My site needs some pizazz but I'm not sure what
Posted in Real Estate Website Reviews By Eliese Pivarnik, Saturday, December 27, 2008.I'm thinking my Steamboat Springs Real Estate Blog needs an overhaul but I'm not sure which direction to take.
Can anyone offer some advice about how to improve this site?
http://www.SteamboatHomeSales.com
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Submitted by George Fanucci on December 27, 2008 - 1:30pm.
Your site looks great to me. Nice clean layout, efficient design, regularly adding relevant content, loads fairly quickly into my web browser (Firefox) on 2x DSL here at home.
Why not focus on your CONTENT, and your TRAFFIC sources, rather than format, for now? More STEAK less SIZZLE... success comes more from content than from form, as long as you meet or exceed minimum contemporary standards, and you're doing very well there.
You have Google Analytics installed. What are your best traffic sources? How many returning visitors? What are their exit paths? Are you well-indexed for your most relevant search keywords, in all the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN-Live, Ask, etc...) Does it work in all the popular web-browsers? (IE, Forefox, Safari, Opera, Chrome?)
Content is KING! Form is a close second.
Want help driving more traffic to your website? We can help.
All the best to you for 2009!
George
http://www.GetMeMoreBiz.com
http://RE-MKT.com
Submitted by Rich Johnson on December 27, 2008 - 1:44pm.
Do you have a web site in addition to your Blog? If not, you might want to consider it. I find a Blog a bit confusing if my desire is to find out about real estate. My suggestion would be to create a web site & then use your blog for interaction.
Just a thought.
Rich Johnson
360-319-3267
http://www.johnsonteamrealestate.com
http://www.johnsonteamrealestate.com/blog/
Submitted by Justin Britt on December 27, 2008 - 1:45pm.
I agree with George, design is important, but not nearly as much as usability and content. Focus on your content and you'll be fine.
You'll also want to get some more incoming links to your blog. I'd be happy to exchange links through my blog roll under friends at http://blog.hawaiilife.com. Let me know if you're interested.
--
Justin Britt
Head-Web-Head
Hawaii Life Real Estate Services, LLC
www.HawaiiLife.com
www.RealAppy.com
Submitted by Bobby Carroll on December 27, 2008 - 2:41pm.
Content is indeed king and it has been our experience in designing and development of real estate blogs that they allow the site visitor to focus on that content with a "2-column" format as opposed to a three column layout. Your current layout is a bit cluttered.
Plus, you need to try to maintain no more than 8 to 10 categories. Too many categories gives your site visitors woo many choices. Most will make "no choice" and hit the big red "X" when confronted with too many choices.
Why don't you use your logo found on the MLS search page. It is your "brand" and it's missing on your blog.
Why doesn't your MLS property search page iframe on your blog? Plus, the MLS search page looks different from your blog. That can be confusing to your site visitors. For "brand continuity", make sure all pages look uniform to build trust with your site visitors.
I can tell you need the SEO-all-in-one plugin for better SEO. Your posts are missing title tags.
Why don't you use sub headlines with H3 tags in your posts for better organic SEO?
You need a "Subscribe to my Blog" feature above the fold of your blog in the sidebar.
Awesome job adding content. Just be smarter with keyword density, H3 tags and get the SEO-all-in-one plugin for better organic SEO. In one of your post you wrote "Buying a second home in the mountains is a wonderful way to reconnect with family and friends." What if you had wrote "Buying a second Steamboat Springs home in the Colorado mountains is a wonderful way to reconnect with family and friends, you could have added so much more organic "SEO-Power" to your post.
One final thought, avoid link swaps. It's so 1990's and fails to add any SEO value. Cultivating one-way backlinks is the way to go.
Keep up the great work!
Bobby
Bobby Carroll - Dakno Real Estate Marketing
@Realestatecoach
Submitted by Eliese Pivarnik on December 27, 2008 - 3:47pm.
Wow. You guys are great. I think all the advice is right on track. What is the best way to add a static website without taking away from my blog's SERP?
Also, I find my content is sketchy. I'll have an inspired post about every two weeks then have filler type content the rest of the time. I try to focus on real estate, but our lifestyle is winter fun so I've been adding some of that.
Thank you again for all the advice. I'll get to work!
Eliese Pivarnik, Steamboat Springs Real Estate Broker Associate
http://www.SteamboatHomeSales.com
Submitted by Bobby Carroll on December 27, 2008 - 4:11pm.
During our Blogging BootCamp we suggest our students blog (a little) less but make each post more impactful and valuable.
We have developed a Dakno website/WordPress blog hybrid site that is transparent to site visitors. The reason why we suggest a website and a blog combination is because of the SEO advantages of a blog supporting a static website. Plus, a website offers many site visitor interaction opportunities blogs lack.
BTW - Most site visitors wouldn't know the difference between a blog and website anyway.
To your success,
Bobby Carroll - Dakno Real Estate Marketing
Twitter me: @Realestatecoach