Back in November, Resource Techniques released an article covering the word 'unfriend' becoming Oxford American Dictionary's word of the year, showing that social networking has taken one of the final steps towards becoming omnipresent within our society and mainstream media. Many estate agents have very different views on their social networking policy and now Twitter fans can rejoice with two pieces of good news.
The first piece of news is by the Global Language Monitor who has announced that Twitter is the most popular word for 2009! This may not come as a surprise for those estate agents that use Twitter, not only is it main stream media but it is a fantastic way to interact and direct traffic to their website online.
The most popular words of 2009 are:
1. Twitter
2. Obama
3. H1N1
4. Stimulus
5. Vampire
6. 2.0
7. Deficit
8. Hadron
9. Healthcare
10. Transparency
11. Outrage
12. Bonus
13. Unemployed
14. Foreclosure
15. Cartel
Many estates may notice that this list may have an American bias but remember that America has roughly 5 times the population of the UK. Unfortunately 'foreclosure' is also on the list, fingers crossed that 'contract exchange' is on next year's list!
The second good news for twitter fans is that Bing has announced their top 10 search terms for 2009 and Twitter is number 2! Unsurprisingly Michael Jackson was at the top of the list after his demise in June. The rest of the list includes 3 other celebrities who have died, a celebrity divorce, Jaycee Dugard (who was kidnapped in 1991), car scrappage scheme, stock market and swine flu.
Retrospectively this is good news for Twitter and Twitter fans, but the other popular words and search terms could be seen as slightly depressing. Just one question remains, will we look back and see 2009 as being a good year this Christmas?
Estate agents, let us know by contacting us via our Facebook or Twitter account.
Monday, 30 November 2009
Web design for estate agents - top 5 ways estate agents need to design their website
Web design for estate agents is the same as any other website, isn't it? Not really. Obviously the basic code and structure used to create any website is in place, but there are fundamental aspects that make estate agent website design stand out from any other type of website.
So the big design question is; what does make an estate agent's website different to other websites? Our years of design experience and knowledge have provided the top 5 ways that estate agents need to design their website.
* Absence of an Online checkout - Houses are not bought online and therefore people do not shop online for houses in the same way that they shop for a DVD or online groceries. Contact details must have a high visibility in grained on to the design of every page.
* Listing property - Estate agents need to ensure that their website is an online brochure that they can be proud of so that their online portfolio will generate enough interest for customers to contact the agent for a viewing. This includes the full range of necessary functionality.
* Online branding - Statistics say that within 3 seconds of accessing your website, property searchers have made their mind up about your business, all from the design. Including the agent's level of service, how professional they are and the types of properties in the portfolio.
* Property search placement - another recent statistic has shown that 95% of users go straight to property search once they have accessed the website. A good property search button is exactly what users are looking for.
* News feature and property search - Google loves up-to-date, relevant and changing content. If Google notices that your homepage is frequently changing, they will visit more often to scan your website which will help your placement within Google's search results page.
Estate agents must insist on a specialist when it comes to their website as only specialists are able to cater for such a niche market. Many of the web designers do not have the knowledge or experience to give estate agents a web design that their business deserves.
Resource Techniques has the skills, knowledge and experience to deliver the web design, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and functionality at an affordable price. Give us a call 0208 457 4777 for a free consultation alternatively estate agents can request a free web review.
Friday, 27 November 2009
Interested to find out more about this 'Bing' thing?
There's no denying that Google has the biggest worldwide search engine market share. Back in May of this year Google had a UK search engine market share of just less than 91%, Yahoo had 4.39% whilst Microsoft's Windows Live and MSN search engine of 2.75%.
Google's previous dominance must have unsettled Microsoft because in the same month Bing was launched. Bing was a replacement of Microsoft's Windows Live and MSN search engines which had combined US search engine market share of 7.21%. Since then Bing has had a huge marketing budget with many TV adverts.
In the last 6 months, Bing has grown to be the 3rd largest UK search engine with 2.89%. Although Google still has a majority share of 92.06%, Bing should not be forgotten.
Bing has a variety of fantastic features including; images, videos, shopping, real-time, travel, health and many more.
