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New Sequoia Real Estate Agent Site Launch: Christine Lacava

Christine Lacava is an agent with Jack Conway & Co. When she needed a new website, she came came to Boston Logic and the Sequoia platform in order to leverage all of the great tools she came to know and love on the Jack Conway corporate site!

Christine needed a great site at a great price, so she took advantage of one of our ready-to-deploy design themes for the Sequoia platform.
Choosing a standard theme allows you to have a new, fully functional website up and running in minimal time. For a low startup cost, you can have your new Sequoia site live to the world in less than 24 hours if you choose one of our standard themes. This is a great option for anyone on a budget - or in a hurry!

Our Real Estate Agent Sites offer all of the great features of our sites for entire offices, as well as integrated lead management - which enables you to get leads assigned to you from your brokerage as well as from your own website! No need to log into two systems; leads captured on your office's Sequoia site can be sent directly to your real estate agent website for you to manage directly. This system cuts down on much of the time and effort required to maintain your own site while still working as a member of an office.

Contact the Boston Logic sales team today at 617-266-9166 to learn more about the Sequoia platform and our various real estate web design options.

Christine Lacava represents residential buyers and sellers in Plymouth and Bristol counties.

Creating Your First Sequoia Blog Post

The directions below are to assist you in creating your first blog post in a standard Sequoia Blog. If you chose to upgrade to a WordPress blog, you should refer to the Creating Your First WordPress Blog directions instead.

To create a Blog Post on your Sequoia website, you must first log into your new Sequoia website as a user that has been designated as a Blogger. If you are not a Blogger but would like to be, contact your office administrator to add you as a Blogger, or contact Boston Logic for support.

Once you log into the website as a Blogger, you will automatically be directed to the back end of the website, as usual.

Sample Sequoia 'Back End' Dashboard

However, to access the Sequoia blog, you will need return to the front end of the website. There will be a Home or Homepage link somewhere on the back end, usually either at the bottom or the top of the page. It will look similar to the image below:

Click the 'Home' Button to Return to the 'Front End' of the Website

When you return to the front end of the website, enter the blog like a reader would by clicking on the ‘Blog’ button from the Top Navigation Bar.

How to Create and Edit a Sequoia Blog Post

Click the 'Blog' Button on the Home Page to Visit the Blog

After you have clicked ‘Blog’, you will be brought to the main landing page of the blog that contains all the Published blog posts in chronological order. (If this is the first blog post, you won't see any posts listed yet).

At the top of the page, you will see a small orange icon and links to your Blog’s RSS and ATOM Feeds, which allows people to subscribe to your blog and receive notices when new posts are published.

Your Sequoia Blog’s RSS and ATOM Feeds

Below this Blog RSS Feed | ATOM Feed links, there will be a text link that says ‘Create Post.’ You will only be able to see this if you are logged in as a blogger for the website.

Click 'Create Post' to Start a New Blog

Once you click on ‘Create Post’ you will be brought back to the edit screen of the blog, which looks a lot like the back end of your Sequoia website. You will be able to add and edit your blog posts from this edit screen.

When you enter your blog Title, it will automatically generate a URL Permalink in the field directly below it.

Please Note: Until you are completely finished composing and editing your post, do not check the “Published” box found right below the Permalink field, or readers will see your blog before you want them to.

Enter and edit the body text of your blog post in the large space provided. Insert images and adjust formatting using the toolbar above the writing space. The buttons function much like the buttons in Microsoft Word. If you're not sure what a button does, hover your mouse over it and a description of the function will appear.

Insert Images & Format Your Blog Using the Toolbar

Be sure to add Categories that relate to your post; these can be found right below the blank space for your text. After a Category is created, it will be saved and available for future blog posts. It is important to categorize your blogs to help users more easily find topics that they would like to read about.

Once you have finished adding your Title, writing your blog, and tagging it with Categories, click the ‘Create Post’ button to preview your blog.

You can click the ‘Edit Post’ link at the bottom of the preview to make more edits to your blog post, or to return to the previous edit screen and check the ‘Publish’ box to post the blog 'live' if you have no further changes.

Edit Your Sequoia Blog Post by Clicking 'Edit Post' from the Preview Screen

Edit Your Blog Post by Clicking 'Edit Post' from the Preview Screen

Once you are happy with your blog, you can check off the 'Published' box. Be sure that you click the 'Update Post' button or the blog will still only be saved as a Draft.

Now you're blog is posted and viewable by your audience!

New Sequoia Site Launch: Maxfield Real Estate 1/14/11

Maxfield Real Estate came to Boston Logic in need of a new real estate website design - and having spent many years with their previous site, they knew that it was time to redesign from the ground up.

