Happy New Year!

How many of your New Year's resolutions end up being the same year after year because, well frankly, the year before it just didn't stick?  If that's you, you're not alone.

FirstGov has a list of the most popular New Year's resolutions that have likely made your list or the list of someone you know at some point (and probably more than once).  In our "little" Internet world over here we propose that growing and improving your business through the use of your website should be on your list this year.  We also proposed the same thing last year with our "Kick Your Site Into High Gear" article... and the year before with a series of four tips geared toward making the most of your site.

This year we intend to refresh your memory and use the fresh "New Year's Glow" as a way of encouraging your efforts with your Advanced Access real estate website.  The most frequently asked questions we receive are usually centered around the desire to know which aspect of the website is most important to work on, and how it should be accomplished.  We have an unending list, of course, so we can help everyone whether you are new to this or a seasoned expert.  To make it a little easier for everyone, we've narrowed it down to our top three picks to kick off the new year.  Be sure to click on the different links throughout this Marketing Tip for more information.

#1 - Unique Content

This one will never get old.  A website needs greater substance in order to be competitive.  Content which is unique to your site is important for search engine placement and for keeping your visitors interested once they are on your site.  You can make your website original and "sticky" with great information about your community, relocation, real estate in your area, and anything else that makes sense to you.  If you are stuck for ideas, or think real estate is a boring topic, think again!  Check out our 1st place winner for Original Content in our 2006 Most Impressive Website Contest, Marlow Harris' Seattle Dream Homes website.

Of course, if you are just getting started, don't get too far ahead of yourself; Marlow has invested herself in the process of building up her content.  It takes time.  If you're starting from the beginning or close to it, your focus should be on the main pages which already exist on your website.  Your home page is your number one priority.  Your 'about' page is another key page.  Remember, both the home page and the about page begin with the same or similar content as other Advanced Access client sites.  Once those existing pages are your own, then we suggest you begin working on some city pages.  These are pages which highlight the important, fun, historical, and any other info about your main cities.

If you don't want to spend the time writing, or just feel that writing is better left to others, Advanced Access offers content writing services for our clients.

#2 - Listings

Now, this may seem to be an obvious part of a real estate website, but we want to make sure that we offer help on how to effectively feature and market your listings online.  When it comes to highlighting your listings, it's impossible to do too much.  You can feature a small photo on your homepage with some basic info and link that to a specific listing, you can create a slideshow to draw attention to a listing.  You can also create a single listing page to really make a property shine for prospective buyers.  Video home tours are also a great way to give buyers a personal tour of a property.  Need more ideas for this?  We're always talking about unique marketing ideas in our member forums.  If you aren't sure how to access our forums, contact Customer Support at 866-518-1571 and they will make sure you have access.

#3 - Meta Tags

Search engines help potential buyers and sellers find real estate websites... which means you need to make sure that you help search engines find your site and get it in their index.  Of course, there isn't a way to just give Google a call and say "list me".  It isn't the Yellow Pages.  Search engines do everything they can to keep their index populated with quality websites that are relevant to the user performing a search.

Content is a huge chunk of what you need in order to let search engines know what your site is about.  But your content should be supported by meta tags to help them find the specific content you've written.  Your meta tags are made up of a title, a description, and some basic keywords.  These items are meant to indicate what subject matter will be discussed on a particular page.  They should not be "stuffed" with a bunch of additional keywords that you hope to rank for or polluted in any other way.  Tactics like that actually diminish the value of the tags and content.  Search engines see that as spam because it's inaccurate and misleading.  Remember, search engines want to list quality sites to help searchers... that means playing by the rules is important.

We have made it easy for you to edit the meta tags on your website, and have recently featured a quick guide to customizing your meta tags in a Marketing Tip.  We also offer a meta tag evaluation and customization service if you want further assistance.

We understand that even the most tech savvy person is constantly on a learning curve as technology is ever-changing.  We are here to help make sense of as much as we can for you to further the success of your website.  Here's to a very prosperous 2007!

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Advanced Access
8101 East Kaiser Blvd, Suite 300 Anaheim, CA 92808
Toll Free: (866) 518-1571
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Saturday & Sunday, 7:00 am - 4:00 pm (Pacific)
Email: Support@AdvancedAccess.com
Website: www.advancedaccess.com

 

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