Real Estate Forums

SEOWolf · 03-01-2008, 05:55 PM

Jim - I don’t think I would move any blogs and I am not sure I would make a new blog on a sub-domain. I see successful real estate blogs as sub-directories. This type seems to work well for building content and linking to interior pages. You just need to stay on topic. You can do all of your rants on your other blogs.

So you are asking what topic? With as many cities and townships you are shooting to rank in I think would make the blog “New Jersey Real Estate” themed.

Castlelady – Like I said earlier in the thread, you only get so much credit from repetitive links from the same domain. If you stay on topic you are building themed content for your site if your blog is within your site.

Additionally if you write good and interesting blog post people will link to you. So would you prefer a link to yourrealestatedomain(dot)com/blogpost.html or
yourblogdomain(dot)com/blogpost.html?

The only reason to have a blog in a sub-domain is should you stray of topic (theme) your site rankings won’t be affected. I have seen it work both ways.

Like I answered you in another PREN thread, Wordpress is hands down the best. I still think you should try blogging before making any investment. If you do decide to use it Wordpress is free. If you like blogging just pay a designer to “skin” you blog and you loose nothing.

It’s like test driving a Hummer for a few months before you buy. You will either love it or hate it.

~Mack

Jim B · 03-01-2008, 06:07 PM

Castlelady

I have heard big numbers for what they want to charge for their setup. Honestly I am not that impressed. I mean do you really think it is any better than this one, Internet Marketing Speaker and SEO Speaker in Denver which is a wordpress blog with a custom skin on it. I am sure you could get the designer of this to do it for you for a better price than you have talked about.

Jim

Jim B · 03-01-2008, 06:14 PM

Mack,

I believe the new blog will be titled:

Summit Chatham Madison Morristown
New Jersey Real Estate

And for the most part I will stay on topic for these 4 towns. I assume it is much easier to gain page rank, and a loud horn buy using this approach.

My goal here is to be able to grab 2 possitions of the first page of many google searches involving these towns with this new blog, and grab 1 or 2 more with my site. Possibly dominate the top several possitions. I know that is ambitious but that is the goal.

castlelady · 03-02-2008, 04:02 AM

Thanks for the clarification. So with Wordpress, it sounds like you can use it as is and then have someone make it look pretty later - if I decided I liked it and wanted to continue with it?

Since you are also talking about naming the blog here - is it better to make the title include a city name? I had a catchy idea that doesn't include the city name - but would be very cute and memorable. That's more my style.

Jim B · 03-02-2008, 10:11 AM

Mack and others may correct me on this but titles are important for SEO so you I would title it such that it reflects what your intended audience will be searching for.

SEOWolf · 03-06-2008, 12:27 PM

Yes Jim, "cute and memorable" is great but you really need your city and other key words in your Blog title IMHO.

They can't remeber "cute and memorable" if they never find it in the SERPS.

~Mack

HHI Golf Guy · 03-06-2008, 01:45 PM

I thought that I would chime in with my two cents on a few things:

If you keep your blog on topic with the main theme of your site (i.e. city name and city name+real estate) then go ahead and keep it on your domain. If your real estate posts are generic real estate posts or you like to make a lot of posts that are off topic from your central theme then go ahead and put your blog on another domain or sub domain. Just remember, though - you will need to build credible links to that sub domain or other domain to build credibility on those blogs.

The next topic I want to touch on is how do you know when a site is a good site to receive links from? Too many people think you can tell a good site by looking at the Google toolbar. Let me tell you why that is wrong.

First and foremost, toolbar PR means absolutely nothing as far as GOOD SEO is concerned. Don't believe me? Look how many people chase links with high toolbar PR and still have sites that don't rank well at all. "nuff said.

Second, Google rarely updates toolbar PR. That green bar in the toolbar represents the TPR of the site whenever the heck Google last updated. And that data is usually somewhat outdated as well. The toolbar PR6 you see in your browser today may be a PR1 the next time Google updates TPR.

So, what makes up a good site to get links from? You should base your decision on the following:

1. Is the site (or section of the site) relevant to your site?
2. Do you enjoy reading the information on that site?
3. If your own web site demographic happened upon that site would they enjoy reading the information on that site?

Personally, I add two other bits of criteria:

1. Is it a nice looking web site? Let's face it, if a site looks crappy most people won't stay on it that long. The site does not have to wow me, it just needs to have a professional presentation. One more thing about professional presentation - it is more than likely that a professional looking web site has some sort of marketing plan behind it. That means web traffic is flowing to the site, even if it's a new site and not ranked well.

2. Is the site easy to navigate and easy for people to find information? I hate sites that are hard to navigate and hard to find specific info.

That's all there is to it. Look for relative sites with quality information and presentation. While they may not have a ton of link juice today, like your own site they are building for a brighter future. And if you can supply some quality content for their web site you can help them meet their goals, and in turn help your site today and down the road.

castlelady · 03-06-2008, 02:11 PM

So I am assuming you re referring to one way links rather than exchanging a link.

These days - it seems like most one way links are not free. So would you use this same criteria to determine if a link is worth paying for?

HHI Golf Guy · 03-06-2008, 02:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by castlelady

So I am assuming you re referring to one way links rather than exchanging a link.

These days - it seems like most one way links are not free. So would you use this same criteria to determine if a link is worth paying for?

You should buy links only if they will bring potential buyer client traffic to your site (i.e. a banner on Realtor.com or your local newspaper web site).

Buying links for SEO purposes is a waste of money.

There are plenty of great sites out there that will give you links, but you need to do somethig for them in return. Sometimes that's submitting articles. Or you could ask to be a featured columnist on real estate where users could submit questions that you would answer.

The caveat to this is that you have to look long and hard to find these links. I would say that for every 100 or so site I lok at I find one or two woth getting links from.

SEOWolf · 03-06-2008, 05:45 PM

And buying links will put you on a fast track for being penalized or banned outright by Google castlelady.

If you write good enough articles on your Blog webmasters and site owners will link to you with out even asking. Remember, if properly set up your blog posts can be distributed and will automatically let Search Engines and blog resources know that you wrote a new article.

You will also get comments on well written thought provoking blogs that adds to your content and credibility. If you join the “dofollow” comment movement more visitors will choose to post a comment do to the fact they get a one-way link in return.

DO NOT put all of your eggs into any SEO basket. The only thing that remains the same with SEO is that “things change”. What works today does not tomorrow. HHI Golf Guy and Greg Boser have expressed concerns about comment spam. Comment spam will in all likelihood cause the value of incoming links to be devalued. Although my clients moderate their blog comments and accept only good ones not everyone does.

So write your heart out on your own blog or articles for other blogs. Become a link magnet instead of a link chaser. In Greg Boser’s latest blog post he stated;

Quote:

In the end, the question you really need to ask yourself is where do you want to be down the road? Someone who operates a site where link building consists of pressing the publish button, or someone who has to constantly be asking for a helping hand?

HHI Golf Guy also gave you some great advice IMHO.

~Mack