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2010

Tory Row Real Estate came to Boston Logic looking for an upgrade. They added themselves to the long list of real estate firms who have taken advantage of our Modified Theme realty web design package for the Sequoia platform.

Starting with one of our standard property web design themes, our team worked with Tory Row Real Estate through several rounds of revision to get them the site they wanted. The result, with minimal investment, Tory Row now has a uniquely branded real estate website.

The new Tory Row Real Estate site is clean and modern, and gives users easy access to the many tools that make the Sequoia platform the best in the industry.

By far our most popular design package, the Modified Theme lets you alter one of our standard themes through several rounds of revision. Home page layout, color schemes, global elements such as headers and footers, and many more elements that can be changed to suit your needs and brand identity.

Contact a member of the Boston Logic sales team today at 617-266-9166 to learn more about this great way to make your new Sequoia site unique and targeted at your specific audience.

Tory Row Real Estate is a leader in Cambridge apartment rentals, with a further specialization in apartment and home rentals in the surrounding areas of Arlington and Somerville.

Real Estate Website Q&A Tuesday: SEO and Sequoia 10/5/2010

For today's installment of Q&A Tuesday, where we discuss Frequently Asked Questions we receive from clients or potential clients regarding our Sequoia real estate website platform, I thought it would be a good idea to talk about website optimization. We are constantly being asked about search engine optimization and how our Sequoia websites can help our clients in their search engine marketing efforts.

Here at Boston Logic, we realize the importance of search engine marketing and optimization for your real estate business. Search engines are the way most people find information and services they want- and if your website is not optimized, it is less likely that potential clients will find you.

Even if you've never heard of Search Engine Optimization, a Sequoia website will make optimizing your web presence easy!

Q: How will switching to a Sequoia website help me with SEO?

A: The Sequoia platform was designed specifically with search engine optimization in mind! Sequoia is a cutting edge website platform that integrates the most advanced real estate website features enabling leading-edge marketing campaigns- and we're constantly improving it! Whenever there is a Sequoia system upgrade, your site is upgraded automatically, so your website will always be using the best technology in the real estate industry.

Q: I don't understand SEO. Will I still be able to benefit from the SEO features of a Sequoia website?

A: Yes! With a Sequoia website, adding important Meta Data (such as Page Titles, Page Descriptions, and Keyword Tags) to your website pages and creating custom URLs (essential elements of a well-optimized page) are as easy as filling out a field on a form! You don't have to be an SEO specialist or know HTML to improve your search engine ranking! Simply fill out the fields provided as you create your pages!

Adding Essential SEO Elements to a Sequoia Website is EASY!

Adding Essential SEO Elements is EASY!

Q: Is there support available if I need help with my SEO?

A: Yes! Your Sequoia website comes with a very informative Users Guide tab you can access from your Admin dashboard. We are constantly adding easy-to-follow demos and step-by-step instructions to the Help Section of this blog, and articles on SEO best practices on our blog at RealEstateSEO1.com.

Here are a few suggested links to help get you started:

Real Estate SEO is a Process

Optimize Your Site to Get More Traffic and Leads

Simple SEO for Your Blog

Q: I heard that using Social Media could help my SEO; how do Sequoia websites integrate with popular social sites?

A: You heard correctly! Utilizing social media sharing and social media websites are integral parts of any good search engine marketing strategy. We are constantly upgrading our system to keep up with social media trends.

Sequoia websites also give you the ability to add Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn icons to your website's footer that link to your profile pages on these social media sites. Setup is easy! Simply copy and paste the URL of your profile page into the 'Social Media' fields on your 'Configuration' tab from your Admin dashboard, click 'Save' and your icon links appear automatically!

The more ways you give potential clients to connect with you, the better! We can also help you set up MLS and rental property searches on your Facebook Fan Page that connect to the property searches on your website, and help you set up an RSS feed from your blog to your social media profiles!

Modal Windows : Myths, Fears, & Conversions

What's a Modal Window?

You may already be familiar with the Modal Window feature of your Sequoia website for realtors, especially if you attended our LogicClassroom about Maximizing Lead Conversion! We hope you've had your Modal Windows turned on since your site went live!

