Positive Real Estate Professionals

It never fails that I get 2 or 3 emails requesting link exchanges on a daily basis. Most of the requests are from people with low ranking sites that have some relevance to us. However, I typically turn all of them down unless it is a member of our online real estate network. The biggest reason that we do this is because we are not here to promote sites of non-members. We created this network to promote our members and that is what we try to do.

With that said, yesterday I received an email that was requesting a link on our site and even went as far as to state that they would pay for the link. I replied to the email and it did not take long for the person to respond to my email. I basically told them the ONLY way that we would accept a paid link is if the link could have a “nofollow” attribute added to it. The person said “NO” and ran away.

Now, why would I have told him that? Why not just take his money? Well, let’s turn to Google Webmaster Central for the answer to that:

Google and most other search engines use links to determine reputation. A site’s ranking in Google search results is partly based on analysis of those sites that link to it. Link-based analysis is an extremely useful way of measuring a site’s value, and has greatly improved the quality of web search. Both the quantity and, more importantly, the quality of links count towards this rating.

However, some SEOs and webmasters engage in the practice of buying and selling links that pass PageRank, disregarding the quality of the links, the sources, and the long-term impact it will have on their sites. Buying or selling links that pass PageRank is in violation of Google’s webmaster guidelines and can negatively impact a site’s ranking in search results.

Not all paid links violate our guidelines. Buying and selling links is a normal part of the economy of the web when done for advertising purposes, and not for manipulation of search results. Links purchased for advertising should be designated as such. This can be done in several ways, such as:

• Adding a rel=”nofollow” attribute to the <a> tag
• Redirecting the links to an intermediate page that is blocked from search engines with a robots.txt file

Google works hard to ensure that it fully discounts links intended to manipulate search engine results, such excessive link exchanges and purchased links that pass PageRank. If you see a site that is buying or selling links that pass PageRank, let us know. We’ll use your information to improve our algorithmic detection of such links.

In closing, I am hoping this will help to shed some light on how Google actually looks at paid links. Many of the other search engines are starting to follow this same path. Matt Cutts of Google once stated “The best links are not paid, or exchanged after out-of-the-blue emails–the best links are earned and given by choice.” I have to 100% agree with him. Earning links or getting them because someone likes your site is so much better than obtaining them by having them built by paying for them, selling them, or even link farming.

Positive Real Estate Professionals (PREP) can help you achieve the recognition you and your business deserve through our highly versatile and search engine optimized member websites, lead capture, and visitor friendly layout. If you are a professional who works in the real estate industry or one of the related fields that service the needs of the real estate industry then this real estate network can be just what you need to take your business to the next level. If you have questions or would like to join CLICK HERE.

Linking is an important SEO tool for any website. If you do a Google search for ‘linking’ and you will find numerous blog posts on the subject. This is such an important topic that you can find numerous posts written by the admins right here on Positive Real Estate Professionals:

My Site Is Wonderful, Link To Me – Marketing Your Business Online

Engaging Your Site’s Visitors

Using Comments to Build Links and Drive Traffic – Part 1

Using Comments to Build Links and Drive Traffic – Part 2

Relevant Links and What They Mean To You

Link Farming is just another form of Spam.

Today I want to look at Deep Links. What is a deep link? According to Wikipedia: Deep linking, on the World Wide Web, is making a hyperlink that points to a specific page or image on another website, instead of that website’s main or home page. While the links in your blogroll are great, they by definition are not deep links. Do you see the links to the articles immediately preceding this paragraph? They are examples of deep linking because they go to a particular location (the individual blog posts) and not the overall blog URL.

Deep linking is not confined to linking to blog posts alone, though this is one of the most common practices. A deep link can also link to a non-main page, a bio page, a form, or any other informational page. You can easily create these deep links either externally or internally. An external link connects to a webpage on another website. An internal link is one that links to information on the website where the post is actually written; i.e. linking to a previous relevant post or another minor page on the same website.

Deep linking, like using keywords, should be done in moderation. Deep linking is an effective, and the easiest, of  link building tools. Though deep linking is a good tool to use, it should not become a substitute for reciprocal and one-way linking with other websites.

