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	<title>Realty Rankings &#187; Featured</title>
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		<title>How to Achieve a Successful Lead to Sales Conversion Rate</title>
		<link>http://www.realtyrankings.com/successful-lead-to-sales-conversion-rate.htm</link>
		<comments>http://www.realtyrankings.com/successful-lead-to-sales-conversion-rate.htm#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 23 Mar 2010 16:50:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Lead Conversion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[internet leads]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sales conversion]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.realtyrankings.com/?p=889</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Are you making the most out of your leads? More importantly, are you achieving a successful lead to sales conversion rate? Many of us spend a good deal of time and energy actively going after Internet leads and concentrating on Internet marketing, but then what? If you don’t have a system for converting to your [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-932" src="http://www.realtyrankings.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/path.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="300" />Are you making the most out of your leads? More importantly, are you achieving a successful lead to sales conversion rate?</p>
<p>Many of us spend a good deal of time and energy actively going after Internet leads and concentrating on Internet marketing, but then what?</p>
<p>If you don’t have a system for converting to your Internet leads to sales then you are not getting the most value out of your leads. What you need is a comprehensive, tried-and-true system for converting those leads into sales.</p>
<p>In particular, if you are not converting at least one out of 50 leads into a sale then your strategy for converting leads is likely not adequate.</p>
<p>Savvy real estate agents know that 80 percent of all home buyers will head to the Internet at one point or another to view homes or facilitate their home search. It is during this time that you need to snag your customers and retain them. Here’s how to do just that:</p>
<ul>
<li>If your customer provided you with their phone number then by all means contact them! Being able to talk to a customer over the phone allows you to communicate your thoughts and ideas to them. This also allows you to understand their wants and needs at any given time. A phone conversation can allow you to immediately gain credibility and value with your customer.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li> If you can’t reach your customer during the first or second try, don’t give up. Your persistence will surely pay off.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li> If an individual asks questions or asks for information, reply to them as soon as possible, either by phone or by email. Responding in a reasonable amount of time gives you instant credibility and sets you apart from many other agents in the industry.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li> Be prepared to prove yourself to your customers. In other words, be prepared to let your customers know about your experience, in the industry as well in their area, and about your accolades, including sales records, awards and community involvement.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li> Bend to your customer – don’t expect the customer to bend to you. One of the best ways to see a lead move to a sale is to simply accommodate your customer. Move your schedule to fit theirs, not the other way around. Your thoughtfulness and consideration will not go unnoticed.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li> Understand the buying or selling cycle of your customer. Know that your buyer or seller may be in the early stages of buying or selling their home, and will likely not have secured an agent yet. This knowledge can prove to be incredibly useful for many agents. However, it also validates the fact that you must remain diligent with your customers if you expect a healthy lead to sales conversion.</li>
</ul>
<p>For example, if your buyer or seller is still in the early stages of the process, don’t simply forget about them because they aren’t actively buying or selling their home at the present moment. Instead, stay in touch with them and maintain a relationship with them so that they will automatically have a contact point to go to when in fact they are prepared to buy or sell a home.</p>
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		<slash:comments>5</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>How To Send A Real Estate Link Request</title>
		<link>http://www.realtyrankings.com/how-to-send-a-real-estate-link-request.htm</link>
		<comments>http://www.realtyrankings.com/how-to-send-a-real-estate-link-request.htm#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 28 Jan 2010 03:56:24 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Link Building]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[real state link building]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[SEO]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.realtyrankings.com/?p=760</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[One of the most important strategies in link building is sending link requests. It can be considered both a science and an art. When you are drafting your link request mail, you need to take into consideration the following factors: The first factor revolves round the reinforcement value. By linking to your website how would [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>One of the most important strategies in <a title="real estate link request" href="http://www.realtyrankings.com/services/real-estate-link-building">link building</a> is sending link requests. It can be considered both a science and an art. When you are drafting your link request mail, you need to take into consideration the following factors:</p>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-850" title="real estate link building" src="http://www.realtyrankings.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/link-building.jpg" alt="real estate link building" width="321" height="258" /></p>
<p>The first factor revolves round the reinforcement value. By linking to your website how would the linking website benefit? After all everyone wants to know “what’s in it for me?” By linking to your website, your link partner should benefit in any one of the following ways.</p>
<p><strong>Recognition</strong> – By linking to your website, will your linking partner get any special recognition? Is your website part of the top 10 or top 100 lists in your niche? Such websites will get their links much faster.</p>
<p><strong>Resource</strong> – Does your website provide useful information? Will it be a useful resource to the linking partner and to the visitors of the linking partner’s website? You will have a good reason to link to a website that offers exclusive information that is related to the concerned niche.</p>
<p><strong>Association</strong> – What is the association value in linking to you? Are you a member of any of the online consortiums, any directory of businesses, etc? This will make more sense to link to your link partners to have an affiliation with your website.</p>
