Author Archives: Ryan Clark

About Ryan Clark

I'm the CEO of Linkbuildr Marketing and the brains behind our branding and blog content. I specialize in effective marketing strategies for hotels, luxury brands and real estate. If your brand is in need of a boost then don't hesitate to contact me for a free proposal. Follow me on Google+: +Ryan Clark Twitter: @Linkbuildr on Twitter. You can also come ask me a question on our Facebook Page.  

Real Estate Plugins For WordPress Roundup

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February 19  |  Wordpress SEO  |   Ryan Clark

Since it’s real estate marketing month here I’m continuing on with our theme by providing what is hopefully a useful resource. I know a lot of agents utilize WordPress on their site in whether that be for full IDX integration, or just hosting their blog. It’s obviously a CMS that powers Linkbuildr, and just about most of the blogs around the web. Because of that, there is an abundance of ingenious plugins and code hacks to set yourself apart from the pack.

I will mention that there were of course too many plugins to cover in one post, but I do encourage my readers to post up in the comments. I would love for companies or agents to let us all know what they’re using, and and if you can tell us its hottest functions. I’ll also invite any company to come to an interview for this month about your plugin, so don’t hesitate to get in touch.

For this article I found almost everything on WordPress Plugin database, and of course Google helped a bit. Not all the IDX system I saw in use were listed there, so how’s that for a link building hint hint hint?

WordPress IDX Plugins:

Every real estate agent needs an IDX system to pump their site full of listings from their area. While there are a lot of non WP based IDX platforms, notably REW’s IDX, WordPress has a few really amazing plugins to handle the job. If I were an agent, I’d tend to stick with the one that integrates other cool features such as Google Maps, Tweets and other features to provide a more unique listing. This will go a very very long way in how well Google will index your listings. Remember, there are hundreds, or maybe thousands of agent sites with the same listings.

DS IDXPress: http://www.dsidxpress.com

This IDX plugin for WordPress is the real deal, and is my first choice for a reason. This affordable package has pretty much everything you’ll need to get your listings in your site…and easily! Some of the features include an installation that takes no more than 2 minutes, widgets to do all sorts of handy things, Google maps integration and a nifty slide show system. They have a demo site here which isn’t bad, but you could easily have a much better theme designed than that one.

WP Realty: http://wprealty.org/

A lot of you have most likely come across WP Realty’s impressive IDX solution for WordPress. The great thing about this platform is that there is a team of experts there to help with customization, or building your site from the ground up. They also have a set of themes that are perfect for selling homes which is great. One key feature in mind is that this plugin is compatible with the All-In-One-SEO Pack which makes your on-page game all that much better.

WP Real Estate Helper Plugins:

There are a plethora of plugins that add extra features to your WP site that’s specifically for real estate. I’m all for these even though they may take more of your precious time away from you in setting up and maintaining. These plugins will make your website much more pleasing to Google, as well potential clients as it adds more functionality to the overall process. These features will make you also stand out from the rest of the agent sites which I know can all kind of blend together.

Real Estate Q/A: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/realanswers/

This is a really cool plugin that I think every WP based agent site should have running. While it might take a bit to get the questions flowing in, I have personally seen it work wonders for agents. It’s a great way to handle easy questions, establish search rankings for the hot terms, and showcase you’re an agent who knows your market well. After a few years and a few hundred questions, that will only do great things for your long tail search marketing game. Oh and this plugin is 100% FREE!

Simple Real Estate Pack: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/simple-real-estate-pack-4/

This plugin has so many features I couldn’t believe it was out there for free. Props go to Max Chirkov for creating this gem and providing it to the community. This is something I’d almost not give away if you know what I mean. I’ll take some wording direct from his description and let you know this plugin includes mortgage and home affordability calculators, closing cost estimator, live mortgage rates, Trulia and ALTOS statistical charts, local schools, local rental rates meter, business listings from Yelp and Google Maps. You can see the in-depth options here, which should give you a grand idea the many things you can do with this plugin pack.