For the Maxfield team, this was an opportunity to both explore a new look and feel for their web presence, and to build that real estate web design on the best software in the business - the Sequoia platform.

As many of our clients do, Maxfield Real Estate chose to have us design a fully custom Sequoia theme - redesigning everything from the home page and common theme elements to interior pages, such as the listing details and search results pages.

The new Maxfield Real Estate site is modern and organized, giving users easy access to Maxfield's many listings in the lakes region of New Hampshire.

The design option of choice for our most discerning clients, our Custom Design Theme lets you start fresh, with a newly designed site built just for you. Our design team presents several initial concepts, from which one is chosen and modified through several rounds of revision. Home page layout, color schemes, global elements such as headers and footers, are configured to order - and the custom layouts don't stop at the home page. Custom Design Themes also include layout changes for standard system pages such as search results, agent profiles, and more.

The following is a great testimonial from Maxfield Real Estate in working with Boston Logic and the Sequoia platform:

"Boston Logic has been instrumental in bringing our new Maxfield website to fruition. We look to Boston Logic as an expert in online marketing. Ashley Osgood especially has been dedicated to helping our agents get started, answering questions and providing educational opportunities. We look forward to continued success and the growth of our site through the help of Ashley and Boston Logic." - Denise Williams, Maxfield Real Estate

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 truly unique.

Maxfield Real Estate is a sales leader in the lakes region of New Hampshire, with over fifty years of experience representing luxury properties and unique vacation homes.

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

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.

Holiday Special Offer: Sequoia Agent Websites for $50/month! 12/6/2010

real estate agent websites

Special Holiday Offer for Real Estate Agents

For a limited time, Boston Logic is offering Sequoia Agent Sites for just $50 per month! Agent Sites consistently produce leads, traffic, and search engine ranking - now at half off the regular price. Don't delay - get the competitive advantage of a Sequoia Agent Site before this great offer expires!

Regular Price: $100 / month

YOUR PRICE: Only $50/month if you sign up before the end of 2010!

Do the math - You save $600!

The best part? We're constantly improving and upgrading the Sequioa platform. Your website will receive these upgrades automatically for FREE, so your personal website will always have the latest features and be using the best technology in the industry. It's like leasing a car that never gets old!

This offer expires January 1st, 2011.

Contact Boston Logic to get started today!

New Sequoia Features on Websites for Realtors: Lead Management, Town Page Changes, System Upgrades: 11/1/2010

New Automatic Lead Assignment Options

Agents can now be taken out of the lead auto-assignment rotation if need be – each user’s profile now contains a checkbox that allows brokers and administrators to choose if that user should be included in automatic lead assignment.

Lead Searching

You can now search for leads in the Unassigned Leads list, Unverified Leads list, All Leads list, and Agent Stats list by email address.

Lead Ownership

All assigned leads now have an associated Owner, which is shown on tables like All Leads and Agent Stats to brokers and admins, and on My Leads for agents. A lead's Owner is either the last person to assign the lead, for example the broker who assigns a lead from the Unassigned pool, or the person who manually added the lead to the system. This lets brokers and admins track which leads they have personally assigned out, allowing them to see at a glance which leads they may be responsible for.

Page Permission Level Added for Office Managers

We’ve added a CMS page permission level for Office Managers. This lets Office Managers access pages restricted to their level or above – so if you want to put content on your site that should be seen by people at the Office Manager level or higher, but not agents or other employees, you can restrict the page accordingly.

Default Price Sorting for Searches

We’ve added a Price Sorting option on the Settings tab of all Sequoia sites. This lets you choose whether your customers see search results sorted by price with the highest first or lowest first (ascending or descending).

Sales Town Page Changes

We’ve added the ability to search for any open houses in the current week. Just check the “All This Week” box on any search form and you will see any properties with an open house between the current time and the coming Sunday at midnight

We’ve also added the ability to include search keywords on Town Pages and on Daily Email updates. This lets you and your customers search for anything in the property description, from architectural style to flooring type and everything in between.

Rental Town Pages Changes

You can now set rental Town Pages to show only your own listings – just check the Exclusive box when setting up or editing the page.

System Upgrades

We’ve been hard at work making website for realtors page load speeds much faster! This improves not only the user experience but also you Sequoia site’s SEO potential. Here’s what we’ve done:

All Javascript is externalized
All Javascript and CSS can now be cached locally
All images (with the exception of client uploads) can be cached locally

What this means for you is that these files no longer need to be downloaded every time you view a page, vastly increasing the speed with which search engines and users can navigate your custom real estate web site.

Want in on the action? Contact us to get started on your very own Sequoia realtor website design today!