We have seen our clients' lead capture rates increase significantly time and time again once they utilize this basic, yet crucial feature of their new Sequoia website design for realtors.

A Modal Window functions similarly to a pop-up window in that it is a small dialog box that appears in the center of the screen above the contents of the page the visitor is on. Pop-up windows are easily dismissed or ignored, however, whereas a Modal Window requires the visitor's attention before allowing them to proceed to the rest of the website. Modal Windows will still appear even if the visitor is using a pop-up blocker on their system.

How Modal Windows Work:

On your Sequoia website, the Modal Window (once enabled) will appear when a new visitor uses a property search on your site. The search results will be displayed, but will be elegantly faded out and disabled so that the visitor can only see the list of properties that match their query, but they won't be able to click on any of the properties on the list for more information until they fill out the contact form in your Modal Window.

If the visitor tries to scroll down the page, they can see the extensive list of properties in the background scrolling, but the Modal Window will continue to hover over the disabled results until they fill out the form or hit the 'Back to Search' button.

The ability to see the extensive list of properties behind the window helps assure the visitor that you have the information they are looking for, and that there is a large list of properties matching their criteria to choose from upon submitting their contact information.

Some of clients have expressed concerns about implementing Modal Windows on their site. They are concerned that Modal Windows will drive visitors away from the site entirely and cause them lose quality leads. This could not be further from the truth! We've had clients disable their Modal Windows in hopes of capturing more leads without prompting visitors to fill out their contact information in exchange for listing information, only to have the clients turn the Modal Windows back on within less than a month of testing the site without them!

Modal Windows are becoming more popular for websites across the internet and users are getting used to the requirement to sign up for an account in order to access information on a large variety of websites- everything from social networking sites, to news archives, and even e-commerce websites. Visitors will see that you offer the information they are after with the ability to scroll the results behind the Modal Window, and if they are serious about finding a new home or apartment, will have no issue with filling out your contact form.

Enabling Your Modal Windows:

If you haven't done so already, here is how you enable the Modal Windows on your new Sequoia website:

1. Log into your website, and go to the 'Settings' Tab.

2. Select 'Configuration' from the sub navigation menu on the Settings Tab.

3. Scroll down the Configuration settings panel until your reach the section titled 'Lead Options'.

4. From here, you can simply check the boxes next to where you want to Modal Window to appear.

We suggest enabling the Modal Window for Rental, Sale, and Luxury Developments to get the most leads. To make your Modal Window less intimidating to visitors, you can leave the 'Require Lead Phone Number' option unchecked, so the visitor doesn't have to supply that information, only their name and email.

Now that you can see how easy it is to enable your Modal Window, we hope that you will make use of this great feature to help you capture more leads within your realtor internet marketing campaign!

If you still have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to contact us for support!

Control Your Real Estate Website Visitor Access Through Access Levels

Do you have certain forms, pages, or content that you do not want a visitor to your site to be able to view unless they are an employee or have signed up for an account on your website for realtors? If so, you'll want to keep reading to learn how to utilize your real estate website's Access Levels to give you more control over who sees what on your website.

Once you have launched your new real estate website design, you have the ability to choose who can see certain pages on your website, such as an internal agent bulletin board. If you choose to have select pages that a visitor must be signed in to view, you page will not appear on your site until they log into their account, or an account that is created for them.

Remember, if you have questions, you can contact us at any time, or watch the comprehensive demo video on Editing Your Website Settings.

To edit the access levels of your website, follow the simple instructions outlined below!
Edit Your Access Levels

Here is the rundown on how to set access levels for pages within your Sequoia website:

1. Find the page that you would like to set an access level for and select 'Edit'.

2. The next page that will appear is the same page that allows you to edit your content.

a. Scroll down to "Who can see this page."

b. Select Show.

c. All boxes are checked by default, which means everyone is able to view this page.

3. De-select the check-boxes for accounts that you do not to have access to the page you are editing. The two most important accounts to note are Lead and Anonymous User.
Lead Management Tab

a. A Lead is someone who must be signed into their account on your website to view a page.

b. An Anonymous User is anybody that visits your site and does not sign into an account on the website.

4. After you have completed selecting who can and cannot view a certain page, select the 'Create' button if it is a new page, or 'Update' if you are editing a current page.

