Nowadays, both estate agents and internet users demand more from a website. They want a property website to have a user friendly experience that is update in internet website trends, quality imagery with rich context that can keep users coming back again and again.
Not only do that, but property websites have to perform well in SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). This is needed so that your website will appear on the top of search engines. For example, if someone types 'Estate Agent in Brighton' they will most likely click on the one of the first links given to them at the top of the page. Performing SEO on your property website gives you the maximum amount of traffic without having to pay for expensive online advertisement.
Do you feel that your property website does little for your estate agency? Well help is at hand. Resource techniques will provide you with a FREE website review service from our 20 years of experience in property websites. In the FREE website review, we provide:
* SEO Review
* Functionality Review
* Design and usability Review
There's no point in having a fancy website if no one goes on it or a website that has a lot of traffic but looks like it's from the 1990s. This report will help you expertly see exactly how your website is positioned and will suggest easy solutions for all levels of technical ability.
You can either call Resource Techniques on 0208 457 4777 or email us at freewebreview@restech.co.uk.
Tuesday, 19 May 2009
UK Estate Agents - Get ahead of the competition with the latest SEO report
The annual UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report has been published by Econsultancy in association with Guava. Over 800 UK companies took part and the results should make you consider what other UK estate agents have planned for their website.
The key stats are:
* SEO (Search Engine optimisation) - 55% of businesses will increase their SEO budget for the next 12 months.
* Paid Search - 45% will be increasing the amount they spend on 'sponsored links' to their website. 10% less than SEO.
* Online Advertising - 24% will increase their budget and 60% will keep the same budget. This includes banners and advertisement on other websites.
* SEO ROI (Return On Investment) - 48% reported that their ROI had increased, whereas only 6% reported a decrease from SEO.
* Paid search ROI - 43% reported that their ROI was up and 15% said that it decreased. 9% less ROI than using a more natural SEO.
* Facebook - 65% of businesses reported using Facebook.
* Twitter - 49% reported using Twitter. A massive increase from just 3% last year.
The results are clear. Irrelevant of the current economic climate, companies are increasing their online Marketing budget and finding a greater ROI from using SEO. Using social networking websites and SEO, estate agents can improve the relationship with their customers and also vastly improve sales for their property website. Through SEO, UK estate agents can let the latest generation of internet users easily find their property website and show them that estate agents are embracing this culture change.
Estate Agents! Don't let your property website fall behind, give Resource Techniques a call on (UK) 0208 457 4777 for a free consultation on the SEO of your website.
The key stats are:
* SEO (Search Engine optimisation) - 55% of businesses will increase their SEO budget for the next 12 months.
* Paid Search - 45% will be increasing the amount they spend on 'sponsored links' to their website. 10% less than SEO.
* Online Advertising - 24% will increase their budget and 60% will keep the same budget. This includes banners and advertisement on other websites.
* SEO ROI (Return On Investment) - 48% reported that their ROI had increased, whereas only 6% reported a decrease from SEO.
* Paid search ROI - 43% reported that their ROI was up and 15% said that it decreased. 9% less ROI than using a more natural SEO.
* Facebook - 65% of businesses reported using Facebook.
* Twitter - 49% reported using Twitter. A massive increase from just 3% last year.
The results are clear. Irrelevant of the current economic climate, companies are increasing their online Marketing budget and finding a greater ROI from using SEO. Using social networking websites and SEO, estate agents can improve the relationship with their customers and also vastly improve sales for their property website. Through SEO, UK estate agents can let the latest generation of internet users easily find their property website and show them that estate agents are embracing this culture change.
Estate Agents! Don't let your property website fall behind, give Resource Techniques a call on (UK) 0208 457 4777 for a free consultation on the SEO of your website.
Are you using Twitter correctly?
Since its creation in 2006, Twitter has gained rapid worldwide popularity. Many times it has been portrayed as the 'SMS of the internet' and hailed as the new/alternative 'Facebook'. Since it is still in its infancy, many people have made enough mistakes to make something from the virtual world become a reality. If you search 'Fired' and 'Twitter' into a search engine, you will find documented cases where people have lost their jobs because they have 'twittered' 140 characters.
