Real Estate Web Design

Most web-savvy Realtors already know what Trulia is and are using it to their advantage. But this blog is not directed at the web-savvy Realtors. This blog is for beginners, so I'm going to tell you a little about Trulia and how it can help you. That way you're not left behind the times.

According to Trulia.com, "We are a real estate search engine that helps you find homes for sale and provides real estate information at the local level to help you make better decisions in the process." According to me, Trulia is a really cool site that allows you to post your listings in the most informative way possible. When a potential buyer does a search on Trulia, not only do they get accurate results, but they also get way more information than they ever expected.

When you do a search and then click on a listing, the information provided is astonishing. To name a few things, Trulia gives the user comparables, similar homes that are listed, public records information, ratings on the local schools, and a map of the location of the home. There is also a neat sidebar called Trulia Voices, which is a real estate blog that specialists in the market contribute to daily, and it feeds in information relevant to your search location. By far, this is the most user-friendly real estate search site I have ever encountered.

As a real estate agent, this is very helpful. Trulia allows you to create an account and post your listings as you please. Your listing has a photo of you and links to your site, your photos of the home, the MLS listing of the home (if that's what you want) and details your contact information. Plus, Trulia is the only site of it's kind that (in my experience) non-real estate experts are aware of. So by using Trulia, you have a better chance of reaching people that are out there searching the web for their next home (as opposed to using some site nobody has ever heard of).

If you consider yourself a "techie" and want to read more about Trulia and it's features, here's some recommended reading for you.

Labels: Real Estate Blog, Stuff You Need, Website Tools

If you have a website, then you're already somewhat familiar with domain names. Chances are, you had to scour GoDaddy.com to find your very first domain name way back in the day, right? I'm willing to bet that your domain name falls into one of three categories: it's cute and catchy, it's your name, or it's your company name. Well, while those are nice and easy to remember, they are not helping you at all. And I'm going to tell you why.

A domain name is your address on the internet. And while I would love for people to just write The Fogarty Residence on my mail and expect the Post Office to deliver it, I know that's not going to happen. Just like with you, a person can't just type in Real Estate Agent in their search box and find you. I am not the only Fogarty residence and you are not the only real estate agent. So you need to be more specific when you buy your domain names.

First let me tell you something many people surprisingly don't know. You can have lots of domain names and they can all go to the same website. And CyberSunshine will take care of the technical parts and make sure they all go to your website. Cool, right? So you can keep your catchy, cutesy url and not worry that it isn't helping you. In fact, I recommend that you have at least one cute domain name and possibly your name too if you're lucky enough to find it. You want people to be able to type in something short and sweet to find you as well. Plus, a long, annoying url won't fit too nicely on your business cards.

The purpose of owning numerous domain names is that you can have a variety of keywords. I'm going to make up a fake client and use them as an example. My client, Mary Mack, is a real estate agent in Oakland Park, Florida. That's a subdivision of Fort Lauderdale, in Broward County. It doesn't matter what company she works for. Her current (and only) domain name is MackRealty.com. Here are the additional domain names I would suggest she buy:

• MaryMack.com
• OaklandParkRealEstate.com
• BrowardFloridaRealEstate.com
• OaklandParkRealEstateHome.com
• FortLauderdaleRealEstateProperties.com

She can add words like Home or Properties to any of those domain names if needed. The reason she would need to do this is because sometimes, names like OaklandParkRealEstate.com are already taken. So in that case, I'd suggest she buy OaklandParkRealEstateHome.com or OaklandParkRealEstateProperties.com, or even OaklandParkFloridaRealEstateHome.com.

Here are some domain names I would not recommend:

• Oakland-Park.net
• OaklandParkRealty.tv
• Broward.County.Florida.com

There are several things wrong with these domain names. First, you do not want dashes or dots or anything else that is not a useful letter. The words should always be spelled correctly (unless you have a name that is commonly misspelled. In that case, buy the correct and incorrect spellings), and should never have anything in between them. Don't use the word Realty. That's not a great keyword. People don't search for Realty, they search for Real Estate. And finally, do not buy a domain name that ends with anything other than .com. If you learn nothing else from this, please remember that one. The .com names are the best.

