New Year’s SEO Resolutions for 2012

January 5, 2012

Filed under: Content,SEO Juice Series,Search Engine Optimization,Social Networking
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SEO Juice

(Tweet this article!) It’s resolution time! And despite the sudden irritation you feel from your gym being over crowded by all the “resolutioners,” there is something special about the idea of starting fresh. It’s empowering! This month SEO Juice will dive into 2012 SEO resolutions: Getting organized, getting fit and making new friends in order to improve your SEO.

After all, just as it is so with every holiday season, it’s far more important what you choose to do between New Years and Christmas than it is between Christmas and New Years. So let’s start the year off right!

Getting Organized:

It’s on just about every New Year resolution list. In 2012, with the mix of social media, content creation, content promotion, relationship building and staying on top of the changing industry, being organized can seem overwhelming. With search becoming more and more social, it’s no mystery that blogging and engaging in social media can be one of the most valuable tools to improve your SEO and develop a stronger brand.

So how do we make getting organized less overwhelming?

Create a Content Calendar – A content calendar can be created in an hour or two and can ease the stress in the long run. Make a plan for when you will post articles to your blog or have an article ready for a guest post. Take into account all the different holidays or events on the horizon and be thinking of how you will capitalize on them with your content.

Social Media Plan – Write down your social media goals, how you want to engage with your fans and what types of links/articles you want to share with them. Create guidelines for the types of statuses and links you want to post, keeping them in line with your goals. But remember, your social profiles need to be more than virtual paperweights. Give your fans a reason to come back to your fan page and click through to your website again and again. Be engaging! Ask their opinions and answer their questions. This is the key to building their trust, building links and becoming an authority online.

Contact List – Keep a running spreadsheet of your opportunities online and your contacts to get your content published. Jot down their information and the types of articles a particular website publishes. As this list builds up, you’ll be much more organized and ready when it comes time to guest post.

(more…)

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Conference Highlight: Search, Mobile and Social Trends

October 27, 2011

Filed under: 2011 Active Enterprise Network Annual Conference,Conferences & Events,Mobile,Real Estate Technology,Search Engine Optimization,Social Networking
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At this year’s Active Enterprise Network Annual Conference, Active Website’s Director of Deployment, Tyler Olmsted, and Director of Mobile Technology, Chris Chares, discussed the impact search, mobile and social networking can have to the online home searching process. 89% of home searching is done online and the process can often be a cold, impersonal experience. However, with the new advances in these areas we are able to bridge this gap and provide a robust experience to customers and give them search results that better match their needs.

Before people started home searching online, they would first go to their realtor to help them find homes based on criteria other than the number of beds and baths, price range, etc. Customers would discuss what was important to their lifestyle and the realtor would then be able to help them find homes that matched all of their needs.

However, since more and more buyers are starting their search online before talking to an agent, we need to provide better tools that mimic the experience they would have with an agent. Through search, mobile and social networking, we can achieve this goal. (more…)

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Conference Highlight: SEO and The Authorship Markup

October 25, 2011

Filed under: 2011 Active Enterprise Network Annual Conference,Distilled LLC,Search Engine Optimization
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Building on our recent syndication discussion, we’d like to take a closer look at ways we can optimize our SEO efforts in order to alleviate the need to syndicate to outlets like Trulia and Zillow. With syndication sites competing with you for authority on your content, and often ranking higher than you on search results, it’s important to have an effective strategy in place when these issues arise.

At this year’s Active Enterprise Network Annual Conference, members had the opportunity to hear about the emerging trends in SEO from Rob Ousbey, VP of Operations at Distilled LLC. During his presentation, Rob discussed how to leverage our search rankings with Google’s recent authorship markup and how it can help your brokerage remain the authority of your content.

The Authorship Markup

The authorship markup links a picture of your face to your article. The image appears in the search results and creates a more personal experience for users. The emotional attachment can influence the amount of traffic that is being generated from that search as people love to associate what they are reading with a face, especially a face that has become well-known.

In all of search’s history, an author could write anything he or she wanted, whether it be factual or relevant. Now, if an author chooses to be a verified author with their image attached to their article, they have the opportunity to build a reputation by face. This change should only breed better content! The image will hold an author accountable for what he or she is writing, and place a personality behind each article. (more…)

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2011 Active Enterprise Network Annual Conference: Bridging the Gap Between Broker and Market

September 28, 2011

Filed under: 2011 Active Enterprise Network Annual Conference,Active Enterprise Network,Conferences & Events,MLS,Search Engine Optimization,Syndication
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During the conference, The Active Enterprise Network will learn new ways to bridge the gap between their brokerage and local market. With technology constantly evolving, it’s important for members to know how to maintain their competitive advantage. Topics for this session are outlined before.

Broker → Market

Gaining a Competitive Advantage: How to Better Position Your Brand Through Market Intelligence
In order to remain successful in your local market, you need to know how your brokerage stacks up against the competition. Recently, Active Website created a Market Intelligence Report for an Enterprise Network member to help them better understand their position in their local market when it comes to technology, marketing, lead management and more. During this session, Managing Partner, John Sable, will be joined by a guest speaker to provide an overview of the Market Intelligence Report and how it will help give members a competitive advantage.

Speaker:
John Sable
Managing Partner
Active Website, LLC (more…)

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Google Launches New Social Platform, Google+

July 15, 2011

Filed under: Facebook,Google,Real Estate Community,Search Engine Optimization,Social Networking
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Search and social interaction are two of the most popular functions of internet users. Google has been dominating internet search for years now. Similarly, Facebook has emerged as the leader in social networking.

Why is Google so obsessed with the social space?
We have seen Google make quite a few attempts at breaking into the social space without success. With the recent launch of Google+, you might be wondering why they’re so persistent following so many failed attempts (Google Wave, Buzz, Dodgeball, etc.). The reason is that both spaces are slowly converging into one. A good search engine provides quick and accurate results (weeding out the masses of clutter, spam and “black hat” sites). Social interaction plays a very interesting role in the “accuracy” of results.

In the earlier days of search engines, very few factors were considered outside of the terms you were searching for. Since then, search has evolved to take into account as much external data as it can gather. For example, once Google realized it can decipher your geographic location, they started basing results on sites that may be more relevant to your search based on your location.

The same is now true for social sites. As social platforms evolved, the search industry realized that not only could you acquire all the same data about users via these sites, but that other important data can be captured including users’ opinions, taste and circles of influence. A dynamic profile for every user (and other entities) exists with all their personal details and interests. Search engines can now factor a searcher’s likes and preferences as well as their friends’ opinions when delivering results. This makes personal data extremely valuable and a significant motivator for investing so heavily in social platforms.

Seeing that most of the valuable data relates to opinions and taste, one of the most important features of a social network is the “like” button. Google realized this and has recently released the Google “+1” button. It’s really quite surprising that it took so long for Google to realize the importance of the “like” feature. For years Google has placed significant weight to the quality and number of domains linking to a specific site when determining its rank for a specific term. These inbound links are in effect acting as a “like” feature. (more…)

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