WP Great Real Estate: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/great-real-estate/

I’ve used this plugin personally on a pet project real estate site I’ve been involved with. I can say how much of a gem this is and I couldn’t give it enough praise. If you’re wanting to add in homes manually supported by a whole whack of features then this is the plugin for you. I’ve seen some very stunning looking agent sites as well completed with Great Real Estate, so don’t miss this one. This plugin utilizes the likes of NextGen Gallery to upload, manage, and display property listing photos. It uses WordTube to upload, manage, and display videos. There’s FPP Pano which displays panorama photos in a Flash 360 degree interface. Makes use of Feed Wrangler to enable you to send a listings feed to various websites such as Google Base, Trulia, and Zillow!  It uses WP-DownloadManager to display and track links to downloadable brochures…and that even isn’t all of the features believe it or not.

WP Property:http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-property/

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/realanswers/

 

This is a full featured WordPress plugin that basically turns your website into a powerful real estate CMS. This property and real estate management Plugin allows you to create a directory of real estate properties and integrate them into you site beautifully. I’ll spare you a few extra lines of me blabbing and let their handy video showcase to you the ease of use with this software.

WP Mortgage Loan Calculator: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/mortgage-loan-calculator/

It doesn’t hurt to add a bit of extra functionality to your real estate site, so why not a handy mortgage calculator? This acts as a sidebar widget, as well it can provide nifty looking AJAX graphs that are quite appealing. If you don’t have the time to have one programmed or integrated into WordPress, this plugin makes for a quick fix.

Local Market Explorer:http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/local-market-explorer

This will be the last plugin I put into this post and it’s a doozy! The Local Market Explorer plugin does so many amazing things that everyone should drop what they’re doing and get this configured on your site! This plugin allows WordPress to load data from a whole host of neighborhood related APIs(Yelp, Zillow, Education.com, Nile Guide & more) to be displayed on a page or within your own posts. I highly recommend reading the features of this plugin, but just take a look at this screenshot to get an idea of the powerhouse this plugin is. This is my top pick for all the plugins I’ve seen and if you have a coder on staff, you can make it even more custom to suite your needs.

You can see more screenshots of the features in action here http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/local-market-explorer/screenshots/.

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If you’re needing help with any Real Estate Marketing or WordPress help our team is available and here to help. We provide a wide range of real estate marketing options that will help you get the most out of your website, as well give you the time to focus on what you actually need to do…sell homes! If you’d like a proposal or just chat with out real estate marketing team don’t hesitate to get in touch.

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Porsche Facebook 911 GT3 R Celebrates 1,000,000 Fans

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February 17  |  Brand Building  |   Ryan Clark

To those that know me well know that Porsche is my ultimate pleasure. I tell people I’d rather have a 911 GT3 than children, and I still believe that. As a fan of the company, I’ve recently been quite impressed with how they’ve taken to social media. This is a company that needs no more branding, but that didn’t stop them from (finally) jumping on the social media bandwagon. The Porsche Facebook Page is also a testament to how you should utilize the sites features to interact with fans.

To celebrate 1,000,000 fans on their Facebook Page, Porsche built a 911 GT3 R Hybrid with all the names of the followers. Using your product in this fashion is not only a genius marketing move, it builds your relationship with your clients to an untapped level. My hat goes off to the marketing department at Porsche, and I hope they enjoy another million followers within the next year.

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Forbes.com Caught With Paid Links Again?

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February 16  |  Black Hat  |   Ryan Clark

While I’ll usually refrain from posting about specific sites and problems, this is already made public thanks to Google Webmaster Central. Since JCPenny was getting some flack from Google and the web this last week, it looks like other Fortune 500’s are being treated equally. While a site like Forbes.com does have what to appear to be paid links, they’re always quite on target. Despite that, they’re followed links and it seems that the new “unnatural links” message was warranted. I applaud their marketing manager for addressing it, but I don’t think he has any other option as this is Google’s only support line!

