Brokerage more than doubles monthly online leads through SEO

Today's the final day of the month, and I'm happy to report a real estate company using Delta Media Group's SEO services has averaged 82 percent more leads/month in the two months since beginning its SEO program than it did the 24 months prior.

In July alone, the real estate brokerage received more than double the amount of online leads than the brokerage averaged over the two years prior to beginning their SEO service!

If you're looking to improve your online leads and real estate business, Delta Media Group's Real Estate Search Engine Optimization program has proven to help. Contact DMG's Sean Cutright at scutright@deltagroup.com for more details.

Yahoo/Microsoft search engine deal and real estate implications

As you may have seen, Yahoo! and Microsoft announced an Internet search partnership today, looking to cut into Google's search engine dominance. Yahoo has more on the story here.

The Yahoo/Microsoft deal will certainly have implications on search engine optimization, and I'll be taking a closer look at those on this blog soon. As with anything, changes bring about opportunities, and the partnership could be a boost to improving the SEO of your real estate website.

If you're looking to boost your real estate SEO, Delta Media Group can help. Contact Sean Cutright at scutright@deltagroup.com for more info.

Delta Media Group updates 'Post-to-Craigslist' feature

Delta Media Group released new adjustments to its 'Post-to-Craigslist' system today.

The updates allow brokers and agents using Delta Media Group's real estate website and lead management systems to track if they've posted a listing to Craigslist and, if so, how long ago they posted. This will help brokers and agents to more quickly re-post listings to Craigslist when they expire.

See Delta Media Group's blog for more info on the new 'Post-to-Craigslist' update.

Lots of good news for the housing market

A handful of recent reports have brought great news to the real estate market. Delta Media Group's new Real Estate News blog takes a closer look.

Last week, it was reported that existing-home sales increased in June, while home inventories declined and there are more buyers looking to purchase homes. Yesterday, reports show that new-home sales increased at the fastest month-over-month rate in eight years.

Today, CNNMoney.com reported that home prices have increased for the first time in three years.

Delta Media Group will continue posting up-to-date real estate news on its News blog. Follow News.DeltaGroup.com for more info.

Beware of phony SEO pitches

The more real estate brokers and agents I talk to about search engine optimization, the more I hear stories about shady companies continuously contacting them, trying to sell SEO services week in and week out.

One of the worst examples of this is a recent "lead request" I've found on real estate company websites, typically from the assumed pseudonym of "Travis Crane." It reads:

"We would like to get your website on first page of Google. All of our processes use the most ethical 'white hat' Search Engine Optimization techniques that will not get your website banned or penalized. Please reply and I would be happy to send you a proposal."

I've seen the message with the headline of: "Search Engine Optimization," "Internet Marketing Services" and "Get leads and sales from your website."

This is wrong on many levels. First, how can a company claim to "use the most ethical 'white hat' Search Engine Optimization techniques" while using some of the most unethical spamming techniques - submitting sales pitches through website lead and contact forms? Second, why would an 'ethical' SEO company use a pseudonym, a fake phone number (000-000-0000), and a fake address (224 Lawrence Road, New York, 11111)?

There are certainly other companies out there capable of delivering SEO for your real estate website. I won't argue that. But I'd avoid those submitting spam SEO pitches through company lead requests like I'd avoid the guy trying to sell you a "legit" Rolex from his trench coat pocket.

Delta Media Group's search engine optimization services are for real estate websites we actually create, design, program and host. Since we know the ins and outs of the system, we can apply the best methods to building it to cater to search engines.

Contact Sean Cutright at scutright@deltagroup.com for more information on Delta Media Group's Real Estate Search Engine Optimization services.

More good news for the housing market, per June reports

The housing market received several pieces of good news yesterday, including improved existing-home sales in June, a decreased inventory, and more people looking to buy homes.

Delta Media Group's News blog takes a closer look at the housing news here.