Positive Real Estate Professionals (PREP) can help you achieve the recognition you and your business deserve through our highly versatile and search engine optimized member websites, lead capture, and visitor friendly layout. If you are a professional who works in the real estate industry or one of the related fields that service the needs of the real estate industry then this real estate network can be just what you need to take your business to the next level. If you have questions or would like to join CLICK HERE.

Recently I wrote a post that gave readers the tools necessary to show up on the Google map when someone does a search; Get Your Business On The Map – Marketing Your Business Online. Prior to that I wrote a post that instructed readers on how to have their business listed for FREE in the online version of the yellow pages; Get Your Business In The Book – Marketing Your Business Online. Both of these posts were part of my Marketing Your Business Online series that was purposely designed to help people improve their internet presence and reach more potential clients and referral sources. With this post I want to build on the information in those two posts with regard to Being Found On PREP and the internet overall.

In addition to the Call To Action that you put at the end of every blog post you write, one of the easiest ways to give yourself and your business the boost it may need is through an effective signature. Here are two signatures that are placed at the end of every blog post these ladies write. Notice that they are stylistically very different from one another but both contain a personal message, contact info, and a means for readers to connect with them on other websites and through social media. In addition to using their signatures on each blog post, they can be used in newsletters and at the end of emails. Be sure to optimize any images you use in your signature with a good image title and description to help the search engines index it; read this post, Say It With Pictures – Photoblogs, to learn how to accomplish this. If you use traditional print marketing, then your signature can also be used there; just remember that if your use images in print marketing you will also need to give the full URLs to websites and contact info (username/userid) for the various social media.

Below is the first example of making good use of a signature:

***  Subscribe to my NEW blog: LAKE ARROWHEAD  ~ Above it All ***

For all your Lake Arrowhead Real Estate needs, call “Kat” @ 909-273-4542

• Search my website, LAKEARROWHEADKAT for Active Listings
• RE/MAX Lakeside in Blue Jay
• Subscribe to Kat’s Blog on Short Sales & More
• First Time Home Buyer Credit

Let me HELP you avoid foreclosure!

Below is the second example of making good use of a signature:

Warmest Regards,
Janie Burnette, Realtor®
Forsyth Realtor
404.626.6540 Cell
JanieB@kw.com www.JanieBSells.com
@janieBurnette - Twitter
www.Facebook.com/janie.burnette
Keller Williams Community Partners
540 Lake Center Pkwy, Ste 201
Cumming, GA  30040

Call me 404.626.6540

In addition to consumers having multiple avenues to connect with these ladies, these signatures also provide a link to their other websites. As we learned in the post Relevant Links and What They Mean To You links are good. They boost the authority of your site, your Page Rank (PR), and your overall SEO. Like your use of keywords, you don’t want to overdo or stuff your signature with too many links; Google, Indexing, SEO, and Love…Lotta Luv. You can consistently use your most important links in your signature while varying less important links from post to post. Your signature definitely has the potential to help you generate more business.

Positive Real Estate Professionals (PREP) can help you achieve the recognition you and your business deserve through our highly versatile and search engine optimized member websites, lead capture, and visitor friendly layout. If you are a professional who works in the real estate industry or one of the related fields that service the needs of the real estate industry then this real estate network can be just what you need to take your business to the next level. If you have questions or would like to join CLICK HERE.

Links to your site from other sites are an important indicator in the eyes of many search engines of the popularity of a site. If your site has hundreds or thousands of pages that link to it this can be an important factor in high placement in search engine results. With that said there are numerous caveats when it comes to linking.

Sites that are relevant to yours who link to you carry more weight than some random site. I appreciate an incoming link from my sister Kristi’s blog although it is more of a personal observations/journal type blog. Because of the nature of her blog, it has little relevance to real estate so it doesn’t carry as much weight as say a link from The Mortgage And More Blog which is directly related to the real estate industry. With that said, I am happy to have most incoming links and in the end I have only the illusion of control over those who link to me.

Here are some do’s:

• 

  While one way links do carry a bit more weight than reciprocal links do not discount the benefit of reciprocal links. In many instances a bu siness partner who you want to link to you will agree to do so if you link to them. This is a perfectly appropriate example of reciprocal linking. Don’t shoot yourself in the foot by turning away a relevant reciprocal link because it isn’t a one way link!

