Silk Shorts, Inc. Search Optimization for Real Estate Agents

Pay per Click and Search Engine Optimization, Placement and Marketing

What are Silk Shorts, Inc's qualifications?
What are Silk Shorts, Inc's objectives for clients?
What is the 'Formula for Success in website placement' in search engine marketing?
What about links from optimized sites ?
All about 'Pay per Click' in placement
What does PPC cost?
What does search engine optimization cost?
How do we get started with Silk Shorts, Inc. to improve or upgrade our Internet marketing?

General Information

According to the 2007 National Association of REALTORS® Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, 84% of all homebuyers used the Internet as an information source.

An overwhelming majority (87%) of recent home buyers in the US say they used the internet as an information resource during their home-buying process, and nearly one-third say they first learned about their newly purchased home from an online channel, according to a study from the National Association of Realtors (NAR).

This does not mean that all of this 87% used single agent web sites.  More than half used high profile, highly advertised sites created to collect prospect leads for resale to agents and brokers.  Since there are hundreds of times more agent sites than these highly advertised sites it is difficult for a single agent with a limited budget to compete for natural position on major search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN for popular search phrases.

The most used phrases are the ones most difficult to compete for.  For instance. "real estate" at 700,000,000 sites competing for the top 10 to 20 positions on Google.  or  a metropolitan area like "Sacramento real estate" with over 550,000 sites competing.

Medium size sites will usually be able to get some search positions on these latter phrases because they are medium sized, highly advertised and have traffic to them brought in by hundreds of agents working for them.

Single agent websites and small brokerages generally are out of the picture for phrases that have a lot of traffic.  Some spend thousands of dollars chasing the idea that they can 'optimize' their site to compete for these top phrases.  Doing so can be very expensive and unproductive.

Twice as many buyers say their top information source when researching a new sale is the Internet than say print media

There are thousands of directories and search engines. However only a small percentage actually are worth while for real estate agents and brokers.  Most of them exist just to collect a fee each month or year.  Sometimes for as little as $30 per year and sometimes as much as $500 per year or even $200 per month.

What are Silk Shorts, Inc's qualifications?

The founding partners have 40 years of real estate experience as agents, brokers and relocation specialists in California, Nevada and Texas.  They ceased being active in 1996 when they founded Silk Shorts, Inc in order not to compete with their website clients.

From 1996 to the present Silk Shorts, Inc's business has been solely the design, creation and maintenance of custom real estate sites for agents and small brokerages using their web sites for Internet marketing of real estate.

As the result of this background Silk Shorts, Inc has an in-depth understanding of the needs of its clients and an in-depth understanding of the needs of its clients' customers and clients, and an in-depth understanding of the mechanics and methods of obtaining prospects from the Internet using personal or company websites in conjunction with search engines, directories and 'Pay per Click' advertising.

For example: On Google, the "800 pound gorilla" of search engines, a search for "real estate web design", out of 953,000 sites, www.silkshorts.com is the 7th in the "natural" search results (non-paid results).  (this may vary from week to week)

What are Silk Shorts, Inc's objectives for its real estate clients?

Simply put: To get MORE than the client's fair share of Internet prospective buyers and sellers.

To "beat out" the competition.

To increase ROI of client advertising dollars by improving site placement and optimization.

To let the client spend their time in front of prospects, not in front of a computer.

How long does it take to increase targeted traffic to the site?

Using several techniques it can be in as little as two days.  Usually there are changes that should be made before starting this traffic, however.

What Changes?

This varies with the site, but just as you wouldn't spend money on advertising a new store before the store was stocked with merchandise and ready for traffic, you wouldn't want to spend money to get traffic when the website is not ready to take advantage of it. Silk Shorts, Inc has a "formula for success" that guides our recommendations to clients.

What does Silk Shorts, Inc believe is the "formula for success" in getting "more than your fair share" of real estate leads with your website?

First refine: 

• Emailing past clients and prospects
• Newspaper ads, media ads (if they've been working for you)
• Yard signs if you are a listing agent
• Open houses
• Internet search position

Second upgrade the visible website. (What people see):

• It must be "Friendly" and have "all the information a buyer/seller would want".  We don't want them deciding to check out the next site on their list (and they do have a list).
• It should be unique in appearance and reflect the quality of your service, much as the a lawyer's or doctor's office reflects success and efficiency.
• It should not attempt to be an entertainment center with myriad movies, animations and "gee whiz" graphics. 
• It should suggest the type of client you are most comfortable with.  (First time buyer, High end residential, Commercial, Income, etc).  All of these can have major design differences. 
• It should focus on your most important services and not try to appeal to everyone.
• It should not have links that take a visitor away from the site.  This squanders your prospects and passes them off to someone else.  They won't come back once they leave.  (Not reliably, anyway)
• It should have ubiquitous "Calls to Action" so that when a visitor/prospect has a question they can contact you 24/7 by phone, interactive form, email or texting.

