Google vs Facebook – The War on SEO begins!

Wow! Now this is relevant real estate news you can really sink your teeth into!

Not long ago, Facebook began their Facebook PPC Ads venture, competing directly with Google’s Adwords PPC advertising. Now, their newly created Open Graph Search Engine has the potential to squash Google’s search engine! Yes, you read it right, Google’s search engine will soon (if not already) have an absolute legitimate competitor.

Here’s how it is supposed to work:

1. “Likes” versus “Links”

Back in April when Facebook launched it’s Open Graph protocol, carpeting websites with their “Like” and “Recommend” buttons, it wasn’t clear to most what the real purpose of these additional plugins and widgets were. Well, when you think of how websites and blogs have utilized the number of (back)links they have on there to increase their search engine ranking, you can now envision that the number of Facebook “like“’s you have both within your website and your blog posts will drive your search engine status to new heights (parallel to how Google uses links to drive your search engine ranking).

When you consider that more than 400 million users “engage with Facebook” in some way or another through external sites (such as your website or blog) every month, you can imagine the impact this will have on the search engine rankings IF your “like” buttons are utilized.

After doing our due diligence in research, the most common concern with this concept is how Facebook will moderate the likes to make the outcome in ranking fair game.

This can also be compared to the way Digg ranked their content, with the number of “Diggs” each article received – putting the big dogs on the frontline.

So with this in mind, if you don’t have your “like” button both on your blog and/or blog posts, then you ABSOLUTELY MUST now! (Don’t know how to? Click on the Chat button on the right sidebar and we’ll help you!).

2. Tag You’re It!

Facebook will allow webmasters (ie. you) to tell Facebook what your site is all about with the use of their tagging tool – done right, your SEO possibilities are endless and your ability to get continual exposure and results without continual work will be made a reality.

So, here’s food for thought. Have you EVER used Facebook’s search bar to conduct a search like you would on Google? Many (maybe even most) people haven’t, however, I read that in March the use of Facebook’s search engine went up 48% over the month before, but also was just 2.7% of the entire search business in the US (putting it ahead of AOL though, I might add!).   If what we have discussed above become reality in the coming months, I envision these numbers to go off the chart!

Below is a video where Facebook’s chief technology officer, Bret Taylor, talks about what he wants to focus on within Facebook’s future, which undoubtedly includes search:

As a tech savvy real estate agent, undoubtedly you have short sale listings and you have asked and answered the same questions over and over again. Questions like…
Is it available? Do you have any offers? Has a negotiator been assigned? Has it been approved?

So I came up with a simple solution for how I manage my short sale listings as to have an automated approach to answering these common, time consuming questions. First I have a remote processor named Mallarie who handles my short sale processing. She is awesome at it and that is all she does. As agents we cringe and get excited at the same time. Cringe at the thought of doing the processing all day everyday and get excited that someone else does instead and even likes it!

OK getting to the point, Mallarie and I use a Google Spread Sheet as a white board.  So then I came up with the idea of giving the buyer’s agents access to the spread sheet to answer their questions.

Well I didn’t want to just send agents to a spread sheet, so I embedded the spread sheet into a Google Sites page.

Well you know that was not a pretty URL oh with the default #@46&%32^$674 ending and all so I bought an easier to remember/promote domain at Go Daddy for .89 cents called http://AubreyShortSales.info.  By the way the .89 is the only cost to this entire operation.

Depending on your MLS rules, we have what is called agent remarks and it is not publicly accessible. So I put in the agent remarks, go to www.AubreyShortSales.info and get all your questions answered. Then of course if it is vacant I say so. Because I get an electronic record of the showing from the keybox, I can arrange showings, answer all the questions and get their feedback (that will be another article) without having to talk to anyone. The buyer’s agents seem to prefer that, they get their questions answered instantly.

Another really cool part is, now that it is all set up, I don’t have to do anything. When Mallarie makes a change on the spread sheet it updates the site. Su-weeet.

