Improving Keyword Search Traffic

My ideas building squeeze pages is not unique, and is in fact becoming a widely practiced technique for search engine optimization. As a reminder, a squeeze page is a search engine optimized keyword specific landing page to gather leads. An example of this would be my expired listing lead site, realestatecountry.net.

Here is a link to a Marketing Sherpa article on how Jelly Belly has used this technique to grow their online customer acquisition and conversion by 200%. Now for many REALTORs, using an enterprise system to create 500 keyword specific pages is just not economically viable. However, I can tell you that similar results can be achieved with a simple WordPress blog, templates and a godaddy account.

Just to keep score on which of my links are currently getting first page exposure for a search term on Google, “Real Estate country” is still low on Google, but gaining rank. Expired Listing lead and Expired Listing Lead software is dominated by my links. For my wife, “Chewable Prenatal Vitamin” shows up on Google twice with a link to Bloom’en Nutrition, and I just registered PregnancyVitamin.net so we shall see when it finally ranks after I get the pages loaded.

Formalization of Growing the Visibility of Real Estate Country

It has been a while since I posted to my real time blog of getting my real estate pages to cover the first page of google for a given search word. So Freetrainer.com and associated links are in the first three listings on Google for the term Expired Listing Lead in addition, for my wife’s business, I have five of the first page listings on google for the term “prenatal vitamin chews” The challenge has been that I am still working toward getting the term “Real Estate Country” listed on the first page and it is proving to be more competitive than I had originally thought. Who knew that UnitedCountry would have such a strong presence online?

In evaluating the different strategies to get even more linked sites listed on google’s first page for the given word, I found an online e-book that formalized what I have been describing. I won’t go into details about the book, but the concept is simply that instead of creating a bunch of linked sites that all link together, create a site, add one link to your central page (www.freetrainer.com for example) and one or two links to the next page, blog, hub, squidoo, or other site that you create.

As an example, the Real Estate Country blog links to the home page and will be linking to a Squidoo page. The idea is to create a wheel of sites that have just one or two links to your critical pages as well as a consolidated link to your next creation so that the spiders can follow. By building out your wheel, you can have a very targeted group of sites that focus on your specific niche and keywords, but don’t get penalized for having a large number of outgoing links.

Overall, the link wheel should serve to improve your search ranking for a given site, and if done properly, those additional sites that you create will also show up under that search term on Google.

Step by Step Guide to Cover the First Page of Google, a Small Challenge

For those of you who have been following along, I am using these posts to go through the step by step process of covering the first page of google with links back to your site. My first demonstration of this was the links to my RedX and 4MySales page under the search term “expired listing leads” The second is the multiple links to Bloomen Nutrition under the search “prenatal vitamin chews.”

Anyway, this newest project was to get as many links on the first page of Google as possible for the term “real estate country” However, I hit a bit of a snag. The site has yet to be indexed by google, and in further examination, I have found that it is an expired URL that was likely has a bad history with google. So here is what I am going to do. For the next while, I will work at the term and see if we can’t get a few of the linked pages indexed by google, even though the target page will likely not show up. This is a little off from the original strategy, but I think it will still work out.

So what are the steps for this week? Two things, bookmarks and sqidoo pages. The bookmarks are pretty self explanatory, add the real estate country link to as many of the social bookmarking sites as possible. The squidoo pages are a little more challenging. As time allows, create a squidoo lens that deals with the topic of real estate country. Make the lens useful so that it will attract traffic, and create a lens group around it. After creating the lens, make five or ten more. With each of these lenses, add content that people searching for the target real estate terms will find, read, and subsequently click back to the original site.

This activity is going to take me a couple of days, so I’ll let you know how it goes.

Automated Directory Submitting, Fast and Easy

Previously, I suggested a quicker way to submit your URL to the multitude of internet directories to grow your backlinks. I did this for a few hours on Friday to grow the links to the discount page of the RedX expired listing lead software and system. Fortunately for me, in my search for an even better approach to directory submission I found a website that automates almost all of the process. I spent another four hours on Saturday submitting 4MySales.com to promote my relationship with the Real Estate Data Exchange (Red X) to the list of directoris and received about 400 backlinks by the end of the process..

The website that I found is http://www.availablescript.com/submiter/index.php?menu=join with the corresponding password of hallo. What the system does is uses a script similar to that of directory submitter to populate all of the fields of your target directory. The only think that you need to do is enter the captcha (human identifier string) and choose the best subdirectory for your particular URL. It is a pretty cool tool and the number of link confirmations that I received in my email confirms that it does work.

