Fresh Content – Freshness Factors in Google’s Ranking Algorithm

Google Loves Fresh Content – So Do Your Visitors

How do you feel about eating that 4 day old salad you left in the fridge? And do you remember the smell of fresh baked bread or pastries right out of the oven at your local cafe? Do you watch the nightly news now or old reruns from last week?

The word fresh means a lot when you’re grocery shopping or out for your morning walk. It turns out fresh is big with Google, Facebook, Instagram, and Linkedin too. For some reason, they believe Now is important.

Content strategists may not talk about freshness very often, but we all know from our analytics, that old content doesn’t get read much. It’s not quite as enjoyable. It might as well be put away in the archives.

And in the era of social media, everyone expects or prefers fresh content. If Google changed its search box to let users choose the date, most searchers would turn off anything older than 3 years.

It’s often the freshness of content that draws people to Facebook, or Twitter or to your blog. We all like the feeling of spontaneity, novelty, and real time interaction.

In this post, I wanted to point out how new content and updated content can catapult your Google rankings and help keep your customers better informed, engaged, and confident in your company.

It’s important for a digital marketing specialist of any type to be mindful of the quality of their content. And freshness is a part of it.

What’s with This Old, Outdated Stuff?

When I research websites to understand a prospect’s content, one common thing that jumps out right away is how out of date their content is. Sometimes they just plain gave up on their blog, FB posts, and other material. That doesn’t really send a good message.

Many times, their blogs and other material was produced years ago. Who wants old news? But then again, who has the time to update a huge library of web content? If your website has or does generate a lot of content, that stale content will not produce the visits and visitor engagement you want, nor high Google rankings.

Key Point: fresh, updated, evergreen content is more powerful, sustainable, and makes a laser-like branding impression. Believe it, your content is worth it.

Outdated, stale content doesn’t do much for your current customers either. In fact, it could be sending them the message that your company is behind the times. It’s an error in customer communications.

What is Fresh Content Anyway?

Fresh Content is up to date, which means visitors and customers are more assured and confident that the info they’re consuming is relevant and accurate. Who can make buying decisions on outdated information? That’s kind of risky and could lead to business losses.

For that reason and many others, Google decided to make content freshness an important component of their algorithm. In fact, they filed a patent for it. The importance of freshness however is relative to other factors they take into account. That means if your content is of the low quality, non-engaging variety, it may not matter as much.

Yet, if you have a high ranking, high domain authority, relevant website, Google may be eager to spider your content very quickly. Yet, as you know, Google does assess your site’s trustworthiness and keyword/topic relevance, so your content updates will be “processed” to discover their true merit. A good SEO copywriter can take this into account when doing updates.

From moz.com whiteboard Fridays, Rand Fishkin said the Fresh factor affects 30% of queries, however freshness would apply to all keyword searches, just some more than others.

Google can measure user’s engagement in your content too, and notice changes in visit times, clicks, scrolling, and more. Googlebot can determine that you’ve changed your content and that users are liking it. In response, those pages will enjoy higher rankings.

So when you’re managing your content and worrying too much about library science you should instead focus on user engagement. With fresh as a priority, you’re getting at the things Google, Bing, and Yahoo all care about.
Freshness was a big topic a few years back when Google didn’t have what is called “realtime” capability which DuckDuckGo had. That’s when they acted to include a freshness factor. They initially called it the Cafeine algorithm update.

Today, this freshness rating would be controlled by RankBrain and all keywords according to Google engineers, are not treated the same. That’s getting into technical territory, so let’s keep it simple for you.

You need to update your content intelligently for continued high Google rankings. If you pay attention to each of these factors you’ll find as I have, a reward of higher rankings. And you’ll likely make a bigger impact on your visitors.

What are The Fresh Content Factors?

Here’s a few things Google might assess:

blog posting date (timestamp)
amount of material changed (headings, embedded links, text, text, data, charts)
most recent change/update previously
relevance of the material changed to which keywords that page ranks for
the keywords visitors used in their search
new inbound links discovered pointing to your site
new inbound links discovered from active/fresh websites
the rate of growth in new inbound links discovered point to your site
the keyword topic of the changes on other pages on other sites that link to your page
new social shares discovered
rate or frequency of content updates
new pages created on the particular topic that page ranks for and which it links to

Trying to Get Fresh? Sounds Like a Plan

As part of your social media strategy or visitor engagement strategy you’ll want design your content so that it can be refreshed continuously in a way that Google trusts and which lets you repost it repeatedly on Facebook, Buzzfeed Twitter or Linkedin. With fresh new angles, you can post it forever and people will love it.

If it grows its own cult or following, wow, you’re brilliant overachiever (make sure you let me know).

New content is great so keep on blogging. However, it’s actually that old content when revitalized that generates the big traffic (and qualified prospects too).

Here’s How to Optimize for Freshness:

update key parts of your page/post so that it is keyword relevant
update the upper part of your page because it is important to Google
update text and images throughout the document
give the post a different theme, but try to keep the relevant keywords used in the headings
retarget the page for a particular customer group and promote strong to them
repost on social media to create new fresh shares and links
update your blog post date
use your update date in your meta description tag (it shows up int he search results page)
make fresh changes to other pages on your site and link to that page
create fresh new post on similar topics and link to that page

It’s important when you update your content, that you you don’t overoptimize by accident. Vary the words you use, especially in hyperlinks . Google can tell when you’re beefing things up to get better rankings. This is where SEO skill is invaluable.

This isn’t the ultimate oracle about the freshness factor, but it will help you. I hope you’ll return for farm fresh nutritious updates, (nudge nudge wink wink). It’s like a vitamin shot for your web marketing.

Oh, and please do pass this post onto your digital marketing coworkers, copywriters, bloggers, and your CEO. They’ll like you for it. In fact why don’t you blog about this topic yourself?

If you have some good ideas on content freshness, make sure you leave a comment below.

November 2, 2017March 25, 2018

Real Estate Video for Power Home Selling

Homebuyers Are Watching More Video Than Ever

Real Estate Video is a selling machine. As you’ll see in a few of the videos below is how video can present properties for sale in a more compelling, engaging way. The end result is more engaged viewers, more interested buyers and ultimately a higher selling price.

This post you’re reading is one of my most engaging posts with an amazing engagement time of 15 minutes. Why? Because it’s helpful, on a topic people know is important, and it’s entertaining. This is what good content looks like.

You’ll find 18 reasons why you must use Real Estate Videos to sell homes in 2018. And you’ll be enjoying some astonishing videos and infographics too. Change your approach and change your results.

If you’re a home owner, you’ll want video as part of a complete digital marketing sales system working for you. That will combine with Facebook and Google Adwords ad campaigns, compelling marketing pieces such as blogs and downloadable guides, along with a superior digital sales strategy.

Video adoption is still lagging online yet consumption of video is increasing. Both Realtors and homeowners may not be convinced, but in reality the cost of producing video has dropped. Hundreds and hundreds of new high quality real estate video production companies have spawned in the last couple of years.

Video Is Growing in Use Online

Video on your webiste and Facebook is great, but it’s also important in advertising. Having your own video within your Facebook video ads, lead ads, or Google Adwords ads is very powerful.

Viewer engagement numbers are very high.

Combine that with remarketing ads and you have persistent high quality exposure to your audience. And Realtors, if you have a list of prospects emails and names, you can target custom audiences and target only those people. This maximizes your impact and minimizes waste.

Take a look at some numbers here from Hubspot.

With drones and 4K video technology, you’re able to present your buyers with an exceptional sales piece complete with elegant music and key selling features to help get buyers focused on buying your home. It really is about focus, and that is created through effective videos.

Forget what you’ve heard and expect about video. Speak to a video producer and let them explain what is possible and persuasive. Open your mind about how video can represent you and your property.

