There are many IDX solutions to chose from that differ in style, user experience, back-end features, and price. The spreadsheet and screenshots below compare differences between some of the products we have worked with.

In addition to comparing cost, determine the best real estate IDX solution by asking…

• Is your IDX system generating leads for you?
• Which IDX systems are search engine friendly and which are not?
• Where does the lead information go and how are they followed up on?

The availability of particular solutions will vary from MLS to MLS, most vendors list available MLS areas on their websites. Each of the products below are WordPress compatible as a framed option or a dedicated WordPress plugin.

Wolfnet

• http://wolfnet.com
• Pros: MLS, Map Search

Diverse Solutions

• http://www.diversesolutions.com/
• Features: MLS, Map Search, Featured Property Slideshow

dsIDXpress

• http://www.dsidxpress.com/
• Features: WordPress Plugin, Search Engine Indexable

IDX Broker

• http://www.idxbroker.com/
• Pros: MLS, Map Search, Featured Property Slideshow, WordPress Plugin

Realty Soft

• http://www.realtysoft.com/
• Pros: MLS, Map Search

Homequest Group

• http://www.homequestgroup.com/
• Pros: MLS, Map Search, Featured Property Slideshow, WordPress Plugin, Search Engine Indexable

IDXPro

• http://www.idxpro.com/
• Pros: MLS, Map Search, Mobile Search

iHomefinder

• http://www.ihomefinder.com/
• Pros: MLS, Map Search, Featured Property Slideshow

Real Bird

• http://www.realbird.com/
• Pros: Map Search, Featured Property Slideshow

SpatialMatch

• http://www.spatialmatch.com/
• Pros: MLS, Map Search, Home Values

An IDX is crucial for any website with traffic, or combined with a Pay-Per-Click marketing strategy. This is not an exhaustive list of IDX vendors by any means, just several we have worked with. Still have questions? Leave your comments below or contact us! Follow @WorkingTheMagic on Twitter!

For some, SEO is debatable topic with varying beliefs and hat colors. A person referred to as a Black Hat uses deceptive strategies to better rankings while White Hat conforms to the search engine guidelines. Rules can be bent but ultimately black hat techniques are at risk against the evolving search engines.

What is SEO Success?

This is a trick question since SEO is an ongoing process and the evolving search engines create new opportunity and competitors.  SEO success begins when your website is generating targeted traffic and a positive return on investment in the form of sales leads, purchases, contacts, brand recognition, subscriptions, connections, etc.

The image below shows the consistency of search engine traffic specifically for PhoenixPowerSearch.com a website with near top ranking for “Phoenix real estate” and several variations of the phrase like “Phoenix Arizona real estate” and “Phoenix AZ real estate”. Last month Google, Bing, and Yahoo! sent 3,892 visitors to this website. In my opinion the value of consistent targeted traffic to a site from organic search ranking is often underestimated.

Begin with Keyword Research

A proper SEO strategy has clear keyword goals with an understanding of the content and inbound links necessary to produce the desired results. The first step is to identify keyword phrases that your target audience is typing into Google on a consistent basis. From my experience for real estate these will be “city”+”real estate” and “neighborhood”+”real estate” search phrases, “real estate” can also be exchanged for “homes for sale”.

Generally, the most common keyword phrases (aka the ones search the most) are the most competitive. Finding keywords that are localized to your market will usually have the most search traffic without being unnecessarily competitive. The two services I use the most when researching keywords are the Google Keyword Tool that reports the estimated search volume for any keyword with additional keyword suggestions, and SEMRush that also reports search volume along with Pay-Per-Click estimates, competitors, and other useful data. Use these two tools to determine the right keyword balance.

Content

Google loves unique fresh content and so will your website visitors. Using software to browse and index millions of web pages, Google examines the site title and measures keyword density to quickly analyze any page. Keyword density is the percentage of times a keyword or phrase appears on a web page compared to the total number of words on the page. Optimum keyword density is suggested to be 1 to 3 percent.

