visualise the process that your buyers go through.
• Fix broken links - Usability is only noticeable when something goes wrong, but not when everything works as it should. Make sure you pass on any broken links to your web designer.
• Change the main image - Seasonal images only work if the image fits the current season so a Christmas image will only work at Christmas. A new image can give a breath of fresh air to your website.

Troy Stanley, CTO of Resource Techniques comments, 'Website designs need to be kept fresh and up-to-date and a little spring cleaning will make your website look as good as new. Contact your web design team and I'm sure that they will be more than happy to help.'

Bing - that's the ring of a free new iPhone App

Bing, Microsoft's own search engine, has just announced a free iPhone App. Estate Agents may want to trial this App before scepticism rears its ugly head. It does feel as odd as using internet explorer on an Apple Mac, but the features are good, damn good.

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New web design for Moor2Coast.co.uk

Resource Techniques are delighted to announce the unveiling of a new website: Moor2Coast.

Moor2Coast Estate & Letting Agents in Yelverton, Plymouth covering properties in Tavistock, Devon & Cornwall, throughout the South West and the UK.

Moor2Coast are a professional, dynamic and independent company that can offer you a unique and tailor-made service. Offering services for market appraisals, conveyancing, financial services, lettings and property management as well as investment opportunities in overseas properties.

This fantastic new website has a whole host of new properties that are available to buy or rent in and around the Plymouth area. Troy Stanley, Technical Director at Resource Techniques stated, 'The imagery used on the website is simply stunning. The web design team has worked closley with the Moor2Coast estate agent to create a professional website.

Estate agents of the future type without a keyboard.

Resource Techniques has extensively covered new designs of keyboards. It could be argued that the keyboard is a primitive device and that even the most ergonomic mainstream designs are unhygienic and can lead to...

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Estate agents don't forget about the Long tail of SEO

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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Building your shop window to the world

They could arrive at any time.
They could be anywhere.
They are silent critics.
They decide first contact.
They are your online customers.

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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.'