My mother used to say that it's not polite to "toot your own horn". But as I grew older I realized that if I don't do the tooting, who will!
So, pardon me as I toot our horn about what's been going on with our website. When we launched our site a couple of years ago, we used Google Ad Words, supposedly to help us get exposure. Well, the results were paltry and it was far from worth the money we were spending. After finding Active Rain, though, I dove into everything I could find about SEO and Internet marketing. And boy is it paying off.
Here are some highlights:
- We are currently negotiating two contracts with buyers who found us on the Internet. Their words were "you're all over the net".
- We are actively working with at least three other buyers...all of whom came to us via our website.
- We are showing up in the top three Google pages of all the major search terms...and the last two days we've been on page one.
- As a result of all the traffic we get regular inquiries which has greatly increased the size of our data base
- Our website is breaking all sorts of traffic records. By the end of January, we will have over 2,000 unique visitors! And the really amazing number, and one we honestly find hard to believe...something like 80% of these visitors are book marking our site.
Having a strong Internet presence is so important these days and I'm very grateful to all the AR gurus who have shared their knowledge with the rest of us. With all we've been able to put into place because of what we've learned, I can't help but believe that when the market begins to turn around, everything we've learned, and the organic positioning we've gained will result in a steady flow of new business. Never stop learning!
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Carol,
It is always nice when a plan comes together. You go girl!
Debra Mcglothurn
Being on AR has definately upped our Google rankings. Besides which, its a lot of fun.
AR has increase my rankings as well It's nice to see the increased traffice and potential clientel
I've been meaning to do more research on SEO. You just gave me the motivation to put it on my to do list this week.
Congrats to you! Being seen "all over the web" puts you at such an advantage in the clients eyes. Hard work pays off!
I camped on here for a few days and climbed the charts to 16th in Nebraska on ActiveRain. And then Google Penalties hit my site and I'm nowhere to be found! I watched us go from 45th to nothing overnight, literally! I guess that's why they don't have a paragraph on how to climb the SEO ladder, but here's a link on how to avoid what I have to work through.
Good to know. I am like you but just at the begining.
Stephen, can you expand a little on your comment about Google Penalities? I'd like to know what your experience is.
Rich - hard work is the key. Read, read, read....with all the down time we've had, we've used it to learn more about SEO and it's working!
The one thing I'd like to see now is our outside blog. Our AR blog shows up frequently, but I haven't quite figured out how to get the outside one to rank.
Anybody have any suggestions?
I changed the title, description and meta tags in our index.php to say, "Omaha Open Houses" and we immediately jumped to 45th, which isn't bad considering we're not public yet. But then a few hours later we were 65th and then today we don't exist. I also spent a day learning and posting ActiveRain. Somewhere between all those links and redundancy on my website URL code, Google decided to make my name disappear. I'm 7th in MSN search and 14th or so at Yahoo! But Google is king!
Stephen - I've heard similar things about redundant copy. I guess if you posted something over and over the spiders or whatever arachnids they have over there at Google pick up on it. I've learned a lot about SEO this past year, but things like this remind me that I have only scratched the surface in an ever-changing world.
I guess the good news is MSN and Yahoo! still like me. So, other than those 70% that use Google, I'm in good shape!
By the end of January, we will have over 2,000 unique visitors!
Hi Carol,
That's outstanding! All that activity should turn into some nice transactions this year.
"I can't help but believe that when the market begins to turn around, everything we've learned, and the organic positioning we've gained will result in a steady flow of new business."
~ I've been counting on this myself. I figure if I'm getting exposure AND clients from my website presence now... watch out world when the media catches up to what my buyers already know... this is a fantastic time to buy a home!
Hey JoAnna! I'm with you! This are great opportunities out there!