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Is there a “Magic” Formula for Website Success?

Every day we receive calls from you, our valued clients, on how you can improve your website rankings for popular keyword searches in Google, Yahoo, MSN, and Ask.  We reply that the list…is long. There is really so much you can do to improve your visibility in the search engines.  The truth is that this will be a question we'll all be asking for as long as search engines exist...because search engine optimization is always evolving into a new version of itself, and will continue to do so as the months and years go by.  Here at Advanced Access we are committed to your growth and success.  In our weekly Marketing Tips we strive to keep you updated with the latest news, trends, and ideas that we have researched and found to help you make the most of your website.

Back in March of 2002, we started the ever popular ‘Link Popularity Update’.  This ‘Update’ was started by mentioning popular and authoritative real estate websites on the Internet that would bring you additional targeted traffic not derived from search engines. We talked about such sites as RealEstateABC, IRED, RELibrary, and many more.  Indeed, for a full year we would find a site every week to inform you about, in your quest for traffic, leads, and the benefits such authoritative links would bring to your own search engine rankings. After a year and a half, we started receiving requests from our own clients asking if they could be featured on our Update list. At the time, we thought it was a useful idea to get the word out about our clients’ enthusiasm for working with other real estate professionals on a referral basis.

Fast forward another three years…and the Update is still going strong with hundreds, if not thousands, of real estate professionals from Advanced Access on the list, and more being featured each week.  Unfortunately, this section has grown so popular that we fear our clients may have lost sight of the most important thing.

What is the most important thing?  Your website, of course!  Your website should be a unique, creative, beautiful piece of work that is your online business.  It should be as informational as possible and SPECIFIC to your area, which will bring in valuable leads and be a solid source of income for you.  You are the expert in YOUR neighborhood or city, and this is why you’re the best person for the job.  You may also have a special niche market, and your website is the place to advertise that to the world.  Perhaps you are great with first-time home buyers, or seniors, or maybe you have the lowdown on all of the foreclosures in the area.  Infuse your website with your own unique personality, and make it as interesting as possible, complete with pictures, easy-to-read language, and your own perspective of the area.  These are a few of the items that make the consumers WANT to pick up the phone or send an email to contact you.  And, in doing so, in the search engine’s point of view your website will offer exceptional information about what people are searching for. If you have that information, the search engines may potentially rank your site and other website owners will feel your site is a worthwhile link.

What is not important any longer is the quest to get as many ‘links’ to your website as you possibly can.

While it may seem hard to link up with thousands of agents each week from a list compiled from your real estate website host, it is much harder to find natural, or quality, links from other real estate related websites that make sense.  What types of real estate related websites, you ask? Anything that relates to your day-to-day business life such as mortgage lenders, local handymen, construction companies, landscaping services, window cleaners, appraisals, interior design, architects, home cleaning services, pest control, furniture rentals, insurance agencies, movers, legal services, employment agencies, child care services, and much much more!

The truth is that if you want to succeed, it takes hard work. Can you find these types of unique and local service websites from a single list? No, you usually can’t.  But those types of links may be the some of the best inbound links you have ever received.

We have talked about this aspect of linking in previous Marketing Tips throughout the years, but we have continued to make our Update available with real estate professionals who belonged to the Advanced Access network.  While it still may be worthwhile to have relationships with other real estate professionals, even all the professionals in the Advanced Access network, it is time to end our Link Popularity Update as it is no longer the recommended way to make your website the best of the best.  That is why we must continue on with our weekly Marketing Tips without our weekly Link Pop Update.  We have simply found there are other, better ways to make your website the best it can be.

The perfect website would consist of informative content and articles that naturally linked out to other fantastic resources in a natural way.  It would be more than simply a long list of links. If you wanted to write a unique article about the state of the real estate market in Texas (and you resided in California) and provided a few links to some of your recommended real estate professionals in different parts of the state, that would be a valuable resource.  If you wrote up a short review (in your own words) of your recommended professionals and gave them your seal of approval, while providing a handy form for your visitor to fill out that would be sent back to you so you could then introduce them to your referrals, that would even be better.  If those recommended professionals also linked to your website with their own unique page of content, it would be mutually beneficial.  Again, providing a list of outgoing links is simply no longer the ‘in’ thing to do.

Today, we say goodbye to our weekly Link Popularity Update that has been a part of our Marketing Tips for so long.  We are nostalgic as we remember how it all got started, in the interest of mutually beneficial links to garner targeted traffic. The permanent list of other real estate directory and quality links that has been featured over the years will still be kept online, and it will also be frequently updated with industry links, along with more ideas about how to find quality links on your own.

Looking ahead...

We wish you the best of success in your search engine marketing!  As always, we thank you for your continued business and support, and we will strive to continue to bring you the latest search engine marketing techniques in our weekly Marketing Tips.

Stay tuned for our next edition of the Advanced Access Weekly Marketing Tips.

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Advanced Access
8101 East Kaiser Blvd, Suite 300 Anaheim, CA 92808
Toll Free: (866) 518-1571
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Email: Support@AdvancedAccess.com
Website: http://www.AdvancedAccess.com

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