Expanded Expired Listing Lead Service

My friends at the Real Estate Lead Generation Service, REDX have just launched their FSOB service into Canada! The number of services that they provide and the number of MLS’s that they cover has certainly expanded in recent years. Recently, they have added FSBO leads in addition to their expired listing leads, and are now actively expanding their coverage to include more of North America. Below is the press release announcing their new expansion.

As always, you can waive the $149.00 start up fee by signing up here: http://www.theredx.com/signup/4mysales.html

The RedX Launches Expansion Into Canada

Real Estate Data X-Change (RedX), the industry leading provider of
Expired and For-Sale-by-Owner (FSBO) lead generation and management solutions, today announced the expansion of its services into Canada, with the opening of 35 areas of its low-cost FSBO service.

The RedX launched the FSBO product to meet the specific needs of the
Canadian real estate professional. RedX FSBO leads service is very unique from other FSBO providers because we the FSBO leads are delivered directly into a very user friendly lead manager system, which is included with a subscription to the RedX FSBO service. The lead manager system gives the subscribers a tool for more than just prospecting FSBOs. The lead manager gives the subscribers the ability to write notes, set tasks, create marketing campaigns and flag leads, and much more.

The RedX utilizes advanced web and database technologies to deliver the highest quality and quantity FSBO lead in the market. The RedX scours local and national newspapers, real estate publications, and other public online sources to extracts the lead in its entirety.
In addition to interfacing with the lead manager, RedX FSBOs include:

• Real time FSBO lead delivery seven (7) days per week
• Customizable FSBO database search tool
• Reverse phone look ups performed on each FSBO lead
• No duplicate leads
• Free online training and scripts

“RedX FSBOs is a powerful enhancement to any real estate
professional prospecting, by providing them a tool that delivers new leads every day” said Curtis Fenn, Vice President of Sales for Real Estate Data X-Change.

About Real Estate Data X-Change, Inc.
Real Estate Data X-Change, Inc is a leading software technology and leads service provider for real estate professionals. The RedX assists real estate professionals in accomplishing their professional goals by providing them with accurate, timely and reliable data to aid them in building their business. We have designed powerful technology-based tools to help them access, manage, and utilize their real estate leads. Simply stated, the RedX's products and services help real estate professionals sell more homes while saving both time and money. http://www.theredx.com/

For more information about the RedX or to purchase RedX FSBO lead service, please visit http://www.theredx.com/signup/4mysales.html, or contact a RedX sales representative at
800-731-7339.

Four more ways to attract real estate buyers in this down market

I have posted the new rules of real estate survival a couple of times in this blog, and the basic rule is to secure as many listings as possible. However, I have not yet touched on the demand side of the equation. Sure, if you prospect effectively for expired listings you will have a selection of properties to offer the new demanding client, but where do you find that New Demanding Client?

1) Opportunistic investors: Although many feel that we have not yet hit bottom, the investment market is starting heat up again. Many real estate investors (including me) are looking for that next great deal, foreclosure, or short sale. For real estate agents that can help investors with the minutia of buying a property with less than full equity, there may still be business to be had. Consider marketing your services and expertise to the investment market, either for direct real estate services, or even consultation and guidance.

2) Movers looking for a deal: It is true that it is now a buyers market, but that does not mean that there are no more buyers. The truth is that in contrast to three years ago, buyers today have their choice of what to buy and who to buy it through. To capture the attention of these clients, position yourself as an aggressive savings manager with expertise in helping buyers get the best possible deal and the home of their dreams. As for attracting these clients, place ads, co-op market with your local coffee shop, fitness club and small businesses, and host how to buy foreclosure webinars and seminars.

3) Business relocation: If you haven’t explored the opportunities with relocation specialists that service the companies in your area, now may be the time to strike up a conversation. The internet, yellow pages, or HR department of your closest multinational may be able to connect you with the right people.

4) REO Specialist: Both on the buying and selling side, the agents that deal with the banks have a ready-made inventory on discountable properties. Loss mitigation departments may be able to help you out with a listing or two. Also, if you are familiar with the requirements of the banks to purchase REO, you can position yourself as a specialist for both the investor and the movers looking for a deal.

Finally, don’t forget about the 30% discount on Expireds from RedX.