Video doesn’t preclude in-depth blog posts, viewable mls listings, and material that builds trust. Video adds an additional visual element that is engaging. You really do need it. There are few realtors below who understand the power of video. If it’s done with good taste, sincerity and good production values, a video can be a powerful lead generator. And let’s not forget how sharable a Facebook or Youtube video is.

Using a real estate presentation video may have more selling power than you realize as you’ll see in these amazing realty videos below. You can get more offers, sell higher, and get offers faster. Let’s launch a bidding war. If your realtor isn’t using video, you’re missing out on leveraging engaging content that will impact, engage and persuade.

According to an Australian Real Estate Group, real estate listings that include a video receive 403% more inquiries than those without

If You’re Going to Sell Your Home – Get Big Exposure and a Beautiful Video

Let’s explore the world of video real estate marketing and how it might benefit your online reach, impact and sales. Video’s such a fun medium, you’ll have a fun time exploring and evaluating it.

Mobile and Video really growing: Smartphone traffic will exceed PC traffic by 2020. Ultra-high-definition (UHD) will be 20.7 percent of IP video-on-demand (VoD) traffic in 2020, up from 1.6 percent in 2015.

tubularinsights — This study by Tubular Insights showed a remarkable improvement with photography and video on estimated value of the property. So much for market assessment!

I’ve got 18 compelling reasons why video should be part of your home selling and marketing mix. Which of the 18 are most important is up for debate, but perhaps the top reason is that consumers online are watching more video than ever.

Some are forecasting that most internet traffic in a few years ahead will be video viewing on mobile phones. Reading isn’t a whole lot of fun on a smartphone and it makes sense that consumers will expect content and information in a non-readable format. It’s not that they don’t want to think, it’s that they will lean to information that’s easy to experience and absorb. Video has a big advantage over text here (however, let’s not forget that Google ranks your pages using the text!)

The power of real estate videos is in three dimensions: 1) technology and functional compatibility, 2) emotional engagement and retention, and 3) enhanced reach into the marketplace. If you can achieve all of these rather difficult challenges, you’re on your way to top sales. For the homeowner selling a house, property, or condo, it can generate multiple offers leading to a sold over asking price result you most certainly want.

2017 Forecasts: Interested in knowing more about the US housing market, San Francisco Rental Income Market, Los Angeles real estate market, or Toronto real estate market through 2017?

Agent Introduction and Update Videos

Here’s Austin Realtor Jill Leberknight with her agent introduction video. She’s an exceptional pro:

The Best Real Estate Listing Videos

To whet your appetite, view this video from Sureshot and you’ll not how elegant it is and how it well it reveals the features of the home. Is this more powerful than the MLS listing data?

Unit 7, 26 Paton Street, Kangaroo Point, Brisbane from Sure Shot Film on Vimeo.

And in this real estate video, we see how seamlessly and comfortably the drone aerial footage is fused to the indoor shots. How much more would your home or condo sell for with a video like this?

And the shots and vistas in this video are compelling.

So much creative styling, motion, color, sound and visual content can be used in a real estate video. This is a ranch style home in beautiful Canmore, Alberta Canada.

Now if you have a professional film crew handy, you might take the video home viewing to new cinematic heights. Get blown away by this land/sea/air excursion into an incredible mansion in Del Mar California, just north of San Diego.

Real Estate Video in 4K – The next Generation is Here

Oh yes, our adventure isn’t complete without sampling an amazing 4K video of a home for sale in Utah.

Have to admit it, those Drones do have their purpose in real estate video marketing.

18 Reasons to Use Real Estate Videos

Videos keep visitors on the site and not leaving – the average user spends 88% more time on a website with video with many viewers watching the same video several times.
Videos often rank well in Google search results on their own
Video engagement is watched by Google thus your page looks like it is of more interest to searchers and your Google rankings will rise
Homeowners prefer realtors who use video on their websites
Video attracts 3 times as many links to your site compared to other types of content
video increases email engagement and sales response rates
Video creates better impact and memory retention/recall for better branding
Video is more emotionally engaging and when you’re selling, it’s all about emotion when buyers are making the decision to buy – when buyers see rooms in motion they’re more likely to think about how their kids would use the home — important prepurchase behavior
Videos build buying intent, activate impulse, and make buyer prospects feel more confident – Enjoyment of video ads increase purchase intent by 97% and brand association by 139% according to Unruly.
Video presents and reveals top home features more convincingly
Youtube is very popular still and reaches a lot of consumers
Video is still leading edge and prestigious – it greatly enhances a realtor’s credibility and professional brand image
Homebuyers want and expect real estate videos — come on, they’re buying their dream home!
Neighbourhood video tours are fun – and you can brand your videos anyway you want
MLS stats alone leave buyers feeling cold – they’re not statisticians, they’re flesh and blood, emotionally buyers who want to feel continuously good about their intention to buy a home
People love sharing videos with friends on Facebook and other social media – friends and family provide positive feedback to them
Personalizes video is one way a local realtor can beat the big real estate brands and websites — their Achilles heel is a lack of personalization and emotional connection
By doing a short cameo appearance in your video, you’re introducing yourself in the most way — relative to a pleasant tour of the property – which moves them a step toward negotiations

When visitors see only an mls listing, it is a bland piece of content that unfortunately you can emotionally associated with. What happens in branding terms, is that you become a commodity because this exact same mls info is found on hundreds of other realtor websites

How do You Make a Great Real Estate Video?

What makes a great real estate video?

excellent well defined videography with great lighting that makes everything visible and transparent
smooth sweeping motions that provide a comfortable viewing experience
a few visual surprises
the right music for the target buyer
4K high definition video and ultra high quality audio
a personal introduction from you
aerial views of property and neighborhood
home is nicely and professionally staged

Here’s Australian videographer Dave Dwyer explaining how real estate videos are produced: davedwyer.com.au

What better way to learn some real estate video tips than via a video?

Real Estate Videos statistics. See the great collection compiled by Virtuets. http://www.virtuets.com/45-video-marketing-statistics/

There you have the ultimate Guide to Real Estate Video. Take a broader look at your homemarketing plans for 2018 and 2019 and integrate video in it. The value of increased audience engagement and social media engagement shouldn’t be understated. It’s tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars difference depending on your needs.

Gord Collins — I generate leads for realtors in Los Angeles, Phoenix, Denver, Seattle, Chicago, Boston, New York, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, St Louis, Minneapolis, Green Bay, Charlotte, Tampa, Miami, Orlando, Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa, Oshawa, Hamilton, Newmarket, Richmond Hill, Oakville, Calgary, Kelowna, Mississauga, Anaheim, Beverly Hills, Malibu, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Fresno, Santa Clara, Sacramento, Mountainview, Palo Alto, Portland, Washington, Atlanta, Irvine, Nashville, Sunnyvale, Salt Lake City, Riverside, Rancho Cucamonga, Costa Mesa, Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Raleigh, Albuquerque, Glendale, Oceanside, Long Beach, Huntington Beach, Carlsbad, Santa Clarita, Henderson, Mesa, Temecula, Kirkland, Redmond, Kansas City, St Louis, Stockton, Scottsdale, Palm Springs, Indianapolis, Columbus, Colorado Springs, Fort Worth, Chula Vista, Escondido, Santa Monica, Miami Beach, and Honolulu. Find a Los Angeles Real Estate Agent who will actually work for you.

October 30, 2017March 25, 2018

Website Speed Test – Speeding Up your Web Site with Google AMP Pages

Google Speed Update 2018

According to Barry Schwartz over at the Rusty Brick, speaking in the Search Engine Roundtable, Google has just made a serious update to their algorithm. It’s being called the Speed Update.

This is a serious problem for high quality content sites because they tend to have content heavy pages which are slow to load. Google hasn’t really considered the impact on deep content providers, but it could be slow sites are causing a drain on their advertising income (Adwords).