All this is done free with a Google Apps standard account or a basic Gmail account. If you do not have a either I recommend you get a Google account today and start exploring. There are plenty of how to videos on YouTube. Because the spread sheet and the sites are both part of the same account with Google everything is fairly simple, there is even a help link in the top right corner if you get stuck.  Short sales may be a necessary evil in the industry right now but by streamlining the process using a tech savvy approach it makes life a little better for all involved.

Rob Aubrey

Keller Williams Utah

www.MoreUtahListings.com

Google Voice has just been released to the general public and all the real estate agents out there can go sign up for free.  Why should you get Google Voice you ask?   Well, I am not to sure since I never was lucky enough to get a beta key, so I recruited a buddy of mine to explain to us why he thinks it’s a great tool for real estate agents.  Greg has had the product for about 8 months now and uses it extensively.

This will be our first intro post about Google Voice and just covers the top three reasons to sign up for your free account.  Don’t worry, we will have more in-depth posts in the near future.  Enjoy!

If you love Gmail like I do…Check out these ‘Best Gmail, Tips, Tools, Tricks, and Labs ” features to make your Gmail experience even more satisfying!

To enable “Google Labs” in your Gmail account, follow these instructions:  ENABLE GOOGLE LABS

If you have the URL to a favorite gadget that you like to use… you can add it into your Gmail with this lab.  I really like the ‘Remember the Milk’ and the ‘Remember the Milk’ gadget… great organizational system.

Auto responders get a ‘bad rap’ in my opinion!   Use this lab to create a ‘quality’ auto responder message that you can use along with the Gmail filters.   The ‘canned message’ can be programmed by the filter to be sent automatically to the people, email addresses, etc. that you designate when you create the filter.  Automation is key to consistent communication for busy real estate professionals!  Gmail’s ‘Canned Responses’ is a great way to let people know that you received their message and that you’re actively addressing their inquiries/ requests.   It also lets you automatically share useful information, links, etc. and suggest actions that they can take… like visiting your blog or website or signing up for ‘Market Reports’ etc….  until you get back with them.

A wealth of mini graphics to ‘jazz’ up your communications… a picture REALLY does say a thousand words sometimes!

A very simple but sophisticated ‘filing system’ for your email.  Does your inbox overwhelm you when you check your email?  Gmail ‘Nested Labels’ will take care of that mess!

How important is YOUR calendar to you?  If you’re not using a Gmail Calendar Gadget…you should be!  You can program your Gmail calendar for all of your important dates and send yourself a reminder message a day, 2 days, 3 hours before the event… you decide!  You can also share your calendar with other people.

Gmail labs ‘Google search’  lets you surf the ‘Google web’ … without having to leave your email!   Nuff said!

Gmail didn’t use to allow images… but now you can either upload images from your computer to insert into messages… or use a URL to an image on the web.

Gmail’s ‘Multiple inboxes’ lab might be my favorite Gmail Lab! This lab creates separate ‘inboxes’ for your designated ‘lists of message types.’  Do you use stars to rate the importance of your messages?  You can have a separate ‘inbox’ just for your starred messages!  Do you want to see all of your FACEBOOK updates in one box… you can do it with Gmail Multiple Inboxes.  The possibility for organization with this ‘sweet little lab’ is endless!!

My next favorite Gmail lab is probably ‘Quick Links.’ With this lab you can bookmark messages that you want to access quickly…  like important account information for different vendors,  urls or rss feeds that you use for marketing, research data that you need to refer back to frequently… again… endless uses!

A short cut for creating ‘quotes’ or for responding to questions sent to you in an email.

Gmail ‘Send and Archive’ lets you automatically file a message as you send it… 2 actions with one click!  Multi -taskers… you’ll love this feature.

The practice of ‘starring’ or using an image to prioritize your messages really helps you target what needs to go on your ‘to do list’ for the day!

OK… guys!  I know that you’ve all hit the ‘send’ button on your email and wished that you could take it back for a multitude of reasons!  Maybe you forgot to add an attachment… maybe you needed to add another email address to the ‘cc’ or ‘bcc’ field… or maybe you were mad and wrote something that your ‘better self’ told you that you shouldn’t have a second after hitting ‘send!’  For all of these scenarios… Gmail’s ‘Undo Send’ lab is awesome.  You have about 10 seconds to change your mind and retrieve that message!

