Real Estate Agent? – Don’t Listen to NAR
There was a post recently on the Small Business Search Marketing blog pointing out some of the weaknesses in a recent article by NAR attempting to give advice to Real Estate Agents on how to improve their search engine optimization and therefore rankings. In general I agree with the points made by Matt McGee in the article except I’m tempted to condemn comment spam in more stringent ways. If you are a real estate agent take the time to read the points in the following article:
Bad SEO Advice for Real Estate Agents … from the NAR
Great Post on Google Local SEO Tactic
SEOmoz came out with a great post on how to go through the Google Local results of competitors to find directories that are being used by the algorithm to rank businesses. Of particular note is the importance placed on perfect consistency from one listing to another. The general idea is that by looking through the reviews on each business you can click through to the sites themselves and add your information too. At the very least you get some link-building done and at best reinforce your businesses credibility with Google. The post itself has screenshots and instructions. You should read the post and do what it says for your business. And, you should probably do it soon!
Google Buzz for Small Business
I’ve been playing with Google Buzz off and on trying to evaluate it both for my personal life and as a tool for business. I’m not sold on it yet for business. That isn’t the same as saying that I don’t see potential there! My personal view is that I’m going to wait a little a while and see how the eco-system around Buzz develops as well as what kind of changes Google makes to the service going forward. There were a flurry of modifications early and it seems likely that additional updates will be flowing pretty frequently in the coming months. Adam Ostrow wrote a brief post on Open Forum that breaks down 5 Opportunities for Small Businesses in using Google Buzz. It’s a little mis-named since it largely describes how Buzz works and echoes my hesitations but there are some points in there about the differentiation of Buzz from other services that are good to know about.
Google Buzz: 5 Opportunities for Small Businesses
Don’t Neglect the Potential of LinkedIn
This post on ProBlogger had some really great advice for businesses and professionals that haven’t been using LinkedIn to drive leads and clients to their sites. While ProBlogger obviously has a blog-oriented focus, a lot of these same techniques will be equally useful for real estate agents, lawyers, and other professional service providers. Of particular interest to me was the third item in the list suggesting updating your website links to be eye-catching. So, if you current link is your business name, it might be better to change it to “San Diego Real Estate Information” so a person who sees your profile has something that looks interesting to click on… there’s more in the article!
Top 10 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Blog Using LinkedIn
Google Getting Cranky About Local Business Listings
Well, it was bound to happen. Google noticed how many spammy, manipulative business entries were being made in their database for the Local Business Center. Their “Business Listing Quality Guidelines” are posted for all to see and abide by. Ignore at your own peril! You never know how long it will take for them to enforce these guidelines or how rigorously they will but rest assured if Google thinks the results are being degraded for their users, they won’t hesitate to bounce businesses out of the listings or blacklist you. Check out the guidelines and make sure you play nice!
Google’s Business Listing Quality Guidelines
Google Moving Into Local Search
Google has made a couple of moves recently that show it is serious about moving to defend it’s turf in local search. Google dominates search in general and efforts by other companies to carve out a local search niche have not gone unnoticed! While Google maps have long provided excellent local search functionality there are two relatively new releases or enhancements that demonstrate Google’s commitment. And THAT is the really scary part if you are Yelp… Google is likely to continually enhance and improve their product as fast or faster than anyone else can keep up. Here are the two developments that have recently rolled out:
- 1) Google Place Pages – Place Pages take the previous bubbles in Google Maps and gives them their own page. Who cares right? Not quite… it also gives them their own URL. That’s where the big change is. Now Google can index those pages and start serving them up in non-maps searches for businesses or categories in their main search results. Over time, this probably means that top 10 results are really just top 9 results because a Place Page will likely take up one spot most of the time.
- 2) Improvement to Mobile Search – Google added functionality to improve the ability of users of their mapping application to do business searches on smartphones. Yelp had previously offered superior functionality in this regard and appears to have perhaps hoped it could be an ongoing source of differentiation and value. So much for that idea. Just like the mobile GPS manufacturers just found out… Google isn’t going to stay satisfied with their current offerings for very long in any area. The moral of the story is that if you have a business that remotely competes with Google you had better sprint full-speed ahead on innovation and improvement. In a tie, Google will win with consumers due to the comfort level of their brand…
I’m looking forward to seeing how Google continues to develop in these directions… I don’t really know if there will be long-term survivors from the mix of companies that were hoping to find a home in the local search or directory niche. Things are going to get a lot worse for them before it gets better. I assume Microsoft and Bing can’t be far behind in this area either.