Include your desired keywords in the site title and blog posts titles, write content that supports your overall topic, and structure content with categories and tags to ensure Google has a clear idea of what keywords are relevant to your site.

For those with WordPress sites I recommend the All in One SEO Pack to edit title’s and meta tags, Google XML Sitemaps to properly index your site, and Keyword Density Checker to monitor keywords as you type.

Link Building

Quality inbound links from other sites to yours are valuable for search engine positioning. In a recent survey of over 100 search experts worldwide inbound links are agreed as the largest influence on organic search engine rank, the top 5 factors for organic search ranking are listed below (Source).

1. Keyword Focused Anchor Text from External Links
2. External Link Popularity
3. Diversity of Link Sources
4. Keyword Use Anywhere in the Title Tag
5. Trustworthiness of the Domain Based on Link Distance from Trusted Domains

Some linking will happen naturally, if you’re blogging quality content it’s natural that your visitors will share or reference your content on other sites creating links for yours. To compete on competitive terms it’s generally necessary to be more proactive with link building. Some other ways to build links to your site are…

• Social Media Links – Many times social networks like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn let you add a link to your website in the profile. While some of these social networks have “nofollow” links meaning they do not pass search engine authority there is a growing benefit both for traffic generation and ranking influence.
• Blogging – There are many benefits from blogging and one of them is link building. Blog posts can be linked between each other to boost rankings. Sites like ActiveRain that allow you to blog on them should include links back to your site. I’m a Seattle Real Estate professional.
• Comment Links – Many sites that allow comments on their posts will allow you to leave your name and website. This type of commenting for links can be considered spam if the comment isn’t of value. Your comment and link will have a better chance of being approved if the comment is thoughtful.
• Natural Links – Based on the quality of your site and the content, people will bookmark and link to your site naturally. Giving visitors ways to easily share your site with others will encourage more natural links.
• Press Releases – Press releases can be helpful for building optimized links to your site. While search engines have adapted to discount some of these mass press released this type of link building it is still used with some results.
• Reciprocal Link Exchange – Reciprocal linking between two sites can be a good way to build inbound links. This starts with first evaluating a site to determine if it is good potential link partner, then emailing the owner of the site requesting to exchange links. Software can automate requests and managing link partners for scalable reciprocal link building. I recommend Zeus or IBP for the tech savvy.

Contextual Related Posts is a WordPress plugin that will automate the healthy cross-linking between your blog posts, and it’s useful for your readers!

Lastly…

There are unique situations in SEO that require unique solutions. If you’ve followed the suggestions above and your website is not showing up in the search engines it could be that Google is having an issue indexing your pages properly. I encourage everyone with a site to register at Google Webmaster Central which can be useful to diagnose issues. Leave any questions or comments below and I’ll be happy to take a look!

Search Terms

Before starting any SEO campaign it’s important to know what your search term(s) are. The Google Keyword Tool is useful to browse potential keywords. Generally, the best keywords will be local and targeted.

Content

Google loves fresh unique content because your website visitors will like consistent useful content.  Since Google uses software to browse and index webpages we want to focus on creating good content with a certain keyword density.  Proper keyword density tells the search spiders what is the most important topic of your blog. Keyword density can be achieved by titling the blog properly and adding keywords throughout the content of the post.

Optimum keyword density ranges from 3% to 9% of the content of the blog

Inbound Links

You website should a variety of inbound links. The link text, also called the Anchor Text, is the visible click-able part of the link and should contain the search term you are going after, that is the important part! For example the link real estate web design has the anchor text “real estate web design” that matches the keyword phrase we are interested in ranking for.

Inbound links can be challenging to obtain but will be extremely important to build authority in the search engines. Blogging on another site with a link pointing back to your site is optimal, and can be useful for generating additional traffic. For real estate agents ActiveRain is a useful source to add content with a link back to your own site, as are other social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Blog comments, link exchanges, and article submission sites can be other useful ways to build inbound links as will writing quality content as others share your content around the web.

Ultimately the competitiveness of the search phrase will determine the needed mix of content and links to achieve top ranking.