You page now has an access level associated with it! Just like the pages within your website, you may go back and change your access levels as often as you wish.

Questions? Comments? Interested in integrating this feature in a brand new Sequoia-designed website for realtors?

Optimize Your Website to Get More Traffic & Leads with These Tips!

Search-Engine Friendly Sites Get More Leads

If you have your own website and blog, or have been tasked with maintaining your company's website and blog, you should understand the importance of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO is the process in which you attempt to increase your search engine 'ranking' (how high in search engine results your website appears) for a given search term or 'keyword', when your potential customers search the products or services you offer in Google or other major search engines. The higher in the search results you appear, the more visitors your site will get. The more visitors you get, the more opportunities you have to convert those leads into clients!

SEO is an ongoing process with many facets and levels of complexity. You do not need to be an SEO specialist, however, to start optimizing your website and increasing your search engine ranking! If you are a Boston Logic client with a One System website or a new Sequoia website, you're in luck because we've designed our sites to make it easy for you to populate and optimize your own website pages and blog posts. This blog covers the basic techniques we recommend using to get your SEO Campaign started!

For an additional overview of the SEO process, check out David Friedman's blog post from our Real Estate SEO blog in which he describes the overarching "stages" of SEO and discusses why SEO is important to your website.

It may also be helpful to check back on our Real Estate SEO Blog frequently for more tips on optimizing your website!

How to Optimize Your Website

Pick Your Keywords

These are the words your customers are typing into Google to find you. So take a moment to try to think like your target demographic; what words would they choose to type into Google or another search engine and ideally find your website? Some examples might be 'cheap Boston apartment' or 'Allston homes'. You can use online keyword tools to help you determine the difficulty and popularity of your potential keywords, and to help you to develop more ideas. Once you've selected your 10-20 appropriate keywords, make a list and reference it frequently while blogging and populating your website pages with content.

Optimize Your Web Pages

Now that you have chosen your keywords, you have to optimize your website pages. Ideally, you'll focus on a few closely-related keywords on each page of your website. The keyword(s) you selected should be strategically placed within your pages to increase your search engine ranking, but be careful not to over-stuff the pages to the point of annoying a reader. Try to fit your keywords in as naturally as possible. Here are some the more effective ways to use keywords:

1. Keywords in Page's URL. For example:
www.bostonlogic.com/blog/2010/07/real-estate-web-design/

2. Keywords in Title Tags. This is what visitors will see in the top of the browser tab, so make sure it is spelled correctly and has proper capitalization.
For example:
'<title>Real Estate Web Site Design with Boston Logic | Boston Logic - Marketing Blog</title>'

3. Keywords in Page Meta Descriptions. Your page descriptions appear below your Title Tag in search engine results. They need to be interesting enough to get people to click on your link and include your keywords where possible. Notice in the example above, Google 'bolds' the keywords in the description that match the search terms used.

4. Keywords in Page Headings or Heading Tags. Much like you read a newspaper (or this email) headings and sub-headings help readers and search engines quickly skim the content of a page to see what each section is about. In general, 'H1' Tags are thought to be the most relevant to search engines.

5. Keywords in Page Text. Each page should be fairly targeted to each keyword or group of keywords you are targeting. So, if your keywords are 'Allston apartments' and 'Allston MA rentals' you should find a way to creatively include these terms a few times within the text of the page.

6. Keywords in Bold. (e.g. [strong]) Making your keywords bold will help readers easily see where in the page the words they are looking for are mentioned, and search engines will place more emphasis on these words, too. Just be sure not to over-do it, because it will scare them both away!

7. Keywords as Links. Your keyword links can be internal or external. Internal links provide visitors easy access to related content; in the previous example, you may want to link to 'Allston condos' from your 'Allston apartments' page. External links should be used to cite sources and you should only link to credible website, not link farms or 'Spam' sites.

8. Keywords in Images. Search engines can't see photos. The only way to ensure they do is by giving the images a relevant name, description, and tags. An image file with the name 'image123.jpeg' won't do anything for your SEO, whereas an image with the name 'Allston_apartment_bathroom.jpeg' is much more informative.

9. Keywords in Meta Tags. It is important that these tags contain your keywords, as search engines use tags to determine your website's relevant content when a potential lead searches for your services.