5 Tips for Better Business Blogs
Another good article for business owners… this time it’s Top 5 Business Blogging Mistakes and How to Avoid Them. In a nutshell the five are:
- Treating Your Blog Like a Press Center
- Not Blogging Regularly
- Not Enabling Conversation
- Making New Content Hard to Discover
- Expecting Too Much Too Soon
It’s a quick read for the details on each item. I find the hardest one for me is to blog regularly since the rest of my life is following it’s erratic cycle of urgent vs. relaxed and blogging is in some ways the least direct line to revenue…
Five Social Media Quick Hits for Small Business
This article was posted on Mashable recently and it does a good job of making the case for small businesses to take advantage of:
- Local Social Networks
- Blogs or Social Hubs
- Facebook Fanpages
- Custom Wikis
Here’s the full URL in case the above link doesn’t work…
Facebook for Small Business Owners
Do not be this guy.
Should you use your personal Facebook profile for business? If so, how should you use your it to support your small business? It’s a question that many Facebook users are struggling with. First let us address whether you should do it at all… Since in July Facebook passed 250 million users if you are wondering if any of your customers and prospects are even on there, some of them almost certainly are. More people are signing up everyday so I think we can pretty confidently say that you should absolutely seek ways of using your personal profile to support your business! The more complicated question is:
How should you use your personal profile for small business? The key word in that first sentence is “personal”. I’m not talking about the fan page for your business in general or the profile page specifically for the business if you created one. I’m talking about YOUR personal account. The one where your friends and family look at pictures of your vacation or comment on the updates you post about the kid’s first day of school.
This account, particluarily for a small business, can be a huge source of business. Word-of-mouth advertising is alive and well online now in addition to offline. Your strongest referals are going to come from your friends, family, and clients you are especially close to. The goal for your personal account is to encourage that without looking like a jerk for plugging your business all the time. Since the communication of status updates is a long-term, ongoing affair with your connections, the best form for communicating your business is to post updates about actual things that are happening worth commenting on without actively selling or having a “call to action”. Basically, you aren’t selling. You are brand-building or, more accurately, brand-maintaining within your core fan base.
A Couple of Examples:
- Let’s say you are a real estate agent. Don’t post every third day, “Serving your real estate needs in Manhattan! Your agent for life!” This tactic will quickly demonstrate that you are clueless. Post something relevent that also allows you to remind people what you do and also reinforces your knowledge and expertise. ”Finally closed the deal… I now know more about toxic mold remediation than anyone ought to!” You are talking to people who already know you. Don’t sell to them. Talk to them. Share your life!
- How about for a lawyer? Don’t even think about posting, “Referrals are my business! If you know anyone looking for DUI lawyer send them my way!” repetitively. Your posts should just serve as a little reminder to jog everyone’s memory and reinforce that you really know what you are doing. Try… “You would really be surprised how often officers make mistakes in DUI arrests.” This could lead to a little comment stream where you could further extend evidence of your knowledge without being irritating.
The main point is that you are not actively selling to these connections. What you are doing is gently reminding them all what you do and reinforcing your expertise so when someone they know mentions your industry, they immediately think of you and can confidently say… “I know a great person who can help you out…” The best posts are ones that are truly conversational involving your business but also sharing your life.
A final point I shouldn’t have to make but will mention anyway… do not share anything that violates the trust of a client or associate. You know better! While your personal account is personal, it is far from private. (Not to mention the serious ethical issues of crossing that line.)
Yahoo and Microsoft for Small Business
What does the Yahoo and Microsoft deal mean for small business internet marketing? The dust has officially settled on the announcement that Microsoft will be powering all of Yahoo’s search for the next 10 years. Well, at least according to the contract. Who really knows… in tech things move pretty quick and the world could look a lot different 5 years from now than it does today.
Microsoft and Yahoo deal.
Two Changes I Recommend:
- It is probably worth it to spend a little energy optimizing for Microsoft Bing search spiders. When it was a three-way race between Google, Yahoo and Microsoft, the market-share represented by 2nd and 3rd place on the list were each small enough to not typically return enough on your energy. Combined, however, they do. Estimates of course vary but their search reach can represent up to a third of all searches. That’s worth some effort…
- Get used to Microsoft AdCenter. Like AdWords from Google, AdCenter is where you bid on PPC and content placements for Microsoft websites and partners. Yahoo has a system called Panama to do the same thing in its world. Now, AdCenter is going to handle all the self-serve advertising across both sets of websites and partners. Much like for search optimization, it may not have been previously worth the trouble to manage campaigns in the also-rans but now the economics have changed. There is enough traffic here to make it worth messing with.
Most aspects of online marketing do not change with this shift in the landscape. While the underlying algorithms of the engines vary to some degree, they are similar enough that a sound strategy overall for one is a sound strategy for all. You still need to keep updating your site with fresh content, pursuing a link-building strategy, and optimizing your title, meta-tags, and content for keywords you want positioning for.
Your core focus will remain unchanged for online marketing. Cast a wide net for traffic. Make sure when that traffic comes to your site that you present yourself, your company, industry information, etc., in the way your customers need you to. Then, give awesome service and repeat. Good luck!