• Link to yourself from all of the social medias you participate in. Most of the social media systems have some method that will allow you to link to your website from that system. These are FREE and easy links!
• Use the comment section in blogs that you frequent to build links. With this said there are two things that you should look for when commenting to be assured that your link will achieve maximum benefit. First you want to make sure that where you are commenting has a place for you to put your website’s URL. This is the only way a link can be generated from the comment section. Second you want to right click on the linked name of a previous commentor and look at the properties. This will let you see if the links that are generated in the comment section are ‘no follow’ or ‘do follow’. There is a bit of controversy as to whether ‘no follow’ links are beneficial. I believe that ‘no follow’ links may have some benefit as a link while the site’s Google juice provides no benefit to your site. Here are several posts on this very topic:

Using Comments to Build Links and Drive Traffic – Part 1

Using Comments to Build Links and Drive Traffic – Part 2

Do Follow v. No Follow

Here are some don’ts:

• Don’t participate in any type of link farming. Link farming is basically using ‘dummy’ domains to generate links to your site with the hope of increasing its popularity in the eyes of the search engines. This is considered a ‘black hat’ tactic and though it can be quite successful in creating links, search engines have developed algorithms to detect this type of deception. If detected the penalty can be quite severe and may result in your site be dropped to the bottom of search results for a specified period of time. Here is a great article with an with an explanatory video of what link farming is:

Link Farming is just another form of Spam

• Don’t fall for the promises of getting thousands of links to your site in a matter of days or hours. While the methods of generating these types of links can vary, many employ link farming or require a link exchange with a third party site. A link exchange may not sound like a bad idea but in many instances you have little to no control over the type of site you will be asked to link to. Thankfully many of these link exchanges do allow you to exclude pornographic sites but you may still be required to link to sites that are ideologically opposite or otherwise offensive to you. *NOTE: This is not the same as submitting your site to FREE directories like Open Directory Project.*
• Don’t pay for links; there is no reason to. Ask your business associates and partners that you deal with who have websites to link to your site. Not only will this allow visitors to your business partners’ sites to visit your site easily, it creates a FREE link. If you are going to pay for a link, I really believe it should be as part of an integrated marketing strategy that utilizes some type of pay per click or pay per impression system, along with your website, your blog, and various social media. *NOTE: Paying for links is different from submitting your site to paid directories like Yahoo! Directory, About.com, and Business.com. In my opinion however, if your site is properly optimized you will get all the juice you need without paying to be in directories.*
  

Positive Real Estate Professionals (PREP) can help you achieve the recognition you and your business deserve through our highly versatile and search engine optimized member websites, lead capture, and visitor friendly layout. If you are a professional who works in the real estate industry or one of the related fields that service the needs of the real estate industry then this real estate network can be just what you need to take your business to the next level. If you have questions or would like to join CLICK HERE.

For those of you that missed the first part of this series, you might want to read Using Comments to Build Links and Drive Traffic – Part 1 first. For those of you who read that article, then let’s jump right into this section of the article.

Commenting to generate traffic:

Most people do not realize that you can use commenting to drive relevant traffic to your site. Time after time, I seem to have to go over this topic as a refresher course. With that said, it seems that people take off on the practice of commenting like a well trained race horse with an even better trained jockey riding their way to a Preakness victory. However, the problem is, most people do not make it to the finish line. They quit commenting because they do not see the ultimate return quickly. *As a side note, we all need to quit looking for the quick fix and work at what will make us successful in the long run. If a web developer tells you that they can take you to the top of Google in 24 hours, don’t walk away, run. Side note done, now back to your regular article.* Commenting on other blog articles can actually drive more readers to your site. This can be done by a few different ways, or by using all of these.

The first thing that you have to do is comment with consistency. If you manage to run 6 out of 7 days leaving a comment on a site, then you have done well. As a word of warning, make sure that your comment adds to the article, not detracts from it or leaves the author feeling like someone dropped off a “canned” answer. Readers of the sites that you are commenting on will also start mulling over your comments and if it is intriguing enough, they may take a look at your site. The evil in this is that most commentors seem to think they only need to leave one comment and people will start flocking their way. This is not true for the most part. It takes time to build a rapport with a blog owner as well as their readers.