Once this visible aspect of the website fulfills the above requirements we can begin the flow of targeted website visitors.

How long to get to this point and how much?

That's like asking "How much does it cost to upgrade a house?"  Adding a paint job may quick and easy, where adding a room might take more time and investment.

We always do a survey first and provide a prospective client with options, costs and estimates before asking them to commit.

What is this about "visible website" and "invisible website"?

A site that is ideal to human visitors may be virtually invisible or incomprehensible to search engine "robots" (the programs that visit your site and gather information for their indexed databases) 

Search engine robots don't see and don't care about:

• Pictures
• Movies
• Sound bytes
• Text in graphics (like fancy drop shadow slogans)
• Javascripts that are used in fancy navigation, pop-ups, and animations)
• Formatting code that is not standards compliant or that is superfluous.  This can stop a robot cold causing them to go away without indexing the most important parts of the page

Search engine robots do see and evaluate:

• Text that is relevant to the site and to the search phrases you want indexed.
• Meta Tags
• Title tags--very important (What you see as a title when you use a search engine and get a list of links)
• Description Tags.  (Not important to the robot, but important to a searcher as this is what describes the link to the site and causes a searcher to choose your link over the ones above and below you)
• Keyword Tags.  (These are seldom used by search engines and are a carry-over from years ago, however, they traditionally contain the keywords you are interested in having indexed well)
• robots.txt file (this is a text file that robots use, if it is present, to guide them to the pages you want indexed.  it also tells them which pages you do not want indexed.)  Since it saves the robot's time, a well designed robots.txt file will result in more pages being more thoroughly indexed.
• XML sitemap file.  This is a special file that a knowledgeable webmaster submits to search engines that suggests to them which pages are most important and how often to crawl them for changing content.
• Incoming links.  These are links from other sites directing browsers to the site.  Incoming links are very important to the site's strength and competitive position

What are the sources of incoming links, and how do you get them?

Directories

• These can be paid or free.  There are thousands of directories that offer you free registration that are doing so only to induce you to visit the site to build up their own traffic so they can get fees from advertisers.  Others simply use this strategy to collect "Opt-in" email addresses to sell or rent to advertisers so they can solicit you by email without violating the anti-spam laws.  The trick is to know which directories are a positive influence and which are not.  Search engines know the difference and too many bad directory links will actually reduce the relevance of the site.

Vendors

Exchanging links with vendors helps.  Be careful of sending visitors to another site, however unless you feel that you will get an equal return.  Links do not have to be prominent to be positive in effect.

Links from other similar businesses

You would not normally choose your competitors for this, but links from similar businesses in other geographical areas or with different focus can be very beneficial.  If you agree to add a link on this basis be sure to check that the link is returned

Internal links

Search Engines consider incoming links going to your secondary pages as more important that to the home page.  This is because these internal links suggest that the link is due to some important, relevant information and not just a casual reciprocal link.  Likewise incoming links that do not have reciprocal outgoing links are much more valuable.

Be wary of dilution.  This is a common problem that detracts from the strength and relevance of the site

Many sites have multiple domain names piggybacked on them.  This is usually done for advertising reasons but if not done correctly can seriously reduce a site's competitive strength on the search engines.

For instance:  It would not be unusual for a real estate site to use several domain names like

• FIRSTDOMAINNAME.COM,
• WWW.FIRSTDOMAINNAME.COM,
• FOOTHILLSDOMAINNAME.COM,
• WWW.FOOTHILLSDOMAINNAME.COM

To the search engines each of these is considered a separate domain and therefore any "strength" attributed to a link or to a visit directed at one of these  is considered separately.  If each of these domains had a theoretical strength of 10 then the site overall would only have a strength of 10 instead of 40.

It is possible through correct coding to have your multiple domain name scheme and still get full credit. When we build links we take this effect into account.

Age of website

For the first 4 to six months of a website's presence on the Internet it has virtually no strength.  The search engines want to know that you're here to stay before presenting you to their users.  The site may be in the index but will not show on most searches.