Optimize EVERY Blog Post

Blogs are great places to optimize, as they are always producing new relevant content, and can drive traffic to your website. (Read Ashley's blog about Ideas for Real Estate Blogs if you're experiencing writer's-block!)

1. Keywords in All of the Above! Just like any other web page, you should try to focus each blog post on a specific topic and target a specific keyword or group of keywords for each blog post- and incorporate those keywords into the post URL, title, description, text, etc.

2. Keywords as Categories. Blog add another level of SEO potential with categories. Categories are for grouping relevant blog posts together so they are easier for visitors (and search engines) to find. For example, 'Allston condos', 'Allston homes', and 'Allston apartments' could all be different categories you organize your blog posts into.

When ranking your website or blog, search engines use various algorithms that constantly change to determine your ranking. However, some of the most important and common factors are the age of the URL (how long have you owned the domain?), internal links, outbound links to other relevant sites, links to your blog from other sites, relevant content (i.e, keywords), and the number of posts. So make sure to promote your blog, and to blog consistently. We recommend posting at least 1-2 times per week, as search engines will start to really pay attention to you after your first 100 posts.

Keep Track with Google Analytics & Webmaster Tools

Now that you've put in all the work, monitor your progress! We recommend keeping track of keyword rankings each month to check for progress. By checking Google Analytics frequently, you can see what posts are popular, where your traffic is coming from, what keywords users are searching and which words are landing them on your site, and much more!

Haven't installed Google Analytics yet? Don't worry! Read our step-by-step blog breaking down the Google Analytics installation process, and how to interpret the Analytics numbers and results.

Boston Logic is here to assist you in your website's success! If you need a refresher-course on how to populate your new Sequoia website, watch this helpful demo video by Katrina on the Boston Logic YouTube Channel. As always, you can also Contact Boston Logic's Support Team at any time for assistance.

Town Pages Improve Your SEO & User Experience

If you’ve started reading any of the blogs here or at RealEstateSEO1.com or BostonLogic.com, then you know that for a successful SEO campaign, unique high quality (and keyword-rich) content is king! But how do you add that type of valuable content to your real estate website?

LEVERAGE WHAT YOUR ALREADY KNOW:

One of the easiest ways to leverage your expertise in the real estate industry - and provide your real estate agent website design with keyword-rich content that is useful to search engines and visitors alike - is by adding Town Pages. Town Pages are pages with a paragraph or so you create with helpful information about an area, and dynamic search results you control by setting criteria when building the page. If your offices' websites for realtors currently does not include town pages, you can upgrade your website to include town pages for only $20 per month!

The information on these pages can be what you would tell someone looking for a new home in the area in question; you can talk about the demographics of the area, the great amenities, the architecture, the public transportation, etc. Basically anything you think clients would find useful or interesting. In addition, information on properties in the area such as average price, number of properties on market, and more is automatically added to the page.

HOW TO CREATE A TOWN PAGE IN THE SEQUOIA SYSTEM:

1. Log into your website. Click on the 'CMS' (Content Management System) Tab.

2. Select the 'Pages' text link from the sub-navigation menu.

3. From the 'Pages' menu, click on the 'Create New' button with the green plus sign icon. Then fill out the form in the 'Create Page' pop-up window that appears.

4. Fill in the Town Page information:

a. Name: This is your internal reference for the page- visitors won't see it. We recommend including the words 'Town Page' at the end so they are easy to find in the Pages Menu.

b. Path: This is the URL your clients will see in their navigation bar and it is also used by Search Engines to help rank your site. Make sure you use a keyword you want to rank for ('Fenway Apartments', in the example above).

c. Redirect URL: Leave this blank for your Town Pages unless you want to redirect your visitors to a different page on your site.

5. Page Content:

a. Page Header: This is the headline of your page that visitors will see when they land on this page. Make sure it is relevant, and utilizes one or more of your keywords.

b. Body Content: This is where you enter that paragraph of useful text you created. If you are pasting your text from a Word Document or Text Pad/ Notebook program, make sure to use the appropriate pasting option from the tool bar. You can edit the text within this box much like a Word Document, changing text with Bold or italic styles, adding hyperlinks, etc. using the icons in the tool bar.