<p><strong>Reciprocation</strong> – Will your linking partner get a link back to their website and if yes, will your link be of any value to them? How relevant is your website to the linking partner and his or her niche? It makes more sense if two real estate portals to link to each other. This will facilitate easy sharing of knowledge and information on the real estate industry belonging to a particular region.</p>
<p>Besides the above factors on the benefits your linking partner will get by linking to you, there are other influencing factors such as Action, Interest, Desire, Attention, etc.</p>
<p>Your link request emails should be very carefully drafted so that you will be able to get the desired results out of your efforts.</p>
<p><strong>Grabbing the attention</strong> – You must remember that the webmaster that you are contacting will be getting a number of similar mails like the one you are sending to request your mail. Unless you get their attention, it is not going to work because they will not have the time to review all the link request mails that they get. Here are few tips that will help you grab the attention of your prospective linking partner.</p>
<p>•	Make sure to use the name of the person you are contacting and not just their designation.<br />
•	Make your mails sound interesting and not the regular template based email that you copied from one of the link requests that you received.<br />
•	Let your subject line, starting paragraphs and closing lines be striking enough to get their attention.</p>
<p><strong>Creating Interest</strong><br />
It is not enough to get the attention but it is even more crucial to get their interest to read through the entire mail. Every one likes to know how they can benefit from your mail so put that first. Make them feel important and special in your link request. Do not try to write elaborately about your services and features of your services.</p>
<p><strong>Creating the Desire to Link</strong><br />
Your request mail should create the desire to link to your website. To do that you should now what they want and giving them exactly that. It can be an eBook, newsletter or even an RSS feed that they want others to subscribe to and before contacting them subscribe to those. This will influence them to return the favor.</p>
<p>Provide them with genuine contact details, email address and your businesses physical address. Be available if they need to contact you.<a href="http://www.realtyrankings.com/contact"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-851" title="Real Estate SEO Firm" src="http://www.realtyrankings.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Get-a-quote-SEO.jpg" alt="Real Estate SEO Firm" width="220" height="219" /></a></p>
<p>Tell them the benefits of linking to your website especially how beneficial it will be for their website visitors.</p>
<p><strong>Make Them Take Action</strong><br />
The idea of your link request mail is not to send a thought provoking message that will make them think but they need to act right away. So provide them with the code to link to your website and ask them to send their code to reciprocate their link.</p>
<p>The next time you draft a link request, incorporate all the above factors and you will certainly see better conversion rates.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Real Estate SEO Experts</title>
		<link>http://www.realtyrankings.com/real-estate-seo-experts.htm</link>
		<comments>http://www.realtyrankings.com/real-estate-seo-experts.htm#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 30 Dec 2009 00:15:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Real Estate Gurus]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[real estate seo]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.realtyrankings.com/?p=763</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Are you in the process of hiring a SEO company or an SEO professional to optimize your real estate website? Hiring an SEO for your website is one of the most challenging tasks because some of the normal questions that are posed to them during the short listing and selection process do not really bring [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Are you in the process of hiring a SEO company or an SEO professional to optimize your real estate website? Hiring an SEO for your website is one of the most challenging tasks because some of the normal questions that are posed to them during the short listing and selection process do not really bring the required responses that will help you find the best SEO company for your <a title="real estate seo" href="http://www.realtyrankings.com">real estate SEO</a> website.</p>
<p><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-821" title="real estate seo" src="http://www.realtyrankings.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/real-estate-seo1.jpg" alt="real estate seo" width="461" height="320" /></p>
<p>One of the most frequent questions that website owners ask their SEO is the list of keywords for which they have managed to get rankings for their customers’ websites. The next question that follows is whether the SEO company or the SEO consultant will be able to provide a list of references that they can contact. If that is what you have in your list too, then it is high time that you strike them off and try to review the skills of your SEO professional and his or her ability to come up with strategies that will help your website.</p>
<p><strong>Past Rankings and References Are Futile</strong></p>
<p>You must know that as a company or as a consultant who wants to win your contract, if you were to ask some one about the keywords for which they have ranked websites, they are very unlikely to show you their failures. Moreover, success stories presented out of context of the customer requirements will make no sense. No company or no SEO professional will share their customer requirements when they share the success stories as they are bound by non-disclosure agreements.</p>
<p>Search engine ranking is a very complex factor and each website is different. It is just not the SEO professionals efforts that bring success or failure of a website’s online presence. The nature of the website itself has a lot to control. So all rankings cannot be considered equal. Rankings on the first page or #1 rankings in the top search engines do not tell anything to us as far as the success of your real estate website’s SEO is concerned. Success stories should always be accompanied by the effectiveness analytics and no SEO company will share with you this information. Therefore, your questions on past rankings do not help you in any way in identifying your SEO consultant.</p>
<p>Coming to the next question that people ask, it is about references. What do we hope to find out by asking for references? By asking for references we are hoping to find out about the quality of the services offered by the company by talking to their past customers. No SEO in their good senses will list references that will put them in trouble. You can be 100% sure that only happy customers of the past will be supplied to you as the list of references. So here again, you will be just wasting your time asking for the list of references and contacting them. Contacting references will make sense if you are going to track them by yourself and contact them.</p>