What’s happened is that sites that still aren’t using Google AMP, which I explain in this post, have seen their rankings drop — which means the loss of their best quality leads. As we all well know, it’s your #1 to #3 rankings that produce good quality visitors and leads. Losing them is painful.

Google Adsense has apparently recently updated too, to punish those publishers who have too many ads on their pages. The ads do slow down page load times and combined with a slow server, it makes for a poor experience for mobile users. Many users are still on slow speed wireless connections.

So if your website traffic has dropped, and rankings fallen this week, it could be your site has been hit. The solution? Understand Google AMP pages and the factors such as server speed that undermine your site’s success.

Slow Speed Increases Site Bounces

You might have engaging content, but if it loads slowly, fewer visitors will experience it as this graphic from Think with Google shows:

Website Speed Test – Optimizing your Website

When you work with websites as much as I do, or as any digital marketing specialist or strategist does, you see a lot things that don’t work. And what you don’t know may hurt you.

And these things frustrate website visitors. It’s not easy to create a great website given some of the type of websites developers are producing. They create them based on popularity or because it’s Web 2.0 compatible and offers some technical options. WordPress is a good example where the excessive code makes sites load very slowly.

Yet, if the customer journey is disrupted and made unenjoyable, then the site is defeating its purpose. This post is about those problems you don’t know about and what you should do.

A website and its underlying coding is complex and easily troubled. And that trouble can translate to visitors leaving your site which is the opposite of customer engagement. When you examine the underlying server performance, you may find errors and other issues that are costing you customers and revenue.

Let’s take a look at a few of them.

The Top Ten Problems with Websites

1. unclear value proposition – you’ve got 3 seconds to explain clearly
2. not focusing on customer’s pain points and perspective – it’s about what they need, not about your stuff
3. poor unique value proposition – your stuff is the same as your competitors
4. lack of good content and poor engagement – you haven’t given them material to explore and enjoy so the customer journey isn’t much fun or informative
5. slow loading website – waiting a long time for websites is a major frustration
6. too much copy – burying them in long copy before they’re even sure they want to stay
7. content hard to find – no easy quick links to the stuff they’re interested in
8. ugly web design – deplorable, layout, color and design makes them cringe
9. hyped up copywriting with buzzwords – phoney talk that attempts to play with their emotions
10. no mobile version or one that is hard to use – they can’t navigate with their fingers and your images are too small.

The Bane of Digital Marketing Specialists – A Bad Website

When you’re a digital marketing specialist, you have to optimize rankings, increase engagement, get value propositions across, convince visitors and get them to buy stuff.

However, if the website sucks, and has technical issues, it can make our jobs frustrating and difficult. It could kill rankings and engagement. We count on web designers and developers to get it right.

Out of these 10 website design mistakes, it’s perhaps the ugly website with no clear value proposition and very poor quality content is likely the worst to visitors. In fact, since visitors are searching for content (solving their pain points) it makes sense relevant, high quality content should be the priority.

Audience Engagement is considered the top goal for high rankings and for growth in sales. Engagement is the first step in making customers feel good enough to purchase something.

Need for Speed

However, most visitors arrive from Google or Facebook. What happens usually, especially if they’re using their smartphone via a cell line with limited bandwidth, is that site takes a long time to load.

Out of all the challenges a digital marketing specialist tackles each month, the web page load speed test is an increasingly important one.

Social plugins and big videos can present problems. Use them selectively.

Page load time as it’s called is a very basic problem and the solution is to check your pages using a page checker. It conducts what’s called a waterfall test. You can conduct your own test at https://www.webpagetest.org or https://tools.pingdom.com. They are 2 of the most popular speed testers which provide a full waterfall breakdown of each web server connection and how long it took.

Is Your Website Mobile Friendly?

You can also test your site out at Google to see how mobile friendly it is. Most issues with websites come from not using web caching, long initial web server response time, using video in the page, social media plugins, and large graphic images.

The rest come from poor web development. A digital marketing specialist has to keep up on the web server performance. You’ll see problems such as a huge drop in visitors during certain hours. Yes, a sudden loss where it looks like the web server just stopped working.

I’ve had to call clients on many occasions to tell them their websites were down completely. I’ve even had to tell a business owner the site had code that stopped Google from indexing the site.

There’s many more issues as well.

But let’s talk more about website page load speed. After you clear up all the aforementioned problems, you’re ready to do something which Google in particular likes.

Google AMP – Making Websites Superfast

Google’s accelerated mobile pages project was launched because the web had become very slow and congested. And that was making it difficult for Google to make money via their advertising platform, Adwords.

They had to speed things up. AMP is a service which converts webpages to static html files which load very quickly. The pages and images are hosted on Google’s AMP Cache servers to enhance speed further.

Better coding, fewer calls to the server, and superfast Google servers mean you’ve got an advantage over those who don’t use it.

AMP is a little controversial, since Google would like to host the Internet themselves on their vast army of web servers. That makes some people very nervous.

Complete AMP hosting means websites would no longer be needed. We’d just let Google manage everything, with a copy of our sites. Of course that would mean we would likely not be able to advertise on those websites and we’d lose control over the content, just like we do with Facebook pages. You may lose some of your advertising if Google considers them poor quality networks. But that’s another story.

Right now, it might be wise for you to convert your slow loading pages into AMP format so your visitors can enjoy your site quickly.

Each month, Google places more weight on AMP pages, meaning using AMP could give you a boost in search engine results. A higher ranking means more visitors. And without the AMP platform, your pages may not be shown to mobile users.

50% of web users are visiting via their smartphone or tablet. It’s a growing body of visitors and customers and you may have to address this issue at some point. Might as well start dealing with it now.

Convert WordPress Sites to Google AMP

Perhaps the best way to approach this conversion is to use Yoast’s AMP conversion plugin .

Gord Collins – Digital Marketing Specialist Toronto

September 1, 2017February 4, 2018

Best Auto Insurance Quote Los Angeles – Compare Lowest Rates in LA

The Lowest Car Insurance Quotes in Los Angeles

Savings of $10,000 for Some Drivers

According to recent auto insurance quote surveys, California and Los Angeles are one of the highest cost zones for car insurance coverage. And that’s not just luxury car insurance.

The nature of LA itself where population density, road congestion, and time pressures make for higher than average risk of accidents and claims. But when driver’s automatically and blindly succumb to the belief that everyone has to pay higher auto insurance, they’re going to lose their money.

Whatever area of Los Angeles you live in, having some perseverance in your auto insurance search will pay off. It’s not that insurance company quotes are high and intentionally designed cheat you, it’s that you, your family, and friends don’t try to get the best rates.

And if your family and friends aren’t searching, send them to this post on saving on car insurance. That’s what this post is about, saving mone on auto insurance in Los Angeles County. By searching, you’re making it less likely you’ll get cheated on car insurance quotes.

caranddriverhonda — Photo Courtesy of Caranddrivercom – New Car Reviews

If you do a search for car insurance rates on a comparison site or an Los Angeles broker’s website, you’ll see how the yearly auto policy rates can vary more than $2000! How long does it take you to earn $2000?

Quest for the Lowest Auto Rate

Google search should always be the starting point of any product or service search. For auto insurance, homes for sale, finding a realtor, finding a mortgage agent, car loan, or home reno contractors in Los Angeles, Google should be bookmarked.

Through Google and the advertisements on this post, you’ll find a number of insurance companies and brokers. The more you check out, the bigger your savings. Don’t give all your money to the big insurance companies. Vary how you search so you don’t get railroaded by online marketing strategists either.

Believe me, I know how they trick you into obsessing about an unimportant issue or your zip code or something else that distracts you from searching for what you want — low auto insurance rates in Los Angeles.

From most insurance providers in Los Angeles, car insurance is a commodity so why should you pay more than you have to? Learn more about saving on car insurance here.