Another path to take is to find a blog that employs the plugin . In doing this, you are able to leave a link for your site as well as a link to the latest article that you have written. This in turn can be used to drive traffic back to your site, but once again it has to be titled right and also be something that will draw interest from the readers of the site that you are commenting on. Having this plugin will encourage interaction from your readers as well. Ultimately, having the interaction is just one step that you want to achieve.

As I said before, there are many paths that one can use to drive more and more traffic to their site. Another plugin that centers around comments is the Top Commentors Widget and this can be used with both WordPress and Blogger platforms. This comment widget is designed to show the top commentors on your site in the sidebar. This gives yet another link to the commentors of your site, thereby encouraging them to interact with you and your articles.

While there are other tricks of the trade available  to build links and draw traffic to your site, the ones listed above are pure. These are not black hat tactics. With that said, one of the ultimate ways to drive traffic to your site using comments is belonging to a network like our online real estate network. Commenting on each others’ sites will draw relevant links as well as relevant traffic. This is the ultimate way to cash in on all three of these procedures.

Over the years, I seem to asked a lot about building quality links as well as how to drive quality traffic to sites. Once that can of worms is opened, I refer the person asking this question to using comments to build links and drive traffic to their site. This practice might be the easiest thing that you will ever do and get great results from it. The problem is, most people are just not dedicated to doing it. With that said, most people are not dedicated to responding to questions on their on posts either. You might as well take the proverbial gun and shoot yourself in the foot. Before you do that, let’s take a look at how each of these can help you. We will do this over the next 2 days in a 2 part article. Today we will look at how commenting will and can help build links.

Commenting to build links:

One of the great things about commenting is most websites allow you to link your website to your name. This is a great way to get a backlink from another site to yours. The bigger benefit here is for the people that actually visit relevant sites and make comments there. A great example of this would be for a Realtor to visit a website that pertains to the real estate industry and comment on a regular basis. This will create a link. The portion of commenting on a regular basis is that once you establish yourself as a regular commenter, your link will continue to stay active. However, the benefits do not stop there. As a matter-of-fact, this will lead me right into the next benefit of commenting. But, before I jump to that, let me talk a little bit about sites that utilize a plugin called CommentLuv. This particular plugin allows for you to achieve a second link on blogs as well. When you come across sites that use this plugin, it can actually pull a link to your last written article on your blog. This will in turn give you added benefit in traffic as well and we will talk about that in just a minute. Another thing that this plugin does, and something the is often overlooked, is that it can increase your SERPs. For those of you that are unfamiliar with SERPs, it stands for search engine results page.

In tomorrow’s article, we will look at how commenting can help to drive traffic to your site. Hope to see you then.

In today’s time, Sitemaps are important to the search engines and to your website. I could leave it at that and hope that all of you take my word for it based on the SEO success this real estate network has. However, I am not gullible enough to believe that I can just say it and people will believe it. Most people do not even know the importance of the sitemap, so they think that it is no more than a waste of space. In reality, sitemaps are much more than that. In today’s article, I am going to attempt to explain the importance of having a sitemap of your website.

Back in July, Chris Fisher of StagersLIST Websites wrote an article entitled Site maps for the search engines. In her article, she talked about the importance of having a sitemap. While I agreed with her article, I did not realize the importance much less the difference in sitemaps that are HTML versus sitemaps that are XML. Since our real estate network had it’s first issue with our sitemaps, I started seeing what the differences are.

The main issue deals with the three major search engines; Google, Yahoo, and MSN (BING). Google uses XML for their sitemaps and the main reason I like these is because they run in the background. However, Yahoo and MSN uses HTML sitemaps, and these are not running in the background. I guess the first thing that we must understand is what XML and HTML files are. XML stands for EXtensible Markup Language and is a markup language much like HTML. It was designed to describe data and uses a DTD (Document Type Definition) to formally describe the data. In the case of HTML, it stands for Hyper Text Markup Language and it is not a programming language, it is a markup language, similar to that of the XML files. For most people, you are probably still lost. However, for the sake of this article, we are going to leave the description where it is and just understand they are different.

