Archive for the ‘SEO’ Category

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Stumbling Blocks

It has been some time since I have had time to write an article. Unfortunately, today is not one of those times. However, I felt that it was time to shed some light on some SEO (search engine optimization) stumbling blocks. Our real estate network webmasters believe that SEO should be gained through organic means. With that said, many webmasters do not agree and decide to take their clients down the road of black hat tactics as opposed to white hat tactics. Others choose to skirt the issue and use grey hat tactics (gray hat tactics). So let’s take a look at what black hat and grey hat tactics are as well as some of the stumbling blocks to SEO.

PREP Indexed SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Stumbling BlocksBefore we dive into this, let’s discuss something very important to all of you site owners. Whether you know it or not, your webmaster’s tactics ultimately effect your site. If the webmaster chooses to use these tactics to get your site to the top of the rankings, things could be good for some time. Mark my words however, eventually your site will get caught. When that day comes, you will lose all that you have worked so hard for. You can say goodbye to your PageRank (PR), your site being indexed, and most importantly, all the hard work that you thought that you were putting in to get your site indexed organically to begin with.  As you will notice in the picture to the left, Positive Real Estate Professionals has 3,100 pages index in their 16 months of existence. With that said, many of our real estate professionals are also indexed right along with us. There is really no rhyme or reason to our members’ placement in this index list however. So, without further adieu, let’s get to the meat of this post.

Black hat tactics can be easily spotted by the trained eye most of the time. With that said, many search engines can also spot these tactics and will soon kill off these sites. Being banned from Google indexing your site might as well be equivalent to cutting off your nose to spite your face. However, just like black magic, black hat and grey hat tactics are evolving daily, if not hourly. One of the easiest is redirection. A week or so ago, I was reading an article on facebook icon SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Stumbling Blocks As I was getting completely immersed in this article I came across a “Read More” link. While I was salivating to read more of this great article, I clicked the link. To my surprise, and disappointment, it took me to a splash page where they wanted me to buy a product that was in no way related to the article that got my attention. That, my friends, is black hat tactics. Redirections should be just what they are intended for. When a link that you worked hard to create is dead or rebuilt with a new URL, that is the time to use redirection. When you are building a page and the page that it is going to refer to is not able to be placed in the navigation, that is when you use redirection. In the cases where redirection is used correctly, this is white hat tactics.

Another instance of a black hat trick is where a web master takes any page on a site and list many keywords using the same text color as their background. To the eye, the keywords are not visible. However, the search engines do see them. To the trained webmaster’s eye, you only need to see the extra spacing there. In some cases, this is hard to do. However, you can also right click on a page in FireFox and chose “View Selection Source”. In Internet Explorer, you would choose “Selection Source”. When you do this, you can actually locate keywords that are used employing this black hat tactic.

Now, for the sake of not making this article longer than it needs to be, let’s talk about one that I frankly consider grey hat. This would be hiding links. Now, this is one of the more difficult things to follow. However, not completely impossible. Methods that are used to do this is hiding the link in “Alt Text” or PHP coding (PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor is a widely used, general-purpose scripting language that was originally designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages. courtesy of Wikipedia). Many times I have been reviewing PHP code and come across these hidden links. I will either remove them or just remove the PHP program completely.

In closing, none of these tactics are necessary. You and your webmaster need to sit down and discuss whether or not they are employing these tactics on your behalf. Ultimately, it is your site that they are playing with.

Positive Real Estate Professionals (PREP) can help you achieve the recognition you and your business deserve through our highly versatile and search engine optimized member websites, lead capture, and visitor friendly layout. If you are a professional who works in the real estate industry or one of the related fields that service the needs of the real estate industry then this real estate network can be just what you need to take your business to the next level. If you have questions or would like to join CLICK HERE.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Stumbling Blocks is a post from: Positive Real Estate Professionals All rights reserved. ©

©2010 Positive Real Estate Professionals. All Rights Reserved.

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YOU Tweet, Who Knew?!?