If you are interested in the various features that Bing has, visit their website discoverbing.com.
Troy Stanley, CTO of Resource Techniques comments, 'Resource Techniques not only checks every search engine, but also all browser compatibility for each of our websites. Any changes in design that will benefit SEO will be made.'
What do you think about Bing? Contact us via our Twitter profile or Facebook page.
Google's previous dominance must have unsettled Microsoft because in the same month Bing was launched. Bing was a replacement of Microsoft's Windows Live and MSN search engines which had combined US search engine market share of 7.21%. Since then Bing has had a huge marketing budget with many TV adverts.
In the last 6 months, Bing has grown to be the 3rd largest UK search engine with 2.89%. Although Google still has a majority share of 92.06%, Bing should not be forgotten.
Bing has a variety of fantastic features including; images, videos, shopping, real-time, travel, health and many more.
If you are interested in the various features that Bing has, visit their website discoverbing.com.
Troy Stanley, CTO of Resource Techniques comments, 'Resource Techniques not only checks every search engine, but also all browser compatibility for each of our websites. Any changes in design that will benefit SEO will be made.'
What do you think about Bing? Contact us via our Twitter profile or Facebook page.
5 Fundamental techniques to design your website for Google
Search Engine Optimisation or SEO is vital for any estate agent that wants to naturally promote their website. Ideally estate agents would want their website to be page one position one as this generates the most traffic, but it is not always possible.
So how do I get as high as possible in Google? A good analogy is to think of your estate agent website and its design like a house.
Firstly, you need to lay the foundations and the foundation of a website is its domain name. The most popular way is for estate agents to use their brand name as the domain name. This means that it is easy for property searchers to remember and also web designers do not need to integrate the brand name into SEO.
The other way is to use Geo-Location domain name. Geo-location domain names use targeted words or 'keywords' within your domain name. This is picked up by Google and can help towards your SEO. The main problem with this is that domain names such as 'propertyforsaleinhendon.co.uk' is not very user friendly and can be difficult to remember.
Next you need to create the structure of your house which means that general design, navigation, Meta tags and a site map needs to be properly completed. Many lazy web designers have failed to fully implement the proper SEO techniques that estate agent websites require. Therefore they have doomed the structure of the website before it has even been finished.
Once the structure of your house has been built, you need to fill it with things or 'content' that people will want to see. Search engines are also looking for website content that is relevant to your audience. Estate agents that simply load up their properties onto their website are filling this criterion.
One major design mistake found by Resource Techniques' own web review is that an estate agent's properties are hosted by another domain name apart from their own or they just have a frame that shows a property portal within their website. This does not give any SEO benefit to the estate agent as search engines will only use the information that is hosted by their own website.
Other ways of filling your website with content is to include staff profiles, local and area information and the services you provide. The more information you put on your estate agent website, the more search engines can learn about your business.
Now your house is built on solid foundation, has a beneficial structure and the stuff inside your house is full of content that people want to see, it is time to regularly change your front garden. A regularly changing front garden entices people and search engines to see if the house has changed inside (estate agents will not want to change the front garden too much or people will not recognise the house!)
Instead estate agents should have two major areas that need to be habitually changed so keep returning; featured properties and a news section. Frequently changing featured properties will give users the impression that the estate agent's portfolio constantly changing. While a changing news feature will be popular for users and something new to scan for search engines.
Lastly estate agents need to become a trusted expert. Once people realise that the owner of the house is an expert in their field, they will return purely for the knowledge that the expert possesses. Once a trusted expert in your field, estate agents will gain credibility and have increased online presence.
Would you go to the house of a madman?
Troy Stanley, CTO of Resource Techniques remarked, 'Designing an estate agent's website is serious business. Here at Resource Techniques, every single step is taken to ensure that the design will be beneficial. Any advice given will be designed towards putting each estate agent website higher in Google.'
Do you have any feedback? Let us know through our Twitter or Facebook 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.
Tuesday, 24 November 2009
Social network 'Foursquare' now in the UK!
Created in March of this year, Foursquare describe themselves as, '50% friend-finder, 30% social city guide, 20% nightlife game'. It is a social network that allows users to share experiences, hints and places to go whilst having a game that allows users to 'check in' using the GPS on their mobile phone.