Google uses XML files for their sitemaps. In fact, with WordPress and WordPress MU, there is a plugin that is called Google XML Sitemaps. We have worked hard to fix any issues with this plugin for our network as it is one of the tools that we use in our SEO. What I love about it is that it works in the background and is seamless. However, with Yahoo and MSN, they are using the HTML files, therefore they require a page that is active. This was the original reason that web designers always added a sitemap when they built a new site. While the XML file has the ability to submit to Yahoo and MSN, it is the belief of this web designer that having a XML and a HTML sitemap will give you the best returns for your website.

Let’s take a look at some of the benefits of having a sitemap:

• Site maps can improve search engine optimization of a site by making sure that all the pages can be found.
• This is especially important if a site uses Macromedia Flash or JavaScript menus that do not include HTML links.
• Most search engines will only follow a finite number of links from a page, so if a site is very large a sitemap may be required so that search engines and visitors can access all content on the site.

In closing, Sitemaps are very important to the success of your web site. Ultimately, these files tell the search engines what pages within the site need to be indexed. It can also help tell the search engines what pages or articles are new. In a nutshell, it provides communication between the search engines and your web site. In the near future, I truly believe that this will be the way of submitting new content to search engines.

“Nofollow” provides a way for webmasters to tell search engines “Don’t follow links on this page” or “Don’t follow this specific link.”

- Google Webmaster Tools, About rel=”nofollow”

This can be a very tricky subject as there are varying opinions on the usefulness and relevance of no follow. Many people believe that the no follow attribute is outdated. Wow! that is a blanket statement that would undoubtedly need many caveats. Here are some questions that you should ask yourself when thinking about no follow.

• Is the no follow attribute going to be applied to a particular page? Post? Comment section?
• What is the purpose of using the no follow on a page, post, or comment section?
• How might the use of a no follow attribute affect your ability to interact with your site’s visitors?

The application of no follow on a particular page within your site can prevent what is called PR Bleed. There is really no reason for your contact page or about page to have a page rank (PR). If you don’t use the no follow attribute <meta name=”robots” content=”noindex”> then your other pages will leech the PR from your main page where you want it concentrated.

I do not recommend using the no follow attribute on individual posts that are on your main site. New content is new content and Content is King.

Using the no follow attribute in the comment section is a bit more complicated. If you do not use a spam filter like Akismet nor manually moderate your comments, then using the no follow attribute might be advisable. It is unfortunate that the explosion of comment spam in the blogosphere has necessitated the implementation of the no follow attribute for many non moderated comment sections. This real estate network believes that the comment section is a great place for dialogue with site visitors and potential clients to begin. Because of this, Positive Real Estate Professionals uses the system. Comment Luv is an excellent system that encourages commenting by site visitors because it provides a do follow backlink to their most recent post and a second do follow backlink to the commentor’s website. With Comment Luv activated by default on all members’ sites you may be wondering how we combat comment spam. The use of Akismet is the primary line of defense against comment spam. The second line of defense is the ability for members to moderate all comments left on their posts. This allows for the site’s owner to determine if a comment contains unwelcome spam. The final option is to not allow any commenting on your posts at all. In my opinion this is an extreme step, especially for a site that is used primarily for business. Dialogue is the first step in converting site visitors to clients or referral sources; eliminating commenting eliminates the most frequently used method to do this.

In my final assessment, no follow should only be used for particular pages within your site that you do not want leeching your PR while do follow links for posts and comments have many beneficial uses that far outweigh dealing with a bit of comment spam.

Here are two other excellent posts by respected SEO bloggers on Do Follow v No Follow:

What is DoFollow?

Do You DoFollow?

Commenting: Friend or Foe? This is the million dollar question that we will be looking at today. Please understand this before we go any further, the information provided in this post pertains to blogging for business. Even though it MIGHT hold value to regular bloggers, my thought process is based business oriented blogs. With that out of the way, let’s move forward.

Commenting, or in some cases, the lack of commenting can have an effect on your business. The first and foremost thing that a blogger attempts is to connect with their audience. When someone takes the time to write a worthwhile comment on your post, it opens the door for dialogue. Typically, this is where most bloggers lose it. After oftentimes spending hours writing the best article they can, their efforts are rewarded with 1, 5, or maybe 10 comments; yet, they do not respond to any of them. So I ask the question again, Commenting: Friend or Foe?