<p>It is interesting to note that every real estate website owner understands these dynamics well and not that these are new insights. Despite our understanding, all of us find ourselves asking these questions to our SEO companies before hiring them. If these are not the right questions to ask your SEO company, then how should one assess their SEO company before hiring them?</p>
<p><strong>The best way to hire your SEO company</strong></p>
<p>Before you set out to hire your SEO company, you must make sure you understand your needs first. You must have a basic understanding about SEO only then you will know what to expect of your SEO company and what results mean with regard to SEO. In other words, you should be a well-informed customer. After educating yourself about the basics of SEO, you should start taking to the SEO companies to learn about their understanding about the real estate market, the competition involved in the real estate industry etc. They should be capable of understanding your business model to effectively promote your website online. Rather than asking about the past rankings and references, you can ask them about the strategies and tools that they would be using to promote your website.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Building Real Estate Links Like A Pro</title>
		<link>http://www.realtyrankings.com/building-real-estate-links-like-a-pro.htm</link>
		<comments>http://www.realtyrankings.com/building-real-estate-links-like-a-pro.htm#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 03 Dec 2009 21:19:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Link Building]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[link buidling]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[SEO]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.realtyrankings.com/?p=753</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Today no one contests the fact that links are essential for the success of a website online. You should have a link count that is good both qualitatively and quantitatively to get good rankings for keywords relevant to your website. Search engines do not attribute same value to all the links indiscriminately. Various factors are [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Today no one contests the fact that links are essential for the success of a website online. You should have a link count that is good both qualitatively and quantitatively to get good rankings for keywords relevant to your website. Search engines do not attribute same value to all the links indiscriminately. Various factors are taken into account before search engines like Google attribute any value to the links that are coming to your website. At times, the search engine may totally disregard the link and your website may not get any credit from them.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.realtyrankings.com/services/real-estate-link-building"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-807" title="real-estate-link-building" src="http://www.realtyrankings.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/link-building1.jpg" alt="real-estate-link-building" width="321" height="258" /></a></p>
<p>Therefore, before you start your <a title="real estate link building campaign" href="http://www.realtyrankings.com">link building campaign</a> for your <a href="http://www.realtyrankings.com/services/web-development">real estate website</a>, you should know what matters and what does not matter when it comes to links. Without knowing this, all your efforts may turnout to be futile. Here are few factors that matter while building your links.</p>
<h2 style="padding-left: 30px;">There are two basic requirements for a link to pass on its link value to your website:</h2>
<p>The first important factor is that your link should be embedded using hard coded HTML. Though there are reports that say that Google is also takes into consideration links presented using JavaScript, it is best to stick to HTML. For example the link should be embedded in using the following tag: &lt; a href=”http://www.yourwebsite.com” &gt;</p>
<p>The second factor is that the page from which you are getting your link should already be indexed by Google. You will be able to find out whether a page is already present in Google’s index using the site operator in Google. Until a page is indexed, you cannot expect any good to come out of the link embedded in that page.</p>
<p><strong>Factors That Affect Your Link Count</strong></p>
<p>The following factors will block the search engines from taking the link into account.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">1.Nofollow Attribute: Today many websites use this attribute to curb the menace of online spamming. Google disregards links that come with ‘Nofollow’ attribute. You must therefore whether a website uses nofollow attribute for its link before you spend your precious time in submitting your link.<br />
2.Redirects – If the link value has to be passed on to the link, then the pages should use 301 permanent redirects in case there should be any need for redirects. If you are using 302 or temporary redirects, you cannot get any benefit for links that go through your temporary page.<br />
3.Robots nofollow – If nofollow attribute is used in the Robot.txt file then all the links in such pages will not get any link juice.<br />
4.Links presented through JavaScript – There are differences in opinions with regard to the status of the links presented through JavaScript. Some say that Google does not take into account JavaScript links while others deny it. It is best to avoid JavaScript links to be on the safer side.</p>
<p><strong> Further Symptoms That Affect the Link Value</strong><br />
<strong>Low PR Sites</strong> – Google is very careful not to promote websites that try to manipulate the search engines. For example, it can penalize a website that sells links by reducing its PageRank even though the site may have all the other qualifying factors for good PR. Google may stop following links from such problematic sites.<br />
<strong>Old Cache Date</strong> – This can be an indicator that Google does not consider a website important and that is the reason why its bots do not frequent them. As a result, they have old cache rates. If the page from which your are getting your link has a cache date that is longer than a month, then you should try to avoid such websites because this could also be a symptom of bad neighborhood.<br />
<strong>Location of the link</strong> – This is yet another factor that affects the quality of the links. Links in sidebars are often devalued as they are associated with advertisements and paid links. It is best to get your links from within the content of the page.</p>
<p><strong>Checking a Link for Its SEO Value</strong></p>
<p>You will be able to check the link value by creating a link on the page with a unique modifier that is rather obscure. If your web page is ranked for that obscure keyword after few days, then it will indicate that the link juice is being passed on from the linking page.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>7</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Real Estate Link Bait</title>
