Search engine optimization is complicated.
For many, it’s considered a dark art, peppered with unknowns and uncertainties. And while some marketers consider it an exciting challenge, others back away from it for fear that they’ll simply never get it right.
Still others hire crappy SEO consultants. As Rebecca Gil tells it in her “Beginner’s Guide to Search Engine Optimization”, a PDF download below: “Good SEO consultants are hard to locate and they are even harder to hire. This is because there aren’t a lot of high-quality SEO consultants available for hire. There are lots and lots of bad SEO consultants or young entrepreneurs who think they know SEO.” are hard to locate and they are even harder to hire. This is because there aren’t a lot of high-quality SEO consultants available for hire. There are lots and lots of bad SEO consultants or young entrepreneurs who think they know SEO.”
But, the truth is … if you are doing any kind of online marketing, having even a basic understanding of SEO can help you deliver more successful strategies and campaigns.
What to do?
Time to do it yourself.
“SEO is not simple and it is not easy. It is part art, part science, and part instinct. But know this once you get it, you get it and it becomes common sense. What I will promise you is that anyone and everyone can learn SEO,” states Rebecca.
“If you can’t make the long-term commitment needed, consider spending your money on pay per click ads,” she adds.
Rebecca Gill is the founder of Web Savvy Marketing and the SEO instructor at DIYSEOcourses.com. She explains why SEO is a powerhouse for all businesses and why it requires a plan. In my years as a web designer, I’ve found Rebecca to be the only person who makes sense while keeping everything simple. This is no small feat in the world of SEO! The guarantees, the gobbledygook. They are everywhere. Thank you, Rebecca!
Download The Beginner’s Guide to Search Engine Optimization.
MORE DIY RESOURCES
Easy WordPress SEO. Yoast Complete Solution
How to Learn SEO: 10 of the Best Resources to Bookmark – These days, it seems all marketing requires at least a basic knowledge of search engine optimization. But many of us aren’t sure where to begin. That is due to the deluge of information available on SEO.
How to Teach Yourself SEO in 30 Days – A comprehensive article with videos, tutorials, and downloadable SEO template and more
5 Small Business Tips For Better SEO In 2017
Search Engine Optimization Basics – Effective SEO Advice and Tips from Rank Fishkin. Rand Fishkin is the CEO and Co-Founder of the web’s most popular SEO software provider: SEOmoz.
Our Blog Posts
Website Backup and Restore. Critical for Small Business.
I am a ten-year customer and fan of Bluehost famous for simple and easy WordPress hosting. WordPress installs and updates are a snap and the price is right! Over many years, I can also report that the support has been consistently OK to great.
Another reason: Bluehost makes it easy to do automated backups and file-level restores.
The feature is called Site Backup & Restore. [Read more…] about Website Backup and Restore. Critical for Small Business.
New Realtors’ Digital Marketing
Though not exactly a novel technology back in 2009 when everyone was online, the Internet has changed everything for home buyers and for realtors.
In 2017 many savvy, online home buyers now can create a short list of specific properties that pique their interest, culled from sources like Homes.com. There’s still plenty of need for agents and brokers, but in many ways, their main focus has evolved. They are no longer the sole information providers and curators. Their skills as experts, negotiators, and facilitators are in as high demand as ever.
In other words, the new homebuyer is already pre-sold before he picks up the phone and calls a broker. He knows what he wants already, in some cases the exact property, certainly the neighborhood, always the price range.
Vienna, Virginia realtor Doug Francis defines the new strategy perfectly for realtors both in the design and focus of his new real estate website. He notes: “Today’s smart digital marketing strategy needs to be geared towards becoming an industry resource, to create unique opportunities and gain new clients by being helpful”
Doug goes on to explain that while everybody is talking about social media, your website really needs to be the core of a strategy to demonstrate your professional experience through articles and helpful information.
“Facebook is for advertising, but consumers turn to Google for answers and searching for professionals who they can hire.”
Be sure to check out Doug’s stunning Genesis WordPress website at www.dougfrancis.com built on the Minimum Pro Theme.
87% of buyers use online resources and 75% select a real estate agent or broker to work with.
Buyers who utilize online resources during their home search are significantly more likely to also use an agent.
75% of senior home buyers go online to search for a home.
Nine out of ten Millennials turn to the internet and eight in 10 use mobile devices or apps to help with the home-buying process.
Millennial buyers and sellers use at least three online resources; one in four use five or more online resources.
Millennials scrutinize more agents, asking friends and family about their experiences with agents and reading online reviews more than other generations.
60% of buyers evaluate an agent’s local market knowledge.
89% of new home shoppers use a mobile search engine at the onset and throughout their research.
31% of home shoppers who take action on a real estate site are ages 25-34, surpassing all other ages.
75% of senior home buyers go online to search for a home.
[Source: Zillow.com]
Resources:
https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/collections/zero-moment-truth.html
The Digital House Hunt: Consumer and Market Trends in Real Estate
Give Marcia a call at 561.906.3436 to help you build a website that captures homebuyers’ attention and closes the sale.
Real Estate Web Design with Agent Focused Pro
Whether your aim is to write an agent blog, highlight your properties, build an email list, or go hyperlocal, I’ve got you covered!