Do you have emails that would make great blog posts??  Gmail’s ‘Create a Document’ lab can create a Google document out of them… in seconds!

If you use ‘Google Docs’ this handy Gmail ‘ Google Docs Gadget’ lab creates a box with a list of your documents for easy access.

Gmail Lab’s  ‘Sneak Peek’ lets you preview a message without opening it… saves time when sorting or reading your email.

If you’re a multilingual real estate professional… Gmail’s ‘Message Translation’ lab might be a great asset to you.

‘Move Icon Column’ allows you to adjust how you see your attachments in Gmail… you can move them from the end of the email subject to the left of the ‘Sender’ making the attachments easier to detect.

Hopefully,  I’ve opened up a ‘World of Creative Ideas’ for you to either enhance your Gmail experience… of if you don’t have Gmail yet… to jump onto the Gmail bandwagon!  I think it’s clear why so many people DO love Gmail… and with Gmail Labs… there are even more reasons to fall in love with Gmail all over again!  Experiment… Become a crazy Gmail Labs ‘Mad Scientist!’

In addition to all the “fancy labs” above… there are some really useful ways to use …

Here’s a fantastic post that has helped me capitalize on the FILTER function in Gmail. I have a Gmail ‘QUICK LINK’ to it to refer back when
I need to… quickly!

20 WAYS TO USE GMAIL FILTERS

Post authored by
Wendy Herndon
REALTOR/ Marketing Specialist
THE SERENA GROUP
Keller Williams Realty

http://www.Bradenton-Florida-RealEstate.com

Our main man, Chris Smith, was feeling pretty low with the flu yesterday, so he invited me to chime in on his “Search Engine Optimization” webinar.  We had a great turnout, but more importantly, we had some amazing questions, and lots of them!  This reiterated for me that Search Engine Optimization is still a very shady, unclear and often confusing area of Realtor’s online marketing endeavors.  So today I’m going to go over the great free tool (brought to you by none other than Google) “Adwords” that we discussed at some length during yesterday’s webinar.

Google Adwords – Mix It Up!

Keyword selection is THE most important part of your online marketing efforts.  Your keywords used within your domain url, your blog titles, your article keywords, all work together to bring you the most return on investment (ROI) and will save you massive amounts of time and money if done correctly from the start!  However, I believe it is never too late to get yourself straightened out and on the path to great results, especially with a well equipped, hyper-local blog (but that’s another article altogether…).

Google Adwords was put into place to assist advertisers (such as real estate agents) with creating the best pay-per-click ads.  However, that’s not what we are going to be using it for (especially since we all know that Facebook PPC ads are MUCH more targeted than Google’s PPC ads).  Google Adwords allows us to research which keywords we will use to get our website/blog ranked high within the search engines.   Here are a couple of tricks to get the best keywords for your online marketing:

1.     Add (Or Take Away) An “S”

• By simply trying a plural version of your keyword phrase, there’s a good chance that you will stumble upon some low competition, but highly searched keyword phrases you can use.  Here’s a great example (which you will notice I am using both within this blog title and as links to related posts within our blog):

• Above you will see that just by removing the “S” from the keyword phrase, we have found a keyword phrase that has slightly lower competition but over twice as much searches per month!   Try it with the words home and homes or house and houses and see if you can find some keyword gems!

2.     Misspell Your Words

• There are many words that are often (and not so often) misspelled that are also great opportunities to get in on some awesome keyword phrases and high google rankings.   By simply joining words together (like “realestate or “tampabay”) you could get some major traffic coming into your real estate website or blog.

3.     Review The Options

• Google Adwords will also give you a list of other options that you may want to research more when searching for a keyword phrase.  Sometimes these other options will be better choices than what you may have thought of yourself.

Take a look at Google Adwords today – You may be surprised as to what article keyword results you get!