Alternatively it could work to your advantage. Last year James Buck and his translator were arrested in Egypt for taking photos of an anti-government protest so on their way to the police station he 'twittered' the message 'Arrested'. A few of his 48 followers contacted the U.S embassy in Cairo and a number of press organisations. He was released the next day. Another example is during the Mumbai attacks of 2008. There were an estimated 80 'tweets' per five seconds. Users sent out vital information such as emergency phone numbers and the location of hospitals that needed blood donations.
Therefore the old proverb of 'A bad workman blames his tools' can apply to the virtual world. Estate Agents can use Twitter to their advantage but there are socialising rules that are seemed to be overlooked. Ideally estate agents should try to avoid: -
Mundane twitters - The most common mistake. People do not want to read that you’re eating a sandwich or that you have just sneezed. Easiest thing to do is try to empathise with your customers. They want to know about the latest house or the new enhanced mapping on your property website.
Irregular/overusing twitters - You have to find the right balance of not twittering too much and never twittering. People want to hear what you have to say, just not all the time. Please note that this rule tends to not apply to celebrities because of idolisation.
Angry Twitters - Avoid swearing and abusive language. Blind rage spilling onto Twitter will get you nowhere.
Gossip - Careful who you gossip about. Gossiping about another estate agent could be picked up by anyone. Keep it positive.
One sided conversations - We all know people who talk endlessly about themselves.
Endless self promoting - People are used to a little bit of self promoting but don't overdo it. Engage with people on a personal level and the rewards will be endless.
Auto Direct Messages or Auto Replies - No one likes spam.
For applications on your computer that are twitter based, have a look around http://twitter.pbwiki.com/Apps. You'll be surprised with the different uses and fun you can have! Twitter can be used for more than stating 140 characters. See what it can do for your estate agency.
Don't forget to use http://search.twitter.com to search for terms that are relevant to you. This gives you the ability to see what other estate agents talking about. You can use this feature to see the latest developments in real estate or even local property news. If there is no local news... great! There's a gap in the market to share your own property news.
Alternatively it could work to your advantage. Last year James Buck and his translator were arrested in Egypt for taking photos of an anti-government protest so on their way to the police station he 'twittered' the message 'Arrested'. A few of his 48 followers contacted the U.S embassy in Cairo and a number of press organisations. He was released the next day. Another example is during the Mumbai attacks of 2008. There were an estimated 80 'tweets' per five seconds. Users sent out vital information such as emergency phone numbers and the location of hospitals that needed blood donations.
Therefore the old proverb of 'A bad workman blames his tools' can apply to the virtual world. Estate Agents can use Twitter to their advantage but there are socialising rules that are seemed to be overlooked. Ideally estate agents should try to avoid: -
Mundane twitters - The most common mistake. People do not want to read that you’re eating a sandwich or that you have just sneezed. Easiest thing to do is try to empathise with your customers. They want to know about the latest house or the new enhanced mapping on your property website.
Irregular/overusing twitters - You have to find the right balance of not twittering too much and never twittering. People want to hear what you have to say, just not all the time. Please note that this rule tends to not apply to celebrities because of idolisation.
Angry Twitters - Avoid swearing and abusive language. Blind rage spilling onto Twitter will get you nowhere.
Gossip - Careful who you gossip about. Gossiping about another estate agent could be picked up by anyone. Keep it positive.
One sided conversations - We all know people who talk endlessly about themselves.
Endless self promoting - People are used to a little bit of self promoting but don't overdo it. Engage with people on a personal level and the rewards will be endless.
Auto Direct Messages or Auto Replies - No one likes spam.
For applications on your computer that are twitter based, have a look around http://twitter.pbwiki.com/Apps. You'll be surprised with the different uses and fun you can have! Twitter can be used for more than stating 140 characters. See what it can do for your estate agency.