Now for the reason why you actually want domain names that are long and obnoxious and full of keywords. Say you're looking for real estate in Oakland Park. You're most likely to type in Oakland Park Real Estate, right? Well if OaklandParkRealEstate.com is your domain name, that is the strongest keyword on your entire website. So in terms of SEO, that domain name is going to be very helpful.

So basically, when you buy domain names, try to think like a consumer. If someone were to search for what you're selling, what exactly would they type into the search box? That's the question you need to ask yourself. And if all else fails and you need some help, let me know and I will be happy to assist you.

Labels: Custom Websites, Domain Names, Real Estate SEO for Beginners

I come across a lot of cool things in my web browsing, but this beats all as far as I'm concerned. This tool is called Google Insight, and I have to tell you, it has been a long time since I have been this stoked about a web tool! This one was pointed out to me courtesy of Lani over at Agent Genius.

Google Insight basically allows you to search for search terms to see their popularity. It allows you to compare several search terms as well, like I did it the chart above. I compared Naples Real Estate (blue, bottom) with Miami Real Estate (red, top). You can see that the two terms followed similar paths. Naples Real Estate seems to have a more up and down line than the steadier Miami Real Estate, which leads me to believe that real estate in Miami is probably not as rocky as in Naples. However, Miami Real Estate consistently is higher in popularity, which leads me to conclude that more people are searching for real estate in Miami than Naples.

Insight also allows you to see where the searches are coming from, both by state and by country. So if you want to know which state is most interested in Naples real estate, this would be an excellent tool for you. Perhaps the coolest and most useful feature of this site is that it gives you a list of search terms that are up-and-coming that also relate to the term you are searching for. For instance, in this search I learned that Sarasota Real Estate and Pelican Bay Real Estate are becoming more popular search terms for the Southwest Florida area. That's good to know, especially if you sell in Pelican Bay (which is in Naples). That kind of knowledge allows you to know when you need to add new keywords to your site, making you more searchable.

Labels: Stuff You Need, Website Tools

This week, we were informed that CyberSunshine has been ranked in the Top 100 South Florida Small Businesses in South Florida Business Leader Magazine! There will be a mention of CyberSunshine in the upcoming South Florida 500 issue. Check back for a link to it when it's published.

Labels: CyberSunshine, News

Time for three more grammatical lessons to help you expand your knowledge of the English language and (hopefully) seem smarter when you write things. This section will cover apostrophes, double negatives, and making confusing word choices.

7. Improper Usage of Words
We are all guilty of this. Maybe some of us more often than others, but I know you're not perfect and you have made a mistake before. Misusing words is one of the most common (and most annoying) grammatical errors out there. Some of the more commonly misused ones are:
- There, Their, They're
- It's, Its
- You're, Your
I'm not going to give an explanation of every one of these, because that would take all day. But the basics to know are these:
- An apostrophe followed by other letters means a merging of two words. So You're means You Are. Same goes for They're. It means They Are.
- It's means It Is. It does not insinuate that something belongs to It.
- There is a place, and Their means belonging to Them.
If you want additional explanations, and examples of more of these misused words (yes, there are more of them!) go here.

8. Apostrophe Disasters
Apostrophes are pretty basic. You use them for (mainly) two reasons. The first is to show ownership. The second (as we learned above) is to merge words. But you can't just make up your own word merge and throw an apostrophe in there. That's not how it works. Anyway, here are some examples of those:
- Ownership: Tim's bike, the Realtor's blog
- Word Merge: Don't = Do Not, Could've = Could Have
As with everything, there are many, many more examples of how people screw these up, and the best ones I found are here. One additional thought on apostrophes... If you are writing about the 1980s (or whichever time period you like the most), there is NO apostrophe! Leave it off.

9. Don't Do Double Negatives
Double negatives surprisingly go unnoticed by many writers. This is one of the reasons I highly recommend reading what you write before you publish your post (or whatever you're writing). A double negative sentence is where you use two negative words in combination, therefore making it a positive. For example: "I don't want nobody to come visit us next month," actually means that I do want people to visit. The correct way to say this would be, "I don't want anybody to come visit us next month." Don't and Nobody are both negatives, so they cancel each other out. Here's some more information on double negatives, including a list of common ones.

And so comes the end of our grammatical lesson. Stayed tuned for the next awesome series. It'll be a good one, I promise!

Labels: Grammar Errors, Real Estate Blog