If you Twitter, you are not alone. In fact Twitter is probably the fastest growing social media that has ever hit the World Wide Web. Follow Me On Twitter The term social media still holds some of the negative stereotypes associated with that term. But thanks to Twitter Follow Danny Thornton On Twitter much of that negative image is beginning to diminish; think about the flow of information during the recent populist uprisings in Iran earlier this year that came via Twitter Follow Rich Dansereau On Twitter Here are some statistics from Business Insider that were released almost a month ago at Twitter’s developers conference.

  • Twitter has 105,779,710 Registered Users – Just how many people do you think see that billboard, park bench, or phone book add that you PAY top dollar for?
  • Twitter is adding 300,00 Registered Users A Day – Approximately the entire population of Albany, New York (Source: U.S. Census Bureau)
  • Twitter gets 180,000,000 Unique Visitors – Some perspective, Brazil, the 5th most populated country in the world, has an estimated population of 192,000,000 (Source: Brazilian Official Population Clock)
  • Apps are important because 75% of traffic is outside Twitter.com – PREP recently added TweetMeme alongside TwitMe to the available integrations to further the ease of use of Twitter by members
  • Twitter receives 3,000,000,000 (BILLION) requests a day (Roughly the number of Tweets read per day) – This is roughly the same number Google receives per day (Source: Search Engine Land, Feb. 23, 2010)

WOW! These numbers may seem incomprehensible because they are so large; the upside to that…because they are so large, there is room for everyone at the ‘Twitter Table’. It would be very short sighted to view Twitter as people only talking about ‘…just washed the car’ or some other type of status update. Twitter is now a megaphone to what is going on in your community or around the world! Though Facebook still commands the spotlight in the social media arena, Twitter is the rising star that will continue to draw that spotlight to itself.

Again I ask: You Tweet, Who Knew?!? So dust off that Twitter account you created months ago and get to Tweeting. It is time for you and your business to shine.

Positive Real Estate Professionals (PREP) can help you achieve the recognition you and your business deserve through our highly versatile and search engine optimized member websites, lead capture, and visitor friendly layout. If you are a professional who works in the real estate industry or one of the related fields that service the needs of the real estate industry then this real estate network can be just what you need to take your business to the next level. If you have questions or would like to join CLICK HERE.

YOU Tweet, Who Knew?!? is a post from: Positive Real Estate Professionals All rights reserved. ©

©2010 Positive Real Estate Professionals. All Rights Reserved.

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PositiveRealEstateProfessionals.com Adds Tynt To It’s Tools

Ramona StrojevsOne of our greatest features is the fact that we are constantly evolving. When we come across a great tool, we test it out to see if it fits our real estate network and would be a benefit. What is even better than that is when one of our members sends us a message on a tool they have come across that will be a huge benefit to our site. That actually occurred this morning and I would like to thank Ramona Strojevs of Burlington HomeForYou, your connection to Burlington ON real estate.


Ramona Strojevs Comment on FaceBook PositiveRealEstateProfessionals.com Adds Tynt To Its ToolsRamona had came across a great application this morning and then pasted a link to that on my own wall on FaceBook. She had found Tynt. I immediately went to work checking out this new potential tool for PREP. My first instinct was that I really did not want to have a new tool that we would have to go through each and every account to get it added to our members’ sites. My first path was to go to WordPress.org and see if there was a plugin for easy integration. Fortunately, Tynt had been integrated into a plugin called easy tynt.


Copied Content Tynt PositiveRealEstateProfessionals.com Adds Tynt To Its ToolsOnce I got it loaded into PREP, I went to work testing it out. What I found was just extraordinary to say the least. In today’s world where people take content from your site without thinking much about it, this tool will alert you to that very fact. If you look to the left, you will see a screenshot from the plugin that I took this morning. If you can’t make it out, just click on the picture and it will open to original size in another window. Being able to track the content from my site that has been copied and applied elsewhere on the world wide web is a huge benefit. Also being able to tag that content with a license is an even bigger benefit.