		<link>http://www.realtyrankings.com/real-estate-link-bait-2.htm</link>
		<comments>http://www.realtyrankings.com/real-estate-link-bait-2.htm#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 15 Oct 2009 21:59:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Content Creation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Link Building]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[link bait]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.realtyrankings.com/?p=766</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Link baits are nothing but an attractive piece of content that gets linked because of its usefulness, quality of the information provided etc. Link baits bring in a lot of SEO benefits to a website. Link baits help in natural link building. They also get targeted traffic to your website. It is not enough to [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Link baits are nothing but an attractive piece of content that gets linked because of its usefulness, quality of the information provided etc. Link baits bring in a lot of SEO benefits to a website. Link baits help in natural link building. They also get targeted traffic to your website. It is not enough to have attractive content as link bait, what is more important is to give your link bait the required online visibility so that others can gain access to it and link to it. You will be able to get your links through link baits in social media channels.<br />
<strong><br />
Distribution of Link Bait</strong></p>
<p>One of the best ways of having your link bait distributed is through social media network. You must post your attractive content in as many social media networks and directories as possible. The idea here is to create a buzz about your content and to prompt people to share with others your unique content. This process is also known as seeding. You must try to reach to social news sites that are voted upon by the users. If your content gets a large number of votes, then it will elicit the interest of others too. You will be able to see your content in the first page of the news site when it becomes one of the most voted news item. It has been proved that news items in the front pages of the news sites get the most clicks. Your link bait will be viewed by hundreds of visitors and a certain percentage of visitors will click your website link and visit your website. Some of the popular sites where you can submit your news include but not limited to Digg, Reddit, Mixx, etc.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.realtyrankings.com/"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-786" title="real estate link bait" src="http://www.realtyrankings.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/bait-175x300.jpg" alt="" width="175" height="300" /></a></p>
<p>Yet another social media site that is becoming increasingly popular is Twitter. However, you can expect others to link to you only when you have some worthwhile stuff that others can link.</p>
<p><strong>Link Bait Strategies</strong></p>
<p>When you are using link baits, your intention is not only to make people link to you but also to make those who see your bait to click on the bait and visit your website or to vote for your news item, which will increase the popularity of the item you submit. It is not the social media sites that offer you the best links, they often come with nofollow attribute. The best links come from other internet users such as bloggers, news publishers and journalists. If the news item or the content you have submitted is of good quality, they will write about it and link to the source article.</p>
<p><strong>Some of the best baits include the following</strong>:</p>
<p><strong>Breaking News</strong> – this is one of the top baits. If you publish hot news, then you can ensure a vast traffic to your website. You can elicit a great interest in the social media sites as well as from the news communities. Though breaking news will attract a lot of traffic, they are not the best ones for getting back links.</p>
<p><strong>Controversial Posts </strong></p>
<p>By making controversial posts or by playing devils advocate you can attract a lot of attention to your posts. However, you must be very careful in creating such content to ensure that you do not get into hot waters through your posts and become unpopular through your posts.</p>
<p><strong>Resourceful Posts</strong></p>
<p>Resourceful posts not only get a great level of attention, they also bring in a large number of links to your website. You must make sure to create resources that are not time bound so that they will continue to bring more links to your website.</p>
<p><strong>Humorous Posts</strong></p>
<p>Funny posts have always been the favorite of many online users. Humorous posts have long life when compared to news items.</p>
<p><strong>Ego Posts</strong></p>
<p>You will be able to make popular community members to promote your content by making a mention of their names in your content in such a way to inflate their ego. You will certainly get links from the people whose egos you are boosting.</p>
<p>The most important aspect of link baiting is to create content that users can identify with, something that they can connect to; such content is sure to bring a great level of success in getting you the desired links for your website.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<item>
		<title>Real Estate Link Building Guide</title>
		<link>http://www.realtyrankings.com/real-estate-link-building-guide.htm</link>
		<comments>http://www.realtyrankings.com/real-estate-link-building-guide.htm#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:58:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Link Building]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[real estate link building guide]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.realtyrankings.com/?p=743</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Step 1 One of the things you can do to build back links for your real estate website is to explore the possibilities of getting back links from your competitors. How do you do this? You will certainly know the top keywords for your website. Just to give you an example, “Realtors Florida” can be [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<h1><a href="http://www.realtyrankings.com/"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-748" title="real-estate-link-building" src="http://www.realtyrankings.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/real-estate-link-building1.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="250" /></a></h1>
<p><strong>Step 1</strong></p>
<p>One of the things you can do to <a href="http://www.realtyrankings.com/services/real-estate-link-building">build back links for your real estate website</a> is to explore the possibilities of getting back links from your competitors. How do you do this? You will certainly know the top keywords for your website. Just to give you an example, “Realtors Florida” can be one of your top keywords. You should first make a search in Google using these keywords and see what comes up. Choose the top 20 websites and these are your competitors as long as your online competition is concerned. You must visit these websites and check whether there are any possibilities of getting back links from their website. May be they have a forum where you can post your questions or they have a blog in which you can leave your comments. You can even think of product reviews. You must make a list of all such possibilities in a systematic way.</p>