New MLS Databases Now Integrated with Sequoia: LINK and LINKMV 10/26/2010

Two new Multiple Listing Service databases integrated with Sequoia to offer our clients complete coverage for Massachusetts.

We've recently integrated the listing databases of LINK and LINK MV (Martha's Vineyard) to offer our Sequoia clients complete MLS coverage across the Massachusetts coast and islands. We now cover all of Mass, with LINK, LINK MV, the Cape Cod & Islands MLS, and MLS PIN all serving our clients and their customers - and will soon welcome the addition of the Rhode Island Statewide MLS to better serve our clients in the Ocean State.

We are constantly increasing our MLS coverage in order to serve as many customers as possible - and as an added benefit, allowing customers with multiple MLS ID's to show off and give their customers access to all of their listings in all of their MLS's. Now our southern Massachusetts clients can feature their listings from the South Shore, the Cape and Islands, and beyond - all on the same Sequoia real estate website design.

To learn more about the Sequoia platform and how we can make your new custom real estate website look great and perform better than you ever thought possible, call or email us today! We'll be happy to talk, or to give you a live demonstration of the technology that makes Sequoia the best real estate software platform on the market today.

The New EganRealtyGroup.com Real Estate Website Design Launch: 10/12/2010

If you are an agent debating taking the plunge into a real estate agent website design, here's a recent agent site launch to check out! www.eganrealtygroup.com

This agent site is a modified theme real estate website design with a gorgeous Massachusetts home against a soft blue background. The site owner, Steve Egan, is an agent from Rosen Realty and specializes in South Shore MA Real Estate.

Steve Egan's site is also a fantastic example of Sequoia's Town Pages feature, which allows you to create custom content about an area you serve, and then populate the page with MLS listings based on search criteria that you specify using the secure management interface. This content written about cities and towns that you specialize in is useful to potential clients, and helps your website rank in search engine results for applicable search terms.

Visit SequoiaRealEstateSolutions.com to see how you can get started with your very own agent site today!

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!

Using Email Features on Sequoia Real Estate Websites: 9/14/2010

Follow up with your leads and convert them into clients with a Sequoia real estate websites' Email Features!

Welcome Emails

When a lead signs up on your website an email is automatically generated and sent out to the associated email address, thanking them for signing up with your website! It also includes their login information and a link to their account on your site.

Additionally, if you manually create a lead, they will receive an email with all of their account and login information with links to your website.

Once a lead clicks the link in their welcome email, they are prompted to sign in and are directed to their account. Here they are able to access and edit the following:

·    Contact Information
·    Favorite Properties / Searches
·    Email Updates
·    Personal Notes
·    Change Password

Daily Email Updates:
One of our favorite features offered to leads is Daily Email Updates. Both the Lead and Agent can set these up simply by selecting "Email Updates" under the leads detail information.

Once a daily email search is set up, a lead will start receiving emails the next day when they log into their email. A lead will ONLY receive emails if there are any updates to their search criteria.

If you would like to send an email to a lead immediately after setting up their email update, you can select "Send all Searches to lead right now." This will prompt it to send all updates for that particular day.
Email updates can be set up for both sales and rentals. You or a lead may also set up as many searches as you desire!

Email Listing to a Lead:
As a real estate agent you may send a property to a lead via email. This will include all property information, pictures, and descriptions. It will also include your logo and contact information so the lead has everything they could possible need right in front of them!

Once you select the property that you would like to email to your client, select the lead you would like the listing to go to. You may also include a message to go along with the property.

Once you hit 'submit', your listing has been sent to your lead and they will be able to view it directly from their inbox!

Interested in a custom real estate website that includes this feature and more? Contact us to learn more about how to get started, and to take advantage of our Free 30 Day Trial!

Need some tips on email marketing? Check out our posts on effective email marketing strategies on our Real Estate SEO blog.

New Sequoia Real Estate Agent Site Launch: Christine Lacava

Related Links:

Creating Your First Sequoia Blog Post

Related Links:

New Sequoia Site Launch: Maxfield Real Estate 1/14/11

Related Links:

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

Related Links:

Holiday Special Offer: Sequoia Agent Websites for $50/month! 12/6/2010

Related Links:

New Sequoia Features on Websites for Realtors: Lead Management, Town Page Changes, System Upgrades: 11/1/2010

Related Links:

New MLS Databases Now Integrated with Sequoia: LINK and LINKMV 10/26/2010

Related Links:

The New EganRealtyGroup.com Real Estate Website Design Launch: 10/12/2010

Related Links:

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

Related Links:

Using Email Features on Sequoia Real Estate Websites: 9/14/2010

Related Links:

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