Find the lowest insurance rates in your city: LA auto insurance, Boston auto insurance, Phoenix car insurance, San Francisco car insurance, San Diego boat insurance, Seattle truck insurance, New York car insurance, Indianapolis SUV insurance, Detroit SUV insurance, Indianapolis Car Insurance Quote online, Toronto car insurance quote, or Chicago car insurance.

Searching for Car Insurance Quotes

Insurance rate quotes vary by zip code, age, gender, type of vehicle, and driving records of course. Read my previous post about how vehicle choice affects auto insurance rates.

My Car Insurance Quote

This car insurance quote comparison chart below is a perfect example of the range of premiums and yearly costs. There’s a big difference.

Why does it pay to Shop Around for Insurance Coverage?

The status quo hurts. Your current auto insurance company in LA isn’t going to lower your rates or keep you up do date on savings. They make more money by keeping quiet. As you can see in the above graphic, insurance company rate quotes vary significantly and they’re not going to tell you why. That’s their right. All you can do is shop around for lower car insurance rates in LA specifically, and avoid these nasty realities:

your current insurance provider keeps raising your rates and you’ve done nothing wrong
some auto insurance companies actually use FICO insurance credit scores to raise your premiums even though your credit score has nothing to do with your driving record or risk
uninsured or young drivers living in your home – they feel their presence and possibility of driving your car or truck is a big liability
your type of vehicle may be deemed more risk to them (ISO’s Vehicle Series Rating) because it’s more expensive to repair in your area
your zip code is considered more high risk by many insurers even though you live on the edge of the zip code
they assess the risk of your specific moving violations and total violations differently
some insurance underwriters believe that you’re male so you’re guilty before you put the key in the ignition
your insurance company may not lower your rates even though you’re now 10 to 15 years older and deserve a better rate because of your lower risk and better driving record
you may have forgotten to tell them that your situation has changed, your commute has shortened, and children have left home.

The fastest way to eliminate these car insurance problems is to search for alternate providers because your current provider has no incentive to cut your auto insurance premiums. Chances are high that you’ll just stick with them.

Los Angeles Auto Insurance Agents

Northstate Auto Insurance Services Inc
455 W Florence Ave,
Los Angeles, CA 90003, USA
323-751-9800

Fiesta Auto Insurance Agency
Address: 611 E Imperial Hwy #102,
Los Angeles, CA 90059, United States
323-776-1096

Cost-U-Less Insurance Center
4301 South Figueroa Street,
Los Angeles, CA 90037, United States
323-345-6347

Shop around for the cheapest car insurance rates online. Rates vary in Los Angeles, Phoenix, Denver, Seattle, Chicago, Boston, New York, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, St Louis, Minneapolis, Green Bay, Charlotte, Tampa, Miami, Orlando, Toronto, Anaheim, Beverly Hills, Malibu, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Fresno, Santa Clara, Sacramento, Mountainview, Palo Alto, Sunnyvale, Salt Lake City, Riverside, Rancho Cucamonga, Costa Mesa, Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Raleigh, Albuquerque, Glendale, Oceanside, Long Beach, Huntington Beach, Carlsbad, Santa Clarita, Temecula, Kirkland, Redmond, Kansas City, St Louis, Stockton, Scottsdale, Palm Springs, Indianapolis, Chula Vista, Escondido, or Santa Monica.

Car Insurance in Los Angeles County California

Serving the communities of Anaheim, Beverly Hills, Malibu, San Bernardino, Riverside, Long Beach, Santa Ana, Lakewood, Glendale, Simi Valley, Torra, Chino, El Monte, Huntington Beach, Fullerton, Pasadena, Torrance, Irvince, Thousand Oaks, Pomon, Ontario, Downey, Yorba Linda, Lakewood, and Downtown LA.

June 20, 2017March 25, 2018

eCommerce SEO

Build your Advantage with eCommerce SEO

If you’re one of those brick and mortar retailers suffering continuing in-store sales losses, due to the shift to Internet shopping, you’re likely pondering the future of your business. Well, the outlook might be rosier than you’d imagined.

Using a low cost Shopify, Magento, or BigCommerce eCommerce store and clever content and SEO strategy, you can build significant online revenue. This is worth your time and you’ll be rewarded for showing interest and enthusiasm. SEO is the gift that keeps on giving!

So before your thoughts get too dark, consider that retailers who have both an ecommerce and real world store location do better overall than pure online businesses. And you should know that if you have a process and a clever SEO strategy, you can win big in the eCommerce space. In fact, in doing SEO, you could make your overall business more success, unique, and worth while for your walk in traffic. And the biggest benefit? That would be the big traffic.

I’ve performed eCommerce SEO for major brand clients in sports manufacturing, hotels, health supplements, tennis apparel and equipment sales, and women’s apparel and all had physical store locations with the exception of the big brand sports manufacturer who sold via Walmart, Dicks, Overstock, Amazon, and other national chains and shopping portals. So whether it’s a hotel room or baseball gloves or clothing, I discovered the foundation of strong eCommerce sales is high powered SEO.

No one is certain why “click and mortar” often works better. Having a physical retail store may be more reassuring to customers, or that it’s easier to visualize, or that they offer personal service or are able to return the product if they prefer.

If you leave expert level shoppers out of the picture for now, it’s the average people who are shopping and aren’t sure of a product. They need advice, context and reassurance from a real person (you), someone they know and trust. And this creates loyalty to a store. This so called beginner type audience will be big in the years ahead. This is where new customers are won and kept.

eCommerce sales eating away at Brick and Mortar Sales – retailers need to get into click and mortar fast.

Screen Capture courtesy of eMarketer.com

Content and Search Engine Optimization Combined – But Professional

To capture any of these prospect customers you have to get visible in the search results. You do this through creating great content designed for high rankings. Why are you reading right now? Because you know SEO is the biggest traffic generator, and it’s FREE traffic. Success comes with volume and eCommerce SEO can generate big traffic results.

A homeowner considering buying a solar power system for their home would be reluctant to buy online even though they could. They would prefer talking to one person who can help guide them through the process. That homeowner might have started their journey looking for systems or components and perused the catalog, their intent is to ask for help from a real solar power system expert. The more customized or higher the value of the item, the more likely they’ll ask for help.

eCommerce SEO captures a highly qualified audience via Google and from then on, it’s your sales conversion system that keeps them on the hook.

In this post, I want to share these tips on how to setup a great eCommerce SEO process so you get the specific rankings and traffic you need.

There’s one Big Key to Sales Success. That is eCommerce SEO

Google is still number one. Adwords and Facebook ads are certainly vital to most eCommerce businesses, however with product margins razor thin, it might be too tough for you to compete head to head with Amazon and Walmart. An alternate, clever way to capture traffic and convert that traffic is needed.

I had tremendous fun helping Franklin sell NFL uniform sets by the boatload using SEO

Is eCommerce SEO Different?

The name eCommerce SEO might be a little misleading, since the same strategy and optimization takes place. It’s the same process I used when doing real estate SEO, Hotel SEO, medical equipment SEO, or building product SEO. There’s just a few extra tasks involved in ensuring mobile compatibility, shopping feeds, meta data, and other technical matters where you may actually need to call a eCommerce technical SEO expert in, if your site has hundreds of thousands of pages published on a number of domains. That’s where it gets tricky with Google.

Keep in mind that your technical expert may not be very knowledgeable about copywriting and social media sharing. SEO is complex with a big number of ranking factors.

What is Most Important in Doing eCommerce SEO?

SEO is about creating content strategically and optimizing pages of copywriting. eCommerce SEO has a little extra work though in the form of product feeds, catalogs, and optimizing category pages, etc.

Some SEO people confuse SEO with shopping experience optimization. An SEO specialist shouldn’t be optimizing your customer shopping experience. That is a retail shopping experience where you need to focus on your value proposition and selling proposition. SEO can make it more engaging, but you need to let your SEO expert stick to their forte.

