The easy answer is no - you will get a lot of people saying "but you can make them rank well" but that is not the same thing as search engine friendly, the fact is there is a lot AA needs to do to earn the label "search engine friendly"

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Webmasters who spend their energies upholding the spirit of the basic principles [Of Google] will provide a much better user experience and subsequently enjoy better ranking than those who spend their time looking for loopholes they can exploit. Google.com

I used to comment make comments on sites on improving usability and search engine friendliness when requests were made, but I came to the conclusion that the majority of the requesters only wanted compliments.

Many, perhaps most, real estate web sites are user and search engine hostile because of bloated code, overuse of images, flash, java script and error ridden html. These things cut down on accessibility and usability for visitor and search engine alike. What is the site's purpose and what does the agent want to accomplish? If it is to get compliments, you can accomplish that, but isn't the real purpose of a web site to get leads and make sales? Search engines are blind to images, flash and java script and have difficulty crawling bad html.

Here is my advise to real estate professionals who contact me:

1. invest in a good design. Graphic artists charge $200-500 for a design.

2. convert the design into a user/search engine friendly template. $200 - 300 dollars.

3. write 20 - 30 pages of content for the web site. If the realtor can not do it him/herself I refer them to a writing agency which charges $50 - 75 for original articles 450-600 words. Content is king!

4. put IDX on your site. Integrated is best but at least IDX frames if you don't want to invest in the integration. I can not emphasize enough that content is king and listings is the content that visitors want. $50- 2000.

5. Hire a SEO agency. $50 - 100 month.

Needless to say not many will follow my advice which of course delights their competitors. Add it up and compare to the potential marketing value and it's a bargain. What is one commission on a $200,000 home and many homes now sell for much more. Here is another perspective, how much does an agency pay for the monthly telephone book ad and legacy advertising. Often they pay more in one month for a telephone ad than they are willing to spend on a web site for one year. If the National Realtor Association is correct and 2/3 of all buyers make their first contact with a real estate agent on the internet. It would appear that telephone ads and legacy advertising can't compete.

frobn,

Flash, Java & images can be used in a site without hurting the rankings.

Search for New Home Builders.

and

Search for Arizona Home Builder.

See KBHomes?

Loaded with java, heavy images and flash.

I also have a site heavy with images that uses flash and ranks very well for every term we optimize for.

I agree that we should try to write good clean code. However, I have found this to be mute as far as the search engines go. Just browse a few hundred top 3 real estate sites and you will quickly concur. It just doesn't matter.

The KB Homes example above is great proof that on page optimization means very little in Google.

I never said that they CAN'T be used only that they are not search engine friendly and put such sites at a disadvantage. Flash and java may not hurt your SE ratings but they certainly don't help it either. Use them to your heart's content. The present problem for such sites is poor usibility and non-accessibility for people with disabilities and people like me who choose to surf without the joys of flash and java. A more important disadvantage for such sites will be in the future with competition from sites that value content over flash and are standards compliant especially as the use of other web devices such as PDAs and cell phone become more prominent.

Keep in mind too not every internet surfer has java or flash player installed either. Some are STILL using dialup as well.

Sarasota MLS is ranked #1 in Google, so they must be doing something successful, because the best Link spam pointing to Michaelsaunders.com removed Spammers email is crowe@smtusa.com is actually ranked #2 in Google. When you get that high in the rankings and the competition gets so good, what sets you apart for SEO?

Crowe

Hey Crowe, please don't bring up 3 year old threads and attempt to spam text links - I am not sure if you are on the Michael Saunders team or not, but you certainly make them look unprofessional when you go around spamming their link in reputable forums.

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Webmasters who spend their energies upholding the spirit of the basic principles [Of Google] will provide a much better user experience and subsequently enjoy better ranking than those who spend their time looking for loopholes they can exploit. Google.com

Maybe he was hired to post spam? He is with the web design company according to this company post..

May 1st, 2008 by Brent in General Marketing
Here We Grow Again! I want to welcome Jonathan Crowe to our Internet Marketing team. Jonathan is a recent graduate of Southeastern University, earning his Bachelors of Science in Business Management this past December. Jonathan has a passion for Internet marketing and building websites. As our client base continues to grow, Jonathan will be a valuable asset to SMT.

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