Keywords are one of the most important factors for your site, whether you're doing a redesign or starting from scratch. People find your website through search engines, and they use search terms (or keywords) to do their searches. So you need to have relevant keywords that will enhance your searchability while not being too complex. It's a delicate balance, and I'm going to tell you how I do it.

If you're a CyberSunshine client, you really don't need to worry about the technical stuff since we'll do that for you. So the first thing you need to do is figure out what your target market is. I'm going to use one of our clients as an example, because I've been working on her keywords a lot lately and it's fresh in my brain. Her target market is Naples Real Estate. She also sells luxury properties in Naples, but since luxury properties aren't a hot commodity right now, and people just aren't searching for that, we made the Luxury part a secondary keyword. Anyway, her old keywords focused mainly on her name. That's usually not the best idea. This particular agent had her name and several versions of it as her main keywords, and all her domain names consisted of some form of her name. Now, I'm not saying your name shouldn't be a keyword. Actually I think it should be. As a real estate agent, you brand and market yourself based around your name, so it's very possible that people are going to search for you by name sometimes (and if they do, you have an excellent marketing campaign going for you! The client I'm using as an example certainly does).

What I do first is establish what your main keyword should be. The best way to figure this out is to pretend you're searching for properties. So, I'm looking for a property in Naples, Florida. What am I going to search for? Well, most people tend to search for simpler terms, and then narrow them down if they don't get the results they want. With our client, I decided we should use Naples Real Estate as her main keyword phrase. I figure that if I'm going to be searching for Naples real estate, that's exactly what I'm going to type on Google.com. Now, Naples Real Estate is a great search term, but it is also being used by most agents in Naples. So I need to find additional keyword phrases. One of those is her name. She happens to have a name that is easily misspelled, so we also decided to use the misspellings of her name as keywords. Then, of course, since she told me she wants to emphasize that she sells luxury properties, we added Naples Luxury Real Estate. And just to focus on some of her primary markets, we added some other phrases, like Pelican Bay Naples Real Estate and so on.

Most of the time when people do searches, they will do several searches before actually finding what they want. So if a person starts with Naples Real Estate they're going to find a lot of information. They'll browse through whatever appeals to them and then do another search, like Pelican Bay Naples Real Estate (after they decide they want to learn more about Pelican Bay). So if they didn't find your site on the first round, they have another shot at finding you on round 2 (or 3 or 4 and so on). That's why you want to have an assortment of keywords. Plus, the more narrowed down the keywords are, the more likely you are to be in a less targeted market. So there's less competition for top placement on a search.

The most important thing to remember is to make sure that you're using keywords that are actually relevant to your site! We all know of someone, somewhere, who is using irrelevant keywords and getting high rankings for them. So what? If you're not actually selling properties in the South of France, then why do you need to market yourself for that area? Think about it logically. If I were actually searching for properties in France, and in my first page of search results I get a site for properties in Baltimore, Maryland, not only am I going to not click on it, I am also going to be pretty annoyed at that site. So if I do ever happen to be in the Baltimore, Maryland, market, guess which real estate website I'm going to avoid? Not only that, but Google is not stupid. Yes, the sites get crawled by automated spiders, not real people, but those spiders are clever. You can only get away with tricking Google for so long, and once you get caught, you'll regret the false marketing you're doing with your site. Google can and will ban your site, and then when people do a Google search, you won't come up in the results at all. It can take a very long time to recover your website from something like that. And since Google is the largest and most popular search engine out there, I'd recommend playing by their rules.

Now for the purpose of these keywords in relation to the building of your site. We do need keywords before we can finish your site and launch it. The reason for that it that we place them strategically all over the place in the back end of your website. Every image, every page, and every link has to be named, and we use your keywords in as many places as we can so we "embed" the keywords into your site. In addition, you'll need to provide content for your home page. That content should have your main keyword several times. But don't overdo it; people don't like to read sentences like, "Your Naples Real Estate Luxury specialist in Naples, Florida is here to help you with all your Naples Real Estate needs!" That's obviously an attempt at using keywords, and people don't like to feel like they're being sucked into a site with tons of keywords and little relevant information.