In most sites, SEO, UX design, and the Shopper Experience are 3 different disciplines. The designer creates the web template and shopping cart, the eCommerce site manager will likely take care of the product organization, shopper experience and product catalogs (data). Your SEO person will just have to make do with the situation they create. Hopefully, your site will be Google friendly and amenable to SEO strategy and tactics. If not, you likely won’t be beating the likes of Amazon, Overstock, Walmart or other big shopping portals.

Let’s keep this straight: Search engine optimization is about appeasing Google’s search algorithm and building big traffic using words

Retail product pages are often produced in the thousands and tens of thousands, often having the exact same content on them. And Google doesn’t really want this redundant material polluting their precious search listings. Google likes originality and uniqueness. They also like a good customer experience, valuable helpful content, and to see customers very immersed in your ecommerce pages and site. Therefore, your job will often involve finding ways to make each of your product pages unique.

Google is a very page specific search engine now. Amazon or Walmart don’t carry the same advantage as they used to. Although big brands have their strengths. We can capitalize on opportunities and get your site competing for keyword phrases you thought impossible. I’ve done it many times. We need to be clever.

You should have a process or plan of action to take you from an automated product catalog with thin content, to one that is unique, engaging and competitive. This process below should help you get the overall picture.

Here’s a Better eCommerce SEO process:

research and know your market – who buys your products and why would they prefer them to competitors?
research your competitors – which keywords and longtail keyword phrases do they optimize for, where do they get their traffic, which websites link to their website, and which pages do they get shared on social media?
research your unique value proposition – what emotional satisfaction does your products and brand deliver to your customers?
research your unique selling proposition – this is the specific value they receive at the moment of decision – where their money is on the line and they experience doubts and where you need to hit a home run right at that moment.
research your target keywords – using Google keyword tool, Moz tools, or ahrefs, and Spyfu, you will come up with a lengthy list of keywords your prospects might use. You’ll need to choose the best of them.
research topics and keywords for your page content and for blogs and social posts – choosing popular and current topics helps you build content that will help you rank on Google, Yahoo, Bing and get shared via social media.
what is your competitors website and catalog layout like? How are the product pages categorized and linked together, and which are strongly linked to?
what do your competitors talk about on their product pages and in their blog and social media posts?
what is your website layout like? — use the screamingfrog service to scan your site for problems.
use the Google page speed and Pingdom site speed tools to check your site’s speed and then discuss improvements with your webmaster or site administrator
assess your site’s social media integration
assess these SEO details:
- The page title
- Headings
- Paragraph copy
- anchor text
  Product descriptions
- Image file names
- Image alt tags
- Meta title and description
- URLs
- keywords near the purchase button

The above process should get you geared up to really improve your site’s performance in Google. There’s much more to SEO than keywords and meta data and I hope you’re up to at least appreciating the art of SEO.

If you have a clever SEO expert working with you, you might come up with many additional words that make Google consider your pages more relevant. You’ll also want to come up with EPIC level content since this is where the real success is now. If you wondered why some blog posts are so long and promoted strongly, well, now you know.

SEO is also about the customer experience, learning, engagement, and capturing the intent of your audience, and getting them to return later. You need to study why people are coming to your site and why they’re returning. What do they think your store can do for them? Are your products unique and exclusively available at your store? Do you have styles and brands they really like and believe in? Do they like your store location and staff? Do you offer special incentives that can seal the deal in the moment?

Google sees a lot about what is happening on your site, which is why impact and engagement are so important now. Make sure your site is capitalizing on their intent or mood and move them forward. Google will be watching this nurturing or conversion activity too.

Google’s goal is to make money, but also to create engaging shopping experiences where something got done — a purchase, information learned, and interest established. The purchase might not happen right away, in fact, immediate sales are a rarity in these competitive times in eCommerce.

One thing good eCommerce SEO can do for you too, is build preference and keep your visitors away from the competition. This is why number one rankings convert so well. That person isn’t finding your competitors. So by all means, put some effort and money into eCommerce SEO. It’s powerful and you don’t have to pay per click.

We can use a number of handy tools too to help guide your site’s ascendancy in the rankings: Spyfu is good, and so is ahrefs.com. SERPWoo specializes in ecommerce websites. Learn more about SERPwoo’s advantage:

Additional Resources:

6 Practical Ways to Generate Traffic

9 eCommerce Success Tips

Come back again for more insight into SEO and shopper strategy. If you have any questions, please contact me via the form below.

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April 15, 2017March 25, 2018

14 Ways to Improve your House Selling Price ⌂ Home Selling Tips 2018

Should I Sell my House in 2018?

With the spring season straight ahead, this may be the best time to sell your house. Demand for low rise condos and detached houses is strong and with good marketing and sales strategy, you may be able to push your selling price up high through enticing rental income property investors.

Where will you move to? How about where you’ve always dreamed. Stats show babyboomers aren’t selling their homes because they have nowhere to move to. If a Realtor can solve that problem, they would be millionaires quickly.

A Realtor can help you determine what repairs are necessary and with the key task of finding your next home. And it’s not just a process of finding a home to buy, it’s more a process of gracefully moving into a new exciting phase of your life.

Why Should You Sell This Spring?

highest demand season from buyers (April/May/June)
prices are good and potential for multiple bids is strong in most cities
mortgage rates are low and you can lock in for 10 to 20 years
construction has been brisk so new homes are arriving on the market
if you’re a babyboomer you need a new home that suits your needs and lifestyle
the economy is excellent and looking strong so you can take a chance
waiting for price peaks is not wise (e.g., Toronto homeowners have seen their home values plummet recently admidst the rising fear of a crash)
forecast is good (check the outlook for houses for sale)

The point of selling your home is in getting the best price with good marketing, and exploring the options you have. Are you looking for a new job? Wages are rising and each month 200k new jobs are being created. Would you like to move south? Florida home prices are in a lull. Good time to buy there. Would you like something with a rental income suite or granny suite? Now you’re getting smart.

In this post, you’ll discover 14 tactics to improve your selling price. We’re in a digital world, so please don’t rely on a traditional Realtor with no online presence. Maximum price depends on your ability to reach home buyers. That’s marketing. Everything’s about marketing.

Make sure you read the housing crash factors to zero in on issues in your local market or wherever you’re investing.

Let’s Not Get Greedy

Miami, Denver, Toronto, Vancouver, Seattle, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, New York, Miami, and Houston homeowners are making the decision sell their homes and move onto their retirement or to a better life. Some are driven by the spread between the big price they can sell their home for, and the cheap prices they can buy elsewhere.

For some, perhaps yourself, this 2018 winfall is hard to comprehend. So keep your composure, take a look at the top 10 best house renovations to do before you sell your house in 2018.

If you’re wondering how to sell your home for more, here’s some home selling tips that might help you get to 100% more on your investment.

14 Ways to Get a Better Price for Your House

1. Find a Realtor with a great online marketing presence and then ask to be featured on that site. Make sure they advertise your home on Google and Facebook. Build preference right away. Exposing your home directly online is excellent because your selling proposition or offer is right in front of them. No vague promises but a real home for them to obsess over!

2. Promote your home for a while before putting it up for sale — set the foundation for getting a lot of bids. It takes time to get the message out to all potential buyers who may include foreign buyers. A fast sale will likely be below asking price.

3. Ensure your agent spends a lot of time contacting other real estate agents in your city since you want to access as many networks as possible. Ensure your agent is as accessible as possible to show the home and answer questions. Your agent should use SMS as much as possible because it enables fast communication.

4. Ensure you have a top notch video of your home highlighting its best features and about your great neighborhood and feature the prices of nearby homes too. Give the prospects the best context possible to see your home as the most desirable.

5. Hold a selling party and invite all your neighbors, family and friends. This is a very important event and you want the very best results. Any prospects showing up can meet the neighbors and that can be a good selling point. Don’t invite your crazy neighbors and ensure your family are nice and sociable.

6. Research local comparative homes for sale and previous solds and determine what was wrong with them and what features buyers liked.