Don't forget to use http://search.twitter.com to search for terms that are relevant to you. This gives you the ability to see what other estate agents talking about. You can use this feature to see the latest developments in real estate or even local property news. If there is no local news... great! There's a gap in the market to share your own property news.
Wednesday, 22 April 2009
Resource Techniques launch Google Street View
As part of our continued commitment to new and existing customers, Resource Techniques release new enhancements to our web products for Real Estate Agent clients. Existing clients will automatically benefit from the new technical enhancements and will be in place from the 3rd April. These enhancements are part of our ongoing development strategy.
On Friday 3rd April 2009 our web site technology will be upgraded to our latest version that will include the following features:
1. Google Street View
Google Street View stitches together photographic images of public roads and major landmarks in British cities to create a three-dimensional map that web users can click on to explore.
The 3D images have been captured over the last year by special patrol cars with roof-mounted 360-degree cameras, which take pictures of every street and road in the city. The faces of people captured in photographs are automatically blurred so that they cannot be identified, while car number plates are also rendered illegible.
So far 25 British cities, including Aberdeen, Belfast, Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Coventry, Derby, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Oxford, Manchester, Newcastle, Norwich, Nottingham, Scunthorpe, Sheffield, Southampton, Swansea, York have been recorded by the camera cars. Google said it would roll out the technology to other UK cities in the coming months and so it is not currently available across the whole of Britain.
The British weather had thwarted some attempts to map cities. The camera cars need dry, sunny days in order to capture footage, and relatively clear roads in order to take photos at the appropriate intervals. As such, there are some gaps in the maps. Notably, Buckingham Palace, is not yet available in Street View.
When you are on a property on your website, if it has an icon 'Street View' next to the Google Map icon, to the right of the images, that will tell you if Google Street view has covered that postal area. As and when Google Street View cover and release more areas, they will automatically become available on your site or that property . Whilst Resource Techniques have worked quickly to get this latest tool on your site, it is new to Google and so we cannot be held responsible for the accuracy of Google Street view.
2. My Saved Property' user area
This allows users to save properties they are interested in to their own log in area for quick access at any time.
It is accessed by a managed area that allows the user to log in, manage(add, edit and delete) their email alerts and save any properties they are particularly interested in.
On Friday 3rd April 2009 our web site technology will be upgraded to our latest version that will include the following features:
1. Google Street View
Google Street View stitches together photographic images of public roads and major landmarks in British cities to create a three-dimensional map that web users can click on to explore.
The 3D images have been captured over the last year by special patrol cars with roof-mounted 360-degree cameras, which take pictures of every street and road in the city. The faces of people captured in photographs are automatically blurred so that they cannot be identified, while car number plates are also rendered illegible.
So far 25 British cities, including Aberdeen, Belfast, Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Coventry, Derby, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Oxford, Manchester, Newcastle, Norwich, Nottingham, Scunthorpe, Sheffield, Southampton, Swansea, York have been recorded by the camera cars. Google said it would roll out the technology to other UK cities in the coming months and so it is not currently available across the whole of Britain.
The British weather had thwarted some attempts to map cities. The camera cars need dry, sunny days in order to capture footage, and relatively clear roads in order to take photos at the appropriate intervals. As such, there are some gaps in the maps. Notably, Buckingham Palace, is not yet available in Street View.
When you are on a property on your website, if it has an icon 'Street View' next to the Google Map icon, to the right of the images, that will tell you if Google Street view has covered that postal area. As and when Google Street View cover and release more areas, they will automatically become available on your site or that property . Whilst Resource Techniques have worked quickly to get this latest tool on your site, it is new to Google and so we cannot be held responsible for the accuracy of Google Street view.
2. My Saved Property' user area
This allows users to save properties they are interested in to their own log in area for quick access at any time.
It is accessed by a managed area that allows the user to log in, manage(add, edit and delete) their email alerts and save any properties they are particularly interested in.
House Prices Rise For First Time Since 2007
According to a report by the Nationwide property prices rose for the first time in 16 months in March.