If you answered FOE, you are correct. Rich Dansereau wrote an article entitled Showing The Love; Commentors To Clients that talks about converting your commentors to clients. The problem is that you cannot convert a commentor that you do not engage in dialogue, and you cannot engage someone in dialogue if you ignore them. I could go on and on with this, but I think we all get the point of missed opportunity when comments are ignored. So, lets look at how to make the most of this opportunity.

The first step to making a commentor a FRIEND is to respond to them. Now, frankly, the comments that say “Nice Article” or “Great Job” might get a canned response of “Thanks” or it may never find its way onto the comment section. However, a truly thought out comment is going to get my attention. I will take my time in answering the comment. I might actually send the commenter an email. I might even visit their site. I might very well take it to the next level and comment on one of their articles. Now I have totally engaged them and I would expect to see them come back to comment again in the future. Maybe they are not a client today or tomorrow, however, they know that I will pay attention when they are ready to do business. But, one of the biggest payoffs is the fact that they might very well send me a referral, and for that, I am truly grateful. Just think what I would have lost had I not engaged them through their comment.

Comments are not friend or foe as much as we are the friend or foe of commenting. Most sites like our real estate network encourage readers to comment by adding tools that help the commenter get links. Tools like CommentLuv, Gravatar, and Top Commentors are great because they provide additional links for the commentor. With that said, WE as bloggers still have to do our part by responding to the comments that are put to us. If we don’t, how can we expect to retain our readers and make the comment section of our blog our friend rather than our foe?

Edit

One of the reasons we blog for business is to attract potential new clients. Most businesses can benefit from the added exposure of blogging, with the pull of a properly optimized network compounding that draw. If you are in a highly specialized, obscure, or frequently misunderstood field then informative posts on different aspects of your business can really help to draw in readers who may be only marginally interested or aware of you particular specialty. This month I have written two posts that discuss important aspects of Blogging For Business. The first of these posts is all about Engaging Your Site’s Visitors and examines the importance of creating a dialogue with your readers. The second of these posts, Capturing Your Client And Visitor Information, is about using forms to convert your readers into leads for your business. While forms are an excellent tool to convert your site’s visitors into clients, in this post I want to look at using the comment section to do the same thing.

It was pointed out to me in the comments section of the previous post that the information provided in that section is one of the best sources of lead information. In virtually all of the blogs I have read and websites I have visited, there is some form of comment section. The comment section allows for site owners to create that all important dialogue with their visitors which is the first step in converting visitors to leads.

The second step is capturing the contact information from those visitors. When a visitor wants to leave a comment on your post there are generally two things that are required, the commentor’s name and email address. Site’s that encourage commenting will often include a place for the commentor’s web address or URL. Some websites will use the Keyword Love plugin which allows the commentor to link back to their site via a keyword in place of the commentor’s name. Many sites will also use a plugin like Comment Luv to provide an additional link to the commentor’s last post. The Keyword Love and Comment Luv plugins are not necessary to capture commentor information but they do encourage commenting. It should also be noted that these plugins may not work in all instances on network systems like this real estate network.

You may be wondering why a commentor would leave their real information when commenting. In most instances if a visitor has been engaged by your site enough to make a comment they are looking to actually create a dialogue with the site’s owner. Additionally many commentors who have taken the time to read your article may not comment if there is not a backlinking system in place. As stated in my previous post, backlinking is a huge motivation for commenting. Another way to encourage visitors to leave real information is to reassure them that their information will not be shared or distributed with third parties. One of the biggest hurdles to people giving their name and email address is the fear that it will then be collected and sold to third parties who engage in spam campaigns. You absolutely do not want to distribute any of your commentor’s information to third parties unless this is a known practice that is explicitly consented to by the commentor.

Collecting and organizing commentor information for your own use is a way to network. Many people will bookmark commentor websites in order to visit them and get a feel for what the visitor is about. Bookmarking can easily be done either in their toolbar or using bookmarking systems like  and . These bookmarks can then be used to visit commentor websites on a regular basis. By visiting their site and commenting on their posts the foundation of a network can be created. This networking process can build relationships that can lead to excellent client and referral sources; think social network without the network. If you blog for business, this is a prime reason you want your blog to be as commentor friendly as possible.

How do you use your comment section?