Panda 4.1 has rolled out, and websites that once ranked well are now ranking poorly, and websites that once ranked poorly are now ranking well. This is great for smaller businesses that haven’t had the ability to drop large amounts of money on marketing, online ads, etc. but have focused on content like quality blogging. Why is blogging so important?

You’ve heard the phrase, “Content is King.” Well now, more than ever, Google is focusing on relevant and engaging content. Prior algorithms had ranked blogs well if they had a certain percentage of keyword phrase density, if the blog contained a certain number of words, if keyword phrases were placed above the fold and in other strategic areas of the blog…but with Panda 4.1 we’re seeing less of a focus on that and more of a focus on (here comes that word again) quality. In other words, write blogs that people will want to read, and be clear about the focus of your blog (without stuffing keywords).

Now that we’re on the topic of content, let’s talk about duplicate content. So you’ve found a great article online that you want to share with your website visitors, social media followers, etc. but you want the traffic to come to your website, so you copy/paste the article to your blog. This won’t penalize your website ranking, but those pages probably won’t rank. The GoogleBot will crawl your duplicate content pages, but will probably drop them once it gets to the indexing phase. If you write the same blog (or similar blogs) but post on multiple sites of yours, Google will index all but will probably only show one in the search results (which makes sense if you think about it).

And last, but certainly not least, these new changes will allow websites to be crawled faster than ever. For this reason, new and fresh content is critical. If you can add new quality content to your website daily, that is ideal. However, if that’s not possible for one reason or another, at least make the commitment to post new content twice a week, whether this is done through blogging or something else. Stale websites aren’t generally great for ranking.

So right about now, you’re either nodding with engagement or nodding off from boredom. If that latter sounds like you (and probably will be for most people who aren’t SEO enthusiasts) then you might want to leave your SEO and blogging to the professionals. Fortunately, REVStaffing has bloggers with SEO knowledge who can write quality content for your website. To learn more about blogging and other services we offer, complete a Needs Analysis Survey.

Thanks for tuning in and happy blogging!

No matter how attractive and information-packed your site is, your target audience still has to find it. A fantastically written page can be buried in the search engines just as easily as a poorly written one. To get more targeted visitors to your website, you have to employ sound search engine optimization (SEO) strategies along with all of your other efforts. With the majority of website traffic coming from search engines, good SEO is a must.

The Right Keywords

Keyword research is a key part of SEO. You can probably come up with a long list of keywords and phrases that apply to your real estate business, but they may not prove the best for getting prospects to your site. Instead, the best keywords are those that draw a high level of searches yet have less competition. Such keywords provide a better chance of ranking higher with the search engines and getting more visitors to your site. Of course, it’s critical that you choose keywords that are relevant to your content as well. Just think how frustrated visitors will be if they land on your page from a luxury home keyphrase and find commercial property information instead.

SEO Keyword Incidence

Figuring out how to use the keywords you choose can be confusing. We’ve all seen pages that are 90-percent keywords and only 10-percent valuable content. These pages may spend a little time at the head of search results, but eventually they get slapped down by the search engines. And the visitors who do see the pages? They are often so annoyed by the lack of valuable information and poor writing that they get off the website as soon as they can. Many SEO experts recommend including your keywords just a few times per page. For example, you might do well to focus each page of your site on one keyword and include that keyword or phrase once every 100 words of content.

Keyword Positioning

Besides the body of your page (your article, blog posts, listings, etc.), there are others areas that need well-targeted keywords. Use them in your meta tags and description, title, subheadings, and image tags. For example, write a title that includes your keyword and then add the keyword to one subheading on your page. Add keywords to the anchor tags of your links and in your page URLs. If you can include your keyword in your domain name, that’s even better.

Company or Custom Website

Company-provided websites are easy to set up, as many only require you to upload an image, contact information and a short bio. They often boast clean, attractive design elements and simple navigation. The problem with these sites is that they don’t show off your unique style, and it’s your unique attributes that set you apart and make you attractive to clients. If you can design a website that is uniquely yours or hire a designer to handle it for you, you can better demonstrate the reasons a prospect needs you rather than the agent down the lane. Likewise, you may find it easier to optimize your custom site for the search engines.

Let REVStaffing boost your productivity. Take the next step towards better organization and exposure for your business. Shoot us an email or give us a call for a free needs analysis.

We don’t know about you, but here at REVStaffing our virtual assistants occasionally have some difficulty keeping up with all of the user names and passwords for their many social networking accounts. Some passwords require a capitalized letter and a number. Some just require a number. It’s exhausting! This is a great reason for linking all of your social networking accounts together. Linking means that one post will be seen across all of your networks, without you having to log into more than one account.