First, how much of a computer do I need?  If you are gaming, streaming videos, creating videos, or anything graphic intensive then a computer with an upgraded video (graphics) card will be important.  If the main purpose of your computer will be to check emails or use business applications like MS Office then an integrated video card will work just fine.  The difference is that integrated video is cheaper than a video card and most lower end laptops come with integrated video.

CPU

CPU is a good start for finding a computer that will work for you.  Single core, dual core, or quad core, what does that mean?  The more cores the processor has, theoretically, the faster it can process  whatever application you are running.  You will see CPU name like Intel Core  i7 IR or AMD Phenom II that I find that fairly meaningless.  The specs to look for are…

• Front Side Bus (FSB) – this is how fast the CPU can move the info in and out of CPU to process it.  Usually listed in MHz or megahertz.  The bigger the number the better.  I have a Phenom II CPU with 3600 MHz front side bus.  It is pretty fast for current standards.  This is important when comparing CPU’s, laptops, or computers that are close in price.
• How many GHz are each processor.   This is where they want to list Intel Quad core IR, rather than giving you the details that matter.  Think about this, a dual core with 3.4 GHz processors will have a combined 6.8 GHZ.  2 X 3.4 GHz = 6.8 GHz.  A quad core with 1 GHZ will have 4 GHz combined.  4 X 1 GHz = 4 GHz.  Dual core will be a better buy, faster CPU’s.   It will always be easier to compare dual cores with dual cores and the same with quad cores.

Note: You will get more CPU for the buck if you stick with AMD.  You are buying the name with Intel.  Some will say that Intel will work better than AMD.  If you are running high end video games, marginally Intel will be better, but for most peoples needs, it will make no difference.

RAM

If you looking to add more RAM to your existing computer the mother board will determine how big and what type of RAM you can put in it.  Even if you buy the wrong RAM, worst case scenario is that it will not fit or if it does fit and your mother board was not built for it you may hear a beep when you try to boot up and nothing will show up on your screen, no harm in trying. A few tips when purchasing RAM are…

• Understand how large the RAM is measured in GB (Gigabytes) and what type it is. For size the larger is better, 4 GB can store more memory than 2 GB. For types of RAM you will see DDR2, DDR3, and so on.
• DDR3 will usually be faster than DDR2, but what they are not telling you is what the front side bus is for the RAM.  Front side bus is measured in MHz.  Front side bus speeds will generally be listed as DDR3 1333 which tells us the front side bus speed is 1333 MHz.  This number can be confused with the series number of the RAM like PC3 10666.  The larger the better for both specs.  The larger the FSB the better and same with the series.  EX: PC3 10666 could have a 1333 MHz FSB.  Series number will never have a MHz after the number.
• Latency,  the lower the number the better.

Note:  Not all RAM are created equal, even if they have the same specs.  If you find RAM at a really good price, then that may mean it is a lower quality RAM which will affect performance.  Look at latency numbers when in doubt.

Video Card (Graphics Card)

There are two main chip makers, Nvidia and Radeon, even though there are many manufacturers of video cards.  How much RAM is on the card will compare the same but the stream processors bench marks are measured differently from one another and cannot be compared straight across. Tips for purchasing videos cards are…

• How big?  A 512 MG (Megabyte) to 1 GB (Gigabyte) video card will be plenty for most people.
• Video cards have their own RAM.  You will see DDR2, DDR3, and so on.  Same rules apply as RAM above.
• Core clock (MHz) will determine how fast the video card processes info. and the bigger the better.
• Stream processors can be assumed that the more the better.  Nvidia and Radeon measure their stream processors different.  Radeon may have more stream processors than Nvidia for the same price, you cannot compare them that way.  Use it to compare Nvidia to another Nvidia chipset and so on.
• PCI Express 2.0 X 16 is faster than PCI, and PCI Express 1.0

Note: There are other specs you can look for aside from the main features mentioned here. Some of the other specs are not standardized from manufacturer to manufacturer making them hard to compare.