7. Leave behind something really cool that they would like. If it’s a 55 inch screen TV, or buy a tasteful, new chandelier or expensive barbecue — something they’re bound to like. People are impressed with generosity. An instant heating water heater might be another feature that’s not expensive but highly desirable and influential.

8. Fix everything including broken faucets, door handles, floor squeaks, and make sure nothing annoying or embarrassing is visible which can ruin the mood of your showing.

9. Get your home professionally cleaned. Professional cleaners have super effective steam cleaning machines and solutions that get carpets, tiles and grout very clean.

10. Paint the interior rooms a neutral color. Given what you’re going to get for your home, don’t skimp on covering up the old, gloomy, or weird colors.

11. Clean up the yard and exterior surfaces of the home. Curb appeal is no joke. The buyers mood is set upon seeing your home from the street. Do a little landscaping, green up the grass, fix broken side walk pieces. Buyers are affected by how relaxing the yard, patio, or deck looks.

12. Have the home professionally staged. Home stagers know how to make homes look really inviting. They’ll increase the apparent value and make visitors want to linger in the home. The longer the buyers stick around the more they build their intent to buy.

13. Fix the roof and clean it. Getting the dull look out of the roof can make it look newer and reduce worries about it.
14. Promote and Sell your Home soon because for many people selling theirs and moving is easier in the May to August period.

Good Luck on the sale of your home. It is a wonderful thing you will be rewarded for all the years of hard work you spent in employment to buy it. I hope you view your home as an investment and not a keepsake. It’ll help you achieve the right frame of mind to the results you hope for and need.

GordCollins.com, your homepage for the most powerful Real Estate Marketing and Investing Strategies for 2018 and the next 5 years.

August 25, 2016

15 Power Prospecting Tips for Lead Generation – Merrily Hackett

Merrily Hackett, CEO of Sutton Group West Coast Realty is enjoying a phenomenal career in real estate. I’ve talked about her a number of times because she’s a great role model for any salesperson or business person.

Having built 3 separate brokerages in the Vancouver area, and leading SG-WCR’s 25 office brokerage, she’s showing us how to outcompete the competiton.

Last year, U.S.-based author and speaker Stefan Swanepoel ranked Hackett at No. 15 on his list of the Most Powerful and Influential Women in Residential Real Estate. Sutton – West Coast made 16,500 unit sales and over $11 billion in sales volume in 2014, which Hackett calculates brings them in at No. 5 in North America.

Create Quality Time for Relationship Building

Let’s not say “prospecting” anymore. Let’s call it relationship building.

You absolutely need to develop productive relationships with mortgage agents, renovators, landscapers, home inspectors, and prospects that include seniors and young couples.

Comprehensive Agile Digital Marketing Programs for Realtors

In an interview with Real Estate Magazine, Merrily talks about the importance of relationship building and how realtors need to focus on this key business development activity.

“It’s what I see over and over with agents that fail. I used to block off three to four hours daily for lead generation. That included calling expired listings, door knocking and cold calling, reaching out to a sphere of influence on a daily basis, asking people for referrals and to keep me top of mind. I was on the phone connecting with people, ensuring that pipeline was full. Consistency was key. You need to believe in yourself. Many times as a commissioned salesperson, you have those fearful thoughts and moments. A new agent has to have the expectancy and positive feeling that it’s going to come together.” — Merrily Hackett interview in REMonline.

15 Prospecting Tips to Build your Focus and Optimism

Here’s 15 useful prospecting tips – a process to optimize your realtionship building.

Vary your approach and method. Know your scripts, but go easy. A script is just a testing tool, not a final approach to relationship building. Be a friendly person first because people may find talking to a realtor boring. A warm introduction, maybe a comment on weather and economy to gauge their mood, then tell them your call is short and to the point – do they know anyone in their neighborhood, and about their family and friends that might be moving, BECAUSE, buyers are very eager to buy and you’d like to help them get a better price. Those are legitimate reasons.
Segment all your prospects into relevant groups (hot, cold, buyers, sellers, advocates,mortgage agents, home services, etc) so you can develop unique approaches to each and have unique value for each. Think about how you’ll describe and present your unique value proposition for each type of prospect or advocate.
Coach your advocates and give them support – the people who may refer business to you sometimes need a little guidance if they have a hot lead. Tell them how to present you to them. Find out why they’re buying or selling — what’s the payoff for the person? With that knowledge, you can explain to your advocate how you’re relevant. With a little purpose, your advocate will make you look good, as opposed to you being part of an offhand comment.
Relax — if you can afford it, you might want to consider getting a massage before you do your prospecting on the phone — you’ll appear friendlier, less threatening, more trustworthy, and more fun to talk to. Call them with a smile on your face and with your goal being networking, enjoying the moment, and finding good prospects. Sales comes later. Right now, you’ve gotta be thinking people and fun.
Set aside 3 hours every day for phone calls to generate interest, gather information and make appointments. Build a positive attitude toward prospecting, that it’s the most important part of your day.
Forgive prospects who waste your time and forgive yourself for wasting their time — this helps you to avoid guilt and other feelings that’ll weigh you down
Remind yourself often that what you’re doing is important. You’re helping people achieve their dreams and that’s more important that anything they’re doing right now. Their friends and contacts should be glad you’re in this to help them.
Spend more time with your hot or top prospects — when you’re getting close, keep in touch and always be ready to offer help, information, and support for their decisions
Have more value to offer — the more value you have to offer, the less likely prospects and advocates will consider you irrelevant. They’re not rejecting you really, you’ve failed to provide value in insight, help, and support. How about mentioning the mortgage calculator on your website, the great mortgage agent you know who could save them money, or renovator/designer who could help them with a quick remodel to lift the selling price?
Use consultative selling techniques to find every person’s most important needs and hurdles — be the person who creates a path for everyone to their dreams
Spend your face to face time wisely by discussing the buyer/seller’s dreams – find out what their success symbols are and their favorite places to visit. Whether country or city, new home or old, the faster you find out what they want, the more likely they’ll choose you.
Calculate how much prospecting/phone time and marketing effort it took to generate a successful lead.
Keep in mind what buyers and sellers really want — a better lifestyle and ask them what their key priorities are as they begin to plan for their purchase/sale. In the end, it’s all about lifestyle and knowing what it is they’re really after is vital
Study up on a new community that you haven’t explored and become an expert on the lifestyle value of that community
Ask prospects what’s holding them back and ensure you develop a list of responses to help

Here’s Kevin Ward with his tips on prospecting. How about finding more people to talk to via Google and Social Media? Just a thought.

And Liz of Keller Williams with social media prospecting. Build relationships first then nurture them along with value, entertainment, and recognition.

Prospecting is a key part of good sales process and it hasn’t hurt Merrily Hackett’s business success. If your lead funnel is too weak, this might be the best thing ever for your career. Now you can justify pursuing a strong Internet marketing program.

Let’s get started right now!

Gord Collins — Real Estate SEO Expert serving businesses in Los Angeles, Phoenix, Denver, Seattle, Chicago, Boston, New York, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, St Louis, Minneapolis, Green Bay, Charlotte, Tampa, Miami, Orlando, Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa, Oshawa, Hamilton, Newmarket, Richmond Hill, Oakville, Calgary, Kelowna, Mississauga, Anaheim, Beverly Hills, Malibu, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Fresno, Santa Clara, Sacramento, Mountainview, Palo Alto, Portland, Washington, Atlanta, Irvine, Nashville, Sunnyvale, Salt Lake City, Riverside, Rancho Cucamonga, Costa Mesa, Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Raleigh, Albuquerque, Glendale, Oceanside, Long Beach, Huntington Beach, Carlsbad, Santa Clarita, Henderson, Mesa, Temecula, Kirkland, Redmond, Kansas City, St Louis, Stockton, Scottsdale, Palm Springs, Indianapolis, Columbus, Colorado Springs, Fort Worth, Chula Vista, Escondido, Santa Monica, Miami Beach, and Honolulu.

