Sean McCrory – Agent Reputation

Real Estate Website Design Primer: Understanding WordPress and SEO

The Internet has greatly changed the way homebuyers search for properties. According to the National Association of REALTORS® and Google, real estate-related queries on the search engine grew by 253% from 2009 to 2013. This number proves that having a website is imperative for real estate agents if they want to turn those queries into leads.

But if you are to have a website, be sure it’s one you actually own, not the barebone “site” that your brokerage provides you for free. And if you are going to commission real estate website design, there’s only one platform to consider—WordPress.

Why? Simple: WordPress is one of the most search engine optimization (SEO) friendly content management systems out there. As you might have heard, SEO involves performing tweaks to your site’s codes and its content that make it easier for search engines to parse, which positively affects your site’s ranking in search results. Luckily, Google happens to really like WordPress, as you’ll see below:

Search Friendly URLs

Have you ever encountered a webpage URL that’s a jumble of letters and characters? You might have wondered why the author didn’t just change it so it’s reflective of the page’s content. As it happens, you and Google are thinking the same thing. With WordPress, though, you can conveniently customize your URLs so search engines can easily make sense of your site’s contents.

Auto Ping

Every time you upload new content on your site, WordPress automatically sends out a “ping” to search engines alerting them of your latest post. This is crucial because Google tends to prioritize sites and pages that regularly post new content in search results.

SEO Plugins

WordPress also has a robust plugin selection, including those designed to automate search engine optimization. For instance, whenever you create new content, the SEO plugin will remind you to use keywords in the title and description of your post. As such, you can publish SEO-friendly content even after your website developer turns over control of the site to you.

Three-Click Rule

Good SEO practice dictates that all pages in your site should be accessible in three clicks or less. This is important because user experience also factors heavily into how Google ranks your site. Luckily, WordPress makes it easy to structure your website’s internal linking so that it follows this maxim.

Indeed, having your own website is one of the best realtor marketing ideas in today’s digital-savvy era. If you want to build your own website, make sure to ask your developer to use WordPress as your platform. And if you need help with developing your site, don’t hesitate to contact the experts for guidance on this process.

Sources:

Real Estate Searches Up 253%, Realtor.org

Why Search Engines Love WordPress, SEODesk.org

Reliable Source of Realtor Marketing Ideas Launches New Web Platform

Las Vegas, Nevada (March 11, 2016) – Agent Reputation, a reliable source of realtor marketing ideas launches a new version of their software, which also includes a new pricing structure. Agent reputation provides reputation marketing services to Realtors, real estate teams, and brokerages. “We’ve developed affordable packages for new real estate agents just starting out who are trying to generate their first reviews, and more comprehensive reputation packages for seasoned agents with hundreds of prior clients,” remarks Sean McCrory, President of Agent Reputation.

Agent Reputation has also developed a new tool called the “Text Messaging Review Generator” that helps agents generate new reviews at an open house, or just after a property showing. The new tool means agents don’t have to wait until after a closing to get new reviews. Many of their clients report they are generating more leads online because people can access their reviews on sites they trust, like Google and Yelp.

As a development partner with Agent Evolution, IDX Broker and Emerge, Agent Reputation is familiar with the latest trends in creating quality real estate web designs. The company has put together a top design team to develop lead producing websites built on the WordPress platform. These websites also make use of their cutting edge reputation marketing software.

Agent Reputation is a company that helps their clients build their online reputation on sites like Google, Yelp, Facebook, and other major online directories and social sharing sites.

For more marketing tips for real estate agents, or to schedule a free online demo visit their website at www.agentreputation.net

How To Earn Clients With A 5 Star Online Reputation

Your online reputation is made up by everything people are saying about you, or what they’re not saying. Potential listing or buying clients will determine who they will choose to represent them based on what they can find out about you online. You can control how you will appear and earn more clients by learning how to create a 5 star online rating for your business.

85% of consumers use the internet for research before making a decision. – Yelp

When you do a search online for your name, or company name, what do you find? When a listing client can’t find much information about you, where do you think they feel their listing will show up online? Both buyers and sellers want to see what other people are saying about you on sites they trust, like Google, Yelp, and Facebook.

