Feedback on site requested

[FloridaRealtor]

I have been working on this new site for a month off and on and am looking for feedback. Its great to learn from those of you that keep sharing!

I started with this site thinking that I would have a really clean and uncluttered interface. As I learned more it looks like I need to have 200+ words on each major page (still a lot to go) and finding the need to utilized more verbage to allow for multiple uses of my keywords and still have the site make some since to the target audience.

I have been working on the link exchange section and when I compare to the other sites in my market can see I have a long way to go to get towards the top of the google searches.

Anyway - I would appreciate any feedback that you are willing to provide!

Jupiter and Juno Beach real estate


Thanks
David Abernathy
www.KeysToFlorida.com

[HMiller]

David,

I like the look and feel of the site. It's neat and clean with plenty of 'white space' which makes it easy to read and navigate. I didn't spend a whole lot of time cruising through your site but I have a couple of suggestions:

In the browser title bar it reads: "KeysToFlorida.com - Jupiter Real Estate Team 561-628-0128 Seller information. Jupiter and Juno"
- I'd get rid of the domain name and tel# and just include some keywords you're
going after.

Also, I can tell you right off the bat that at least a couple of the banners you have at the bottom of your homepage are absolutely useless to you and provide you no benefit in terms of a link exchange. I'm talking about LinkRE and RealEstate4. If you're placing their banners on your site so that you get a backlink from them, then you might as well remove them because they're no help.

When I'm viewing your site using IE everything fits fine until I get to the very bottom of the page where I have to scroll to the right to see the name and address of your office. It's a minor thing but you may want to fix that so no scrolling is needed.

Last suggestion I have is I'd place your state by state directory right on your resources.htm page which brings your link exchange pages one click closer to your homepage. This will provide more benefit to your link partners. Also, on that same page I'd add info on how to go about exchanging links with your site.

I have to ask you how old your site is. I checked and noticed that none of your pages, including your homepage, have been cached by Google.

Good Luck with the site.

[FloridaRealtor]

Thanks for the quick feedback!

I will take your advice and chage the title pages...

Also thanks for the input about LinkRE and RealEstate4 - at least I won't have the clutter if I am not going to get any value from them.

The Realtor logo on the bottom of the home page is a direct link to the realtor state by state directory. I did that for exactly the reason that you suggested. providing more value to those that are willing to exchange links.

Yes this site was started in late January or early Feb? I am hoping to get out of the "Google sandbox" soon - or at least I keep hoping.

I should have put more effort in keeping my first real estate site to help with building links with others.

I look forward to hearing from others!!


Thanks
David Abernathy
Jupiter and Juno Beach real estate

[ResaleBroker]

Also thanks for the input about LinkRE and RealEstate4 - at least I won't have the clutter if I am not going to get any value from them.

Here are a couple thread you might find of interest:
Ugly Banners at bottom of pages
R.E. Directories that use 302 Redirects

The Realtor logo on the bottom of the home page is a direct link to the realtor state by state directory.

What logo are you talking about?

I am hoping to get out of the "Google sandbox" soon - or at least I keep hoping.

What are you seeing that leads you to believe your in the sandbox?

BTW, here's a great SEO tutorial that should help you with your site.

[FloridaRealtor]

Thanks ResaleBroker,


I added your sites to my Arizona page:
http://keystoflorida.com/realtors_arizona.htm

The link to the thread about the ugly banners was helpful. I will have to look into them more in the future.


The logo that I am referring to is the Realtor pin image between the Reals.com link and the RealEstate 100 icons. I must of messed up the link when I removed the LinkRE and the other link earlier tonight. I have replaced the link from the Realtor pin image to the page.


Sandbox - I can find my site in the results for both MSN and Yahoo. Yet no listings for Google yet. I had similiar results with my first site www.Jupiter-Realtors.com then after a while it started showing up in Google. I am not understanding this correctly?

Thanks for the education and the tutorial!


Thanks
David Abernathy
Jupiter and Juno Beach real estate

[ResaleBroker]

I added your sites to my Arizona page...

I appreciate the gesture. Like many others on the forum I'm not reciprocating links to pages that, among other things, haven't been cached. Keep reading the threads and tutorials and before you know it everyone will want to reciprocate links with you.

BTW, I noticed you are posting the Non-WWW version of your site. You might consider redirecting the Non-WWW version to the WWW version or vice versa to avoid any duplicate content or division of PR.

The link to the thread about the ugly banners was helpful. I will have to look into them more in the future.

BTW, you've linked to "Total Real Estate Solutions" which is another directory that uses 302 redirects.

The logo that I am referring to is the Realtor pin image between the Reals.com link and the RealEstate 100 icons.

You might consult the NAR Membership Marks Manual Part 2 about hyperlinking with that image.

I can find my site in the results for both MSN and Yahoo. Yet no listings for Google yet.

Give it time, add more backlinks and before you know it you'll be in Google's index.

[FloridaRealtor]

I appreciate the gesture. Like many others on the forum I'm not reciprocating links to pages that, among other things, haven't been cached. Keep reading the threads and tutorials and before you know it everyone will want to reciprocate links with you. .

Regardless of your policy on Links, Thanks for your time and sharing your experience!!!

BTW, I noticed you are posting the Non-WWW version of your site. You might consider redirecting the Non-WWW version to the WWW version or vice versa to avoid any duplicate content or division of PR..

I thought that everything I was doing was with the www.KeysToFlorida.com site and that the non-WWW site was redirecting. ARGGG! - I sent my hosting service a message requesting to have the www.KeysToFlorida.com be made into my primary then I will use a permanant redirect from the KeysToFlorida.com site to the www.KeysToFlorida.com site.

Is this the prefered option? If I have used www.KeysToFlorida.com in the 100+ links that I have coming to my site - am I correct that it is important that the redirect be from the KeysToFlorida.com side?

Thanks
Thanks again!!!

[ResaleBroker]

Regardless of your policy on Links, Thanks for your time and sharing your experience!!!

Happy to be of help.

I thought that everything I was doing was with the www.KeysToFlorida.com site and that the non-WWW site was redirecting. How can I tell? Is there a reference you can point me at to help here?

There are tons of tools for checking headers. For instance:URL Redirect Server Response Check.

If you check both versions, WWW and Non-WWW, you will get a "HTTP/1.1 200 OK" vs. HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently for one or the other. [See HTTP/1.1: Status Code Definitions].

You're on an Apache Server and chances are good that Mod_rewrite is configured so here is an example of the code you can place in your .htaccess file to redirect the Non-WWW version to the WWW version. If you're not familiar with .htaccess files let me know. Here is the code:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\.keystoflorida\.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*) http://www.keystoflorida.com/$1 [L,R=301]

[FloridaRealtor]

I am not familiar with the .htaccess file?


To make the changes that I should be making - do I need to get with my hosting service - or is this something I should be able to change?

[FloridaRealtor]

OK - I have been doing more research. Found the .htaccess file - current contents is the following:

Edited - I went ahead and added the text you provided.

It worked :-)


Thanks again

Dave
Jupiter and Juno Beach real estate investments and residential property.