SEO Benefits with Tynt PositiveRealEstateProfessionals.com Adds Tynt To Its ToolsWith that said, the benefits do not stop there. Another great feature is the SEO benefits that you can actually track using this new tool. Each and every time that someone copies content from your site, you will get a link back to the original content. The more that this happens, the stronger your content becomes. However, it does not just have a positive effect on your content. It also creates more links to your site. That in itself makes the plugin well worth the time to set it up.


So, let’s talk about setting it up on your PREP account. You can ONLY use this if you have an account that is MAPPED. No sub domains or sub directories can be used. Once you are logged onto your dashboard, follow these instructions:

  1. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu under ‘Post’ in WordPress.

  2. Click on the Easy Tynt settings link in your WordPress settings to configure Easy Tynt. Easy Tynt will not work until this is completed.

  3. Visit http://www.tynt.com and log in or register a new account.

  4. Chose the options you are interested in. I suggest looking at the Attribution Link. We are using the ‘Attribution No Derivatives’ License.

  5. Once everything is setup to your satisfaction, copy the provided “YOUR SCRIPT” code into the Easy Tynt settings in your WordPress dashboard. Hit “Update Options” and you are done!

Now that you have done that, all you need to do is login daily to check your stats. Everything else is done for you. Once again, I would like to thank Ramona for sharing this awesome tool with me this morning.


Positive Real Estate Professionals (PREP) can help you achieve the recognition you and your business deserve through our highly versatile and search engine optimized member websites, lead capture, and visitor friendly layout. If you are a professional who works in the real estate industry or one of the related fields that service the needs of the real estate industry then this real estate network can be just what you need to take your business to the next level. If you have questions or would like to join CLICK HERE.

PositiveRealEstateProfessionals.com Adds Tynt To It’s Tools is a post from: Positive Real Estate Professionals All rights reserved. ©

©2010 Positive Real Estate Professionals. All Rights Reserved.

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Landing Page – Static versus Blog versus Flash

When it comes to landing pages for your site, there are quite a few options. The three main ones that I have encountered are Static, Blog, and Flash. Personally, I hate Flash pages as a landing page, but for the purpose of this article, I am going to keep my personal feelings to myself. With that said, over the last year that our online real estate network has been in existence, we have moved from the Blog Page being front and center to a static page. When we create a new account for our members, a static landing page is standard in our membership fee of $150 per year. So, to get back on track, lets take a look at the three types of landing pages mentioned in this article. A huge advantage to having this type of page is you can actually build a sitemap of your site in a format that is user friendly. When I say “sitemap” I am not referring to a standard sitemap, but instead, an article that links people to the things that they want to find on your site. Also, you can focus on keywords for your site easier.


Lake Arrowhead ~ Above it AllStatic Pages

Typically, a static page is one that remains the same (see image to the right). While you can change the content fairly easily, it usually remains the same. One advantage of this is that the page is cached in the world wide web and typically opens quickly. Static pages can be created easily and saved in databases as html files. The common use for static pages for blog sites is to give the appearance of a CMS (content management system) feel or type of site. This is what is commonly referred to as a website.


Austin Texas Homes and MoreBlog Pages

A blog page is common in sites that are built using WordPress, Blogger, Vox, and others (see image to the right). Blog pages are pages which generates a list of your most recent posts or articles and places them on one page. While all of these platforms have a different layouts and functions, the blog pages are typically set to function in the same manner. Posts are kept in a chronological order that you can click on and go to the individual article. The big disadvantage of having this page front and center is that if you are away for some time and do not post, it is apparent to everyone immediately.


Flash Intro Pages

Flash into pages load animated content first while loading the main content in the background. The main problem with this type of page is that NOT everyone has a Flash Player on their computers. Even though that might sound prehistoric, it is a fact. In the end, if they can’t load it, they can’t see it. While Flash pages can be pretty and can also take the site to another level, if no one can see it, then it is as dumb as having a Picasso and leaving it in the closet. For this very reason I think it is bad to have this as your landing page. Another disadvantage to having flash is when people are using dial up (yes, it still exists) then it takes forever for that page to load. Regardless how people are connecting to the internet, they all want a FAST experience. Flash does not offer that.