The power to create a lead generating online reputation is literally at your fingertips. Treat every current and future client like a new potential 5 star review! Earn positive reviews from clients in order to show potential clients that you are the agent to trust.

Many of our clients tell us that by increasing their online reputation, they are generating 3-5 times the amount of leads from the dollars they’re spending on marketing. Clients have also told us that they have a higher conversion ratio of the leads they’re buying, because their reviews are so easy to find on trusted sites like Google.

Realtor Marketing Ideas

Own Your Website and Domain

If you are using your corporate/brokerage website platform, you generally don’t have much control over SEO, content, and other important factors when it comes to getting your website ranked favorably on Google. Even if you aren’t ready for your own real estate website design, you may consider purchasing domains that ought to belong to you or your business. This keeps them out of the hands of someone that may use it in a way that will hurt your online reputation, or demand that you pay an absurdly high price to get it back.

Earn Positive Reviews on Trusted Sites

One of the best marketing tips for real estate agents is building and marketing a 5 star online reputation. Start off with exceptional customer service, and have a system in place to allow you to capture feedback from every client. An effective reputation marketing strategy involves using a system that includes:

Gathering feedback from new, current, and past clients
A system to address client concerns before they become negative reviews
An easy way for clients to leave feedback
An easy way to get your feedback posted to trusted review websites like Google, Yelp, and Facebook
Continuous monitoring of client reviews that are posted about you online

Create and Manage Your Business Information Online

Surveys show that half of local searches are for business information such as address, phone, and hours. Search engines like Google pull this information from many sources across the internet, and most are from business listings. Some listings you may have created yourself, and some are created automatically by sites like Yelp, Merchant Circle, and more. It is very important for all your business listings to have consistent and accurate information. Inaccurate or missing information from your listings can be very damaging. Search engines can detect inconsistent information across your business listings, and search engines do not like to give inaccurate information. This can result in lower search results, rankings, and leads.

Do you want to see how you show up on local directories? Get a free business listing scan here.

Take Control of Your Online Reputation

When you take into consideration the amount of extra leads you can generate by having a superior presence and reputation than your nearest competitors online, building a 5 star reputation should be a number one priority!

For more tips, or to schedule an online demo of our services, visit us at www.agentreputation.net

Insider’s Guide To Online Reviews For Realtors

Online reviews play an increasingly important role in the decision-making process of today’s consumers.

Think about your purchasing habits. If you go to Amazon to buy anything, you pay close attention to the customer reviews and the number of stars the product has received. You might even read a few reviews to see what positive and negative experiences other buyers have had with the product. Increasingly, the same is true for people shopping for anything, including real estate service providers.

Reviews are now a vital part of the research process for your leads and prospects. They want first-hand insight from other consumers that have used your services and, if they don’t find reviews of your business online, they may continue their search without you. The numbers tell a similar story. Consumers trust peer recommendations, like online reviews, 6.5 times more than traditional advertising. And that trust is increasing. In 2013, 73% of consumers trusted reviews — that’s a 15% increase over the year before. As a real estate professional, you simply can’t afford not to have reviews online.

While there are quite a few tips and tactics you should apply to your review strategy, the best way to get your first online reviews is just to ask. You’d be surprised how willing happy customers are to post a review if they’re asked.

We recently had the opportunity to gain early access to the T3 Experts 2014 Agent Reviews and Lead Generation Survey. The findings are astounding — not only do positive reviews help close the immediate deal at hand, but they become a highly effective word-of mouth marketing tool.

Do you have a plan for getting reviews for your work as a real estate agent, broker or team? Even if you have a plan, study the infographic we’ve put together, The Insider’s Guide to Online Reviews for Real Estate, and start generating online reviews on a consistent basis to drive leads and referrals to your business. Let us know if reviews are playing a part of your marketing plan by leaving a comment below!

– Written by Seth Price

Real Estate Not Showing In Google 7 Pack – Or Is It?