Hard Drive

Hard drives will vary in size, RPM (rotations per minute), transfer rate, and seek time. Here are a few tips to compare your purchase…

• Hard drive size is easy to compare, usually measured in GB (Gigabytes) and now TB (TeraBytes). There are 1,000 GB’s in 1 TB.
• RPM (rotation per minute),  faster the better.   The average for desktop is 7200 RPM.  Laptops, if they do not specify or a lower end laptop, expect 5400 RPM.
• Interface or transfer rate will be listed as GB/s (Gigabytes per second) , bigger the better.
• Average seek time in milliseconds.  Lower the better.  This is how long will it take to find the info on the hard drive.

Note: Most websites do not want to list the RPM or seek time.  Lower and medium models will just list how much it can store to make the computer look better. Ex: 300 GB hard drive, but they do not tell you it is a 5400 RPM hard drive which is on the low end.

If the website or store that you are wanting to buy your computer from does not list out the specs, than ask or go to a different website or store.  Lower end computers will have yesterday’s technology.

What to watch out for: The common tricks is to list a fast processor, but it will have DDR2 RAM and slow hard drive.  They will list 4GB’s RAM, but it is slower RAM like DDR2 or lower.  300 GB hard drive, but its 5400 RPM slow hard drive.  Lower end models will more than likely have integrated video which shares the RAM with the video and the CPU.  Video cards have their own RAM.  Cheap laptops and desktops are cheap for a reason, know what you are buying.  If it is too good to be true, it probably is.  They will always sell it for a profit.

I hope this helps you out.  A computer that does the job CAN cost less than $500. Please leave your questions or comments below!

Google has a huge advantage in the search market, but by how much?

That inspired me to dig into the stats for a quick comparison. With the help of Google Analytics I reviewed the traffic sources of SeattlePowerSearch.com a site on our WTM network that ranks #1 organically for “Seattle real estate” in Google, Bing, and Yahoo!.

Combined for September, the top three search engines sent a total of 3,118 visitors to the site from the phrase “Seattle real estate”. Google referred the most traffic, Bing a distant second, and Yahoo! third, the analytics broken down respectively are below.

Google Traffic – 88%

Bing Traffic – 6.8%

Yahoo Traffic – 5.4%

It’s clear that Google drives the lions share of search traffic for this term. The good news is, from our experience optimization is similar across the various search engines meaning that the best strategy is to focus on Google and positive results in Bing, Yahoo!, and others will follow.

Please leave any questions or comments below!

1. Solid IDX Solution – IDX stands for Internet Data Exchange and is a property search site which allows the public to search the MLS. For every client I have worked with their IDX platform is their #1 lead generating resource. There are quite a few IDX options out there and not every product is available in every city so finding the right solution for the right price may take some time. What I look for besides availability and price is a usable intuitive map search and the ability to integrate the product seemlessly into a site. Back-end options for client management and customizing the look and feel will also vary from platform to platform. Here are a few platforms to explore:

• Woflnet (Top)
• Diverse Solutions (Bottom)
• HomeQuest Group
• RealBird
• iHomeFinder
• RealPageMaker
• IDX Central
• IDX Broker

2. Property Request Forms – Not every visitor has the time or desire to browse all the listings and search the map. Some people just want to tell you what they want and have you get back to them with the details; property request forms are great for this. You, or your web guy/gal, should create a simple website form asking for their desired type of property, time frame for purchasing and current state in the buying process along with contact information. Put some links on your site to this “Property Request Form”. You know what types of property area desirable in your area, create multiple similar forms for “Waterfront Property Request Form”, “Condo Request Form”, “Commercial Request Form”, etc.

3. Visible Phone Number and Email on Every Page – This is self-explanatory but I am always surprised when I have to click around to find contact information for an agent on their website. Don’t make it hard for your visitors to contact you. I’m not saying to put your photo on every page, but a phone number and email should be easy to find.

4. Contact Form’s’ - There should be some sort of lead capture on every page. On your content pages make it easy for visitors to get in touch with you about questions or comments. Contact forms (short ones asking for only a name, email, phone and question/comment) can easily be added to your side navigation or at the end of articles.

