Realestatewebmaster Real Estate Site Hosting
Many agents lament how shocked they are when they get their real estate web hosting quote from realestatewebmasters. Quotes are in the tens of thousands of dollars and what's amazing is how absent their clients are from the top ranking spots. Not one client appears in the top 100 for real estate. When you have several hundred to a thousand real estate agent clients, surely one of them would break into the top 50. Search for New York Real Estate or Los Angeles Real Estate and there are no realestate web masters clients in the top 30. Keep in mind that only top 5 tend to get all the good leads, and you sense there is mediocre performance across the board. Realestatewebmasters does brag about their own rankings such as when you search real estate web sites or one of their other pursuits.
Clients don't care about our rankings, they are paying money for their rankings and traffic. The client is paramount.
After reviewing their output and quoted prices, I have come to the conclusion that realestatewebmasters is just out for themselves. There is little chance a client is going to get a good return on their 20k to 50k investment (Yes, clients do invest this much, but how much traffic do they generate?). In site after site reviewed, there was little evidence of quality SEO being applied. In many cases, it appears no SEO was applied. If their system has built in SEO, it's not showing in the sites I've reviewed.
Realestatewebmasters SEO
Realestatewebmasters makes the same claims as other real estate web hosts - that they've got the ultimate search engine optimization platform. Here's what they say about their so called SEO:
| Search engines want to list true authorities at the top of their search results pages, so we've developed proprietary techniques to ensure you're recognized as an authority in your marketplace. We approach every angle, including but not limited to: advanced programming, reputation management, directory submission, blogging, press releases, article submissions, unique and compelling content, and other activities in keeping with the status of a known authority. |
In my study of their many clients, I saw no evidence of this so called authority building. Contrary to their claim, search engines such as Google want trustworthy sites which is the key factor. Pagerank and Authority have dropped as the most critical factors and replaced by Trustrank in the hierarchy. Which is why some small real estate sites can rank in the top ten for a few keyword phrases. To rank well with high traffic, you need to have everything going for your site. Hundreds of duplicated, templated real estate sites is not something search engines want to rank highly. The trust factor is what is missing along with uniqueness.
Although realestatewebmasters can make it possible for search engines to spider your pages and the MLS IDX listings, just making pages accessible doesn't create high rankings. Real Estate boards by the way stipulate in their IDX terms of use, that the IDX listings must be very difficult for search engines to spider. Many agents do have their IDX listings exposed to Google, however you still have to do optimization. The IDX pages on your site will be the same as the ones on other realestatewebmaster sites (many other agents in your city) so this just appears as duplicate content. It's in the customization that generates interest from search engines, but customization of these pages may not be possible or permitted.
Sites are hosted by realestatewebmasters which means you or your SEO provider will have no direct access to your content pages via ftp. That makes optimization very difficult and slow. There are restrictions on how you can customize each page and that will affect ranking performance.
As a hosted real estate web site service, realestatewebmasters owns everything and you won't be able to leave and take it with you to another service. If you do sign up with them, ensure you inquire and get it in writing what is yours if you decide their service isn't up to par and you want to leave.
Realestatewebmasters Custom IDX Review
As do most of the top real estate web hosting companies do, realestatewebmasters offers MLS IDX integration. This is a great feature to have if your own brokerage will participate in it. Some brokerages such as Remax do not.
This is one of realestatewebmasters mls idx displays below. You can see how it lacks Google maps integration and is generally unappealing to the eye. Contrast with the attractive MLS IDX display offered by Realpagemaker, and you can why you'd much rather pay $70 a month for Realpagemaker.
Here is another review of realestatewebmasters from nofluffreviews.com:
* Expensive compared to others
* Agents ability to customize the IDX appears to be limited
* Indexing ability of listing data requires you to use their website/blogsite platform
* Search interface isn't guided and can lose some (less internet savvy) people with all the search options
This realestatewebmasters review doesn't mean that realestatewebmasters service won't work for your agency. They do have useful real estate hosting services and application add ons in their CMS including contact and lead management tools that can make presenting listings and managing them easier. The content management system allows you to add and edit your content . There is an extra paid module to help feature homes on your homepage. After you receive a quote from them and review the SEO capability of their templated, CMS driven platform, you might realize that their service is very risky given the investment required. Customized web design will be required at $150 per hour. Design should only be changed after considering SEO strategy. Full complete customized websites will be in the neighbourhood of $15k with $1k for yearly web site hosting. Add on modules are priced from $300 upward for each installed.
All you really need as a local real estate agent is a site that contains the content that home buyers and sellers want to see. Listings, information on homes, maps, mortgages, and taxes and give them first access to new homes up for sale. And you need that content well optimized by someone experienced who is working for one specific agent only in your city - You.
Hiring an Real Estate SEO specialist who will work on your site in a dedicated fashion is important. A specialist has no conflict of interest issues which these big hosting companies do have. Why would they favor you over ten other agents they're hosting in your city. To dominate Google and capture the Lion's share of traffic you need a dedicated and transparent Real Estate SEO specialist.
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Dedicated Real Estate Sales Marketing
Bay Street SEO has provided a number of real estate brokerages with top notch search engine optimization services. From Boston to San Diego to the Virgin Islands to West Virginia to Toronto to Denver, we've turned lacklustre real estate sites into the top visited sites in their real estate markets. If you've had Google Adwords campaigns, you know how expensive advertising is. The same results would have cost our clients tens of thousands of dollars in Adwords cost.
Real Estate Leads
How many web visits does it take to create one real customer? If only one real new client evolves from every 200 to 300 website visits, you might have one client every day.
The final result depends a lot on your website content, the urgency you present for them to contact you, and how well you can create the relationship with the home buyer or home seller.
What happen when a real estate agent finally decides to hire an experienced and competent real estate seo pro?
Contact Gord right now at 416-605-7026 to discuss your needs and what it will take for you to become the top agent in your region. It really can happen if you've got the drive to make it happen.
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