About one week ago, realtors all over the country woke up to find that they were no longer showing up in Google’s search results for terms like “Real Estate Las Vegas NV”. Most real estate agencies that show up on page 1 of Google are showing up in the Google 7 pack or 3 pack.

However, about 1 week ago, the real estate 7 packs were gone! There has been no full explanation from Google at this time. They are calling this the “Pigeon Update” and it has been causing panic for many realtors all over the country.

Here is something you may not know… Try doing a search for “Real Estate Reviews Las Vegas NV”, or “Real Estate Agency Reviews Las Vegas NV”, or “Realtor Reviews Las Vegas NV”, or any other city. The real estate 7 packs are back! Or perhaps they never left.

Look At This Example Of Search Done After The Last Google Algorithm Update 7/24/2014

This example clearly shows that if you add the word “reviews” to most search terms having to do with real estate, the Google 7 or 3 pack is being displayed. What this tells me, and what we have been saying for a while now, is that your online reputation is your most important marketing tool. Google putting so much emphasis on the word “Reviews” goes to show you how important your online reviews are.

DUI Attorneys have also seen their 7 pack listings disappear when doing a search for “DUI Attorney Las Vegas NV” or any other city and state. Try the same thing by doing a search for “DUI Attorney Reviews Las Vegas NV” and you’ll see the Google 7 pack re-appear. It seems this new Google “Pigeon” update is focusing heavily on reviews, and how the 7 pack results are to be displayed.

Google, Amazon, Facebook, and other major sites and directories know that consumers are looking for reviews, no matter what product or service they’re considering. Real estate is no different; in fact, even more so when you consider that for most people their home is their biggest asset. Referrals have always been most realtors bread and butter, which is exactly what a review is. However, with an online review, you’re not the only one seeing the referral. The whole world is, which means more leads for you!

Realtors looking to compete in this market need to focus on their reputation first, before spending dollars on all other forms of marketing. If you’re spending marketing dollars on PPC, SEO, Flyers, Radio, or even if someone refers you, consumers are still going to Google you. What they find can determine whose phone rings first – yours or your competitors.

Written by: Sean McCrory
www.agentreputation.net

Real Estate Leads Made Easy With Groundbreaking Service

Agent Reputation is a company which is dedicated to empowering realtors to increase their listings and sales. They do this by providing clients with tools which enable them to generate more leads, listings and ultimately sales. The company recently announced a groundbreaking service for helping realtors to generate real estate leads by helping them build a 5 star reputation.

The service is designed to enable realtors to generate reviews from both present and past clients. Positive reviews posted the right websites can create a platform for marketing by enhancing a realtor’s online reputation, and thereby attracting potential clients to engage in their services. Agent Reputation provides realtors with innovative tools to generate and post reviews on popular sites like Google, Yahoo, Bing as well as social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

According to sources at Agent Reputation the innovative tools include custom postcards, business cards and email templates. These tools are specifically designed to help with generating positive reviews in a simple, straight-forward and hastle-free manner. The goal is to make it extremely easy for clients to provide feedback. As such, the company has created a very effective mechanism for generating customer reviews.

This mechanism is a custom online review portal which the company can build for any realtor. The portal enables a client to review the realtor’s site or services quickly and easily. Through the portal, a client can post a review in a matter of minutes, without a need to sign in or register. The realtor can send the client an email link to the portal. Alternatively, they can ask for an immediate review after closing a deal (e.g. by simply handing the client an iPad with the portal). The portal enables a realtor to generate more positive reviews. Given the fact that clients tend to read reviews before choosing a realtor, more positive reviews can help a realtor to generate lots of new real estate leads.

After generating the reviews, Agent Reputation has proprietary systems and processes to help your clients get their reviews posted on top websites like Google, Bing, Yahoo, Yelp, and many others. Agent Reputation also posts the reviews to social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr, Photobucket and Pinterest. The company also posts video testimonials to the realtor’s YouTube channel. It then creates a custom review page on the realtor’s website where it streams reviews from all over the internet. Posting reviews to these various platforms can greatly increase the amount of leads generated.