Good luck with your keywords, and if you need any help, don't hesitate to ask!

Labels: Custom Websites, CyberSunshine, Real Estate SEO for Beginners

The real estate market is slow. There is no denying it, no sugar-coating it. But that does not mean you should just curl up in a ball and give up. Its likely you're not selling as many properties as you were a few years ago, and you're either a) waiting tables/delivering pizzas/working the cosmetics counter at Macy's to pick up the slack, or b) throwing all your efforts into marketing yourself, improving your image, and getting to know the community around you. Can you guess which is going to pay off when the market starts to accelerate again?

I know, it's hard to imagine what it will be like when the market picks up, since you've spent so much time thinking about how down it's been. But if you've been in this business more than five years, you know that the market goes up and down and constantly fluctuates. Just like the dollar. So if you're smart, you're preparing appropriately.

Here are a few things you could/should be doing with your newly abundant free time:

• Blog. Yes, you should be writing a blog on your website. If you're a client of ours and you don't have a blog, email me and I'll get you all set up with one. If you're not a client of ours (then you should be, *wink, wink*!) you should contact your web company and demand they install a blog ASAP. Not only does a blog give you something to do, but it turns you into a human being. You will get readers and they will be interested in what you have to say. Imagine this... You currently get, say, 1,200 visitors each month to your website. Each visitor goes to maybe 5 pages on average while at your site. The reason they're there is to get to know you, and see what properties you have to offer. Well sometimes your About Me page just doesn't cut it. I can tell you, that's not enough information to sell me on a specific realtor. That's where a blog can be helpful. Not only does it turn you into a real person, it can also show how knowledgeable you are about your community, and how involved you are as well.


• Learn about SEO. Currently, you don't have any knowledge of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) because you don't need to, right? Well, I can tell you from my own experience that the top real estate agents in this country right now know all kinds of stuff about SEO and how to enhance their sites. You should be one of them. You want to be on the cutting edge so you can stay in the game. If you don't focus on SEO now, while you have time, then once the market picks up you WON'T have time and all your competitors who spent the time and effort will have a leg up on you. If you want to know more about SEO or where to find some excellent resources that can help you get started, email me.



• Network. And not just with people in your area, per se. You should be on the social media sites like Twitter, MyBlogLog, Facebook, Myspace, LinkdIn, and any others you can find. If you don't have time for that many, you should at least be on Facebook, Twitter, and MyBlogLog. Twitter is even mobile, so you can put it on your phone and keep up that way. And if you have an iPhone, Facebook has a really good version to use on the go. The purpose of all this networking is that one day, one of those awesome real estate agents in another part of the country may have a friend of a friend who needs a good real estate agent in your area. Who do you think will get the recommendation? You, or some realtor they have never spoken to before?



• Read Blogs. As many as you can find. I have a personal list of favorites that I visit frequently, and so should you. You should probably just subscribe to the blogs you like, that way you don't have to remember them all. By "subscribe", I mean via RSS Feed. You'll see a link for it on any kind of decent blog. We have one here, to the right and under the Archive. All you do is put in your email address and Voila! new posts are emailed to you for your enjoyment and convenience. The purpose of reading all those blogs is twofold. First, you can see how the market is doing in other areas, what other agents are doing to market themselves, and what topics are relevant to them and their readers. Second, you can stay on top of technology. Many real estate bloggers find some cool stuff on the internet and blog about it. You'll be privy to the cool tools they find just by reading their blogs.

I hope this has put some things into perspective for you, and if you have any questions about any of these hints, or need assistance implementing them, don;t hesitate to contact me. You can comment here or email me.

Labels: Custom Websites, CyberSunshine, Real Estate Blog, 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

Since CyberSunshine just kind of magically popped up in the blogosphere all of a sudden, I figured it would be nice if we were properly introduced. So I'm going to share a little bit about CyberSunshine's history and some stuff like what we do and why and how, so that you'll feel like we're old friends. Let's get to know one another, shall we? We'll start at the beginning…



About 11 years ago, a couple named Chad and Cassandra decided they wanted to do something a little different and somewhat cutting-edge, so they started a company that builds stunning custom websites for real estate agents and brokers. The idea was to offer services that other companies didn't, like integrating searches on the site itself and other tech-y stuff that we won't go into here (back in the nineties, having a search box on your site made you super cool, in case you didn't know!). Currently CyberSunshine does IDX Integration and loads of other really cool custom stuff that you'll love. Basically, we can make whatever you can dream up. Seriously.