<p><strong>Step 2</strong></p>
<p>The next step will be to make a search in Yahoo using the URL of the competitors, which you gathered in the previous step using the Linkdomain parameter. This will get you a nice list of websites that link to your competitor. This time as you would have guessed already, you must visit these sites as well, to look for possible linking options and list all the possibilities here again. When you are making the list, it will be helpful to note the following information:</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">1)Status of ‘nofollow’ attribute. If the page/website uses no follow attribute, then it will not be helpful in improving your PR but it can send you targeted traffic to your website. So do not ignore it either way.<br />
2)PageRank of the website. Higher the PR the better.<br />
3)Possibility of using anchor text to get the back link. Here again, don’t ignore the website either way because your ranking will be helped either way though linking through anchor text will be the best thing to do.</p>
<p>You must repeat step 2 for all the websites in your list, which you obtained in step 1. We know what you are thinking. Visiting all the sites will look like a mountainous task especially when you are going to lock on to competitors that have hundreds if not thousands of back links. However, you should only consider each site as your opportunity to build link to your website.</p>
<p><strong>Step 3</strong></p>
<p>Here you have to start hunting for some decent directories to which you can submit your website. Google is the best place to start here again. Make use of ‘allinurl’ parameter to look for directories.<br />
For example: allinurl:directory “Florida”</p>
<p>Google will line up all the top directories that contain categories related to Florida. You can start with the first 20 directories and try to see the opportunities here for submitting your website in some way or the other. Here you will find free directories as well as paid directories. List all the directories that allow you to submit to your website without any fee.</p>
<p><strong>Step 4</strong></p>
<p>The next step is to venture into related industries. If you feel that the list that you have generated in the last three steps is not big enough, then you can start exploring the opportunities for building links using websites within related niches. Here you will have to use little broader terms. When you make use of broader keyword search that will connect you to websites in the related niches, you can go through the entire process of identifying the opportunities for your links by visiting as many sites as you would like to visit.</p>
<p><strong><strong> Tools needed for your link building efforts</strong></strong></p>
<p>You will need Google Toolbar to help see the PageRank of the web pages you are visiting. You can also try one of the plug-ins that will help you check the PR if you are using FireFox. You need a tool to help you find whether a page uses nofollow attribute or not. You can try a tool like Greasemonkey. Just make sure to enable the nofollow highlighter option if you are using Greasemonkey.</p>
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		<title>8 Simple SEO Tips for Your WordPress Blog</title>
		<link>http://www.realtyrankings.com/8-simple-seo-tips-for-your-wordpress-blog.htm</link>
		<comments>http://www.realtyrankings.com/8-simple-seo-tips-for-your-wordpress-blog.htm#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 25 Sep 2009 16:13:29 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Web Design & SEO]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[wordpress]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.realtyrankings.com/?p=723</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[WordPress is by default very search engine friendly. However it does not all come by default, and you might not know what is best when it comes to choosing a template and setting the right options in your wordpress blog. So here are some of the basic rules that you can follow to make sure [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.realtyrankings.com/"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-725" title="real estate seo" src="http://www.realtyrankings.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/seo-300x203.png" alt="" width="300" height="203" /></a>WordPress is by default very search engine friendly.  However it does not all come by default, and you might not know what is best when it comes to choosing a template and setting the right options in your wordpress blog. So here are some of the basic rules that you can follow to make sure that your wordpress blog is search engine friendly.</p>
<p><strong>1. Optimize WordPress Permalinks</strong></p>
<p>Permalinks are very important for SEO purposes as Google gives weight on keywords found within a link.  So a search engine friendly permalink structure MUST includes the post title (%postname%) which will eventually contain the keywords related to your page/post. To change your permalink structure, simply go to your WP admin panel, click on the “Permalinks” link under the Settings section, and choose the custom permalinks structure option.   Personally I feel having your title on the permalink is good enough, but some may want to put in the category as well. So your ideal permalink structure would be &#8211; /%category%/%postname%/</p>
<p><strong>2. Optimize WordPress Post Titles<br />
</strong><br />
Changing your permalink structure is not enough if you are not writing good post titles. The post title is the most important part of the blog post for many reasons. From your reader’s perspective, a descriptive and compelling blog post title will help them decide if they really want to read your post or not. From a search engine’s perspective, the title of the post is the primary determinant of what the rest of the content is all about. So you should always think of keywords or phrases people might type into a search engine to find your content and use them organically in your post title.</p>
<p><strong>3. Write a robots.txt file</strong></p>
<p>The robots.txt file is essentially used to instruct a crawler about which pages of your blog should be crawled and indexed and which part should be blocked.  There are tons of wordpress blogs out there which doesn’t use a robots.txt file, thus the same content is indexed in the search engine in different ways.  So creating a robots.txt file can actually improve your website indexation a lot as in a robots.txt file you can specify your sitemap and also tell the engine which folders/directories you don’t want it to index.  The ideal strategy is to have robots.txt file that prevents the engines to index the same content in multiple ways.</p>
<p><strong>4. Optimizing your Meta Tags</strong></p>