5. Relocation Packets and Baited Content - Relocation packets, neighborhood resources, in-depth school reports, and useful area information like maps and tourist information area great offers to entice visitors to fill out a contact form.

6. Available Online Agent – We’ve experimented with this in the past with mixed results but it is another avenue to explore. A Google search for “live chat software” brings up a mix of different options that allow your visitors to engage in a live chat or click to call features directly from your site.

7. Newsletter Email Capture – If you are an expert in your area on something it may make sense to begin building your email list for a weekly/monthly newsletter. This can be a great way to reconnect with past visitors and bring them back to your site month after month which can be helpful to increase your site traffic and search rankings. If you are blogging already, the blog posts you are already writing make a good base for your newsletter without the need for much additional content.

8. Social Media Subscriptions - Some visitors to your site may just be browsing content and not in the stage to become a solid lead yet. Give these visitors a way to view your social profiles: Facebook, Twitter, ActiveRain, etc and potentially befriend you, follow you or interact on those platforms. Social networks provide a great opportunity to stay connected to and interact with visitors over time.

The balance that needs to be implemented in any search engine marketing plan is that of quality AND quantity. Dominating an online market involves a strategy of achieving top search engine placement for all relevant search terms and driving lots of targeted visitors who will ultimately convert into quality leads. So how do we accomplish this?

The Problem With Targeting Short Tail Keywords

The search phrase “Real Estate” is entered into Google 45,500,000 times/month and is highly competitive. For an example let’s think about this from the perspective of a someone looking to dominate the Seattle Washington market. Only a fraction of those 45,500,000 searches for “Real Estate” would find a Seattle real estate related website useful.

Would a Seattle website ranking at the top of this search term generate leads? Sure! But with such a general “Real Estate” term some of these leads may be looking at Seattle, Denver, Miami or other cities. The extra effort targeting such a generic search term would have been better used targeting other highly search Seattle related terms.

The Problem With Targeting Long Tail Keywords

Long tail keywords by definition are very specific search phrases with low competition. An example of a long tail keyword is “Queen Anne 2 Bedroom Home For Sale” (Note: Queen Anne is a popular view neighborhood in Seattle, WA) and ranking well for this phrase is relatively easy.

Unfortunately, taking a quick glance at the search volume for “Queen Anne 2 Bedroom Home For Sale” using the Google Keyword Tool there is “Not Enough Data” to report the search volume meaning this phrase is hardly searched. Despite the fact that very specific search phrases enjoy higher conversion rates into leads, even #1 ranking for this term will generate little business. So, how do we capture many of these long tails and optimize and rank for high volume related search phrases?

Finding The Balance – Quality AND Quantity

Initially keyword research and then a long-term strategy, balancing what will produce the quantity and quality of search results, are invaluable in dominating a local market. Accomplishing this takes a two-fold approach.

1. BUILD AUTHORITY FOR THE MID TAIL:
First this involves selecting a ‘mid tail’ keyword phrase, something that is highly search and relevant to the website. Based on these factors for the Seattle market the keyword phrase “Seattle Real Estate” fits wells with 8,100 searches/month, enough volume to support lots of lead generation if ranked well and the visitors will be specific enough that they will convert at a decent percentage. Optimize the main page of the website for this keyword phrase by building links and Google authority.

(Disclosure: Working The Magic manages the #1 ranked website for “Seattle Real Estate” in Google with 10,000 visitors/month that converts roughly 5% of all visitors into leads)

2. CREATE CONTENT FOR THE LONG TAIL:
Once authority is built into the website, the second part of balancing quality and quantity is to then generate content for the long tail. This involves blogging, neighborhood and community information and additional commentary on the website. Using the long tail example from above it would make sense to add content to a Seattle website about Queen Anne 2 bedroom homes that would likely rank well for that search term. The additional content will add relevancy to the website as a whole and those pages will show up in results for all types of long tail keywords.