The Nationwide report claims that the cost of a home in the UK increased by 0.9% during March, pushing average values back up above £150,000 to £150,946.
This increase saw the annual rate of house price decline from a record 17.6% in February to 15.7% in March.
According to Sky News, Nationwide's chief economist said "The Bank of England has already taken strong measures to ease the tensions in economic and financial markets by cutting rates and commencing quantitative easing."
The Nationwide report claims that the cost of a home in the UK increased by 0.9% during March, pushing average values back up above £150,000 to £150,946.
This increase saw the annual rate of house price decline from a record 17.6% in February to 15.7% in March.
According to Sky News, Nationwide's chief economist said "The Bank of England has already taken strong measures to ease the tensions in economic and financial markets by cutting rates and commencing quantitative easing."
'Linked In' - Social Networking for Business - Top tips for growing your network
Whilst there's much hype surrounding the social networking boom, main stream media focus is inevitably on personal social networking normally associated with the likes of 'Facebook', 'MySpace', 'bebo' etc, etc... There is however, an equally booming interest for social networking within the business community, 'Linked in' being one of the fastest growing business networking communities, and for the unenlightened, don't under estimate its influence and huge potential...
According to Nielsen Online, in June of last year the 'Facebook' site's traffic grew to 29.2M (that's Million) unique visitors, up more than 10 percent from May. Meanwhile, LinkedIn's site traffic grew more than 20 percent month-on-month to 9.5M unique visits. Year-on-year, that represents 77% growth for 'Facebook', and 187% for LinkedIn and the trend continues.
Many businesses have, and continue to ignore 'Social Networking', believing that it's something their children do, and whilst this certainly has been the case, growth within the business community with the benefits it brings is a compelling argument, there is now a huge weight of evidence in support of the ever increasing phenomenon of 'Social Networking'. Businesses, ignore it at your peril.
Those already persuaded will be only too aware that the signing up process is just the beginning of the mine field... But help is at hand.
Here are our top 5 tips for making social networking work for you:
1). Build your profile: Include as much information about yourself as possible, include previous job posts, education, information about your current business interests and don’t forget to add your company and business web sites. This will help people find you and help your network grow.
Top tip - Make sure your profile is set as display 'Public' - your profile is then available to everyone.
2). Build your Connections: Go through your address book and search 'Linked in' by name and company, invite as many positive friends, relatives, co workers ex colleagues and as many potential business contacts as you can find, then see who they're connected too and link to those you know. The whole point is to build a network - don't be afraid to ask for an invite to connect!
Top tip - Try to add someone new each week.
3). Ask for Recommendations: There's no better way of growing your business than from personal recommendation, so once you're connected, ask previous employers, colleagues, clients new and old, and reciprocate the favour, those people that you have had good service from, recommend them.
Top tip - Add your 'Linked in' URL to your email signature
4). Join Groups: Within reason join as many as possible, make sure that they are relevant to your interests, industry, and background. LinkedIn lets you join 50 groups. If the group has little discussion, dump it and find a new one." Discussion boards within groups are a great tool for learning and for generating key contacts through 'Linked In'.
Top Tip - Participate in group discussions and add something of value
5. Update your profile daily: You can change your status text, upload a new photo, add a contact, change your work experience, etc. Perhaps even add to the 'What are you working on now' section, any investment or developer type property, with links back to your own web site. When you update your profile, you show up on the home page updates of every one of your LinkedIn connections.
Top Tip - NEVER select "I don't know" when you get an invite to connect. Instead, if you really don't want to connect with that person, select "Archive." When you click "I don't know", you're putting a red flag on that account. At the same time, when you invite someone else to connect, make sure that you tell them to select "Archive" if they don't wish to connect. You don't want red flags on your account either.
For help and advice on making the most social networking, email - troy@restech.co.uk
According to Nielsen Online, in June of last year the 'Facebook' site's traffic grew to 29.2M (that's Million) unique visitors, up more than 10 percent from May. Meanwhile, LinkedIn's site traffic grew more than 20 percent month-on-month to 9.5M unique visits. Year-on-year, that represents 77% growth for 'Facebook', and 187% for LinkedIn and the trend continues.