<p>Even though many people say that meta tags aren’t important anymore – it’s not entirely true.  Majority of the time, a search engine uses your Meta description tag as your search snippet. Having some of your keywords in your Meta description tag can really help you to catch the searchers attention and also can help you to boost your search rankings. For wordpress, using a plug-in like All-in-one-SEO would be very easy way to put unique Meta tags on each of your blog post.</p>
<p><strong>5. Use Sitemaps</strong></p>
<p>Sitemaps is a very simple and straightforward way of submitting all yours URLs to a search engine. Sometimes even a search engine finds it difficult to discover really deep links, thus having a sitemap makes it really easy for the engine to find all those deep pages that you have on your blog.  There are some cool wordpress sitemap plugins out there which can really make your job a lot easier by automatically updating your sitemaps as you write new posts.</p>
<p><strong>6. Use Related Posts</strong></p>
<p>I’m sure you have noticed that many blogs nowadays shows a list of related posts at the bottom of every post. Other than having the obvious advantage of increasing the stickiness of your blog, it also has some SEO benefits.  Showing related posts on each of your post actually helps you to create a very solid internal link structure throughout your blog, which makes it easier for the search engines to find and index and rank some of your older blog posts.</p>
<p><strong>7. Write link worthy posts</strong></p>
<p>Links from good websites are still one of the most important factors that determine your Google Page Rank which ultimately helps you in your search rankings. If you are not producing quality content, it is not likely for anyone to link to your article / blog post.  So you should always write content that you feel is link worthy, even if it takes a bit of extra effort or time from your end.</p>
<p><strong>8. Update your blog frequently</strong></p>
<p>This is probably one of the most overlooked areas when it comes to optimizing a blog.  SEO is a very dynamic process, and if you run a blog which you update only once every month then you really shouldn’t expect much from it.  Updating your blog frequently and also consistently is very important as the crawler sort of makes it a habit of coming back to your site again and again for fresh content.<br />
SEO is not rocket science! If you follow some of these simple steps you can be rest assured that you are going towards the right direction. Once you see some search traffic coming in your way, you can slowly concentrate on some of the more advanced search engine optimization techniques.</p>
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		<title>5 Reasons Your Real Estate Business Needs a Blog</title>
		<link>http://www.realtyrankings.com/5-reasons-your-real-estate-business-needs-a-blog-2.htm</link>
		<comments>http://www.realtyrankings.com/5-reasons-your-real-estate-business-needs-a-blog-2.htm#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 15 Sep 2009 00:35:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blogging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.realtyrankings.com/?p=709</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Blogs has gained enormous popularity on the web. Many people used to believe that blogging is always very personal and basically meant for young generation. People previously used to express their feeling, thoughts, daily ramblings via a blog, but not so anymore. Blogs are now widely used for everything from niche sites, news, journals to [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-711" src="http://www.realtyrankings.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/blog_logo1.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="332" /></p>
<p>Blogs has gained enormous popularity on the web. Many people used to believe that blogging is always very personal and basically meant for young generation. People previously used to express their feeling, thoughts, daily ramblings via a blog, but not so anymore. Blogs are now widely used for everything from niche sites, news, journals to a standard online corporate media.  Having a blog together with your regular Real Estate Business website gives you a lot of benefits. We will be looking at some of them below:</p>
<p>1.	<strong>Blogs allow you to build relationship with your customer</strong>:  A regular website is no different than your daily newspaper &#8211; Its static, you give out information to your customer and you hope that they will &#8216;take&#8217; action. But on the other hand blogs are by default very &#8216;interactive&#8217; in nature and allows you to have a &#8216;two-way conversation&#8217;. Thus, when you put up something in your company blog, your customer can come and read it and also respond to your message via a comment. So basically blogs gives you a platform to have a direct conversation with your customers and the customer gets a feel of a real &#8216;human-being&#8217; behind your shiny corporate logo.</p>
<p>2.	<strong>Blogs helps you to build your reputation</strong>: Customers always prefer to do business with companies they feel they know. Your Real Estate business may have a shiny new website, but does it send the right message about your company to your customers? Does your real estate site makes your visitors think that you are out of their leash? You may be helping hundreds of people to find their dream home, but does your new customers know that by seeing your website? Even though you may have a couple of testimonials up, sometimes its just not enough to convince a new customer. Because unless you are a big brand, you simply have no reputation when it comes to your new prospective clients. Your blog can help you to build that reputation. For example, you can probably blog about some of the issues &amp; problems that every new home owner faces during their buying cycle (you may also refer to some of your &#8216;real&#8217; past clients) and then you can give away your expert tips to solve some of the issues. So by blogging about things that new customers can benefit  from &#8211; you are not only just helping them for free but at the same time you are discreetly building a reputation for yourself and your business.</p>
<p>3.	<strong>Blogs gives you free Publicity</strong>: Blogs are a great way to gain free publicity for your business. When you write a blog post that has useful information, you will notice that, often people will send it to their friends via different social networking &amp; bookmarking sites.  Thus your reach automatically broadens and your content goes viral to a more diversified group of people without any serious effort from your part. So your business automatically gets some free publicity and you can also expect a decent number of traffic from there.</p>
<p>4. <strong>Blogs have obvious Search Engine Ranking Advantage</strong>:  Search engines love Fresh content because they want to provide users a better search experience. Blogs are usually more frequently updated compared to a traditional website. So a search engine like Google or Yahoo gives a lot of importance to content that are hosted in a blog. A small business website won&#8217;t consist of more than 30 pages or so, however when you add a blog in your website &#8211; it practically opens up a huge opportunity. You can quickly add in new information, news, articles, reviews, promotions etc and constantly keep on adding more and more content to your site via the blog. Thus your site is always up-to-date as far as the search engines are concerned and because of the frequent addition of new content your whole site will be crawled by the engines more frequently, and your blog will naturally generate links from other blogs &amp; sites that will help you in your organic search engine ranking.</p>