This Google Webmaster Help thread got a response from even Matt Cutts himself, which makes total sense when a big name like this asks. The thread covers a lot of interesting ground, and shows you that even the big fish have to clean up things from time to time. While they’ll most likely just have certain pages devalued, a site with this many links and that much trust won’t fall too hard. But having the paid links in question under “Resources” is also bringing more bad attention than good.

Matt Cutts even calls out Conductor Inc in the thread as they’ve been known to sell links via such authoritative sites as Forbes…but again that’s all speculation. Regardless, a few nofollow’s appended to those resources and all would be cleared according to Matt. If you watched this video I posted the other day from Matt, we can see if it auto fixes itself. By the looks of Forbes Alexa ranking, they may already be feeling the sting of the Googlebot.

Let’s hear your thoughts!

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How To Lift A Google Penalty

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February 15  |  Black Hat  |   Ryan Clark

Here’s a great new Webmaster Help video with Matt Cutts talking about lifting a Google penalty. A lot of people, and I see it in their help forums a lot, think the only way is to have it manually reviewed. It’s great to hear that you can fix things and let their spiders fix you in good time. If you’re company is feeling the sting of a penalty, we do offer our services and help in getting you back on the white list. There’s no charge to get our advice on a problem you’re having, so get in touch.

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JCPenny Caught With Paid Links?

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February 12  |  Black Hat  |   Ryan Clark

I just enjoyed reading the long and well done report by the NT Times on the black hat hi-jinx JCPenny has been tangled up in. I don’t need to chat much about it as they went 5 pages deep into uncovering what was going on. JCPenny, by the looks of their Alexa, did quite well this last holiday season!

This is a good warning to all big brands not to game their links and stay away from any anchor text filters…something JCPenny is still stuck in by the looks of it. While it was reported they got slapped up into the 70’s, I’m now seeing them back in the 30’s, but there’s no traffic to be found there. JCPenny could have also been setup in this situation. Of all the huge brands we’ve worked with, they’d never have to resort to tactics like this to get those kind of results. While it’s not easy, these companies most definitely have the budget to do it right.

Just 7 percent of JCPenney.com’s traffic comes from clicks on organic search results, she wrote. A far bigger source of profits this holiday season, she stated, came from partnerships with companies like Yahoo and Time Warner, from new mobile applications and from in-store kiosks.

This is also great for them, any this should be similar for any large company. We always tell our clients to NOT have all their eggs in one basket, especially in case something bad happens. If you’re still relying 100% on search, it’s time to start looking at Facebook storefront options, a strong Twitter presence and get mobile in one way or another.

The one major thing JCPenny could improve on is of course much better product descriptions. If you were a smaller ecommerce site with a weak link profile and brand presence, then you’d be trumped. This is where having such a big company comes in really handy, but don’t feel invincible.

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Smarter Classifieds Marketing For Real Estate Agents

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February 11  |  Local Business Marketing  |   Ryan Clark

I wanted to get into an older form of marketing agents either do a lot of, or stopped after getting discouraged from poor results. Classified sites are still a great way to bring in leads, I just think agents need to do it a little smarter. I’ll do my best to keep this post brief because once you get the gist of what I’m saying, the ideas will be a flowing! Remember to check in every day as we’re having Real Estate Marketing Month here and on many guest blogs.

While it doesn’t hurt to just list your latest property listings, you’ll still be see in front of a lot of eyes. As of late, I’ve noticed one really key feature about Craigslist, Kijiji, Oodle.com and others is that their listings can rank really easily for long tail keywords. How often have you noticed this but never thought to take advantage of it?

They key of course is just as simple as titling and making the first sentence right on top with what you want to rank for. This tactic is great for targeting the long tail, especially for new developments, communities and local specific real estate.