6. Meta Data: This section is where you enter your SEO Title, Description, and Keywords as covered in our earlier email about Optimizing Your Pages. Remember to make sure your Title and Description are readable to a viewer and not a rambling list of Keywords.

7. Don’t worry about the ‘Footer Content’ or ‘Who Can See This Page’ for this lesson. The default settings are fine.

8. Hit the 'Create' Button when you are finished!

9. Your new Town Page will now appear on your 'Pages' list. Ta-Da! Congrats! You've just created your first Town Page!

You can now link to this page, using the URL you created, from blog posts or other pages that mention the neighborhood. The more relevant internal links your site has, the better for SEO and user experience. For example, if you mention something about Fenway Condos for Sale in your Fenway Apartments Town Page, make the words 'Fenway Condos' a hyperlink to a Town Page about Fenway Condos for Sale. If you talk about the Fenway's proximity to another neighborhood, link to that Town Page, too! Your potential client might not be sold on the Fenway area and you can keep them looking on your site longer by providing them with helpful links to other information they might find useful. To automatically boost SEO for your site, be sure to ink each of your Town Pages to dynamic (c0nstantly updating) Property Search results!

LINKING YOUR TOWN PAGE TO DYNAMIC CONTENT:

By linking your Town Pages to a Sales or Rental Property Search for that area, you will create a page with not only great text for visitors and search engines, but also a page with constantly updating information, which is great for SEO! We recommend making a Town Page for every area you want to increase your Sales or Rental activity in, to help improve your real estate online marketing campaign.

1. From the 'CMS' Tab, select the 'Town Pages' link from the sub-navigation bar.

2. Click the blue link for a 'New Town Page' from within the Town SEO Pages Menu.

3. The 'New Town Page' popup window will appear. Select the Town Page you just created from the 'CMS Page' dropdown menu.

4. Select the 'Search Type' you want associated with this page (Sales or Rentals).

5. Then select the search parameters for the listings you wish to show to visitors on this page, such as price range and the location (Fenway in this example). Be sure not to leave the price range blank or it will cause errors on your page or lead visitors to believe there are no listings available in this area.

6. Click the 'Create Page' button at the bottom of the screen once you've entered all your information.

Your new Town Page now appears in your Town Pages menu under the 'CMS' Tab and is linked to a relevant search to keep your page constantly refreshed with new information and no more effort on your part!

You're ALMOST DONE! Now you just have to make it so visitors can find your new page without knowing the URL through real estate website marketing. The best way to optimize your new Town Pages is to create a link to it that can be clicked on from any page of your website. This will ensure that users and search engines can find it!

MAKING YOUR TOWN PAGE EASY TO FIND:

Did you know that search engines cannot see information in forms, such as the drop down menus used in your property searches? In fact, search engines often only 'crawl' within 3 clicks of your website's Home Page. Search engines and users alike will find it easier to navigate to your Town Page if it is prominently displayed.

The ‘Town Page Footer Navigation Menu’ feature of the Sequoia system offers a great solution to this SEO dilemma, allowing you to create a text link (which search engines DO see) on the bottom of every page of your site (including your Home Page) using the keywords you chose when creating your Town Page. Adding each Town Page to this menu will increase real estate internet marketing presence, SEO, and promote ease of use for your customers.

1. From your ‘CMS’ Tab, select the ‘Menus’ link from the Sub Navigation Bar.

2. Select the link ‘Menu Items’ from the ‘Town Pages’ row on the Menus List.

3. In the ‘Menu Items for Town Pages’ drop down that appears, click the ‘Create New’ button.

4. Creating Your Footer Link:

a. Menu Text: This is the text that will appear at the bottom of your pages as a hyperlink to your new Town Page. Make sure the Menu Text you create is one of your keywords, so, in our example, the Footer link would say ‘Fenway Apartments’.

b. Page: This is where you select the page you want this link to go to. This is why we find it helpful to include the words ‘Town Page’ in the name of the Town Pages you create.

c. External Link: Only use this if you want to create a Footer Navigation Link to a page outside of your website, such as to an affiliated site, instead of an internal link.

d. Click the ‘Create’ button.

You're DONE! Your new Town Page now appears in the ‘Town Page Footer Navigation’ Menu, and in the footer of your website.

