It always amazed me how little importance foreign business entrepreneurs in the real estate business in Spain give their web presence. Especially in the real estate market people seam to believe that their web site is nothing but a necessary expenditure and fail to understand a couple of things:
1. A professional web presence is a substantial part of the overall marketing plan and possibly the single most effective way to generate potential customers.
2. Marketing on the internet is substantially different then off line advertising.
3. People judge a companies credibility by the content and design of their web site
4. Web Sites dont work without promotion
As a result of underestimating these simple facts, the web site owners tend to look for cheap solutions and what is worse: do not put enough effort and planning into their internet presence. A common believe is: once I paid somebody for a web site, this is it, next task.
Very often it becomes worse then that, instead of outsourcing the design, and promotion to a professional, yet expensive Internet Marketing company, they give the task to somebody they know or the famous nephew who allegedly knows this stuff.
The result is web sites which look outdated, look like online brochures, are stuffed with flashy graphics and are highly annoying for the user. Colours have been chosen without given any thought to the effect certain colours have on the subconscious of the user instead the owners favourites are chosen.
The site features hardly any content but an extensive about us section, an enquiry form and a searchable property database and thats about it. Some web site owners put a little buyers guide and a page with general information about Spain.
The end result is a web site which features the web site owners favourite colours, strokes his ego to death ,did not cost a great deal of money but doesnt do anything but wasting server space.
Then the question occurs: how to gain rankings in search engines Hey, easy isnt it Stuff your meta tags with all the words you want to be found under and submit as often as you can to every search engine on the planet. There are people who even charge for this rather counter productive method.
Then the web site owner waits and waits some more, month go by with little success and he starts wondering what for he made a web site in the first place. Some actually start educating themselves on the internet about the subject they find an idea such as link exchange and rapidly start contacting other site owners to swap links.
You have guessed it already Yes, they avoid linking to sites which feature related content fearing competition and end up having every known Spam site on their link page: Bali Hotels, Russian Hotels, Gambling sites, US Real Estate Directories and so on. None of which is of any value to their users hence considered irrelevant by search engines.
Time goes by, and the site owner and his designer remain the only people looking at the site. Finally the site owner decides, as a last resort to contract an SEO consultant.
Now it is really getting funny:
Instead of taking the SEO firms advice on board the game repeats itself: He wants an even nicer, even flashier site and insists that on his colours and design. The SEO firm does its best to redesign the site in compliance with internet marketing standards and as search engine friendly as possible.
The SEO firm insist on content and content development, being the single most important aspect of a credible and successful web site, whilst the site owners only concern is the look and feel of his site, and does not feel the urge to actually think about developing the content of his site he wants the SEO firm to achieve the impossible mission:
Get MY site in the top ten of Google and dont change it.
They recognize the need for traffic (OK, off to a good start). They did their research and selected a company (nice, moving forward) and they plunk down the money (and if its an SEO company thats any good, it wasnt just pennies either). So far it all sounds good. What happens next nothing absolutely nothing!
Most companies in Spain that choose to outsource their SEO do not follow the instructions of the SEO firm they hired! I am going to repeat that again so the full impact reaches you Most companies that choose to outsource their SEO do not follow the instructions of the SEO firm they hired!
Instead they tell the SEO how much expertise they have themselves in marketing, how great they have been designing company literature, and how many years they do marketing. And: what THEY think a good web site needs to look like.
Now here the truth of the matter: There is NOT one SEO consultant on the planet who can get your web site anywhere near to top positions if you are not prepared to change your attitude. SEO is a time consuming, ongoing and difficult task. If it was easy everyone would do it himself. It is not only expensive but requires from you, the site owner the following:
1. Accepting that online marketing is substantially different from off line marketing.
2. Accepting that you know little or nothing about it
3. Time and effort to develop unique in-demand content
4. Choosing your SEO firm wisely.
5. Taking your SEO consultants advise on board.
Written by
Wolfgang Brand
Clever Marketing Spain
Wolfgang Brand is the owner and Managing Director of Clever Marketing in Spain - the leading Internet marketing Consultants on the Costa del Sol. Wolfgang has more then 12 years experience in sales and marketing. Formerly sales manager at New Horizons Computer Learning Centers in Munich where he obtained a certification as CIW Webmaster.
Links coming to your site are important to SEO. However not all links are the same.
When you are working on your Outside SEO Linking Strategy, there are several major things to consider.
One way links are more valuable than reciprocal links
A one way link is exactly what it sounds like, A link from one site toward yours with out a link from your site going back to theres. One of the biggest mistakes people make in their Linking strategy is to go after link exchanges.
Link Exchanges
In the Google algorithm update of October 2005 Link Exchange Links have been devalued.
What is link exchange you ask If you put a link from you site to my site and I return the favor with a link from my site to yours.
Think about it, in realistic terms, if I link to you and you link to me, its just a basic plus one minus one scenario. What true value is that in real life terms Google has finally devalued those links. One way links coming to your site with Keyword Rich anchor text is only true beneficial link.
C-block Links
Links should come from various C-Block sources. Each website has its own unique IP address. The first set of digits of that IP address are considered the C-block address. If all your links are coming from the same source or C-Block Address, they are only counted as one link. You could have 1000 of links but if they are all form the same C-Block Source, guess what. They are only counted as one!.
Use this Free tool below to check your C-block addresses of your links
C block LINK checker: http://www.webuildpages.com/cclass
So what is the Perfect Link
The perfect links are a one way links none reciprocal that are keyword Rich in anchor text. Below is the HTML Code for a keyword rich anchor link. Replace your domain name and Keywords in the proper space.
Eric Gehler
Eric is a Business Analyst and Consultant. Co- Owner of and