Real Estate Forums

renoir · 06-28-2005, 04:37 PM

MSN seems to have done their homework and hired good engineers - The results are often comprable to Yahoo, although there is still much more spam in the SERP's than Google.

San Diego Real Estate · 06-29-2005, 05:05 PM

MSN...has been going through a lot of changes especially lately!

SEOWolf · 06-30-2005, 08:43 AM

That’s right Al.

It’s difficult to determine rather I am impressed or not with these constant changes.

I think I will reserve judgment until they settle down.

~VegasMack

SEOWolf · 07-01-2005, 08:57 AM

Well it looks as though MSN has finally settled down and I am NOT impressed with the SERPS thus far.

On a quick check of the keyword phrase “Las Vegas real estate” I find the following:

#1 - www.realestate-vegas.com – A Mirrored site that is running database generated links with redirects. This site has been reported by several webmasters and MSN seems unwilling, or unable to filter it out. Can you say SPAM!!

#2 - www.las-vegas-real-estate.info - 11,479 Back links – Mainly purchased links – While this site has a PR7 in Google, the page has no cache (usually an indication it has been banned). Not in the Top 200 for Google.

#3 - www.lasvegasnewspapers.com/realestate - A Newspaper. While articles on real estate are important, MSN and others should realize that surfers search for real estate listings and that if they wanted news paper articles they would search for “Las Vegas real estate articles”.

At first glance, MSN has really dropped the ball with this new algorithm.

The algo has obvious filters for any search term “city+ real estate”. Other terms like “city+ homes” or “city+ condos” returns much more relevant results IMHO.

What started to appear as a run for the Top search engine spot at the beginning of the year has taken a disappointing turn down the wrong lane.

I will check other markets and report my findings here.

~VegasMack

Vegas Agent · 07-02-2005, 02:36 AM

Mack - you are SO right about the site currently in number one position! (By the way - are you sure you want to give them that backlink?!!!) Besides being a mirrored site, they have pure spam doorway pages galore and also plenty of copyright infringement! The following was taken verbatim from an article I wrote for www.realestateabc.com and also appears on my site. I have tried many times to get this taken off to no avail! Any suggestions?

Quote:

Negotiating the Real Estate Contract
How to Buy at the Lowest Possible Price!

You’ve been out house hunting for weeks and you’ve done all your research and now you want to put in an offer to purchase the home of your dreams. So how much do you offer the seller?!! And is it really how much you offer or how you offer it?

Reasonable Market Price

Before doing anything else you need to know what a reasonable market price is for the home you hope to buy. Have your real estate agent run a Comparable Market Analysis for you on similar homes that have sold in the last year in your target neighborhood. Although an appraiser will only use the last six months of comparable sales when figuring appraisal value, it is helpful to have a more overall trend for the neighborhood to determine that prices are rising and that your investment will be protected in the long run.

To arrive at a reasonable market price you and your agent will be comparing the condition, location and amenities of similar homes that have already sold plus the current market competition of other homes for sale in the area.

Your Price

Then you must figure out what YOU are willing to pay for this home. If you are willing to pay market value or more for this home because you don’t want to risk losing it, please let your agent know up front! Most good agents will try and negotiate a below market sales price for you because they want to please you and retain you as a future client. But only you can determine how you might feel if you lost this home to another buyer for a few thousand dollars!!! If you want a deal be sure to tell your agent that, but if you want only this home, tell your agent that too! His negotiating tactics will depend heavily on this information.

SEOWolf · 07-02-2005, 10:50 AM

Hi Diann,

Yes this site has been the subject of many complaints in more than one forum, and although I hate giving them a back link, I am hoping that MSN will get finally get the picture.

I really wish I did have a suggestion for you Diann. Have you contacted the Agent or just the webmaster? If you did contact the Agent and were unable to get it resolved perhaps you should file a complaint with GLVAR.

Of course the BEST solution IMHO would be for MSN to ban the site as Google did for their “Black Hat” SEO tactics.

~VegasMack

Vegas Agent · 07-02-2005, 11:24 AM

GLVAR does not get involved in web disputes at all. I even tried reporting this site to their server and got no response which has actually worked on other sites (yes you know the one I mean!) I was hoping Terry Light would get involved since he is also being copied!

Terry you out there?

SEOWolf · 07-02-2005, 07:53 PM

That is indeed unfortunate Diann.

It would seem to me to be an Ethics violation. Have you contacted the Broker?

Well maybe MSN will get off their hands and shed some SPAM.

I don’t think Bill Gates would be pleased if he knew how his Search Engine was being manipulated IMHO.

~VegasMack

Vegas Agent · 07-02-2005, 08:33 PM

Unfortunately websites and ad copy are not covered in the code of ethics. All we can do is keep reporting them and hope MSN takes note.
At one time he had my entire site copied to back pages of his site including my name and contact info. Now that was blatant!

There are a couple of other sites I recently noticed that have left in hyperlinks to my sites when they copied my text - the question is, since I have higher PR is it more valuable to leave the backlink?!!