Once you create multiple Town Pages, you can change the order in which they appear in the footer navigation by click and dragging the menu item up or down by the green arrows icon to the right on this screen. Below is an example of what a hyperlink for your new Town Page will look like in your Home Page footer.

Now all the valuable content your wrote for your users and search engines is just 1 click from your Home Page, helping you begin to rank higher in organic search engine results for the keywords you are targeting!

Boston Logic offers various SEO and Social Media Services if you’d rather focus on your clients instead of your website! Feel free to contact me with any questions or for more information about our services!

Importing Leads to Your New Site With the Logic Leads System

Our goal here at Boston Logic is to help you deliver an exceptional real estate website that looks great, saves you time, and helps you close more deals. With the much-anticipated launch of recent real estate agent sites, we wanted to reach out to those users and develop some helpful blog posts to hit the ground running with their new real estate website design.

This post discusses how to import your existing leads into your site- if you haven't done so already. When logged into your new site, you can also reference our User Guide (see image) which is located on the right-hand side of your dashboard to help you get answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about your real estate platform. We have also created a very thorough walk through demo video on Lead Management.

Getting your leads into your website and leveraging your LogicLeads system will help you get more referrals from your clients and close deals!

Follow these steps to upload your leads:

1) To upload leads, select the Import Leads sub-item under your Lead Management tab.

2) Next, download the Batch User Template file by clicking the link to download. Once you have entered your lead data, simply upload the file by clicking the "Browse" button, locating the file, and clicking Import Users. The file must be less than 1KB.

3) After you have uploaded your leads you can manage them under the My Leads sub-item.

4) By viewing a lead's detailed information you can check out their favorite properties and searches, site activity, and tool usage.

5) As a real estate agent user, you can also update a lead's contact information and sales info, and add follow-up dates and contact events to keep your lead's information up to date.

6) One of our favorite features offered to leads is Daily Email Updates. Both the lead and Agent can set these up - Agents can do so by simply selecting "Email Updates" under the leads' detailed information.

7) Email updates can be set up for both sales and rentals. An agent can also choose to send out an updated search to their lead by clicking the New Daily Search link under the Email Updates tab on the lead's detailed information view.

Like what you see and want to get in on the real estate website action? Contact Boston Logic to get started on your very own agent real estate web site today!

Agent Websites Now Available on the Sequoia Platform! 7/16/2010

For Boston Logic's Agent Sites, we employ the same industry leading technology as found behind our broker web design office sites - in addition to enhance personal real estate online marketing features.

Until now, Boston Logic did not offer a cost-effective solution for Real Estate agents who wanted to have their own personally branded, custom real estate website. Well, so many individual agents asked us to create such a product, that we couldn't say no any longer!

Like our sites for Real Estate Offices, Agent Sites are designed to help you rank in the search engines, leverage social media, produce more traffic, and convert more of that traffic into leads. The difference is ownership - Agent Sites not only work seamlessly with the LogicLeads system of your company's Sequoia site, they can generate their own unique leads which go directly to the agent who owns the site. Aggregating leads from your Agent Site and your office's Sequoia site will increase the amount of business going directly to you.

Of course, Agent Sites have all New Sequoia Features of the best-in-class features that make Sequoia the leading platform in Real Estate agent website design: branded site designs with an unlimited number of pages, advanced lead management, unlimited editable lead capture forms, MLS property search with Google maps, extensive interactive user tools, rental search, and much, much more.

Our websites for Realtors offices consistently produce leads, traffic, and search engine ranking. Positioned at the cutting edge of online marketing and technology, Sequoia sites support next generation marketing campaigns, work seamlessly with social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and give offices the edge over their competition. Now individual agents can tap into the power of the best software platform in the industry - by using Sequoia Agent Sites.

Explore the power of your personal brand and the unlimited lead generation potential the web has to offer. To find out more about Agent Sites and the Sequoia platform: web design for realtors, contact Boston Logic today.

Realtors Now Looking to the Web for an Edge

In an article by Jennifer LeClaire of the Boston Business journal, real estate brokers are relying more and more on online marketing in this current market. Email marketing alone was hailed as a vital component of realtor internet marketing, as is an extremely effective way to engage and communicate with existing customers and future prospects - and has led the way in taking real estate services to the next level.