The biggest problem I see day-to-day are websites owners with little to no control of their websites.

This has happened for a couple reasons.

• Template websites are priced right and consumers don’t necessarily know what they are buying. I’m not going to say every template website is bad, only the ones that restrict access to the website so much that even small changes are an added charge, a week delay, or impossible. For me as an owner of multiple websites myself, that is unacceptable. If there is one thing I have learned it is that Speed of Implementation is essential to success and survival in a changing Internet world.
• Many web design companies have built a subscription based service into their revenue model. The client pays the monthly and the company evolves the platform. This can work if the design company is as enthused about change and the future as the client and they consistently evolve their services. The problem here comes when the company stops evolving and the site grows outdated while the client is stuck paying monthly. Now if the client wants to move away from the companies services (and monthly payment) their website is so entrenched, and possibly under design ownership rights of the company, that to really get away involves the client paying someone to build an entirely new site to making the switch.

TIP: Find a company that gives you FTP access to your website. It’s your own website and you deserve to have control. If a company insists that they can’t let you have FTP access, there are plenty of other companies that will.

An evolution of design and control

With new open source publishing platforms like WordPress designers can now offer clients a customized website built on a framework that allows for complete ownership and control. No more monthly maintenance fees. Open source means that community based collaboration has developed and will continue to evolve the platform, at no cost. As the web evolves, search engines evolve and design evolves the community as a whole participates in the growth for the benefit of everyone.

Here are a few examples of sites we’ve built on WordPress:

• SeattlePowerSearch.com – #1 on Google for Seattle Real Estate
• PhoenixPowerSearch.com – #3 on Google for Phoenix Real Estate
• MalloyVillage.net
• YourIndyHouses.com
• OrlandoBuyers.com

To make some sense of this the average cost per visit for the keyword “Seattle real estate” is $5.03 or an amazing $100 for 20 visits. Wow, seems expensive to me but if a website is converting visitors into leads and closings at a rate that produces a positive return on investment, even though that site is probably not maximizing profit, it can make sense especially if work is being done to improve organic rankings in the interim.

Thinking about it, here are a few reasons PPC is appealing…

1. Immediate results. Start a PPC campaign right now and you can be sending visitors to your site for a specific search term by the end of the day.
2. Easy to calculate return on investment. At the end of the day marketers and site owners want to be able to crunch the numbers and report their return on investment. I can understand this and believe this is the biggest reason there is such a large disconnect between PPC vs. search engine optimization (SEO) spending despite the real opportunity that “SEO drives 75%+ of all search traffic, yet garners less than 15% of marketing budgets for SEM campaigns. PPC receives less than 25% of all search traffic, yet earns 80%+ of SEM campaign budgets”. What effective marketers need to do is weigh the daily ROI decisions against the yearly and long term ROI to make a clear decision. If it is any indicator, the #1 organically ranked website for “Seattle real estate” has traffic valued at $37,400/month.
3. Keyword testing for SEO. PPC allows sites to bid and drive traffic for specific keywords and then analyze the conversion rates based of those keywords. Keyword testing is useful to examine if “Seattle real estate” or “Seattle homes for sale” converts visitors into leads and at what percentage. This can be useful to give direction as to how the best use of resources for managing an SEO campaign can be spent.

And the downside of PPC…

1. Lower conversion rates. The overall conversion rate or the rate at which searchers take a desired action on a site is higher for unpaid search results than the rate for paid (4.2% vs. 3.6%). On Google, 72.3 percent of users surveyed felt that organic results were more relevant, while only 27.7 percent rated paid results as more relevant.
2. Not as many visits for a given keyword. 30 percent of search engine users click on paid listings, leaving 70 percent who are clicking the organic listings or refining their search.
3. Infinite investment required. Immediate results are a double edged sword, site traffic stops just as abruptly as it starts. There is a constant infusion of PPC spend needed to maintain traffic levels.

I specialize in finding the very best online marketing strategy for real estate professionals and am very interested in hearing your success and struggles for the benefit of everyone, please share! Until next time.