<p>5.	<strong>Blogs help you to drive traffic to your Business Website</strong>: Ultimately every business owner wants to have more visitors to their website. But ask yourself &#8211; Do you ever randomly go to a business site and &#8216;read&#8217; their marketing massage? I bet you don&#8217;t! So how can you expect to get visitors when your website has nothing that a normal visitor might be interested in? Unless a person is really interested to buy/sell a house for instance, he won&#8217;t be interested in what your business does and so on. However, if your traditional website has a blog attached to it with lots of interesting posts that are somehow related to your industry, it will naturally attract a lot of traffic via the search engines, social media etc. If you are lucky, some of them might even go to your main business website to see what your business does. So blogs are a great way to get indirect traffic &amp; leads to your business site.</p>
<p>So does your real estate business have a blog? What do you blog about? Share in comments!</p>
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		<title>Google Updates its Real Estate Search</title>
		<link>http://www.realtyrankings.com/google-updates-its-real-estate-search.htm</link>
		<comments>http://www.realtyrankings.com/google-updates-its-real-estate-search.htm#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 09 Sep 2009 17:48:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.realtyrankings.com/?p=727</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Google has recently announced that it has expanded its real estate listings on Google Maps. Andrew Foster, who is one of the product managers of Google Maps, explained that Google was rededicating itself to this market because their in-house research showed that a large portion of the population are using the Internet to search for [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.realtyrankings.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/google-maps-logo1.png"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-729" title="google-maps-logo" src="http://www.realtyrankings.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/google-maps-logo1.png" alt="" width="181" height="74" /></a>Google has recently announced that it has expanded its real estate listings on Google Maps.  Andrew Foster, who is one of the product managers of Google Maps, explained that Google was rededicating itself to this market because their in-house research showed that a large portion of the population are using the Internet to search for a new home. Currently, according to statistics from Hitwise, Google Maps is only a very small player in the online real estate market and it only sends about 2% of its traffic to various real estate web sites. The current market leaders for Real Estate search are Realtor.com, Zillow.com, and Yahoo Real Estate.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.realtyrankings.com/"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-730" src="http://www.realtyrankings.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/google-maps-realestate1.png" alt="" width="499" height="343" /></a></p>
<p>When a buyer is looking for a house, location plays a very essential role, and just like Zillow, Google Maps also puts a house&#8217;s location at the front and center of its presentation. Looking at houses on Google Maps, however, makes one thing very clear and that is Google is only aggregating data from listing web sites and getting its data from brokers who update their listing on Google Base. This means that listings on Google Maps are not necessarily as up to date or as comprehensive as those you could find on similar services.<br />
It is also quite obvious that real estate listings aren&#8217;t the center concern of Google Maps. Google&#8217;s competition usually offers far more options when searching for a house (e.g. type of house, lot size, the year when it was built, etc.), and does a better job at displaying other important information about a house and the neighborhood. It can tell you for instance, the quality of local schools, restaurants, shopping malls and so on.</p>
<p>While it is good to see that Google is re-structuring itself to the real estate market, this is hopefully only the beginning of the company&#8217;s efforts, because in its current state, these nifty listings on Google Maps are a nice addition to a great product, but don&#8217;t hold up as a real estate offering in its own right.</p>
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		<title>Best Social Media Sites for Real Estate Social Networking</title>
		<link>http://www.realtyrankings.com/best-social-media-sites-for-real-estate-social-networking.htm</link>
		<comments>http://www.realtyrankings.com/best-social-media-sites-for-real-estate-social-networking.htm#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 22 Jul 2009 01:26:38 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social Media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[branding]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Link Building]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Reputation Managment]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.realtyrankings.com/?p=646</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Below are some of the best Real Estate Social Media sites available. Obtain referrals, branding, leads and yes some links It&#8217;s a win &#8211; win all the way around! Below are the top 100 real estate and social media sites. Enjoy! 1. Facebook One of the fastest social networking sites. Facebook is one of the [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Below are some of the <strong>best Real Estate Social Media</strong> sites available. Obtain referrals, branding, leads and yes some links <img src='http://www.realtyrankings.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' />  It&#8217;s a win &#8211; win all the way around!</p>
<p>Below are the top 100 real estate and social media sites. Enjoy!</p>
<p>1. <strong>Facebook</strong></p>
<p><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-649" title="facebook" src="http://www.realtyrankings.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/facebook-300x142.gif" alt="" width="180" height="85" /></p>
<p>One of the fastest social networking sites. Facebook is one of the easiest ways of finding prospective customers within any given area. Using Facebook, we can target very specific groups according to our business needs; such a high level of targeting is not a possibility with other social networking sites or community sites. We can find our customers based on specific set of criteria including place, age etc.</p>
<p>2. <strong>Localism</strong></p>
<p><img class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-653" title="localism" src="http://www.realtyrankings.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/localism-1-150x72.png" alt="" width="150" height="72" /></p>