ConstantContact has recently conducted a survey in which nearly 60% of respondents indicated that they currently use real estate web sites and email marketing to drive more potential customers to their businesses. Now, more than ever, it is important for real estate agents and brokers to establish effective means to build and maintain strong customer relationships. And with the right website and online marketing campaign, more contacts = more leads = more closings.

But simply having a web site is not enough - you have to advertise it to gain drive traffic to your site to get leads. And furthermore, you must understand where your traffic is coming from so that you can narrow the focus of your advertising efforts. When executed and maintained correctly, as much as 50% of your business can come through your website. And if maintained and tended to consistently correctly over time, you will see a growth in business. The National Association of Realtor data states that more than 80% of home buyers will start their property search online, and 70% will then work with the agent that contacts them first.

Blogs are also a key tool for real estate businesses, and they are great resources for search engines to crawl for relevant search content. After time, blogs can attract much organic search engine traffic because of their keyword-rich content. So your real estate internet presence can make the effectiveness of print ads or billboards a thing of the past - as long as you work consistently on your website, blog, and email marketing campaigns, customers will find you.

Keep the Upgrades Coming! 6/15/2010

Once again, our developers have been hard at work innovating new ways to make more comprehensive and user-friendly websites for realtors. Browse through the following features, and contact us on how you can get started on your new real estate website design today!

We've added a Similar Listings option - companies can now turn on or off Similar Listings in their Settings. The feature shows up to six similar properties for sale in your property details view. The criteria for similarity are simply that the comparable properties come from the same MLS, the same town, and the same neighborhood if applicable, that their price be within 10% of the original property, and that their bed and bath count be plus or minus one of the original. The similar properties have to be active in MLS and have the same property type. This is a great way to show your customers other great listings that match their search criteria, keeping them engaged and on your site for longer.

We've enabled brokers and agents to manually send daily email updates. This can be done both for sales and rentals. If a new leads signs up and you don't want them to have to wait until the next day to get their first email, you can generate it right away using their search criteria (or criteria you set up for them).

We've also built an HTML search code generator that agents can place anywhere on the Web. Agents can generate the code from their profile details page when logged into the system - when the code is pasted on an outside site, it shows a search tool which sends leads back to the site the code was generated from. This is a great way for agents to gain more exposure, and leads coming in from these searches are automatically assigned to the agent who pasted the code!

Additionally, we made our Property Tools, such as Schedule a Showing and Contact an Agent, automatically assign leads to the agent who listed the property in question. If a lead uses the tools for a property listed by an outside agent, the leads become Unassigned (or are auto-assigned if you have automatic lead assignment turned on in your Settings). Any tool use by leads already logged in results in the activity being sent to the agent the lead is already assigned to, regardless of which property they are interested in.

Check back in often for more software upgrades for property web design!

Sequoia Site Launch: Tory Row Real Estate, 12/21/2010

Related Links:

Real Estate Website Q&A Tuesday: SEO and Sequoia 10/5/2010

Related Links:

Modal Windows : Myths, Fears, & Conversions

What's a Modal Window?

How Modal Windows Work:

Enabling Your Modal Windows:

Related Links:

Control Your Real Estate Website Visitor Access Through Access Levels

Related Links:

Optimize Your Website to Get More Traffic & Leads with These Tips!

Search-Engine Friendly Sites Get More Leads

How to Optimize Your Website

Pick Your Keywords

Optimize Your Web Pages

Optimize EVERY Blog Post

Keep Track with Google Analytics & Webmaster Tools

Related Links:

Town Pages Improve Your SEO & User Experience

LEVERAGE WHAT YOUR ALREADY KNOW:

HOW TO CREATE A TOWN PAGE IN THE SEQUOIA SYSTEM:

LINKING YOUR TOWN PAGE TO DYNAMIC CONTENT:

MAKING YOUR TOWN PAGE EASY TO FIND:

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Importing Leads to Your New Site With the Logic Leads System

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Agent Websites Now Available on the Sequoia Platform! 7/16/2010

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Realtors Now Looking to the Web for an Edge

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Keep the Upgrades Coming! 6/15/2010

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