Many businesses have, and continue to ignore 'Social Networking', believing that it's something their children do, and whilst this certainly has been the case, growth within the business community with the benefits it brings is a compelling argument, there is now a huge weight of evidence in support of the ever increasing phenomenon of 'Social Networking'. Businesses, ignore it at your peril.
Those already persuaded will be only too aware that the signing up process is just the beginning of the mine field... But help is at hand.
Here are our top 5 tips for making social networking work for you:
1). Build your profile: Include as much information about yourself as possible, include previous job posts, education, information about your current business interests and don’t forget to add your company and business web sites. This will help people find you and help your network grow.
Top tip - Make sure your profile is set as display 'Public' - your profile is then available to everyone.
2). Build your Connections: Go through your address book and search 'Linked in' by name and company, invite as many positive friends, relatives, co workers ex colleagues and as many potential business contacts as you can find, then see who they're connected too and link to those you know. The whole point is to build a network - don't be afraid to ask for an invite to connect!
Top tip - Try to add someone new each week.
3). Ask for Recommendations: There's no better way of growing your business than from personal recommendation, so once you're connected, ask previous employers, colleagues, clients new and old, and reciprocate the favour, those people that you have had good service from, recommend them.
Top tip - Add your 'Linked in' URL to your email signature
4). Join Groups: Within reason join as many as possible, make sure that they are relevant to your interests, industry, and background. LinkedIn lets you join 50 groups. If the group has little discussion, dump it and find a new one." Discussion boards within groups are a great tool for learning and for generating key contacts through 'Linked In'.
Top Tip - Participate in group discussions and add something of value
5. Update your profile daily: You can change your status text, upload a new photo, add a contact, change your work experience, etc. Perhaps even add to the 'What are you working on now' section, any investment or developer type property, with links back to your own web site. When you update your profile, you show up on the home page updates of every one of your LinkedIn connections.
Top Tip - NEVER select "I don't know" when you get an invite to connect. Instead, if you really don't want to connect with that person, select "Archive." When you click "I don't know", you're putting a red flag on that account. At the same time, when you invite someone else to connect, make sure that you tell them to select "Archive" if they don't wish to connect. You don't want red flags on your account either.
For help and advice on making the most social networking, email - troy@restech.co.uk
Property on eBay
Singapore's largest property portal, propertyguru.com.sg, has announced a partnership with eBay, which sees the launch of a new property search service on eBay's Singapore website, ebay.propertyguru.com.sg
The new eBay Singapore real estate service offers consumers the ability to find and review available apartments/condo, landed house and commercial property for rent and sale in Singapore and overseas - with photos, videos and maps. It also gives users access to free expert mortgage advice from accredited independent mortgage consultants, as well as enabling them to find real estate agents by property speciality and read property and investment research, guides, articles and news.
In a press release from propertyguru.com.sg about the partnership, Allis Ghim, Director at eBay said:
"This is great news for the Singapore real estate community. Our partnership with PropertyGuru enables us to offer our users the best experience by partnering with the experts in online real estate, and offer a new content-rich real estate service. This represents a great stride in eBay's strategy to provide the best experience to our users".
eBay Singapore teaming up with propertyguru.com.sg is not the only news from eBay about property listings of late.
In the UK, with nearly 20 million unique visitors each month, ebay.co.uk is UK's the fourth largest website, it also lists residential property, currently with more than 180,000 listings from the UK and overseas are included in ebay.co.uk’s residential property category. Properties can be listed in the auction and "buy it now" categories, or as a "classified ad only", which cannot be bid on.
Worldwide, eBay has over 86 million users. So, what is the online auctions giant doing globally with property listings, and how does propertyguru.com.sg's partnership with eBay as well as the new listings on ebay.co.uk compare to those on the equally popular eBay domains in other countries?
The Australian domain ebay.com.au and its US counterpart ebay.com also list properties in their real estate sections. Sellers can list properties for auction, as "buy it now" items or as classified ads.
