In 1996, at the dawn of online real estate time, broker and agent
websites were a garish melange of glamor shots, animated gifs,
table-laden code, photo-less listings and clip art. In the course of
the next ten years, the tenets of website usability seeped into the
industry. While many real estate pros clung to the old way, many more cleaned up their act.
Then came blogs, the platform that channeled the knowledge between
the Realtor’s ears directly to consumers. No forms, no lead capture, no
spammy mess. A great thing.
But many blogs I visit these days are starting to look like their
primitive ancestors. Widgets, chiclets, gadgets, avatars, blog rolls,
comment lists, clouds and other clutter are strewn across my screen
with little thought. I can always pick out the top post, but finding
most anything else is often more trouble than it’s worth.
The flexibility of blog platforms and the free for all ethic of web 2.0 can be taken too far. The user is still important.
I’m thinking about this because we just updated the 1000watt Blog
interface. We needed to add a few things (e.g., search and email
subscription functions) but wanted to keep it simple. Let us know what
you think. I’ve always been of the school that less is more on a
website. The point of diminishing returns on features, copy and
navigation is reached very quickly. I also favor usability over SEO.
I’d rather have one visitor that comes to my site based on word of
mouth than 10 that stumble across it in the long tail. My thinking here
may seem antique, but it has served me well to date.
The best book I’ve ever read on website usability is Don’t make me think
by Steve Krug. The thesis is the title: If a visitor to your site (or
your blog) has to think, you’ve failed. Everything must be self-evident
or easily inferred. Make no assumptions. Utility always. It’s a simple
book loaded with a great examples. It predates Web 2.0, but that does
not matter. Users are still the same. Ignore them at your own risk!
– Brian Boero
Local, Mobile, Social and the future of real estate
20 Tools to Bring your Real Estate Business to the Cloud
15 Ways to Make Your Marketing Mobile
Updated blog looks great. Loved the book "Don't make me think". Best part about this blog is the content. Keep the great posts rolling.
Love the blog content as well as the clean, uncluttered look.
Two more great books to read:
"Call to Action: Secret Formulas to Improve Online Results" and "Waiting for Your Cat to Bark?: Persuading Customers When They Ignore Marketing".
Two of the most insightful books on designing for usability and behaving in a manner consistent with the expectations of the connected, savvy consumers immersed in the age of the internet.
The long tail serves the individual agent well, particularly when competing against large brokerages with big budgets who so thoroughly dominate the most obvious online destinations.
It also serves the new agent in the business well, as the new agents are the people still developing that sphere of influence that will build their word of mouth business.
You have to start somewhere, right?
Finding a small, less competitive niche and dominating it is always more profitable and easier to acheive than taking on those who dominate the opposite end of the tail.
Additionally, perhaps your definition of SEO is a bit skewed.
Is it wrong to optimize your site in conjunction with a well conceived marketing plan that includes the concept that Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft play major roles in helping consumers find what they are looking for?
I don't think so.
I think that's just smart business.
One more thought to put out there for you…
The people at Google and the other engines are smart.
Very smart.
They are three steps ahead of you at all times.
If you're busy optimizing for search without providing any real meat for the online consumer to sink their teeth into, they'll figure that out very quickly, and your site will never be found in the long tail or anywhere else for that matter.
SEO for SEO's sake is a losing proposition. SEO in the context of designing for overall usability is what makes the difference between an average site and a good or great one.
Thanks for a great blog that makes me think.
Thanks for the feedback and the book recommendations. You are quite right about a balanced approach to SEO, which I am not writing off entirely.
I also believe that word of mouth visits beat SEO. I'm encouraging agents to use word of mouth to promote their own spherecentric blogs within their sphere. Trying to dominate search words is a losing battle in the era of cynical web 2.0 creations with dozens of interlinking pages that offer no useful content.
Speaking of which, it does no good to attract eyeballs to a blog if all they find is junk copied and pasted from the local association website like "50 things a FSBO has to know" with a bunch of "atta-boy" replies from other agents.
I've seen too many RE blogs that consisted of:
* Agents posting for other agents
* Agents posting to vent their own frustration
The key to blogging is common interests and valuable or entertaining information. If you are an agent and your audience is other agents, your blog obviously has the wrong focus and tone.
You are doomed if you focus on the technology and ignore the fundamentals. RE blogging is about attracting people into your sphere and increasing the frequency of communication within your sphere. Whether that communication pulls people closer or pushes them out is entirely up to you, but all the SEO in the world won't save a blog that is written for the wrong audience or is written solely for the benefit of the author.
Great post Frank. You nailed it!