August 4, 2016

10 Powerful Tips for Home Sellers Who Must Have the Best Price

Number 1 Priority: Get the Best Price for Your Home

Chances are if you’re looking at the housing market stats or the MLS listings, it’s because you want to time the purchase or sale of a home — yours. It is a great time to sell, where once in a lifetime fortunes will be made. But your mind is made up, you’re going to sell your current home, and trade up, or move to a better neighbourhood. You’re looking ahead to a better life.

Homes for sale are scarce, but it won’t be like this forever. We’re at a dicey point in the housing market right now. You’d be very wise to begin your plan and strategy to sell your home for the maximum price. Why the maximum price possible using a strategy? Because your home is the biggest financial asset you’ll ever possess. It’s a real estate investment that could launch your life into a beautiful direction. Put a little mindful effort into this.

Please don’t tell me you’re “Content” with the status quo, because we all know how temporary that is today. Nothing and no one is secure anymore. Contentment is a fool’s paradise.

[bctt tweet=”Get the Best Price for your home isn’t guaranteed. Get tens of thousands of dollars more, and get your real estate agent for free! #tips” username=”@gord_collins”]

If you’re also into real estate property investment opportunities, the tips here apply equally. It’s all about make your next real estate transaction work out with a positive return. Why should put up with losing money? You need to cover the agent’s commission and all the fees and taxes and more, so you’re going to need a good selling price.

You Need a Good Solid Selling Price You can Focus on

You’re looking for proof of your home’s value and how you might get the very price on the sale of it. That’s fine. You should get the best price in a market driven economy. Will you get the best price using a local agent you saw on a garbage can in Los Angeles or the backend of a San Francisco trolley car? Or is it better to visit realtor’s websites and get to know them first? Don’t finagle about realtor’s commissions because a good one is going to get you tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars more in San Francisco Bay Area. It’s a sellers market with a great forecast.

You want to improve your life and you need emotional justification for getting a selling price and begin figure out the when of the move. With a little study of the market and realtor marketing strategy, you feel you’ll be more on top of this transaction. Completely understandable because a home sale is a rare event and it’s your huge fortune on the line.

I Don’t Want to Talk to An Agent

At this point, you don’t want to talk to an agent because you’re not sure what you want, so how can you tell them? The good agents know this and they’re going to present lots of options in neighbourhoods, home styles, price points, and amenities and carefully gauge all the things you want. Some will ask you that on their website.

Why don’t we speed up the process of you understanding what you want to buy and how you can sell your home for the best price? That’s the complete transaction for you. Your goal is to get the maximum amount of money for your home, or get a big mortgage loan, and then search for the perfect home for you.

The Best Home Selling Tips Possible

Find an agent with good character and personality, who can reach more buyers — do an audit of their online marketing because 90% of buyers go online. Is their online material all about them or all about helping customers? The Real estate agent’s linkedin profile will show how many connections they have created, and their Facebook account will tell you about their ability to engage prospects, and their twitter account will tell you how active they are online. Their presence on Google search will tell you how much reach they have to buyers searching online. (type this into Google site:http://therealtorswebsitedomain.com (or .ca ). Basically put site: before their domain name and click search! Google will show you how many pages of that realtor’s website they have listed in their index. If they have 26 pages listed, that’s not good. If they have more than 2000 pages indexed, that’s good). Check their testimonials and do a Google search of their name. Seriously, check them out – don’t hire an unknown stranger even if you saw their face on the back of a bus.
Ask them for a report on their sales activity — what was listed price and what did they sell it for
See how many homes they are the listing agent for right now
Certainly get comparative evaluations of many homes in the neighbourhood
See how the agent sells homes, such as how good is the photography and have they done videos, and is the layout of listings on their website attractive and easy to read
Ask them how they would improve the appearance or curb appeal of the home
Fix or renovate anything that is awful in your home or property – and a realtor can tell you what’s unacceptable in your home which will drive the price down
Make buyers feel comfortable and special by cleaning up your driveway and walkway areas. put in some shrubs and ornamental trees to create a visual break between the house and the street
Have your home professionally staged so it looks perfect for buyers – move most of your stuff to a storage area or rent a portable storage bin for the backyard.
Clean the bathrooms and the kitchen so they’re spotless — replace the toilets and worn fixtures – buyers don’t want that stuff!

Selling Strategies and Tactics Galore!

If you’d like to learn more about how to get your realtor to sell your home over asking price, why you need a real estate agent, what skills good realtors possess, and which cities have the best selling prices, I’ve got a blog post for that! Yes, the real estate forecast across the US is very good for a while. Even if prices in your neck of the woods isn’t rising, I’m predicting you’ll be a big winner when you sell.

May 13, 2016April 1, 2018

How to Get People to Sell Their Homes – 10 Tactics and 1 Big Strategy

10 Tactics to Connect with Home Sellers

After you’ve grown tired of waiting for people to call you to sell their home, you may want to try something new, something that’ll create increasing, consistent touchpoints with home sellers.

Sellers, those ghostly inhabitants of your dream world. This is about creating a fat pipeline to your top selling prospects and enabling them to become sellers.

There’s big reasons why people can’t get over inertia and sell their old house: dreams and details. Normally you wait for the details to take care of things such as: growing family, empty nesters, trade ups, moving to new city, house needs too much repair, and moving to the burbs. These are all tell tale signs that big data realtors are looking at to get the jump on a potential sale.

The one no one talks about is people’s dreams. Goals aren’t dreams. Dreams are symbols of the emotional rewards that we all seek, and it’s why buyers are coming to you. They don’t call you because they have a goal of owning a home, instead, they’re thinking a new home will fulfill their dreams and provide a rewarding emotional life. They want to be happy. That same quest for happiness is why they sell.

It’s a Perfect Time to Sell a Home

As the Vancouver and Toronto housing markets tighten each month, realtors compete harder for housing stock as it comes available. The variety/number of realtors selling in my town is unbelievable. There’s 50 realtors for every homeowners that wants to sell. That’s crummy odds.

The waiting game: Too often, another brand or realtor gets the lucky call. I’ve got 10 tactics that can spare you the agony of waiting for sellers to get moving, and become their only realtor.

Homeowners Need a Nudge

Before sellers sell, they need clarity about their next move. They need a vision of the better life they desire. They’re just missing pieces of the dream and when the final piece clicks in, they get on the phone and call Remax, Sutton Group, Century21, Sothebys or Royal Lepage.

I’m sure that in your training, you discovered it may be easier to reach buyers who also have a house to sell. That does seem easier since buyers are active online where you can intercept them. Intercepting them is good. However, if you adjusted your realtor brand image to be the dream maker, the one who can help restless homeowners achieve mental clarity and draw them into a positive, happy and expectant frame of mind, you’ll be top of mind when they think about moving.

No One Wants to Sell, yet Some are Selling

No One Wants to Sell: Listings in Vancouver and Toronto have dropped precipitously. Yes, I’ve gotten lots of real estate agent paper flyers in my mailbox. There’s 50 agents who could list the house for sale. None of their messaging moved me at all. Entirely forgettable.

Agents need to discuss the change in lifestyle, not just selling a house. Maybe the homeowner has a new job, needs a bigger house, needs to downsize, get out of the city, wants to retire on Vancouver Island or Kelowna BC, work in the US, or settle in Phoenix or Panama. Just selling the house doesn’t make you relevant, but being a facilitator, coach, supporter, friend in their lifestyle change does make you relevant — even after the sale. If you become part of the dream, the action, and the result, how can they not pick you over those other 49 agents?

“The Only Reason they Sell is because of the Big Price”

Prices are pushing some to finally sell and they’re getting an extra $50k or $200k on the sale. For those selling in Vancouver or Toronto, the price is just the last straw that gets them to pull the sell trigger. If they were really committed to that location, they wouldn’t leave for any price. You can’t buy happiness right? Okay, getting an extra $200k is a big nudge out the door.

