This is actually somewhat a continuation of my thread in the Introduce Yourself section of this forum, but I thought it might be more appropriate for it to be here so here goes...

That's an excellent observation Morgan. Jeff Lundquist gets traffic not only because of his site, but also because of the directory and other sites where he is listed. But just as important he gets traffic because of other resources that he would not get from his site.

Case in point: It appears Jeff's site focuses primarily on Minneapolis. For the terms minneapolis real estate, minneapolis real estate agent, and minneapolis relocation his site is found in the top 10 in Google for the first 2, but for minneapolis relocation I don't think it is being found in the top 30. On the other hand his page in relo-experts.com is found in the top 10 in Google for the last 2 terms and in the top 20 for minneapolis real estate. So he is pretty well covered for Minneapolis.

But in Jeff's case he also wants to derive traffic for Bloomington, Eden Prairie, Edina, Maple Grove, Minnetonka, and Plymouth for "city real estate", "city real estate agent", and "city relocation". Right now his site is not found in the top 30 for any of those terms, but his pages in the directory are all in the top 10 for each of these terms except for one and it is in the top 20. I have to think that kind of exposure works for him.

Contrary to what some have said it's not my goal to outrank an agent's site nor do I guarantee rankings. Instead I am probably one of the few out there who does not charge upfront. Ask Jeff Lundquist and he'll tell you that his featured agent pages went online the end of June, he did not receive an invoice until August 4th, if he wanted to pay it that was his decision which he did in September, but his check was not deposited until October 26th... almost 4 months after the fact. But in Jeff's case that means when I take relo-experts down he will have paid for a year, but only got 9 months of service. Between now and then he'll have a choice to have his pages "moved" to one or more of the new sites or get a 100% refund on the $743.00 he has paid for his seven cities in the directory. This simply means he will have gotten 9 months free. That will be his decision as well as any other agent where this applies. Money is not an overriding factor for me.. trying to help agents is.

As for the new sites, apparently my explanation why I am doing this was clear as mud and hopefully this will help clarify. Most know getting rankings for a competitive keyword is not necessarily the easiest thing to do, nor is getting the actual page you want displayed in the SERP's to be the one that appears. For example, for the term "houston real estate" the directory's home page is in the top 10 and sometimes the Houston page appears indented, but not always. I want the Houston page to be the one that appears. To see if I could maybe counteract this I put up a new site in August, did a few things differently, and in October the Houston page in the new site went to #3 on G for "houston real estate" and the home page was not showing. This was my goal and I was outranking myself which was icing on the cake. Since this was purely for testing purposes I took the page down but will put it back up after the first of the year when I "bring out" that new site. Maybe it will still work then... maybe not. Time will tell.

As for the importance of the term "real estate agent" it could be more important than some might think. For example, Saturday I got an email from a lady in the directory who got a referral from another agent because the agent searched on "city real estate agent" and her page in the directory was found. That referral is for a home in the $2,000,000 range and that has happened numerous times, but not necessarily in the price range. People that know me know that I am a big advocator of going after those terms that agents don't think anyone uses. As Bob Wilson in San Diego says, "a person using terms to find real estate other than using the term real estate is on a mission." He recently got a new relocation client because they found him for "san diego relocation." BTW, he is also ranked #1 for both "san diego homes" and "san diego real estate." For those that don't know Bob he is one of the sharpest real estate agents I have had the pleasure to meet, it's obvious he knows what he is doing when it comes to the web, and he has a new project in the works that if you as an agent have the chance to team up with him on it you will benefit greatly!

Hey there, Zigamorph..

This thread is 5 years old. We don't allow threads to be bumped for reasons such as yours. Also, we like to keep it professional here and prefer it if you refrain from using profanity, as well as slandering others.

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Nicholas May | IDX Coordinator | Real Estate Webmasters

Well if he is going to steal domains from fellow real estate developers. Other Real Estate Webmasters should be aware of this.

They should be - But there are more professional methods of doing this without breaking forum rules.

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Nicholas May | IDX Coordinator | Real Estate Webmasters