Delta Media Group follows all housing news that can affect our more than 300 real estate company website clients. With the improved housing news, Delta Media Group clients have seen a national increase in Web traffic and leads.

If you're looking to improve your real estate website leads, traffic and search engine optimization, contact Delta Media Group.

More on long tail SEO key phrase behaviors

Two weeks ago I touched on short and long tail search engine optimization, and how it can affect your real estate website.

I came across more info on the topic this morning in an Inman News article about Bill Tancer, general manager of Hitwise, an online metrics company. Bill authored the book "Click: What Millions of People Are Doing Online and Why it Matters," and will be the keynote speaker at the Inman News Real Estate Connect conference, being held August 5-7 in San Francisco.

The article notes:

"There is an increasing complexity in online searches. 'People are getting very, very specific in their search queries. We have seen the five-plus-words-per-query that we track increase to between 5 and 8 percent of all searches.'

"'And these longtail search phrases, because they are far more detailed, tend to be more valuable as leads than the less complex search terms,' Tancer said. 'You don't want to miss out on this very specific high-converting traffic.'"

While short tail SEO phrases typically draw several more monthly searches, long tail SEO key phrases drive more interested consumers to your real estate website. The fact that long tail phrases have increased to between 5 and 8 percent of Hitwise's tracked searches shows how important it is for real estate professionals to improve long tail SEO.

Delta Media Group's new Real Estate Search Engine Optimization program is designed to strategically enhance your short and long tail key phrases to better improve your SEO and the amount of interested buyers search engines drive to your real estate website. And the results have been staggering, as the SEO program has not only increased real estate website visitors, but has drastically increased website leads and contacts.

Want more information on Delta Media Group's Real Estate Search Engine Optimization program? Contact Sean Cutright at scutright@deltagroup.com.

Is Real Estate SEO worth it? If it produces these results...

Jill Whalen's July 16 column on Search Engine Land poses a great question: "Is Most of SEO Just a Boondoggle?"

Jill explains that many of the tactics touted, advertised and implemented by SEO companies do very little to benefit search engine rankings, and are used as expensive marketing tools that serve little or no true purpose. Sadly enough, it is for these exact reasons why I've come across several stories of real estate agents and brokerages that paid significantly for SEO work that never truly increased website traffic, improved leads, or resulted in additional sales.

On the contrary, I'm happy to report the opposite result. A real estate company using Delta Media Group's Real Estate Search Engine Optimization services is currently in the midst of its most successful month over the past two years. With just over nine days remaining in July, the real estate company already has 11% more website leads than the next highest month over the past two years. Its next highest month? Last month, when it began using Delta Media Group's SEO services.

In addition, the brokerage is receiving more monthly portfolio creations than any month over the past two years, and is also receiving more weekly visitors from Google, Yahoo and Bing than at any point over the past year.

If those numbers aren't already astonishing enough, consider that mid-summer is typically this real estate company's slowest time of the year. Search Engine Optimization has produced these kinds of results, even though the company is averaging less than 1/4 of the total real estate website visitors from what it averages during its peak season in the winter.

So really, the key is not just working with an SEO company. It's working with the right SEO company that does SEO work the right way - by targeting website and SEO adjustments that will help increase search engine traffic and convert more website visitors to leads and contacts.

Contact Sean Cutright at scutright@deltagroup.com for more information on Delta Media Group's Real Estate Search Engine Optimization services.

Delta Media Group launches new Prudential Homesale real estate website

Delta Media Group has recently launched two major real estate website and lead management systems.

Earlier, I wrote about the new real estate website of H. Pearce Real Estate. On Friday, Delta Media Group also launched a new real estate website and lead management system for Prudential Homesale Services Group.

Prudential Homesale is one of the largest real estate conglomerates in Pennsylvania and the nation, with over 1,200 real estate agents and 21 offices. Visit www.prudentialhomesale.com to see the new website, or view Delta Media Group's News blog for more info.

