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Re: Is Your Realtor Doing a Good Job On the Web?

fred — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 22:08:43 -0000

$300? That's strong! I know quite a few banks that will take $300 as a downpayment on my home of choice.

Re: Is Your Realtor Doing a Good Job On the Web?

imoDOTcom — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 21:30:20 -0000

There is something incorrect in this post, especially .."is like an SEO service for your listing. For a flat fee ($299), users can take advantage of International Listingsâ€™ audience, their partnerâ€™s web services, and extra Google juice."

International Listing's audience is two orders of magnitude smaller than Zillow, and an order of magnitude smaller than MLSListings.

What is the ..."extra Google juice?" (?)

IF tens of thousands of Sellers join, how can EVERY SELLER be on the top ??

The SEO Analogy and the assumptions in this article appear to be Wrong.

A Seller needs only One Buyer, unlike other Manufactured Products where many, many buyers are needed.

A Buyer needs a particular property that meets his/her needs in terms of home layout, or proximity to school or transportation. Or a particular Zipcode. But NONE of these parameters are SEARCHABLE at InternationalListings. All you get is one big list, it seems.

In that case, Craigslist is Better, although area-specific and parameter-specific search engines like MLS and Zillow are even better.

FINALLY, unlike Apartment dwellers, High-End Buyers have LOTS OF UNIQUE REQUIREMENTS, and they need a RE Broker/Agent who is an area specialist.

No one is going to buy a high-end property off the web, No Matter What the property's Web Ranking.

This article does not appear to be well-researched.

- - - imoDOTcom - - -

Re: Is Your Realtor Doing a Good Job On the Web?

David G — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 17:54:58 -0000

Jennifer - you're missing the point. SEO is not analogous to syndication because SEO is typically one dimension of a syndication strategies (syndicated content should also include inbound links.)

An "analogy" is when you use one thing to make a point about another. Here, your "things" are too closely related to be analogous. What you are doing is creating unnecessary confusion for anyone who actually understands this stuff.

If Realtors weren't being duped over this issue, I wouldn't have bothered to ask you to correct your post but some of these sites are intentionally competing with agents for Google-juice. You are recommending something as "like an SEO service" which in reality will actually hurt an agents' SEO.

I hope that makes sense. If not, please contact me and I'll explain in more detail.

Re: Is Your Realtor Doing a Good Job On the Web?

Ashley Drake Gephart — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 15:25:23 -0000

Looks like a nice tool until I tried it. It missed 4 out of the 10. It shows that 4 sites don't show the listing that are clearly on those sites.

Re: Is Your Realtor Doing a Good Job On the Web?

Frankie — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 15:18:59 -0000

Thanks for the post. I hadn't heard of International Listings until now. Nice site, and for $299 a pop I'm sure they're establishing a decent revenue stream.

Re: Is Your Realtor Doing a Good Job On the Web?

Jennifer Van Grove — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 14:49:01 -0000

Hey David, thanks but it was just a analogy, and I do think the comparison holds true given that the service is designed to bring more attention to listings.

Re: Is Your Realtor Doing a Good Job On the Web?

David G from Zillow.com — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 14:36:10 -0000

Hi Jennifer, it's David from Zillow!

Nice find; this is really cool. Agents battle to keep track of all the places their listings are posted and this tool fills that gap excellently.

One correction though ... "SEO service for your listings" is not accurate and it is not smart for a Realtor to evaluate this product that way. Zillow is actually one of very few services that will improve a Realtor's SEO if they syndicate their listings. Many listings sites go out of their way to ensure that the agent does not see any SEO benefit from their listings by using nofollow's and non-301 redirects. If you check the listing source code on a few of these services you'll see what I mean. Please clarify this issue in your post.

Re: Is Your Realtor Doing a Good Job On the Web?

Kevin Tomlinson — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 13:45:01 -0000

Great, great post. Great checklists for online marketing.

Thanks.