I've been told that I will not be able to make it far in my quest for high rankings with my AA site. I hope this isn't the case since I've spent countless hours working on it as well as the money for purchasing it.

If it is the case, any suggestions on how to get the most out of site I would greatly appreciate it.

Um...any site can make it to the top, including an AA site. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of examples of AA sites that are in the first page of the SEPR's for their respective terms. Just a matter of if you do what it takes to get to the top, there are more than enough threads about that here and at the AA forums.

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My thoughts on the Sarasota Association of REALTORS actions.

Whoever told you that were wrong. My advice is to stop listening to them immediately!!

Just keep reading and working on your site and you'll get there.

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Matt Scoggins
Metro House Hunters, Inc.
678-520-5382

Atlanta Georgia Real Estate | Atlanta Luxury Homes | Alpharetta Real Estate

I think was is being reported is a little off, as it is true any website can rank. HOWEVER! - Advanced access websites are harder to work with than a custom site or more SEO friendly site, thus IMO it takes much more effort to rank an AA site than it does a better alternative. Also they still have dup content issues, frames etc that you have to put a ton of time and energy into removing or changing to static. You would not have to spend this time, if you had a more friendly site from the start.

Next (And this is true with almost all template companies) you cannot implement a lot of advanced things like custom IDX soluctions, google sitemaps, forums, blogs etc as part of your domain and thus they run interference when trying to make your website the best it can be.

I am not an AA hater, as I think they are a great starter site, and if you were going to use them for just PPC or non SEO and didnt have the time to write your own content then for the price, its a quick and dirty solution - however given the options out there, I would never recommend an AA site to anyone as if they plan to become websavvy they will outgrow them very quickly.

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custom IDX solutions

not asking for your trade secrets, but how does above contribute to great SERPS?

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I have an AA site and I am really pretty happy with the results. I have had it about 6 months and I am ranking very well in my chosen search terms on MSN. I am not at all on Google or the others but I hope with time it will happen as well. I am not a web designer but I do have enough experience to tweak the site some. Good choice for me at this point as it is driving business to me....two closings in the last month off the site and I am working with several other buyers that are a little more long term.

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Kelly Smith
Wilmington NC Real Estate

When I advise people to go the custom IDX route, it is generally not because it will help them with serps, but because they can customize their search, listings, details and lead capture much more than third party or direct MLS board links that need to be iframed can provide.

That being said - If you do your IDX correctly, those pages can be indexed and rank for thousands of smaller terms, allowing you to capture more traffic and rank for more terms. Example: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&l...00&btnG=Search

Also helps with internal linking (More pages on your own site to link to the main pages) things like that.

A custom IDX will not make or break rankings, however it does help both capture traffic, and more importantly capture leads.

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