Did you know that you can add a virtual tour/photo gallery, reposition the listing on the map, and overwrite the MLS comments from your GraphicalData Admin Center?

After logging in, hover above LISTINGS on the top navigation bar, and select INVENTORY.  You will then be taken to all of your listings, from most expensive to least.  You can now navigate to the listing you wish to alter, and either click on the picture, or the listing number to the right of the picture.

You will then be on the Listing Information page, where items can be modified.  The 3 boxes under Virtual Tours can be used for Photo Galleries, Virtual Tours, or other media for this listing.  Beneath this section is the Listing Description, anything you enter here will overwrite the MLS remarks only on GraphicalData websites.

To the right of this feature is the map where you can change the position of the property if positioned incorrectly.  If you CLICK HERE TO REPOSITION PROPERTY you will go to a different page that has the location of the property, you can then click and drag the sign to the desired location.  After it is in the correct spot, click UPDATE LAT/LONG.

If at any time you have any questions, do not hesitate to give me a call and I can help in gettin things straightened out.

Are you still saying, “I don’t need to syndicate my listings?”  It is amazing how many agents still don’t syndicate their listings.  The idea that putting your listing in a real estate magazine or local Sunday paper is still the best approach is absurd.  When 85% of buyers found the home they purchased on the internet, it only makes sense to syndicate.  Drew Meyers of Zillow.com wrote a post on GeekEstateBlog about this very subject.  It includes a great video done by Greg Afarian of Zipvo.com on his issues with agents that still don’t syndicate.  In my opinion, you need to get with this technology.  You clients expect it as  part of the marketing to get their home sold.

We often see real estate websites on the internet that we refer to as “Realtor-in-the-Box-Sites”. These are sites that cater to real estate agents and offer some of the types of products that we have available. However, there are usually major differences…

Many of these sites are based on what we call “active server pages” technology. These (website) pages don’t actually exist in real time…each page is generated dynamically when it is called up (by clicking on the page’s button in the nav bar). These pages don’t really exist in real time for a search engine to crawl, compounded by the fact that they often have a “query string in the URL than can confuse a a search engine’s “crawler”, thereby making it more difficult to index.

Some sites do not allow you the ability to modify the title tag in the head section. This is one of the most important areas to control for search engine rankings. Your business and the area of your business should certainly be reflected in this section (ie. Bellevue Washington Real Estate and Relocation).

Of course, it is also beneficial to be able to control the content of your Meta description and keywords tags.

Your site should allow you to control the sizes and emphasis (ie BOLD) of your fonts. Search engines perceive larger sizes and emphasis to be important.

You should have the ability to provide ample amounts of text (in real live html format) on your page, not generated into graphics. Search engines read html text. They don’t read graphics. The text on your page should be good, “honest content” and reflect what your site is really all about. This means good target words/phrases that describe your area/business. Remember this: Good quality, relevant content is king! If you provide that, your ranking will nearly take care of itself.

You should have the ability to add ALT tags (Alternative Text) to any graphics (You know, the text that pops up when you hold your cursor over a graphic).

It is also important that your keyword phrases be used as html in your buttons (links)…and on GraphicalData sites, if you provide for the keywords in the button name, our system automatically takes care of this for you, so you don’t even need to worry about it.

Your site should, if at all possible, provide for a site map of your website. Many search engines like them, especially Google. We provide for a static html site map as well as XML.

Actually all of the above criteria that I have touched upon happens in the best light on a GraphicalData website. We want to not only provide the best in real estate web sites, but also make them search engine friendly…and the best part of all…you can control most of it yourself (unless you really don’t feel comfortable doing so…then we are more than happy to assist).

Part two in a multi-part series on improving your ad-writing skills.

As you may recall, last time I introduced you to the AIDA formula for successful advertisements. This time, I’m going to give you a little more advice on the first item in that formula: Attention!

Your headline or hook may be short on words, but it’s long on importance. According to David Ogilvy, the renowned advertising magnate, 80% of people will read a headline and skip the rest of an ad completely. In that case, your headline needs to do all of the work to reach most of the people.

As previously stated, your headline needs to get attention, but beyond that, it needs to get the right kind of attention. It needs to define your audience. If you’re selling a home in the suburbs, you want your headline to attract buyers who are looking for a suburban home-not an urban or rural one.

And it’s not enough to get them to stop and look at your headline-you want to get your reader to keep going and look at the body of your ad.

Here are a few tips for writing headlines that do just that:

» Continue reading “10 tips for writing effective real estate headlines”

28 Pro-active AND inexpensive steps you can take today to improve your real estate business:

1. Send out unsolicited CMA’s, follow up with a phone call.
2. Hand written notes to your clients.
3. Call 50 houses around your new listing
4. Door knock 50 houses around your new listing
5. More photos for each of your listings
6. Blog (Limit your time spent here)
7. Do your own SEO work on your website (Limit your time spent here)
8. Call expired listings
9. Use drip e-mail marketing
10. Talk with FSBO’s

» Continue reading “Steps You Can Take to Improve Your Business”

Just Released - NeighborhoodDigest

Provide your visitors with the best in neighborhood trends as well as the current inventory of homes listed for sale…and even recent sales.

Visitors can create a profile on your website and then request a neighborhood report to be emailed to them monthly. From this report, they will be able to view interesting information such as:

• Active neighborhood inventory
• Number of recent sales
• Number of new listings
• Median listing and selling prices
• Supply of inventory
• Trends from previous month
• List price to sale price ratio
• Days on market

This is an easy way to acquire leads from your website*.  As a GraphicalData website subscriber, there is no need to do anything on your part, this new feature appears as an option when a full listing is displayed and your visitor can take it from there.

Each report that goes out is branded to the website owner with photo, contact information and website address. Each report has been designed to be easy to understand and provide the information that your visitors are looking for. And best of all, these reports are updated each month as the MLS updates their information.

This is a great informational tool created to help set GraphicalData users apart from the competition and in front of your visitors and clients. No additional work needed on your behalf…enjoy a tool most others don’t have.

View what the NeighborhoodDigest looks like.

*Currently available in MLS areas where neighborhoods are defined for a search.

There are new website styles available for your GraphicalData style-based websites.

To view styles available,  log into your GraphicalData Dashboard and visit the website section.  Then select the “Website Design & Style” section. You can scroll through the styles provided and find all styles — new and previously existing styles — including styles based on wider monitor resolutions.

Each style usually has several color selections to choose from as well.

We will continue to add new styles on a frequent basis, so check back often.