We'll have more info on Prudential Homesale soon.

New real estate website for H. Pearce

Delta Media Group has been busy in recent weeks, with several new developments I'll release soon.

Two weeks ago, Delta Media Group launched the real estate website and lead management system of H. Pearce Real Estate. H. Pearce is one of the top-producing real estate brokerages in Connecticut, and a member of Leading Real Estate Companies of the World. (See more on the new H. Pearce website here).

The site includes custom real estate website design, Atlas Search interactive map, IDX property search, Delta Media Group's renowned Lead Management system, real estate agent websites, and more.

Delta Media Group is a preferred vendor Associate of Leading Real Estate Solutions™, and builds real estate website and lead management systems for several LeadingRE brokerages.

Like H. Pearce's real estate Web system? Looking for one for your real estate company? Contact Delta Media Group for more info.

'Posterous' the next step in social media?

Rob Hahn had a great article on Inman News this morning about Posterous, a social media system that allows users to auto-post information via E-mail, post on multiple formats simultaneously and create password-coded sites you can share with specific individuals or groups.

Posterous is extremely useful in that it covers multiple grounds. It essentially can operate as a blog, which auto-posts when a user E-mails post@posterous.com. But it can also be used to post photos into automatic photo albums, videos, comments and more. In addition, it can auto-post to Facebook, Twitter and your personal or company blog, and format each post to its respective medium.

Posterous looks to be a great tool that can be extremely powerful and resourceful for real estate brokers and agents. Check out Rob Hahn's column today for more information, before Inman makes it a "Premium Member Only" story.

Need help with your social media strategies or real estate search engine optimization? Contact Delta Media Group's Sean Cutright at scutright@deltagroup.com.

Is 'Cuil' a threat to Google?

A Romow.com blog entry last year asked the question, "What is 'Cuil,' and should Google be afraid of it?"

Nearly 12 months later, let's address just that...

'Cuil' is a search engine, much like Google, Yahoo, Bing, and several others. And, like those several others, it suffers from the travesty of seeming practically irrelevant next to Google's market share. So, equipped with a unique algorithm, Cuil looked to differentiate itself from the typical expectations of search engines.

Is Cuil worth a shot? Sure. I couldn't pretend to be in the search engine optimization business if I didn't think so. However, the real question is, does Cuil have what it takes to gain a significant market share on Google, which stands as the measuring bar of the search engine industry? That is worth exploring, and leads us to the next part of the initial question: should Google be afraid of Cuil? While this type of headline provokes an eyebrow raise and quick glance (at minimum) the answer, simply, is "no." At least, not yet.

Google has nothing to worry about. While Google does have some recently-chatted-about shortcomings in the real-time versus historical-based search engine algorithm debate, Cuil has not yet shown much that Google can, or should learn from.

The article I previously cited notes:

"Unlike Google, Cuil ranks web pages according to a unique relevance algorithm. Google, on the other hand, places a great deal of importance on the link popularity of a specific web page, and minimizes the relevance of terms used on the actual page. The end result is that a search on Cuil will reveal different, and often more interesting results than a standard Google query."

It's no secret that links are an important part of Google's algorithm. But make no mistake about it - links play second fiddle to content. Google has done a commendable job ridding top SERPs (search engine results pages) of "link farms."

But let's be honest. Saying Cuil will reveal "different" results than a standard Google query is a legitimate statement. Saying that Cuil will produce "more interesting" results than a standard query...well, "more interesting" is in the eye of the beholder.

On multiple test phrase searches, Cuil certainly provided some "more interesting" results than Google. But don't mistake "interesting" with "better." I found myself on a few occasions baffled at how Cuil provided the results it did, and not in a good way. On one occasion, Cuil provided me with a link to a blog entry that never once mentioned the name or anything about the topic that I searched, and that was a page two result.