<p>This is a very niche based community site. At Localism, we can interact with the local merchants. This is one of the best examples of social networking at a micro level. People of the same place get together to share the happenings of their community. This community site is not only for the merchants and business people but it is also for common people. Neighborpedia is the extension of Localism.</p>
<p>3. <strong>Trulia</strong></p>
<p><img class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-654" title="trulia" src="http://www.realtyrankings.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/trulia-logo-150x68.gif" alt="" width="150" height="68" /></p>
<p>This is one of the top-rated sites for marketing any real estate related services. It has been estimated that Trulia attracts around 5 million potential buyers and sellers each month that are interested in real estate property in some way. Trulia Pro offers highly comprehensive marketing solutions for realtors as well as for professionals from the other fields who want to market their brand online.</p>
<p>4. <strong>ActiveRain</strong></p>
<p><img class="alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-655" src="http://www.realtyrankings.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/active_rain_logo-150x48.gif" alt="" width="150" height="48" /></p>
<p>ActiveRain is one of the few networking sites that are exclusively meant for real estate professionals. We can make use of this real estate community site free of cost and its membership counts to 98,000 and still growing. We can post our profile online using the free membership. Making use of their referral service, it is possible to get in touch with the top real estate professionals and leads from both local real estate market and outside. The referral service allows us to search the local markets within each county.</p>
<p>5. <strong>RealTown</strong></p>
<p><img class="alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-656" src="http://www.realtyrankings.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/realtown-logo-150x53.png" alt="" width="150" height="53" /></p>
<p>RealTown.com is one of the top real estate portals, which serves as a perfect meeting place for real estate buyers and sellers. This site offers a lot of useful resources for the real estate professionals as well as for people that are interested in buying and selling real estate properties.</p>
<p>6. <strong>FlippingPap</strong></p>
<p><img class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-657" src="http://www.realtyrankings.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/flipping-pad-150x60.gif" alt="" width="150" height="60" /></p>
<p>If you are a real estate investor who is interested in building relationship with other investors then FlippingPad is the place to be. FlippingPad provides a unique opportunity for the wholesalers whereby they can find many prospective leads. We will be able to interact with the investors using the forums. We can post our doubts, take part in discussions, which makes it a very interactive site.</p>
<p>7. <strong>LinkedIn</strong></p>
<p><img class="alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-658" src="http://www.realtyrankings.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/linked-in-logo-150x70.png" alt="" width="150" height="70" /></p>
<p>Almost all realtors will have an account in LinkedIn. This is one of the most happening places on the internet. Professionals from all fields want to be part of this network. This is a very sophisticated network with many tools and in built tools that we can use to interact with the other members. You can send invitations for others to join your network and send requests to other members to join their network. People can find us by our name or by using specific industry related keywords.</p>
<p>8. <strong>Puurple</strong></p>
<p><img class="alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-660" src="http://www.realtyrankings.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/puurple-150x86.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="86" /></p>
<p>Puurple is almost like Digg.com. We will be able to find and vote for posts that are related to real estate.</p>
<p>9.<strong> Zillow</strong></p>
<p><img class="alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-661" src="http://www.realtyrankings.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/zillow_logo-150x61.png" alt="" width="150" height="61" /></p>
<p>Zillow allows us to search for homes in any given locality. We will also be able checkout on the homes that are recently sold out and their prices.</p>
<p>10. <strong>Zolve</strong></p>
<p><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-647" title="zolve" src="http://www.realtyrankings.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/zolve1.gif" alt="" width="163" height="64" /></p>
<p>This is another useful platform that serves as the meeting place for the buyers and sellers from the real estate industry based area.</p>
<p>11. <strong>Real Estate Webmasters</strong></p>
<p>Realestatewebmasers.com has an exclusive section for realtors whereby realtors can interact with the local as well as global real estate professionals.</p>
<p>12. <strong>WannaNetwork</strong></p>
<p><img class="alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-662" src="http://www.realtyrankings.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/wanna-150x85.gif" alt="" width="150" height="85" /></p>
<p>Wannanetwork.com is one of the high traffic real estate community sites. Here we can create new groups and also join the existing groups. This community networking site allows us to freely interact with the other members interested in the real estate industry. There is a lot of knowledge sharing here.</p>
<p>13. <strong>RealEstateForum.com</strong></p>
<p>You can ask real estate related questions in the forums and get your answers. You can also start a discussion on a hot topic or take part in other discussions. You will be able learn a lot about the real estate industry by becoming a member here.</p>
<p>14. <strong>Brokeragentsocial.com</strong></p>
<p><img class="alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-663" src="http://www.realtyrankings.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/logo-150x60.gif" alt="" width="150" height="60" /></p>
<p>This community site has over 20,000 members. It is totally dedicated to the real estate industry. You will find everything relating to this industry from property talk to mortgage.</p>
<p>15. <strong>Inman</strong></p>
<p><img class="alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-664" src="http://www.realtyrankings.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/inmannewlogo-150x150.png" alt="" width="150" height="150" /></p>
<p>If you want to find the latest news about real estate industry, this is the first site you should visit. You can also become a member in this site and interact with the other members who share same interests. This site is again all about the real estate industry.</p>
<p># 16 &#8211; 100 I decided to keep to myself, or we&#8217;ll add a second post.</p>
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