Advanced Access Blog

Some real estate agents don’t give a lot of thought to their domain names. They just put their own name or broker name into a browser window and leave it at that. However, the truth is that your domain name could actually be hurting your business and/or your search engine optimization. Thankfully, the super-smart Geeks over at GeekEstate have put together a list of things to consider when deciding on a domain name.

1. Your name and then some. Since domains are pretty cheap these days, you should go ahead and reserve YourName.com. You can redirect that to your blog or your real estate business website if you’d like, so that existing clients can find you that way. However, think about your prospects: they’re more likely to find you by searching for terms related to the area in which they’d like to buy a home, so making your domain name something they’d be searching for will help tremendously (“Tallahassee Homes” or “San Diego Real Estate,” are some good examples.)

2. Stay local. It’s extremely important to keep your real estate website local, in the same way your business is. By putting your city name in your domain, it’s more likely to be found by potential home buyers that may not otherwise meet you. This also helps your domain describe to the world exactly what you and your website are all about. The more descriptive you are, the better.

3. Keep it short and sweet. When choosing a domain, keep in mind that less is more. The longer the domain name is, the more likely it is that your clients will either forget it or misspell it. Ignore this rule if the name of your town is really long. You can’t help that. However, if that’s not the case, shorten it.

4. On spelling. If you need to spell your domain name over and over to someone, chances are it’s too complicated to spell and should be changed.

5. Double letters are a no-no. If you have your heart set on a domain like, say, www.indianriverrealestateexperts.com, keep in mind that the double letter effect can be confusing to your visitors. Try to avoid this.

6. Don’t be dashing. Even though putting hyphens in your domain name may give you a marginal advantage concerning search engine optimization, they don’t really help your site visitors out. Hyphens aren’t very common, so it’s possible your customers would just completely forget to use them. Again, since domains are so cheap, you could purchase both domains so that you can get the benefit of both the SEO and helping your clients.

7. Dot-com rules. As much as we’d love to tell you that domains like dot-biz and dot-net are equals to dot-com, we can’t, because we’d be lying. However, there’s evidently a shortage of dot-com names, so snatch yours up quick.

If your domain name needs a change, don’t hesitate to contact us at (866) 518-1571 or support@advancedaccess.com.

Is your real estate marketing amazing? Well, if it is, perhaps you’re going in the wrong direction.

Lake Superior State University released a list of words that were used so habitually last year that they’ve been banned from use in 2012. Here’s a handful of the banned words you, as a real estate agent, should probably do your best to avoid according to LSSU.

Amazing. Honestly, I’m amazed (zing!) that this word hasn’t been listed before. It seems that recently, amazing is our default term of affirmation. I think we can do better this year. How about, instead of describing a listing as having an amazing view, you say it’s incredible or breathtaking?
Occupy. The Occupy Wall Street movement has exhausted the word occupy. So, if you’ve come up with any clever marketing plans using (Occupy Main Street?) move on.
Man Cave. Do any of the homes you’re selling come equipped with a Man Cave? It’s probably in your best interest to leave that part out of your listing information. Woman Cave, in case you’re concerned, is totally still fair game.
The New Normal. Despite the sad reality that a downturn economy and a struggling housing market is, in fact, The New Normal, let’s just not phrase it this way.
Ginormous. I know that it might seem that this is the only word to describe the huge mansion you’re selling, but separating ginormous into its roots – giant and enormous – will work just fine.

To get a list of all of the banished words for 2012, click here.

Photo credit: greeblie on Flickr

This weekend, we’ll not only be ending another week. We’ll also be bidding adieu to the year 2011. This past year held many important milestones: from riots around the world to occupying our own streets, natural disasters to naturally controversial birth certificates, the royal wedding to GOP debates, and so forth, this year has definitely been one we won’t forget.

As we take the time to look back on the incredible things that happened in 2011, it’s also crucial that we turn our gaze forward. What changes do we like to make? What improvements would we like to see? What are our goals? What are our fears? What do we want to accomplish?

No matter what your hopes and dreams are for 2012, we at Advanced Access look forward to partnering with ou.

Happy New Year from Advanced Access!