Obviously, CyberSunshine turned out to be a success since we're still around. And we have thousands of overly-satisfied clients to boot. We try to stay involved in our community, since we know you (a real estate professional) are also very aware of being involved in your own community. You can also find us at numerous conferences and events all over the country, such as NAR and Inman. You all know about NAR and Inman, right? Look for us the next time you're there.


So today, CyberSunshine is breaking into blogging. We currently offer several SEO Packages to go with your custom-designed website, ghost writing and blogging services, and, of course, top-of-the-line designs accompanied by completely custom sites (even the programming is done on a per-site basis). Check out our Portfolio if you want to see for yourself.


If you want more info, feel free to send an email. Otherwise, make sure you keep an eye on our blog, it's going to be constantly changing and improving, and I can't wait to share all my knowledge with you.

Labels: Custom Websites, CyberSunshine, Real Estate Blog

Well you've heard all the hype and still, you don't quite know why exactly you should jump on the blog bandwagon. Lucky for you, I have the answer! It's quite simple, really. I don't know why some people feel the need to make blogs complicated, because it really is just a fun tool to get you more site visits and more recognition from Google. Let me explain.

When you create a new blog, Google (I'm going to say Google, even though I mean all search engines. I just happen to think Google is the most important one, so when I talk about search engines I only typically refer to Google.) sends little computer-dwelling spiders to check it out. The spiders come back every time new stuff ends up on your blog, and they index. That means they file away the new info and report to Google that new info has been obtained from your website. These spiders are like little spies, and they not only see the new content but they also see the links within your post. For example, I am going to link to the CyberSunshine website right here, and when the Google spiders come and check out what I just posted, they are going to see that I am talking about and linking to CyberSunshine. And since CyberSunshine is a respectable site that has been on the web forever and ever, linking to their site makes me look good. Its kind of like when you're in high school and you're lucky enough to make friends with the head cheerleader, making you popular by association. So if you keep doing that, it makes you look good. I'm not saying that you have to only link to one site. Don't do that, it's not helpful. You need to have broad horizons here. The one thing that is important to note, is that most of your links should be to sites that have some kind of connection to your own. If your site is about kittens, don't link to a million sites about nuclear waste. It doesn't make sense. The bottom line is to get Google's spiders to your site a few times a week, so that they see you're constantly making updates. The more good visits the spiders have, the faster your site climbs up Google.


Another cool thing that blogs are good for is making you new friends. You need to get out there and socialize, and I don't mean only with people in your zip code. The blogosphere is a big place full of wonderful people and you can learn from a lot of them. So network your behind off, while you have the time! We all know that this lull in the market isn't permanent, and when it ends you'll be the busiest bee you've ever been. The reason you need all these new friends is quite clear if you think about it. Say you meet Betty Sue in Chicago, and become blogging buddies. Well one day Betty Sue's little sister Susanna decides that she wants to buy a condo on the beach in Naples. Well, who do you think Betty Sue is going to send her to? You, her Naples luxury real estate specialist and blog buddy! In addition to Betty Sue sending you leads, you'll also be charming her with your wit and wisdom in each post, and she'll be so impressed with you that she sends all her other blogging buddies to check out your site as well. Soon you develop a following of new friends, and every time one of these new friends (i.e., readers) comes to your blog (which, of course, is embedded in your actual website), that's another site hit for your site. Google counts your site hits, and if Google notices that your site is really popular, then your Page Rank goes up and you are loved throughout the lands.


That's basically it. You need a blog to encourage spider visits and to make new friends. I can assure you there is no faster way to get your site to climb Google and all those other search engines. And with all the competition nowadays to be on Google's page one, you'll need all the help you can get! Now, if only you knew what to blog about.... Don't worry, we'll get to that too!

Labels: Custom Websites, Real Estate Blog