I will give you a specific example from my current place of residence here in beautiful Victoria BC. But before I do that, let’s quickly talk about links in your ads. While most classified sites expire after a certain period of time, I still think (keyword being think) that they’ll have a chance at temporarily passing some link juice. At the very least, make sure you fill out your profile on the sites that let you have one. A lot of them will have a place for a link and a followed links, so make your profile write up good and unique!

Example Of Classified Long Tail Domination!:

Keyword: sidney adult community condos (very popular retirement area here)

As you can see, this is a really interesting set of listings completely dominated by classified sites. This also tells me, that a well established local agent could get a page up targeting these keywords. That eventually should easily be able to out rank these classified listings, so make sure to do both! I recommend using your real estate blog to also tackle long tail terms like this. The advantage here with the classified sites though is the ability to rank top 5 within 12-24 hours!

List Of Classified Sites:

Keep in mind there are WAY more  classified sites out there, just do your best to determine the quality of them before wasting your time. I’ll list the top ones here of course, but don’t exclude sites that are built for your local area only. These will not only be great for ranking, you know that most of the traffic on that site is for your area only. Simply brilliant!

– Craigslist
– Oodle
– iList
– BackPage

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If you’re competing in a tough real estate market then why not get out help and focus on your core business. Link building, social media marketing and all the bits in between is a full time job and that’s what our team is for. We not only have a vast real estate marketing skill set, we have a passion for the industry and take pride in building up your brand.

Services: http://www.linkbuildr.com/real-estate-marketing-seo/

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Google vs Bing Round 2: Product Search

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February 9  |  Ecommerce SEO  |   Ryan Clark

I wanted to get into another round of Google VS Bing to take a look at what’s going on in the SERPs these days. I especially wanted to take a look at the long tail product search for something I was in the market to buy. With the recent duplicate content filters hitting Google’s results in the past couple of weeks, it should be an interesting peek into what’s going on.

For what I can tell, there are still a lot of silly results showing up, especially for specific long tail product searches. I’d expect to see a lot of shops focused on what I’m wanting to buy….sadly that was not the case. I still found a handful of thing affiliate sites with mashed Adsense and Amazon feeds…surprise surprise.

The results here should give good warning to Ecommerce owners to beef up there product page links.  For such specific search queries, I don’t want to see thin affiliate sites, and I’d rather buy from the most trusted looking site. Although a lot of people won’t mind clicking through an affiliate site, or even know really what’s going on, I do when looking for something specific.

So what am I in the market to buy? Well I’m in need of an authentic sheepskin rug, so not the IKEA kind. I want the goods from New Zealand, and I’m looking for just a single pelt to spruce up the condo here. There are tons of places you can get a real sheepskin rug, but I want only the best for pad. Let’s take a look at what both search engines brought me;

Google) Buy a real sheepskin rug:

As you can see about a third of these results were pleasing and actually on topic. The first result, although has the rugs, shouldn’t be there in my opinion. The sheepskin rug page for that shop should be returning for the number one spot…but really I would have thought Kiwi Sheepskins would be top ranking, especially since that shop has been around and established for a long time. The Hubpages result is a thin affiliate page stuffed with adds, not all lead to a real rug. As you can see from the other results, there is a whole lot of junk showing up. Way to go Google…not!

Bing) Buy a real sheepskin rug:

As you can see, Bing produces way better results except

Real Estate Marketing Month @ Linkbuildr

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February 9  |  News  |   Ryan Clark

I just wanted to drop some news, although a little late, about it being real estate marketing month here at Linkbuildr. We’ll be doing a round of guest blogging posts throughout the web, as well here on the blog. If you’re wanting us to do a guest post on your real estate related blog, use our contact form to get in touch. We’ll provide an awesome, unique and informative posts to target and engage your readers. At the end of the month I’ll link to all of our posts here so our readers can enjoy easy access to all the good info.

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