Agent Focused Pro even saves printer ink and paper! A built-in stylesheet means that when you or your customers print a property listing off your site, only your logo and the page content print. There’s no useless navigation, sidebars, or footer – just the info you and your customers need.
Agent Focused Pro helps you present your business in a way you haven’t before.
With all the options available to you, you can make this theme truly your own:
- Add your own logo or use text for your business name.
- Upload a striking full-page, backstretch image on the home page to make a unique visual statement.
- Customize the widgetized homepage with property search, featured listings, featured communities, contact info and form, and more.
- Enable search for your listings alone or use your own IDX service (theme can be used with most,may require additional styles).
- Quickly set your colors for links and buttons — as well as some accents — via the one-click color customizer.
- Make each of your pages, posts, communities, and listings more visually appealing by uploading large featured images to them.
- Choose from lots of widget areas and three layout options (left sidebar, right sidebar, and full-width).
- Use custom text to introduce your listings, communities archive, and taxonomy pages, as well as your blog categories and tags.
When it comes to real estate web design, Agent Focused Pro features everything you’ve come to expect from StudioPress themes:
A mobile-responsive design that looks amazing wherever it’s viewed
Support, documentation, and the StudioPress community forum
The best rankings possible because of our clean code and mobile-friendly design
Super-fast page load times
One-click theme updates
Airtight security so you can rest easy
Demo Agency Focused Pro
New Hosted WordPress Website Builder … for peanuts
Enter the world’s first hybrid publishing solution – with the ease of an all-in-one, hosted website builder and the flexible power of WordPress!
Perfect for bloggers, podcasters, and affiliate marketers, as well as those selling physical products, digital downloads, and membership programs.
What are StudioPress Sites?
StudioPress Sites have the power of WordPress but they don’t require the maintenance and upkeep associated with self-hosted websites or blogs.
This means that StudioPress is providing a hosted version of the Genesis Framework. Users will have all of the power of Genesis, but won’t require any of the upkeep associated with running their own website.
You can load one of twenty popular Genesis themes for free. No need to purchase or maintain additional software licenses. The built-in theme library means you can install any of the themes with just one click.
Plus get a bunch of hand-picked plugins and free 24/7 support and much more. All for $27 – $37 a month!
The Genesis Framework already powers over 500,000 sites, and it’s the foundation of your new StudioPress Site. With search engine optimized code, airtight security, instant updates, customizable widget and layout options, and a huge developer community, Genesis is the framework that makes WordPress easier, without sacrificing power or flexibility.
Mobile-Optimized HTML5 Designs
You want sleek, professional design — without paying a fortune for it and without fearing instant obsolescence as web design evolves. Choose from a score of included turnkey “mobile optimized” HTML5 designs that provide beautiful frames for your content. Feel free to personalize any of the included themes by tweaking the CSS, or go to a completely custom Genesis child theme.
Fast Loading Performance
Get started setting up your StudioPress Site right away on our infrastructure that’s optimized specifically for peak WordPress performance. Site speed and page load times are too important to be jammed on a box with hundreds of generic WordPress installs. More importantly, never face the experience of your site crashing just because you succeed in getting big traffic.
Zero Hosting Hassles
Not only do you enjoy superior speed and performance with your StudioPress Site, you also avoid the hassle of self-hosted WordPress, like surprise expenses for bandwidth upcharges, storage, CPU’s and RAM. Even as your StudioPress Site remains solid during surprise traffic spikes, you won’t pay extra for short-term success on the way to sustained higher traffic.
Rock-Solid Security
Even beyond the security features built into Genesis and the included automatic plugin and theme maintenance, there’s more to protect your StudioPress Site. Our architecture is designed to maximize security and performance — including intrusion prevention, continuous scanning and monitoring for malware, distributed denial of service (DDoS) protection, and more.
Advanced SEO Functionality
The SEO features of the Genesis Framework helped make it the industry standard among WordPress users. For StudioPress Sites, however, we’re taking it even further, with advanced schema control, XML sitemap generation, robots.txt generation, asynchronous JavaScript loading, enhanced Open Graph output, breadcrumb title control, AMP support, and more.
Automatic Plugin and Theme Maintenance
Getting hacked is no laughing matter, and the number one way bad guys get in is through outdated themes, plugins, and old versions of WordPress. Many WordPress site owners now spend $79 or more every month to have an outside service keep things updated and safe. StudioPress technology takes care of this for you at no extra charge.
One-Click Install of Included Plugins
Never wonder which plugins are trustworthy, thanks to your StudioPress Site’s repository of one-click solutions for the premium functionality you desire. Choose from an ever-expanding selection including WooCommerce, Design Palette Pro, AMP, Beaver Builder Lite, OptinMonster, AffiliateWP, Soliloquy Lite, Easy Digital Downloads, Restrict Content Pro, Ninja Forms, WPForms Lite, and more to come.
World Class Support
StudioPress Sites are truly unique. The entire service has been designed from the ground up to promote integrated ease-of-use while eliminating confusion and the chance that something will go wrong. If something does go off the rails, our friendly support team is standing by 24/7 to assist you in getting back on track fast.
Get Your StudioPress Site Now
In a nutshell, StudioPress Sites offers a DIY option with the provided 20 themes or you can call Marcia at 561.906.3436 for a custom website.