A Poorly Designed Site Is Costing You Customers

Mike Parker works for the SEO that Z57 has partnered with, to offer SEO to our clients. He is at the forefront of internet marketing and search engine optimization, and often has really good articles with tips about improving your website...the article below is a good example.

Online Marketing: A Poorly Designed Site Is Costing You Customers - Could Yours Need Updating?

Commentary by Mike Parker

It’s no secret that as things get a little tighter and everyone is looking to maximize results from every tool in their arsenals that the first tool real estate professionals should consider is their Web site.

“I have a good one!” is the prevalent opinion (Before saying that you have a good one, please remember that over 80% of all Americans rate themselves as “above average” drivers. Just as 80% of drivers can’t be “above average,” neither can 80% of real estate Web sites, either!). Are you getting any sales from your Web site? You should be, for the Internet is where people look for homes. If you are not, there might be some simple things you can do to change the situation.

Unfortunately, it is often the case that although the site may look pretty (or not), from a performance standpoint, well, it’s frequently a “handyman’s special.” We know this because the first thing we look at when someone contacts us is their Web site and the home page and title tags on that Web site. You would be surprised to know that we have commonly found situations where the site builder FORGOT to finish the title tag, making the site impossible to be found by the search engines. What is a “title tag?” Well, go to any site. Hit “view” on your horizontal navigation bar, then scroll down to “page source.” A window will open, showing you your title & meta tags, things you may not be familiar with or never thought it necessary to focus on.
You do need to focus on your title tag, however, for with a poor one, it is exponentially harder for you to be found when anyone goes looking for a neighborhood. Generally speaking, you don’t want your tag too long or too short but you DO want it to tie in to key words on your homepage and to the towns you truly service. As an example of how simple this fix can be, a new customer had “Central Pennsylvania Homes for Sale” as his title tag with his business in Harrisburg.

That just isn’t going to do it, because generally, folks search by town or region; e.g., “luxury homes Salem Oregon” or “homes near lake Winnipesaukee” and the like. And that’s a good thing; just search for the name of your city and state and the words “real estate” or “homes for sale” and see what the engine says the search depth is (Use Yahoo or MSN for most reliable link totals). You see, in search, it is all about pertinence. Your title tag should be pertinent to your selling area. “Central Pennsylvania” is not really pertinent to any one of the hundreds of towns and cities in that region, hence performance for that phrase won’t be outstanding. “Harrisburg homes for sale” IS pertinent to a Realtor in Harrisburg, and it is a simple thing to have your tag changed to one that is pertinent .

Then, there’s the “Pictures, pictures, pictures” home page. It’s pretty, but it isn’t effective in positioning you because search engines can’t read pictures: they read text and content. Or, the “I’ve got more links than anyone in the world, right here” home page.

Unfortunately, that confuses the engines, too. Not to mention your prospects. You’d be amazed how many otherwise smart real estate people have links that lead off their page to another site and never return to THEIR site! That’s not good. If these things describe your Web site, sometimes it’s just better to put a clean new page up on the site you have had for a few years. You keep the same URL but you put a clean and focused home page up for the search engines to more easily find.

Last in this line of what makes sites hard to find is the “Mothership” site. A customer told me she was paying a well known association over $800 a month for a site that never brought her one lead.

This is what can happen when you choose the monolith or “mothership site” over having your own site: Oftentimes, no one can find you on such sites, so no one comes to you to purchase a home from all your Internet work.

Don’t have your “Internet Marketing” program consist of a page buried on a “mothersite” that Houdini couldn’t find amidst 10 billion pages of content on the Internet today.

Many more sites would work better if these simple cautions were considered or evaluated. Many more buyers would better connect with sellers. Many more real estate professionals would make more money and more sales. Check your site: 1) title tag well done? 2) too many links and pictures? 3) Is your site harder to find than a needle in a haystack, buried among so many others at whatever.com?

Coracle provides these services free of charge with every subscription. But if you don’t want us to do it, get someone to make these simple adjustments to your site so you can perform better on the organic search results: the results that buyers trust most. Your site is no good if no one can find you. If no one can find you, you have a bad site, no matter how pretty it may be.

The final measure of “a good site” is not what it looks like, but about how many SALES it brings you. Chances are good that you might not need to buy “lead generation” programs if your Web site is a good one, for if it is, you already are receiving real measurable sales from it. Your Web site should be your strongest Internet marketing tool.

Mike Parker is director of sales and marketing for Coracle, Inc., the First Page Search Recognition company. To request a copy of “Online Marketing Special Extra: 15 tips you can use to make real money” e-mail info@CoracleInc.com. Visit www.CoracleInc.com for more information.