I recently sent out a “Thank You” email to our newest Dakno clients for attending their first Dakno Admin Training Webinar. For those of you who were busy and couldn’t attend, fear not, you have another chance to attend our Dakno Website Training Webinar on the first Thursday of February (2/7/13) at 3PM EST.
Because it’s important to get your new Dakno website off to the best possible start, here are a few tips to help make that happen:
First, Leverage Your Google+ Presence
Using your Google+ profile, list your business on Google Local (the Google mapped results for real estate agents in your city). See if your business is already listed with Google.
While you’re at it, also list your business with Yelp, CitySearch, and Yellow Pages. When adding your business make certain your business name and contact info is an exact match on every review site as well as your website.
Real Estate Reviews – The Ying and The Yang
There’s a “Ying and Yang” to reviews. While it’s important to get great reviews, it also helpful to write genuine reviews. It’s equally important to “review your reviews” at the above sites to see what you do well and what you don’t do so well. That way you can work on those areas in need of improvement. Of course, it’s important that you ask for honest, genuine reviews from your clients. Ratings and reviews seriously impact search results. Plus, its a terrific way to monitor your online reputation.
Links – Links – Links!
List your site on local, regional, and national sites. Examples of local sites would be your local TV station, radio stations, and newspaper sites. Examples of regional sites would be a site like Patch.com. National site examples where you can build profiles and links would be REALTOR.com, Trulia.com, Zillow.com and Inman.com. Just be sure when describing your site link you would be wise to use your targeted keywords in your alt text. (example: Dakno Real Estate Web Design)
What are Your Keywords?
Use your targeted keywords for your content. The easiest tool to see what keywords you should be targeting is to use the Google Keyword Tool.
Where Do I Start with Content?
The most often question asked by new site owners is “what content do I start adding/building to my new Dakno site? Great question! Go hyper-local! Start adding your neighborhoods, condo buildings, communities, and towns. Begin systematically adding your targeted neighborhoods and condo buildings to your site. Remember, the goal isn’t how many neighborhood pages and condo pages you can add but the quality of the content you add for each neighborhood and condo building. Set realistic goals and make sure the copy convey high value information about the communities. These include amenities of the community, what’s nearby the communities and what listings are available for those neighborhoods or condo buildings. This information is very compelling to potential buyers. Think about adding a wide variety of types of content. This includes text, video, images, and stats/graphs.
Usability of Your Site
Even in the early stages of your site, audit your site’s usability, accessibility, and content. Here was today’s web tip on our Dakno Facebook page: “Send an email to your past clients and ask them to name 5 things they look for when they visit your real estate website. Then make sure your site includes that information as well as make certain it can be easily found on your site. This is a terrific idea for new Dakno website owners.” Another idea would be to offer a friend a Starbucks gift card to navigate your site and watch where they navigate. Track when they click the back button. Those could be dead-ends on your site and might be opportunities for people to bounce from your site.
What other steps do you take to ensure your site is off to a great start?
If you have any questions about these tips, feel free to leave a comment below!
P.S. Don’t forget to join us in the next Dakno Admin Webinar Training Session on 2/7 at 3 PM EST.