At the moment, ebay.com.au has far fewer private real estate listings than ebay.co.uk, with only 113 items in its real estate category. ebay.com has attracted a few more sellers, with 2993 items in its real estate section.
Along with private property listings, ebay.com.au also has a content distribution partnership with domain.com.au, Australia's number two property portal. These listings are included in the ebay.domain.com.au site, which is linked to from the ebay.com.au front page.
ebay.co.uk charges GBP£35 per real estate listing, as compared to a fee of AUD$49.95 on ebay.com.au. ebay.com offers various types of listings for prices ranging from USD$35 to USD$300.
Ireland's eBay domain, ebay.ie, recently created a partnership with Ireland's top property portal, daft.ie. ebay.daft.ie is linked to from the ebay.ie front page.
French eBay domain ebay.fr has 12 million registered users and also links to a dedicated "no bids" classifieds listing real estate search page (with 14 day free trials for advertisers). eBay immo, as it's called, launched last October and is modelled on the successful Italian eBay real estate website: eBay case. And over 132,000 properties listings are also available via a categories search on the German ebay.de.
This is just a small sample of what is happening in the 39 markets eBay operates in, and partnering with portals is just one way eBay is moving in on property listings.
The new eBay Singapore real estate service offers consumers the ability to find and review available apartments/condo, landed house and commercial property for rent and sale in Singapore and overseas - with photos, videos and maps. It also gives users access to free expert mortgage advice from accredited independent mortgage consultants, as well as enabling them to find real estate agents by property speciality and read property and investment research, guides, articles and news.
In a press release from propertyguru.com.sg about the partnership, Allis Ghim, Director at eBay said:
"This is great news for the Singapore real estate community. Our partnership with PropertyGuru enables us to offer our users the best experience by partnering with the experts in online real estate, and offer a new content-rich real estate service. This represents a great stride in eBay's strategy to provide the best experience to our users".
eBay Singapore teaming up with propertyguru.com.sg is not the only news from eBay about property listings of late.
In the UK, with nearly 20 million unique visitors each month, ebay.co.uk is UK's the fourth largest website, it also lists residential property, currently with more than 180,000 listings from the UK and overseas are included in ebay.co.uk’s residential property category. Properties can be listed in the auction and "buy it now" categories, or as a "classified ad only", which cannot be bid on.
Worldwide, eBay has over 86 million users. So, what is the online auctions giant doing globally with property listings, and how does propertyguru.com.sg's partnership with eBay as well as the new listings on ebay.co.uk compare to those on the equally popular eBay domains in other countries?
The Australian domain ebay.com.au and its US counterpart ebay.com also list properties in their real estate sections. Sellers can list properties for auction, as "buy it now" items or as classified ads.
At the moment, ebay.com.au has far fewer private real estate listings than ebay.co.uk, with only 113 items in its real estate category. ebay.com has attracted a few more sellers, with 2993 items in its real estate section.
Along with private property listings, ebay.com.au also has a content distribution partnership with domain.com.au, Australia's number two property portal. These listings are included in the ebay.domain.com.au site, which is linked to from the ebay.com.au front page.
ebay.co.uk charges GBP£35 per real estate listing, as compared to a fee of AUD$49.95 on ebay.com.au. ebay.com offers various types of listings for prices ranging from USD$35 to USD$300.
Ireland's eBay domain, ebay.ie, recently created a partnership with Ireland's top property portal, daft.ie. ebay.daft.ie is linked to from the ebay.ie front page.
French eBay domain ebay.fr has 12 million registered users and also links to a dedicated "no bids" classifieds listing real estate search page (with 14 day free trials for advertisers). eBay immo, as it's called, launched last October and is modelled on the successful Italian eBay real estate website: eBay case. And over 132,000 properties listings are also available via a categories search on the German ebay.de.
This is just a small sample of what is happening in the 39 markets eBay operates in, and partnering with portals is just one way eBay is moving in on property listings.
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