Agent Reputation provides an extensive online reputation monitoring and reporting system. Its advanced software continuously monitors the entire web for reviews and comments posted about the realtor. It then provides extensive reports detailing the number and nature of reviews, as well as the websites where they have been posted to. This provides a realtor with a feedback mechanism on which they can make informed decisions on how to improve their marketing strategy.

The best part about Agent Reputation’s service is that it is based on a solid understanding of the real estate industry. All the tools are designed to address the unique challenges faced by realtors both locally and internationally. They are also designed to exploit the unique opportunities currently available in the market. As such, they can provide a realtor with a real competitive edge in the industry. Therefore, any realtor who desires to be competitive in the real estate industry cannot afford to miss out on this unique opportunity.

Agent Reputation’s services helps realtors increase the ROI on all their marketing efforts by building and leveraging a 5 star online reputation for their clients. For more information including a free online demo, visit the company’s official website, https://content.agentreputation.net.

Why A 5 Star Reputation Is So Important Before Starting An SEO Campaign

A well-done SEO campaign can give you a huge edge over both your direct and indirect competitors, allowing your company to enjoy exponentially greater returns on investment. However, if you really want to make the most out of your SEO campaign and squeeze every single benefit out of it, it is imperative to know and apply three key factors prior to designing an SEO strategy.

1. Build Up A Strong Reputation Online

Before spending thousands of dollars on SEO to get your website in the top search results, you must have a 5 star online reputation in order to maximize your ROI. Otherwise, after you achieve page 1 results, you may realize that no one is willing to engage your services because you have a bad reputation, or no reputation at all. Potential clients are much more willing to list their property with you if you have a 4.5 or 5 star reputation. Most people completely ignore a business with less than a 4 star reputation.

2. Focus On The Right Keywords

Secondly, you need to build your SEO strategy around the right keywords for the real estate industry. If you choose to hire a professional SEO firm, make sure their keyword research is accurate. In other words, the keywords you want to rank are those used by potential clients who are looking for realtor reviews and a strong online reputation. Most realtors try to rank for “Real Estate City”, “City Real Estate”, or “Realtor City”. These are all good keywords to rank for, but if you’ve built a 5 star online reputation and someone searches “Best Realtor City”, or “Realtor Reviews City” and you show up on page 1 with the most positive reviews, who do you think they are likely to call first?

3. A Powerful Call to Action

The last thing you need to consider before launching a strong SEO campaign is choosing an irresistible offer using a strong call to action. You now have a 5 star reputation due to a strong reputation marketing strategy, and you have found the right keywords to rank you on the first pages of Google. There is only one thing left – convert traffic into leads! You might be surprised how often this important aspect is overlooked. Try to avoid this pitfall at any cost! Start designing a powerful call to action and find the right place on your website to incorporate it.

Your Reputation Equals More Clients

The Internet is an ever-changing place, and many realtors are unaware of some important changes that have taken place. One of these changes is that Google has recently implemented their own review system, which shows realtor information when people search for specific realtors.

This information can help ensure that people choose you as a realtor, but it can also help ensure that people don’t choose you, if not properly used.

Reviews are an important part of marketing on the Internet. People leave reviews in various places, such as Yelp and other review sites. However, Google reviews are especially important because they are the ones that show up when people search your name on that search engine.

Given the huge numbers of people who use Google as their primary search engine, this is a way to reach many potential customers.

Having at least 10 Google reviews means having your own listing with a Google score. This score shows how many positive reviews you have for every negative review. A Google score can make it easier for people to make a quick choice about whether to pursue investigating you.

Getting people to contribute reviews to Google is an important part of building a 5 star reputation. However, many people don’t want to take the time to do so. One way to improve your success rate at getting customers to post reviews is to make it easier. This means helping them avoid sign up screens and other lengthy processes other than actually writing the review.

Whether you have a few reviews but want more or have never heard of Google reviews, you can improve your standing by pursuing this type of marketing. An optimized Google listing makes people more likely to click on your link, which is essential if they are going to even consider your services.

As realtors reputation matters in gaining new clients. Your online reputation is beginning to be just as important, or perhaps even more important than those in the non-virtual world.