Back in August, Resource Techniques talked about a new social network that lets you explore your city and now they have expanded the website onto the UK shores. The cities that they cover are:
* Birmingham
* Bristol
* Brighton
* Edinburgh
* Manchester
* London
Although it is still a relatively new social network, Foursquare is tipped to be the next big social network using social networking, GPS and local knowledge.
Troy Stanley, CTO of Resource Techniques comments, 'Foursquare is a fantastic idea! The social network will be kick started by people that love to eat out or go to bars and clubs. Estate agents, watch this space.'
Many social networks have come and gone, will Foursquare stand the test of time? Let us know via Twitter or Facebook.
Monday, 23 November 2009
Computer taking ages to start-up? Welcome to the future...
Everyone that has used Windows has used Internet Explorer. It is on every single Microsoft Windows PC, but in a recent European court case, users will have to choose to download internet explorer onto their PC or work computer.
On 11th of December 2008, Google publicly released their first version an internet browser called Google Chrome. In just under a year, Chrome has risen to almost 5% of the UK browser market whilst Microsoft's internet explorer has declined just over 10% within the same time period. Google claims that there are now 40 million worldwide Chrome users.
On the 7th of July this year, Google announced that they are to release their own operating system called Google Chrome OS. So what's the difference between the browser Google Chrome and the Google Chrome Operating System? Not much...
Google Chrome OS is essentially an internet browser that operates your whole computer. This has some major implications on the way estate agents access, manage and use their work.
Firstly, estate agents and general users will not install any programs onto their computer, all of it will be held in 'the cloud' (the internet). Meaning that estate agents do not have to install and manage their own programs, saving space and updating time.
Secondly having the minimum amount is held on the computer means that the start-up time for the beta version is currently a miniscule 7 seconds. No longer will estate agents start their computer, make a cup of tea and then sit around waiting their computer to load or wasting energy by leaving their computer on all night.
The last implication is security. Google boasts that Chrome OS distrusts every program that is run on it as well as not trusting itself while checking the code every time it is restarted so that it can repair itself if it senses something is wrong.
Troy Stanley, CTO of Resource Techniques comments, 'In the not too distant future, estate agents could take their Google Chrome OS on the road and take it from viewing to viewing.'
'Within seconds, their laptop will load up and an internet connection will allow them to access 'the cloud'. Instantly letting estate agents edit any of their work files without having to transfer or re-edit them back at the office.' - Troy Stanley
Estate agents, are you interested in finding out more? Contact us on Twitter or Facebook.
On 11th of December 2008, Google publicly released their first version an internet browser called Google Chrome. In just under a year, Chrome has risen to almost 5% of the UK browser market whilst Microsoft's internet explorer has declined just over 10% within the same time period. Google claims that there are now 40 million worldwide Chrome users.
On the 7th of July this year, Google announced that they are to release their own operating system called Google Chrome OS. So what's the difference between the browser Google Chrome and the Google Chrome Operating System? Not much...
Google Chrome OS is essentially an internet browser that operates your whole computer. This has some major implications on the way estate agents access, manage and use their work.
Firstly, estate agents and general users will not install any programs onto their computer, all of it will be held in 'the cloud' (the internet). Meaning that estate agents do not have to install and manage their own programs, saving space and updating time.
Secondly having the minimum amount is held on the computer means that the start-up time for the beta version is currently a miniscule 7 seconds. No longer will estate agents start their computer, make a cup of tea and then sit around waiting their computer to load or wasting energy by leaving their computer on all night.
The last implication is security. Google boasts that Chrome OS distrusts every program that is run on it as well as not trusting itself while checking the code every time it is restarted so that it can repair itself if it senses something is wrong.
Troy Stanley, CTO of Resource Techniques comments, 'In the not too distant future, estate agents could take their Google Chrome OS on the road and take it from viewing to viewing.'
'Within seconds, their laptop will load up and an internet connection will allow them to access 'the cloud'. Instantly letting estate agents edit any of their work files without having to transfer or re-edit them back at the office.' - Troy Stanley
Estate agents, are you interested in finding out more? Contact us on Twitter or Facebook.
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