In closing, the type of landing page that you chose is basically up to you. Your web site developer should be able to expand on this subject more, but I hope that I have provided enough for you to make an informed decision.

Positive Real Estate Professionals (PREP) can help you achieve the recognition you and your business deserve through our highly versatile and search engine optimized member websites, lead capture, and visitor friendly layout. If you are a professional who works in the real estate industry or one of the related fields that service the needs of the real estate industry then this real estate network can be just what you need to take your business to the next level. If you have questions or would like to join CLICK HERE.

Landing Page – Static versus Blog versus Flash is a post from: Positive Real Estate Professionals All rights reserved. ©

©2010 Positive Real Estate Professionals. All Rights Reserved.

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How To Add Facebook Like Button To Your Site

Connect with WebsitesWhen I logged into Facebook this morning, I was greeted with the picture to the left. I am sure that many of you have already seen this. I am also sure that many started out the same way I did; looking for the path to add the “like” button to your site. With that said, I decide to write a post for all to read and learn. After spending nearly an hour trying to find this, I thought that I would save you all the headaches of tracking down how to install this little tool to your site.

Like ButtonBefore I go into deep detail, I thought I would share what this button can and will do for you. If you look to the right, you will see this button in action on our real estate network. As you can see at this point, not many have used it. Over time, the number will grow and people will be able to share our network with their facebook friends a lot easier. All one needs to do is to click the “Like” button once, and it adds them. Below is an excerpt from the facebook page explaining this a little better:

The Like button enables users to make connections to your pages and share content back to their friends on Facebook with one click. Since the content is hosted by Facebook, the button can display personalized content whether or not the user has logged into your site. For logged-in Facebook users, the button is personalized to highlight friends who have also liked the page.


Like button generatorNow that we have that out of the way, let’s take a look at how we add this neat little tool to our own sites. If you look to the immediate left, you will see the picture of the Like Button Generator. As you can see, I have filled out the fields that I need in order to create this button for our main page. Now, in theory, I could do this for each and every page that I wanted to on PREP, but at some point, you run into overkill. This is one of the reason why we use “sociable” on PREP. It already has Facebook’s share function in it.

Once all the pertinent information is entered, all you need to do is click on get code. Once that is done, it will generate 2 codes; one is an iFrame code and the second is a JavaScript code. Personally PREP stays away from the JavaScript coding as it can lead to some security issues, especially for a multi user platform such as ours. Once this is done, all you need to do is add this into a “Text” widget in your sidebar of your site. If you do not have access to do that, then contact your webmaster and they can instruct you more on this subject.In some cases this can require coding added to the theme itself or some adjustments to certain parameters that can only be done by an admin or webmaster. In our case, each and ever member has the ability to add this on their own site and place it any where on their sidebars without having to contact us. With that said, if you run into issues, please feel free to call us and we can walk you through the process.

OK, now that we have the why and how to out of the way, let’s get down to the where. I thought long and hard of how I could help each and everyone of you get this tool on your site the easiest way. With that said, I decide that I would just iFrame their page into this post. Hence, you will be able to generate your own code right from this article and there will not be a need to bounce around. I hope that you find this both helpful and useful.

Positive Real Estate Professionals (PREP) can help you achieve the recognition you and your business deserve through our highly versatile and search engine optimized member websites, lead capture, and visitor friendly layout. If you are a professional who works in the real estate industry or one of the related fields that service the needs of the real estate industry then this real estate network can be just what you need to take your business to the next level. If you have questions or would like to join CLICK HERE.



How To Add Facebook Like Button To Your Site is a post from: Positive Real Estate Professionals All rights reserved. ©

©2010 Positive Real Estate Professionals. All Rights Reserved.

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SEO for Beginners

SEO for BeginnersIn our faced paced world technology changes very quickly. The face of business and many business models undergo constant change. In the past a professional only had to know how to navigate the world of their profession with little real need to understand other arenas. The internet, its reach, accessibility, and wealth of information have changed the very landscape of business today.