However, the same voice that urged them to sell because of price could also tell them to sell to go live in a more exciting location, or to travel, or just revitalize their stale, stressed lives. You could sell in Toronto and move to San Diego, Costa Rica, Kelowna, Belize, Panama, Spain, or maybe Haliburton. There’s enough land there to accommodate them all and the lifestyles are amazing.

Let’s open your imagination beyond dull. What if you evolved your approach to introduce home sellers to the solution they wnat? What if your website and social content wove a particularly delightful introduction to a better lifestyle? You’ll plant the seed and then get them to return weekly to build their interest and then utilize the opportunities it creates.

Realtor/Travel/Investment sites are a great combo. These sites have a full dimension of interesting, engaging lifestyle content that creates a focus for these vague, anxious feelings they endure daily. The more content you have, the more touchpoints you have with prospects, the more reason for them to interact, and more opportunity to close the deal later. Patience is needed, but the payoff should be huge. In fact, there’s no reason why you won’t get responses soon.

10 Tactics to Connect with Homeowners and Get them to Sell!

Knock on their door and ask them if they know how much their home is worth. Ask them to do a free appraisal, and give them your business card which will beckon them to your Facebook page. Why Facebook? Because Facebook is more personal, connected, and interactive — they use Facebook more frequently.
Give prospects/homeowners a flyer that has a travel/lifestyles theme. This is more interesting and relevant. The flyer will have the URL of your lifestyles section where they will begin clarifying their need to move on with their lives. The content will take them from merely travelling to actually moving to be immersed in the new lifestyle at their dream location (Try to be sure about their dream destinations. I dream about San Diego, but they may not).
Build a lifestyles section in your Website and fuse it with Linkedin, Facebook, and Twitter. See these 4 sites as one interconnected Web magazine. Build sections on each dream destination and have a writer fill it with excellent content about homes, activities, health, food, and happiness.
Create a new realtor brand image for this website/social pages above. This image is somewhere between a stiff collared professional realtor and cruiseship social coordinator. The content must be entertaining, informative, and create a need to react, such as asking questions and getting direction to more specific content elsewhere. The whole point is to create a touchpoint with your new customer, to begin the conversation, one they believe is leading to something fantastic.
Get that lawn sign up. Do door to door and tell people you’ll give them a fantastic bonus for listing their home — if you sell it. A free ecotour adventure trip to Costa Rica is one example of a rare enticing benefit they’ll find hard to resist. They’ll get the full details on your Facebook page, which is why they’ll share it with their FB network. Getting a lawn sign up on a street is gold. Do what you have to to get one.
Build a travel section on your website. Travel and moving are indirectly related. Just the word travel is both soothing and agitating for restless homeowners. Talk about places like Florida, California, Australia, Costa Rica and other places where there’s plenty of ex pats. If they know there are plenty of Canadians or Americans already there, it takes a lot of anxiety about those locations (even if it’s Victoria BC, or Kelowna BC). If they get hooked on moving to Kelowna or Costa Rica, it may addictive for them. I have friends who moved from Calgary to the Okanagan to retire. They had no idea they would end up in that area, but most Calgary people like the Okanagan. It’s the same anywhere. San Diegans love Hawaii and Mexico.
Build a sports section on your website. You can cover any type of sports, but mostly those your prospects are into, but a sport that will take them away from where they are. Your goal isn’t to cover sports to make them feel better about staying in their community and learning to love it again. Cover golf in Arizona and Texas, or fishing off the California coast, or hiking in Costa Rica. Anywhere but here.
Build a big renovation to sell section on your Website. The focus is all the things you can do to upgrade their house and get it sold for maximum price. It’s just one more topic that gives them the confidence that their vague dream is doable.
Read up on others tip’s and ideas on how to get people to sell their house https://www.google.ca/#q=how+to+get+people+to+sell+their+house. the more you know, the more psychologically effective you’ll be in shaping your brand image and your web content and inbound marketing efforts.
Hire a really good content and SEO guy to get all your content ranking high on Google and visible via social platforms. Right now, you have no touchpoints with your prospects. Hiring an expert gives you first class access to these people online. There’s nothing better than top rankings on Google’s search results. An SEO pro will get your posts placed on top travel, retirement, and lifestyle sites and connect you with 10 million mommy bloggers!

There’s your top 10 tactics. Sounds like a big project but once you get going on it, it’ll get easier and you’ll get better. If you’ve got some funds, you could outsource all the above to someone like me. That is excellent overall value. And remember, that I can help you rank for phrases such as “homes for sale Vancouver” ‘condos for sale Toronto, or “luxury homes San Diego, etc. There’s more value than you can imagine with SEO and social outreach.

Work less on sales, and more on being a dream maker — the type of prospecting that attracts excited, interested prospects and creates endless touchpoints with them. Your digital marketing content strategy should revolve around helping them find their dream life. With this material backing up your personal face-to-face meetings, you create a picture of integrity, that you really believe in what’s best for them. You’re not just a salesperson anymore, you’re now a friend who understands their greatest dreams.

They’ll be calling you to find out how you can help create their new dream life. Guaranteed, they will be selling the house and you will be their realtor.

Need some cheer? Just read the Toronto housing outlook and the Aurora Newmarket Forecast for 2017. Things are great.

April 29, 2016

Keep Your Posts Simple!

2 to 3 Seconds is All You Have

For copywriters, there is a place for lengthy, epic content, yet a short, well timed post may be more effective than anything you’ve ever written. This post is 400 words exactly. It’s digital fast food.

shortandsweet — Graphic courtesy of Fuel Your Blogging

As the title graphic (courtesy of BiteTheBuzz.com) shows, consumers want it fast, simple and in the drive through lane. The average visitor has an attention span of about 2 to 3 seconds (even less on an ad loaded smartphone) and if your message isn’t simple, direct and digestible, they will leave. Speed and Simplicity are that important.

7 Quick Tips – Fast Food for Successful Writers

Quick posts will help you capture your impatient readers and cut your abandonment rate. This alone could make a phenomenal difference in your success.

There’s a glut of content on the web and slow and slow Internet speeds are making us an impatient lot. Even though your post will be short, it can still contain vital info and benefits for your visitor and be interesting to read. Distill it and make it quickly scannable and you’ve got a chance to create a new customer.

Save Your Epic Posts for Another Time

Like a few people, I love epic posts overflowing with insight, perspective, stories, and facts. So do journalists, strategists, and brainiacs. I want an article that everyone in the world will link to and give me a number one Google Ranking. But no one else does. We need to train ourselves to simplify our messages. If you force yourself to keep your post under 400 words, you’ve got a chance to keep readers and actually get them to do what you want them to do.

Here’s The Top 7 Tips:

Keep your post’s title clear and simple (e.g., Top 7 Tips; How to; Get this by doing this)
Headings with a hook – one powerful and easy to comprehend key benefit
Opening paragraph supports the post title and first heading
4 to 6 paragraphs only
Insert one unique graphic image that helps drive your point home
Solve the reader’s problem fast – they want instant relief from their pain
Close quickly with the reminder that you solved their problem and they can now take action

Simple language. Simple benefits. Served fast and hot. That’s what most readers actually want.

Need copywriting that actually helps customers? Here’s 7 ways to make your copywriting original. Don’t understand how to get high rankings? What is Google’s latest indexing update?

My roles? SEO and Content Strategy for Marketing Agencies, SEO Consultant Toronto, SEO Specialist Vancouver, or Realtor marketing Los Angeles.

This template can help. It is more of a sales oriented template where your pitch, UVP, and brand promise with a call to action are included. Of course, your reader’s would not find it acceptable for you to pitch agressively on all your posts. Sometime you have to achieve your pitch and message subtly in the content of the post itself.