Let’s start with Twitter, which has been a major player on the social networking scene for quite some time. For those of you that don’t understand the point or the power of Twitter, let us briefly explain. Tweets are treated like tags by Google search crawlers. This means that what you tweet will show up in Google search engines, thus improving you SEO (search engine optimization). For this reason, it’s important to start your tweets with keywords and buzz phrases. And of course, always include a link to your website or blog.

We’ve included a step by step guide to help you link your Twitter account so that your tweets appear on the three most popular social networking sites: Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+.

Facebook

1. Visit apps.facebook.com/twitter. This will prompt you to log into your Twitter account.

2. Upon logging in, click the link that allows Twitter to post your tweets to Facebook.

3. You may then be prompted to sign into Facebook to complete the process.

LinkedIn

1. Log in and click the small arrow next to your name in the upper right corner.

2. Click settings

3. At the bottom on the screen, you will see a box connected to a “profile” tab. In this box, below the word “settings,” click “manage your twitter settings.”

4. Add your twitter account, customize the settings to your liking, and save changes.

Google+

1. Log in and click Account Overview

2. Click the link that says “connecting accounts”

3. Check the appropriate box, next to the account you want connected, that says “show on my public Google profile.”

4. Follow final prompts to verify your Twitter account.

It’s as easy as that! Now your tweets will appear on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+, saving you both time and energy.

Our REVStaffing virtual assistants dramatically boost our clients’ productivity. Take your next step towards better organization of your residential or commercial business by sending us an email, orgive us a callfor a free needs analysis. We’ll be happy to discuss ALL of your unique 2012 business needs; ask how we can give your business a LIFT! Be sure to visit our website, and“like” us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/RevstaffingVAs.

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Any successful real estate professional (including your REVStaffing virtual assistants!) needs an eclectic library of proven, strategies from which to draw inspiration. Augmenting your repertoire isn’t just good business – it’s necessary in order to remain competitive in the market. Let’s take a look at three leading-edge marketing ideas.

Before we dig into the ideas, we need to be on the same page. Even the most seasoned professionals often use the terms “marketing” and “sales” interchangeably. It’s important to note that they’re not synonymous terms. Marketing is anything you do to attract potential customers. The sales process is everything that you do to seal the purchase and obtain a finalized contract or agreement. Both are required to make your business a success. By using the following savvy ideas to merge the two efforts, you’ll definitely realize growth…and that means success!

First, let’s look at press releases and blogs. Internet blogs and press releases filled with the best buzz words and phrases (known as search engine-optimized, or SEO, key words) will cause your business web page or a particular property appear when individuals are performing Web searches. For that reason, online press releases are a required component of a successful real estate marketing strategy.

How about YouTube videos? The future is now when it comes to marketing with YouTube videos. Most people prefer an audio-visual presentation above any other media. Why? Is television a huge industry AND an unparalleled application? Yes, it is, and therein lies the answer to why YouTube is on fire “show and tell’ has always been popular with the masses.

Finally, everyone’s familiar with automated hotlines; they’re not a new technology. They have been around and available since the early ’90s. Toll free recorded message hotlines are definitely the easiest and quickest way to start out your marketing plan; it’s a scalable service. The really nice thing about the technology is that it’s available to prospects, customers and clients 24/7. That means it can help you make money even when you are asleep.

Selection of a marketing strategy is just one of many business decisions you make as a busy real estate professional. Another important decision is this: Do you continue to struggle with managing everything yourself, or do you grow your business with professional help? Remember, in the real estate business, if you don’t have an assistant, you are the assistant. Send REVStaffing an email, or give us a callfor a free needs analysis.We’ll be happy to discuss ALL of your unique 2012 business needs; ask how we can give your business a LIFT! Be sure to visit our website, and“like” us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/RevstaffingVAs.

REVStaffing 2012^©

To get the initial rush to your posts, place links in all the usual social media outlets; Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. But to get follow up interest, try resubmitting a newly worded link using a URL shortener to the same social media outlets. There are several that can be used, such as Bit.ly, Goo.gl, Tinyurl, Ow.ly by posting each link with a different shortener, you can garner more interest for a longer period of time.

Although great advice, the link shorteners won’t help if your content is not well written and informative. Carve out a niche for yourself, and represent yourself as the local expert for your area. As we learned in the REVStaffing social media webinar last month, provide seekers of information in your area with one local resource: YOU!