A professional, in any field, must wear many different hats. It is not expected that one be an expert in many different fields but that a professional be proficient in the fields essential to perform their tasks with proper and vigorous effort. To help Positive Real Estate Professionals members and non-members gain a working knowledge of the SEO basics necessary to represent their interests and their clients’ interests on the ever change World Wide Web, PREP admins have decided to offer a SEO for Beginners webinar. For more information and to register for this webinar click HERE or cut and past this link into your browser http://positiverealestateprofessionals.com/products-page/webinars-classes/seo-for-beginners/

SEO for Beginners is a post from: Positive Real Estate Professionals All rights reserved. ©

©2010 Positive Real Estate Professionals. All Rights Reserved.

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Positive Real Estate Professionals adds The Events Calendar

As always, we here at Positive Real Estate Professionals try to stay on top of the latest tools and integrations for our real estate network. Today is no different as we are prepared to offer The Events Calendar to each and every one of our members for FREE. We have tested this events calendar to see how it would integrate with our online real estate network, and frankly Events Calendar 1 Positive Real Estate Professionals adds The Events CalendarI am pleased to announce that it has passed each and every test that I have thrown at it.

Below is the description straight from the plugins page on wordpress:

The Events Calendar plugin enables you to rapidly create and manage events using the post editor. Features include Google Maps integration as well as default templates such as a calendar grid and event list for streamlined one click installation.

Looking to track attendees, sell tickets and more? Go download the Eventbrite for The Events Calendar plugin (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/eventbrite-for-the-events-calendar/). Eventbrite is a free service that provides the full power of a conference ticketing system. This plugin upgrades The Events Calendar with all the basic Eventbrite controls without ever leaving the wordpress post editor. Don’t have an Eventbrite account? No problem, use the following link to set one up: http://www.eventbrite.com/r/simpleevents.

The Events Calendar

  • Manage event details right from your post editor
  • Upcoming Events Widget
  • Provides full template out of the box (month and list view)
  • Extensive template tags for customization
  • MU Compatible
  • Google Maps Integration
  • Posts are automatically moved to the top of the loop on the day of the event
  • Calendar Month view with tooltips
  • Includes support for venue, cost, address, start and end time, google maps link
  • Optional Ticketing With Eventbrite Integration – http://www.eventbrite.com/ – though the Eventbrite for The Events Calendar plugin (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/eventbrite-for-the-events-calendar/).
  • Support for international addresses, time and languages: ** Swedish ** French ** Italian

Upcoming Features

  • Option to disable re-posting of event
  • Ical Feed
  • Improved international features (calendar start day)
  • Option to exclude events from main loop
  • More bug hunting and support (huff puff)
  • Improved error checking and reporting
  • Calendar view widget
  • Reoccuring events
  • Sync with facebook events
  • Saved venues
  • Global event maps
  • Dynamic categories (rather than requiring the use of event)
  • Event subcategories

Now, here is how you can access this neat tool. First, contact our office if you are interested in using this tool as we have to turn it on individually. Then, login to your dashboard and scroll down to the “Settings” and look for “The Events Calendar”. Once there, simply click on it and set your options. When that is done, contact our office for your Events Calendar page to be set up on your navigation bar. We will structure it and then setup the redirection that is required to make the page appear correctly. Once it is done, we will test it to be sure that it works properly.

With that said, here are a few things that I see that will be a HUGE benefit. For any REALTOR® that uses this calendar and lists their open houses, the post will display a Google Map automatically to the listing. This feature is available for everyone that uses this new calendar. Another GREAT benefit to this calendar is it is managed right from your posting screen. This means that all you need to do is go to write a new post just like you normally do, add a prelude, and then simply input the day, time, location, and any other info that is important to this event. The tool will do the rest for you.

If you want to see one being used on our network, simply click here.

Positive Real Estate Professionals (PREP) can help you achieve the recognition you and your business deserve through our highly versatile and search engine optimized member websites, lead capture, and visitor friendly layout. If you are a professional who works in the real estate industry or one of the related fields that service the needs of the real estate industry then this real estate network can be just what you need to take your business to the next level. If you have questions or would like to join CLICK HERE.