If you have had a website that has been on the Internet with relevant content for a long time, it would be a mistake to use a different domain name as your primary domain if you upgrade your site.  A new domain name would restart this clock called "being in the sandbox"--an allusion to a child playing.

What is "Pay Per Click"?

It is a method of advertising where you can target your prospects very precisely and pay only for visits from prospects whom you have targeted.

You achieve this by bidding for position on a search engine against other advertisers interested in the same thing.

Google has a PPC program called "Adwords".

Yahoo has one called "Sponsored Search".

When someone clicks on your ad on either one, you pay for that "click".

What do you pay for these "Clicks"?

You start by bidding for positions and by creating ads to appear on the search results pages on which you have a paid position.

The amount that each click costs you is determined by your bid, and how successful your ads are.  For instance if you enter a search in Google for "La Jolla real estate" you will see a page consisting of "organic links" with "sponsored links" at the top and along the right side.  If you click on one of the organic links there is no charge to anybody for the link, but if you click on one of the sponsored ads, the advertiser will be charged a fee based on their bid.  "La Jolla real estate" might cost a good deal more than "Tracy real estate" because the value to advertisers of a prospect for La Jolla real estate is a good deal more than one for Tracy real estate.  The point is you control the bid, the amount you spend each day and each month.  Once a campaign is set up, you can turn the flow of leads on and off very easily so you can match your need.

How do you know what to bid?

We have access to tools that will estimate what you should bid for the search phrase and position you want.  After a few days of observing you will have a very good idea of where your money should go.

We also have tools to track results very closely so that over a period of time each campaign can be "tweaked" until it is producing a maximum return on investment (ROI).

How many clicks do you need to get a prospect

That depends on how effective your ads are, how well targeted your search phrases are, and how well your website is set up to "capture" visitors to your site.

A poorly designed campaign may not see a prospect in 200 clicks.  A good one might be more like 5% to 10% of clicks.

It is critically important to have a well designed website and a well designed campaign to avoid wasting advertising dollars.

What is the advantage to having Silk Shorts, Inc. set up and manage my PPC campaign?

It makes no sense to do it yourself if your time is more valuable talking to prospects rather than learning the intricacies of setting up a PPC campaign.

You can have Google set it up for you for a fee, but that's like asking the seller of a house what you should pay to buy the house.  Silk Shorts, Inc. is like an exclusive buyer broker working for you when buying a home.  Your success is our goal and obligation. We represent you, not the advertiser.

We charge a fee for this service consisting of a setup fee and, if you wish us to maintain it on an ongoing basis, a monthly charge.  After the campaign is set up it is often possible for one of your staff to maintain it.  We train them if you wish.

What is the downside?

The same as with any advertising campaign that produces calls.  If the calls or leads are not handled correctly, you lose them.  We help with your setting up a good follow up program to manage the leads.

If your site is not set up to capture the prospects that visit your site then, also, the money is wasted.

To see that that doesn't happen we tell you up front what is needed to make your site mesh with a PPC campaign and we can design "landing" pages for your site specifically designed to aid in capturing these leads.

What is the upside?

A consistent flow of targeted traffic and leads that you control.

A predictable advertising cost that can be adjusted at any time. 

You only pay for successful ads.  If your ads are not effective there are no clicks and no charges.

You can almost immediately match or exceed your immediate competitors' advertising success. (Especially with Silk Shorts, Inc's management)

Summary for PPC

1. You define your target market.
2. You determine what you will pay.
3. You determine how few or how many leads you need.
4. You determine the value of your campaign.
5. You have access to the metrics to evaluate your success.
6. You can constantly improve performance
7. You can start a flow of leads almost instantly while working on Search Engine Placement to take over in the future.

How do we get started?

It starts with a telephone interview with our PPC specialist to see if working together is a fit.

Then we learn as much as possible about how you do business, what are the characteristics of how you handle leads, what are your specialties and your advertising budget.

We survey your site and if necessary make suggestions on what should be done to make it more efficient at lead capture, especially with a PPC campaign.

We then submit a quote to you based on what you would like us to accomplish.  If you agree, and we agree, we send you a contract.

When the paperwork is complete, we go to work.

At any time you change your mind about working with us you can cancel.  There will be a charge for services rendered to that point, but any unearned funds will be returned. 

If there is a campaign running at the time you cancel it will be your choice whether to continue on your own or to pause or cancel it.