Today’s topic du jour: XML Sitemaps! First off, what are they? From Google Webmaster Tools: Sitemaps are a way to tell Google about pages on your site we might not otherwise discover. In its simplest terms, a XML Sitemap—usually called Sitemap, with a capital S—is a list of the pages on your website. Creating and submitting a Sitemap ... Read more +
We’ve previously written about how to use categories effectively on your real estate blog. What we didn’t discuss was the use of Tags. So today, I thought I’d share a video from Google’s very own Matt Cutts (head of Webspam at Google) who does an excellent job of explaining the use of Tags vs. Categories… [youtube ... Read more +
First off, what is social proof? Here’s Wikipedia’s definition: Social proof, also known as informational social influence, is a psychological phenomenon that occurs in ambiguous social situations when people are unable to determine the appropriate mode of behavior. Making the assumption that surrounding people possess more knowledge ... Read more +
You’ll notice that when using shortcodes with dsIDXpress (our WordPress plugin), the MLS disclaimer is inserted at the footer of your page instead of at the bottom of your blog post. Currently, this is not something that can be changed. Getting each MLS to approve the display of their data this way was a bit of a challenge and part of getting ... Read more +
With dsIDXpress you can load property search results and individual property details based on a relatively simple URL structure. The URL structure always starts with: /idx …so if your domain name is yourblog.com, the dsIDXpress “virtual” pages would always start with: yourblog.com/idx You can display search results from the MLS ... Read more +
Today’s post is all about finding creative ways to optimize your use of dsSearchAgent (our mapping IDX). Don’t just slap the IDX Search on your site, there’s tons of other ways that you can display MLS data and drive site visitors to your content. The goal is to get your site visitors interested, get them registered and ... Read more +
Impersonating an IDX Visitor will allow you to use the dsSearchAgent IDX as if you were the Contact giving you the ability to make searches, save searches and favorite listings for that particular Contact. The reason this is useful is that it allows you to guide your contacts by saving searches and favoriting properties for them. A First-Time ... Read more +
It’s true, you live and you die by your database. So, did you know that if you have an existing database (on an excel sheet or from some other contact management system), you can import ANY data that you choose for a client. Even custom fields. So, here is your lesson for today… Importing Contacts 1. You must create a CSV file to ... Read more +
I’ve said it once, I’ll say it again: The success of your blog is dependent on your ability to develop fresh new content consistently. Simply put, people are looking for information that is relevant to them today. You don’t need to write a blog post every single day. But you do need to be consistent. Once a week (at least) should ... Read more +
This is the first in our new Tech Tip Tuesday Series. Each week (hopefully), we’ll be sharing a new technology or marketing tip to help you jumpstart your marketing and grow your businesss. Subscribe now to get future Tech Tips and marketing articles. You live and you die by your database. Ask any seasoned REALTOR® and they’ll say the ... Read more +