Positive Real Estate Professionals adds The Events Calendar is a post from: Positive Real Estate Professionals All rights reserved. ©

©2010 Positive Real Estate Professionals. All Rights Reserved.

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And Now … Tweet Meme

TweetMeme And Now ... Tweet MemeIn addition to this Real Estate Network’s recent migration from Host Monster to Host Gator the admins of PREP have continued to search for tools to help enhance the performance, visitor and member usability, and overall satisfaction with the network as a whole. Just as 8 tracks gave way to cassettes, and cassettes gave way to cd’s, and cd’s gave are in the midst of giving way to iPods and USBs, so must plugins that were once quite popular and useful give way to the next generation. While you were selling houses, inspecting roofs, or pursuing the numerous other ventures that occupy our days, Zipli-Retweet went the way of the cd.

Zipli-Retweet was a very useful plugin for WordPress websites and networks. It allowed a visitor to your blog and/or website to use the enormously popular twitter 56x16 And Now ... Tweet Meme system to share with their friends on Twitter a particularly good, funny, scandalous, or whatever criteria tickled the reader’s fancy post you had written with the click of a button, the zipli-retweet button to be precise. Why you might ask would such a seemingly useful tool be replaced? To answer that we must look at some of the relevant information regarding the plugin. From a high of 112 downloads of the plugin to its current average of <1 a day, the popularity of it has been steadily decreasing. There is also a related stat in the form of its update frequency; it was last updated on 2009-11-12.With that said, many plugin designers recognize the limitations of there creation and abandon them in favor of an entirely new plugin. Please note that I am not attempting to disparage the plugin designer, many of these designers have regular day jobs and create these plugins for free.

Now if you will allow me, let me introduce TweetMeme. This Retweet button retweet And Now ... Tweet Meme is being touted as the latest and greatest available. It can be seen on sites as diverse as break And Now ... Tweet Meme , telegraph And Now ... Tweet Meme, and cnet And Now ... Tweet MemeSo you may be wondering why would the admins of this network go with this plugin? It receives average 4 out of 5 Gold Star And Now ... Tweet Meme user rating. It was last updated on 2010-2-24. It has also been downloaded 225,000+ times including 506 times today.

It has been activated sitewide but still must be setup by each member. From your dashboard, locate the TweetMeme header near the bottom of the left column (Refer to the image to the right). If you hover over it you will get a gray dropdown arrow that you should click on to reveal two options; ‘settings’ and ‘analytics’. Click on settings to setup this button. So how does this affect you as a PREP member? This button should definitely bring more traffic to your website and more traffic definitely means the potential exists for increased business. We would highly recommend that all PREP members utilize this excellent and FREE tool.

Positive Real Estate Professionals (PREP) can help you achieve the recognition you and your business deserve through our highly versatile and search engine optimized member websites, lead capture, and visitor friendly layout. If you are a professional who works in the real estate industry or one of the related fields that service the needs of the real estate industry then this real estate network can be just what you need to take your business to the next level. If you have questions or would like to join CLICK HERE.

Google Buzz

And Now … Tweet Meme is a post from: Positive Real Estate Professionals All rights reserved. ©

©2010 Positive Real Estate Professionals. All Rights Reserved.

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Keyword Stuffing, Just Say No!

Keyword stuffing is the practice of creating ‘blog posts’ or ‘pages’ and literally stuffing it full with as many keywords as possible. A common tactic is to place excessive keywords in the meta SEO of a post or page, behind the images or videos, or repeating them ad nauseum in the body of a post. Stuffing can occur by using either keywords that directly relate or do not relate to the material. Though many individuals and webmasters still practice keyword stuffing, its effectiveness has been reduced because most search engines have dramatically lessened the overall weight given to keywords.

Whether done intentionally or unintentionally, keyword stuffing is considered a ‘black hat’ tactic. In the past keywords were the main things that informed a search engine what a site, page, and/or post was all about. With the changing in algorithms through the years this is no longer the case. In fact many modern search engine algorithms have functions that are designed to discover keyword stuffing as a practice by a website. Penalties for keyword detection are varied, but the most severe I have been informed of is a website being dropped to the bottom of all Google SERPs for six months.