This is a quote from Seth Godin
"The most effective marketing use of blogs seems to be when the advertiser/marketer uses the blog as an opportunity not to sell a product, but to attract people who are in the right mindset.
Attract people in trouble–>Help solve their problems–>Build your reputation–>Sales happen.
Hey Marc ~
Your photo looks like a police booking shot (with your head cut off)
You can get quite a chuckle out of some agents websites, but it's hard to argue with effectiveness. I admit the example you gave, http://www.debbieferrari.com, is aesthetically outdated and visually confusing. However, due to committed SEO and longevity on the web, her website is consistently #1 in Google. Even for surprising search terms such as "California Internet Broker". Why should she change her website to please us?
The messages here are contradictory. We're told to design for the vast real estate "public", then chastised for doing just that and not appealing to techno geeks and web design professionals.
Obviously, Ferrari's website appeals to many, or at least to her customers and clients. She may have a different demographic than a new agent in their 20's or 30's, so why mess with success?
Marlow, Debbie's site is an exception to the rule, and one that many agents with fewer years on the web model at their own peril. I would also argue that Debbie could be even more successful if she took the time to carefully update her site.
Design professionals? Who cares! Does the site appeal to clients and prospects? That's more important than SEO. The point is that the basics of real estate marketing are more important than reach. Having a lousy website with high SEO is like having a lousy flyer and sending it to a larger farm.
Try searching for "Willow Glen Real Estate" and see who has the top spots. Industry sites like Trulia and fugazi lead collectors. The one agent I found had a static page. Click on featured homes and get no listings. Who is going to visit twice?
Personally I think the search engines are abusing their users by directing them to sites like this one from The Boulevards Real Estate Network.
http://www.willow-glen.com/realestate/
Can the average agent hope to beat "professional" SEO $lut$ like The Boulevards to the top of Google's list?
Seems to me like SEO is yet another silver bullet or magic pill. I wouldn't ignore it, but website design and integrated marketing are more important. If it comes down to SEO versus usability, stick with usability or you won't achieve retention anyway.
Just a quick follow up on the issue of design simplification.
It surprises me that brokers and agents who live for simplicity appear to buy websites based on thud factor, which is the opposite of simplicity. Would the average broker or agent have the patience to use his own site (or blog) as a resource. If their answer is "no", what makes them think that prospects will answer "yes."
If I am a potential seller, do I need all the buttons on the left linking to school information, utilities, and the rest of the local padding?
Shouldn't there be a very simple branching point for…
Buyer
Seller
Investor
… which leads to the information I would need based on the role I've chosen?
When I see a menu of twenty choices down the right or left side, my eyes start to glaze over and I reach for my mouse to find an easier site. Being encyclopedic is not the most effective approach, which is the issue at the heart of Brian's original comment. Eschew thud factor in favor of value, regardless of the SEO implications.
Eschew thud factor in favor of value, regardless of the SEO implications.
This is exactly what proper SEO is – removing the spam, focusing in on your key business propositions and making useful content easy to find through a clear and concise implementation of your web strategy.
People who think SEO is tricks and scams that improve your search engine rankings would be incorrect. In fact, Google and the other engines are very keen to diagnose what is called "black hat" SEO, and sites that rely on deception and trickery eventually are discovered by Google and removed from their indexes altogether.
SEO is not a bad thing.
SEO is making sure your web site stays on topic and on target with your intended messages.
In my book, that's called smart marketing.
Being on Google's page one does not translate to business. Ferrari's site might have 1,000 uniques a day but what if 999 of them click off immediately or end up on a wild goose chase clicking link after link looking for things like listings that never seem to materialize.
With Camoves.com and Ziprealty.com placed at the top of the results page that both offer the most robust listing feed for Orange County, how can sites like Debbi's hope to compete with that?
Take it one step further.
Not only do you have to have content that keeps users from returning to the Google results to find what they want, but you also need a consistent and carefully crafted system of follow up and true customer service to convert those ubiquitous leads into true client/agent relationships that lead to closed transactions.
1. Anyone can put up an IDX or VOW web site.
2. Anyone can buy the top spot in Google or Yahoo through PPC
3. Where most people fall down is in the electronic and personal relationship building that results in closed transactions and life long repeat business from your web leads.
So much time and money are invested in #1 and #2, and it's all flushed down the drain by not executing #3.
Love the blog content as well as the clean, uncluttered look.
Two more great books to read:
"Call to Action: Secret Formulas to Improve Online Results" and "Waiting for Your Cat to Bark?: Persuading Customers When They Ignore Marketing".
Two of the most insightful books on designing for usability and behaving in a manner consistent with the expectations of the connected, savvy consumers immersed in the age of the internet.