Tags in Active Rain? Helpful or Hurtful?

[OCTeam]

I have to disagree with that. I think the REW blogs are far superior in what you can do with them. With REW you can add listings, static pages, and blog pages, not to mention the upgraded look and REW's ability to rank for Real Estate related terms. No comparison IMO

I agree with Wayne about REW blogs. Much of AR has turned into a spam machine for agents who apparently have nothing else to do but puff their egos and post mindless acolades about how wonderful they are. We do just fine without AR in the arsenal as our websites seem to do well for now.

[Bhamhomes]

I'm not a big fan of AR at all. The best option for real estate agents has to be either a stand alone blog using Wordpress, using your own domain name, or using a built in blog with your website...like with REW. There are several other providers out there that offer blogs with their web sites, but I don't think any of them stack up to a custom rew blog attached to one's web site. I just don't understand why any one would not want to own their own product outside of one of these blog communities...it really doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. I guess if you think it works for you...well continue on...

[GreggRio]

Bham, I get practically no pull with my own site with my attached blog.Maybe with time that will improve, but until then, I get in top 5 spots with AR or REW blogs for specific KW's. I think that for many that and if you have been on this forum for awhile, the links have more boost than most people's blogs will have. Prolific bloggers, are a different story. I'm open to suggestion on how to make mine better if you have some. I do have a separate wordpress one as well.

[Bhamhomes]

Hey Gregg - How long have you had your REW web site? Looks like you added your blog to the site around Dec. 26, 2007. That's not to much history yet...I would give it some more time. One observation though on your blog is that the title tag only says "My Blog". That's not doing you any favors to start with. I would change your blog title tag to something like... "Santa Cruz Real Estate Blog | Santa Cruz CA Real Estate Market" or for something shorter...at least "Santa Cruz Real Estate Blog".

I quick glance at your web site and I also noticed that your title tags and meta descriptions could use some tuning up. Proper title tags are a quick fix and give you the most bang for starters. Actually even some of your page names should be changed as well...but do that part slower. Once you change the name to a page your virtually starting over on indexing with the new page url name...so only do it if the benefit totally makes sense.

Finally...I would re-think about why your blogging on Active Rain, REW blogs, a separate Wordpress blog, and your attached blog to your site. that's blogging in four places. If I was you...I would put some serious thought into tuning up your REW site blog first and blog there the most. Secondly...I would blog at rew...and not split your time between that one and AR. Plus you mentioned a WP blog. The internal juice that you could be benefiting from linking from your site to your attached blog and vice versa totally outwieghs those points your chasing at AR....

I'll look at your site sometime in the next couple weeks and either pm you or post here. good luck man...

[Mark Z]

Those are some great points Jerry!

[Pinehurst Real Estate Guy]

Good practical common sense, thanks for keeping us focused and not scattered here and there.

[GreggRio]

Thanks, I really appreciate your thoughts, this has been like learning greek when I speak swahili I have lots of words, but the sentences don't always make sense I'll PM you as to what you mean for examples. Thanks again.

[Bhamhomes]

Gregg - There is one thing I noticed with REW attached blogs and its that the Title tag for your blog always follows the name. For instance if you wrote a post called "Santa Cruz Real Estate Market Spring 2008" it would appear in the Title bar at the top as "Santa Cruz Real Estate Market Spring 2008 - My Blog". On my Point2 blog attached to that site It would be in reverse, with the post title always following the "My Blog" or in my case "Bellingham WA Real Estate Blog". It's the same with my wordpress blog where the post title follows the Blog title. I would much prefer the look I've got with those two blogs because it's cleaner looking and pushes my market first and post following.

I put in a request to add a blog to my rew site the other day. That's not really the look that I would want for a Title bar or for a returned result in G. So I'm hoping there is a better option with that situation.

[mjgiorgianni@gmail.com]

Interesting, never knew active rain was that complicated