This is a brand new site - Free Real Estate Articles - especially for real estate marketers - real estate agents, webmasters, and anyone involved in real estate marketing of any kind. Articles include information for sellers -- getting your house ready to sell, what to focus on, what are the most important things to do before listing your house, how to choose a real estate agent, etc.
Also a growing list of FSBO (For Sale By Owner) articles.
Real Estate agents, check out Real Estate Webs. Your own sub-domain optimized just for your specific area, with built in lead generating tools.
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Thursday, November 10, 2005
Link Exchange Blues
Over the past couple of years I have said some pretty disparaging things about the practice of exchanging links. Not only is it extremely inefficient, but more and more people seem to think that Google has started to penalize sites for having too many reciprocal links.
Still I get hundreds of link exchange requests every week. The vast majority are from relatively new sites with little traffic and little relevance to mine.
Good sites do not waste time exchanging links. There are much better ways to get links.
See my linking course for more ideas.
Still I get hundreds of link exchange requests every week. The vast majority are from relatively new sites with little traffic and little relevance to mine.
Good sites do not waste time exchanging links. There are much better ways to get links.
See my linking course for more ideas.
Saturday, November 05, 2005
Display Graphics - Trade Show Graphics
Here's a great source for display graphics and trade show graphics including trade show displays, popup displays, banner stands, vinyl banners.
For business resources, check out Business Resources.
For business resources, check out Business Resources.
Thursday, November 03, 2005
Google Retake
One of my clients facing the spectre of plummeting Google rankings emailed me today to say "it looks like everything is going back to exactly how it was before the shake up!"
This client was panicking because it looked like her primary keyword was going to move from #4 to about #98 in google searches. She thought for sure whe was going to have to lay people off if this really happened.
Her panic was brought on by the "insider information" contained on Matt Cutt's blog in which he confirmed that the rankings on one obscure Google data center (66.102.9.104) foreshadowed what would be propagated over the entire network in two or three weeks. Two days ago her site was at 98. But now it has mysteriously climbed back up to #9.
Everybody has an opinion about Google. Especially SEO gurus and even Google "insiders". But can we really trust what any of them say?
I don't think so.
This client was panicking because it looked like her primary keyword was going to move from #4 to about #98 in google searches. She thought for sure whe was going to have to lay people off if this really happened.
Her panic was brought on by the "insider information" contained on Matt Cutt's blog in which he confirmed that the rankings on one obscure Google data center (66.102.9.104) foreshadowed what would be propagated over the entire network in two or three weeks. Two days ago her site was at 98. But now it has mysteriously climbed back up to #9.
Everybody has an opinion about Google. Especially SEO gurus and even Google "insiders". But can we really trust what any of them say?
I don't think so.
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
Google Updates Very Inconsistent
A client pointed out that Matt Cutts blog shares information about upcoming Google updates before they actually hit the main Google indexes. According to Cutts (who is a Google insider and PR guy) one particular Google data center shows the results that are probably going to be dispersed over the entire network within the next couple of weeks. This data center is at 66.102.9.104.
If you want to be depressed, have a look.
Google is in the midst of making changes and in particular is after spammers. The concensus from the comments at the blog address above is that many legitimate sites are being penalized in this exercise. Google is also having a difficult time with "relevance".
In some cases that I have checked, Google's tendency to favour bigger "institutional" sites is even more pronounced than it has been in the past. Of course this is offset by the inclusion of completely irrelevant (or marginally relevant) sites, as well as out and out spammers (corroborated by numerous comments in the post above).
Many webmasters and SEO types are shocked at the way sites, and categories of sites, have dropped from their previously held top ranking. As one very unhappy SEO guy says, if a site drops from high ranking to virtually off the map, what does that say for Google's previous ranking results? Not much.
Too much respect
Personally I think we have much too much respect for Google. If they were the new Microsoft many hard core SEO types would think they have good reason to hate them. But they are not the new Microsoft. Unlike Microsoft Google is a one trick pony. Making all their money off of other people's content and selling ads. This is their only source of revenue -- other than the money poured into the company by money grubbing investors.
What I dislike most about Google is the moralistic tone. Not only are they out to make lots of money, but they are "doing good" at every turn. I doubt they are even aware how hypocritical this is.
True believers rarely are.
More competition required
Google has too large a share of the search market. It is much too easy for them to screw small web entrepreneurs with their constant tinkering and experimentation. This tinkering would not be so bad if the others -- in particular, Yahoo and MSN -- had a larger share of searches. But the last year has actually seen an increase in Google's market share. Not driven by good results as much as by momentum and hype.
This is bad for all of us involved in the web. More of us need to shed the Google habit.
If you want to be depressed, have a look.
Google is in the midst of making changes and in particular is after spammers. The concensus from the comments at the blog address above is that many legitimate sites are being penalized in this exercise. Google is also having a difficult time with "relevance".
In some cases that I have checked, Google's tendency to favour bigger "institutional" sites is even more pronounced than it has been in the past. Of course this is offset by the inclusion of completely irrelevant (or marginally relevant) sites, as well as out and out spammers (corroborated by numerous comments in the post above).
Many webmasters and SEO types are shocked at the way sites, and categories of sites, have dropped from their previously held top ranking. As one very unhappy SEO guy says, if a site drops from high ranking to virtually off the map, what does that say for Google's previous ranking results? Not much.
Too much respect
Personally I think we have much too much respect for Google. If they were the new Microsoft many hard core SEO types would think they have good reason to hate them. But they are not the new Microsoft. Unlike Microsoft Google is a one trick pony. Making all their money off of other people's content and selling ads. This is their only source of revenue -- other than the money poured into the company by money grubbing investors.
What I dislike most about Google is the moralistic tone. Not only are they out to make lots of money, but they are "doing good" at every turn. I doubt they are even aware how hypocritical this is.
True believers rarely are.
More competition required
Google has too large a share of the search market. It is much too easy for them to screw small web entrepreneurs with their constant tinkering and experimentation. This tinkering would not be so bad if the others -- in particular, Yahoo and MSN -- had a larger share of searches. But the last year has actually seen an increase in Google's market share. Not driven by good results as much as by momentum and hype.
This is bad for all of us involved in the web. More of us need to shed the Google habit.
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