In addition to the possible penalties that may be imposed by the search engines, keyword stuffing can easily be detected by your site’s visitors. If you use your website for business, I would venture to say that it would look less than professional to have the same words or phrases repeated on one of your pages. Keyword stuffing can also make a page virtually unreadable or seem like nonsense to a site visitor. Unintelligible pages, hidden text, and other deceptive practices also cannot say a lot positive about any profession where ethics is important.

In a nutshell, search engines no longer weigh keywords as they once did. Keyword stuffing is less than professional. There are more effective and ethical ways to achieve great SEO and SERPs.

Keyword Stuffing, Just Say No! is a post from: Positive Real Estate Professionals All rights reserved. ©

©2010 Positive Real Estate Professionals. All Rights Reserved.

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Siloing Is Smart Site Architecture

If you have never heard of the term siloing don’t feel bad, many web developers and most of the casual computer using public hasn’t.  Siloing is a common term among web developers that is used to describe a type of website architecture. Siloing is a linking strategy whose goal is to allow for multiple focuses on one website without diluting through the cross linking of subject matter. For the purpose of this post I am only going to illustrate Virtual Silos; there is also a Directory Siloing method that is accomplished very differently. If you have questions, please feel free to ask them in the comment section of this blog.

What is meant by ‘multiple focuses’?

Most websites have numerous topics that are covered by both static webpages and blog posts. Usually these topics are not separated but are jumbled together. There is a school of thought that says this jumble does not help your website’s rankings and in fact dilutes it.

How are ‘multiple focuses’ created for static pages?

Many website owners already create multiple focuses to some extent using multi-level navigation tabs. Siloing allows a website owner to organize their site’s static pages by using the ‘parent’ and ‘child’ hierarchy. The real benefit of this is to assist the search engines in indexing your site’s static page content. For example, if your site is about dogs but you have a lot of specialized information on various breeds you could create a focus (silo) for the various ‘dog breeds’. At the same time, you might create silos that focus on ‘travel requirements for dogs’, ‘various food options for dogs’, etc. The overarching or ‘meta’ focus of the site is dogs and this should be made clear on the landing page or about page. It is important that on this landing page the other major focuses of the website not only get mentioned but linked; this is in addition to the navigation tabs found on most sites. This could easily be accomplished on our dog website example through mentioning and linking your focuses, ‘dog breeds’, ‘travel requirements for dogs’, ‘various food options for dogs’, etc, in the text of the landing page.

Here is an easy to follow hierarchy of a narrowing focus for our dog website example:

Dogs

Dog Breeds

Afghan Hound

Airedale Terrier

Akita

etc.

Travel Requirements for Dogs

Various Food Options for Dogs

How is siloing accomplished for blog posts?

Just as with webpages, many website owners already create limited silos with their blog posts by putting related articles in the same categories. To avoid the jumble and create the most efficient silos for the search engines, it is best to have some categories dedicated to certain topics. In our example, a post you write about ‘common hip problems experienced by Afghan Hounds’ would go in a category dedicated to Afghan Hounds. This would also be appropriate for the ‘Dog Breeds’ category though it would help to create a cross linked jumble if place in the ‘Travel Requirements For Dogs’ category.

Are There Benefits To Further Narrowing Your Website’s Focuses?

The answer to this is yes…within reason. While more narrowly focusing a website might benefit site visitors and will benefit both SEO and SERPs, many web developers believe that you should not create a focus more than two steps beyond the site’s overarching focus; this should of course be tailored to your individual website.

One word of caution, do not break your existing links!

Positive Real Estate Professionals (PREP) can help you achieve the recognition you and your business deserve through our highly versatile and search engine optimized member websites, lead capture, and visitor friendly layout. If you are a professional who works in the real estate industry or one of the related fields that service the needs of the real estate industry then this real estate network can be just what you need to take your business to the next level. If you have questions or would like to join CLICK HERE.

Siloing Is Smart Site Architecture is a post from: Positive Real Estate Professionals All rights reserved. ©

©2010 Positive Real Estate Professionals. All Rights Reserved.

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