Create a Keyword Marketing Strategy

The Internet has increased the expectation among consumers that your business will have a credible online presence. Prospects you’ve never met are forming opinions about your business at the click of a mouse. Internet first impressions are not just influenced by how your website looks, but also by how often your business appears in searches on their key words and if you have a presence on the more popular real estate sites. Establishing a good reputation, offline and online, is the only way to be truly successful in business.

When consumers are looking online they are using Search Engines like Google, MSN, Yahoo, etc. You want to be FOUND by these users . . . your name should appear within the first couple of pages, not only by searching your name, but also by searching common words/phrases that a consumer might search for.

The goal is for your websites to appear on the first page of search results so that YOUR site is one of the sites that consumers will look to for the information they are searching. Your website is probably full of content now and will result in some search results; however, you need to provide custom content in order to appear set apart from other agents. You can increase your presence by concentrating on the words consumers might type in the search engines to find the information you are providing.

Consumers use search engines to find agents and homes. Figure out what they type into the search box and write about that! If you tend to list homes on golf courses… focus on that… write about “Living on a Golf Course” or “Homes for Sale on Golf Courses” or “Golf Courses in MYCITY.”

Creating a Keyword Strategy

How do you figure out which keywords resonate with your clients? How do you know which exact keywords will be most relevant in someones search to find you and your company?

To determine the popularity and competitiveness of certain keywords, use a keyword tool. One of the most popular is  Google’s Keyword Tool. You can use this to help determine the volume of searches on a specific keyword.

Visit  Google’s KeyWord Search here.

What is your target market? Use some of your pages to be a community expert. There are hundreds of agents that will appear on the search engine pages of “Real Estate Agent in Your City, State” but how many agents will appear on Google when consumers search for “Restaurants in MYCITY” or “Foreclosures for sale in MYFARMAREA”

Write content on different subjects and you will be the expert. Not only real estate information, but also about your community. But remember, don’t write about something you don’t want found for (for example, if you don’t care for investment buyers – don’t write “How to Buy an Investment.”)
 

Who is the real estate agent of tomorrow – Inman Connect – Part 2 & 3

A few days ago I share a short video from Inman Connect on some statistics regarding tomorrow’s real estate agent. I dont’ agree with all of the information but wanted to share a great presentation.

And part three

2012 Online Marketing Plan – Do you have one?

The New Year brings opportunity. You have a new business plan and goal,  and hopefully a new marketing plan that includes new technology to help your business. Here are some of the tools that stood the test the year and now are part of our marketing plan.  So here it goes:

SEO:

• Review your On-Page Optimization and make sure it’s all complete – a free tool to try is www.websitegrader.com
• Think about keywords that you need to have exposure on. Use Google keyword tracker to find other terms you may not of thought of.
• Have a content strategy in place – through blog posts, articles and text that needs to be on your site

Site:

General Marketing:

• Review follow up emails – when someone contacts you are you sending a message that will help engage them as clients?
• Google analytics  - are installed and configured?
• Check site for broken links (and fix them!)
• Update photos and content – throw out old content.
• Plan to review web stats regularly

Blog:

• Create a plan to post regularly, check out this post we did on this
• Check to see if your plugins are updated and you have some that help with SEO.
• Don’t forget to use Keywords/Tagging/Categorizing on posts

Facebook:

• What are your goals – put them in writing
• What type of followers do you want
• Create buzz
• Set up a strong personal profile
• Set up Fan Page with custom look. Make sure you have a special tabe that offers them something when theclick
• Make sure your FB badge is placed on your website
• Include your FB Page info in your email signature. (Try Wisestamp)
• Create an action plan to:
• Network and engage friends/fans
• Increase Fans and promote page
• Keep content updated

LinkedIn:

• Make sure your profile is set up and complete
• Request endorsements
• Participate in Questions and discussions
• Connect your profile to your other social media accounts

Twitter:

• Make sure your custom background done and compelling
• What are your goals – put them in writing
• What type of followers do you want
• Create buzz
• Montior your tweets to see if your getting reactions. I use Hootsuite (paid version) to monitor retweets of my posts.

Other social media sites:

• Find other relevant industry social media sites
• Google Plus
• Youtube
• Yelp and Google Places
• Flickr
• Trulia, Zillow
• Other?
• Create your profile and create action plan to participate

Video

• Consider a video strategy for 2012
• Create a list of videos you need to create
• Hire or put a plan to learn how to,  in place

This is just the beginning. Remember if you need help with this, find out about  our coaching programs at The Tech Byte.