If Cuil wants to compete with Google it will need to show relevance in its search queries, which Google has done a very good job delivering. If it wants to create the search algorithm of tomorrow, it should target real-time search, which Twitter and Collecta are doing a remarkable, yet limited, job of providing.

Questions? Comments? Feel free to leave them here. Looking for real estate search engine optimization? Contact Delta Media Group's Sean Cutright at scutright@deltagroup.com.

Delta Media Group releases new blog

Delta Media Group has a new blog! Check out news.deltagroup.com to view all Delta Media Group company news updates.

Delta Media Group's News Blog will focus on new real estate company website go-lives, new real estate companies to sign with Delta Media Group, new real estate technology and website developments and announcements, new real estate technology products, real estate website success stories, real estate news, real estate trends, and more.

Delta Media Group's Company Blog, online at blog.deltagroup.com, will focus on new real estate website and lead management features for our current customers. This blog will include new real estate website functionality, programming, updates and system developments.

Contact Delta Media Group for more info on its real estate technology systems.

Short and Long Tail search engine optimization

When considering search engine optimization for your real estate website (or any website, for that matter) an often-overlooked discussion is that of long tail versus short tail key phrases.

If this is an entirely new concept to you, let me explain. Short tail key phrases are those that are broad in their search results. An example of a short tail key phrase would be "Ohio real estate," or "Canton real estate."

Long tail key phrases are those that are more defined in their characteristics. They can be broad, but more detailed, like "Jackson, Ohio real estate for sale" or be as specific as "three bedroom homes in Jackson Township, Ohio."

Studies show that while short tail search engine phrases generally generate more visits to the website, long tail phrases drive consumers who are more interested in making a purchase soon.

It makes sense. I have worked with several real estate brokers of a major franchise who expressed, upon the franchise releasing a national property search portal, that they received several more leads from the portal. However, their agents didn't want to bother with those leads because they were often from consumers who were "just looking" rather than those who were looking to make a real estate transaction within the next year. Thus, the reason they went to the national portal to search for homes rather than through a real estate website that was focused on a specific market.

Still not convinced? Consider the likelihood of a consumer purchasing a BMW X6 if he found BMW's website by searching "cars for sale" compared to the consumer who found the site by searching "luxury all-wheel drive 400 horsepower sport activity vehicle." Who do you think is more likely to purchase the X6?

If you're looking for more long tail versus short tail information, Marketing Hub has a good article explaining the long and short tail search debate, and Leading Real Estate Companies of the World's Eric Bryn is a huge long tail search advocate, and often speaks on the topic and updates his Real Estate Relativity blog with info on it.

I'll continue to post info on short and long tail search engine optimization as I cross it.

Looking for SEO for your real estate website? Delta Media Group recently released its Real Estate Search Engine Optimization platform. Contact Sean Cutright for more info at scutright@deltagroup.com.

DMG releases Real Estate Search Engine Optimization platform

Delta Media Group has recently launched its new Real Estate Search Engine Optimization platform, designed to improve real estate website SEO, thereby increasing website leads, visitors and hits.

The Real Estate Search Engine Optimization program is currently available only to those brokerages using Delta Media Group's real estate websites and lead management systems. It will soon be available to those using Delta Media Group's real estate agent websites, and others.

Contact Sean Cutright at scutright@deltagroup.com for more information on how Delta Media Group can help improve your real estate search engine optimization.

Delta Media Group launches new Community First Real Estate website design

Delta Media Group has recently launched several new real estate websites and lead management systems, including a website redesign for Community First Real Estate, a brokerage in Poland, Ohio.

Community First Real Estate can be found online at www.theoneaddress.com. The brokerage's custom website design offers a cleaner, easier-to-use layout built around how consumers search real estate websites for homes, and other items they are searching for.

Contact Delta Media Group for more information on professional real estate website design, real estate company websites, real estate agent websites, real estate lead management, and real estate search engine optimization.