I work hard on my little local blog and website. I'm the local expert, with fabulous information that I'm trying to get out there - and it's frustrating being the little guy with limited resources when the big national players can walk all over me in the search engines.
But I fixed that - or I'm in process anyway. It's building momentum.
You have any idea how many people search for an MLS number? A property address that they drove by and are now typing into Google? A subdivision name? LOTS. And that's where players like Trulia tend to win in Google - for individual property addresses, subdivisions, that sort of thing.
So working with ARE-TEC, I got around that. And I'm starting to beat Trulia at their own game.
And in all fairness, I now work with ARE-TEC - it's my hubby's company. Which means I got to help develop this stuff to really meet my needs as an agent. I get to make sure all this new stuff really works before we make it available to everyone else.
So here's what we did.
See, most IDX companies, when you put their MLS search on your site, it is all framed within a tiny piece of code, and all the data - all that lovely, keyword rich, search engine delicious information - isn't found by the search engines on your site. The ARE-TEC search cube? It embeds so simply into any blog - including ActiveRain and Wordpress - but it doesn't let Google look at all of those listings.
But ARE-TEC fixed that, several months ago, quietly tweaking and finding the best way to fix the problem.
It looks like this:
Looks pretty unassuming, doesn't it? But it packs a punch with search engines.
Every tiny little bit of information in the MLS - is now nicely tagged and indexed in the search engines - on MY site. All those keyword rich descriptions and subdivision names and street names - Google finds them on MY site, and relates them to ME. So when people type addresses into Google, my site comes up. When people Google subdivision names, MY site comes up.
How frikking cool is that? Soon, every address in the MLS, every home for sale - if someone types it into Google, my site will appear. Just stop and imagine that for a second.
And once it was installed, it takes no effort or maintenance on my part. Nada.
Which means my little local blog site is starting to win. Not every time, just yet. But we're getting there...
Now, there is an exclusivity element to this. If every agent in my area had it, it'd lose power. So I have an exlusive deal in my city. In fact, ARE-TEC won't sell it to every agent in a city anyway, so availability is on a first-come-first-served basis.
So sweet. I love being the little guy with an edge.
Sold. Call me 508-259-9411.
P.S. I came from your tweet but you already knew that I gather.
Kelly,
I have to say that this little tool has turned out to give us the most bang for our buck since we started with you guys. When we can go into a listing presentation and show a seller that we can get them three to four times more search engine exposure than ANYONE else, they have no choice but to list with us. The indexing and the keywords the search cube provides is a big part of those search results.
Count me as a fan!
Figures this has reached my area of the East Coast yet!! Good for you.
Are those SERP results with Google personalized search turned off?
-Brad
Kelley - I am not sure that I understand everything, but if it gets your site above trulia, zillow, etc in home searches, that is a good thing. Sounds expensive though, especially since it is so exclusive. Have one question, what's to prevent someone else going out and creating the same type of thing in your area?
Troy - you can contact me for pricing, if you'd like. Prevent another company from doing it? Nothing. But the knowledge of how to code, the will to do it, to recreate it, is a pretty powerful anti-motivator.
Kelly - Rock on ! This is awesome. I believe we will be contacting you as well !!
Kelly, I've been battling with Trulia and a few others off and on for the past year. I'm going to have to check out your hubby's new tool. Thanks!
Kelly, who beats Truila and their SEO? The Consumer MLS Websites like HAR.com. Economies of scale. But who keeps that from happening in local markets? The big brokers that think they can maintain SEO domination. REALTORS are like the farmers in that they battle each other vs. uniting to battle the big corporate takeovers, either the 3rd party aggragates or the big brokers. Do you agree?