Facebook Marketing for Real Estate Agents: 8 Facts You Need to Know

Not sure if you have time for Facebook? Make time - the reward is worth the investment.

Facebook continues to be the best social medium to use for real estate marketing purposes. Other platforms have their perks, but if you’re looking to grow your business through social media marketing, you should be focusing on Facebook.

There are dozens of ways to use Facebook to grow your network and build your real estate brand. If you’re just getting started, try a few of these social to-dos:

Use your personal profile to connect with past clients and prospects
Promote your listings and open houses
Post on your wall and ask friends and family in your area for referrals
Add yourself to Facebook real estate directories
Use Facebook graph search to find new leads in your extended network

If you haven't started yet - don't hesitate! Now’s the time - and here’s why:

1. FACT:

Facebook has 1.44 billion monthly active users worldwide.

WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU:

“Monthly active users” refers to the number of people logging in to their account on a monthly basis. The 15% growth rate proves that any rumors about it going away or becoming obsolete as a marketing tool are merely myths at this point in time.

2. FACT:

50% of active Facebook users log in daily.

WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU:

This stat is huge. When you consider the massive numbers of total active users, a 48% daily interaction means Facebook is no longer just a hobby for users – it’s become a habit. That means you have access to a large, engaged audience for your marketing efforts.

3. FACT:

Facebook has 1.25 billion active mobile users – a number that has increased 34% year over year.

WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU:

Mobile growth is astounding – it’s actually grown even faster than the Internet did during the “dot-com” boom. Being able to reach consumers on the go is a great asset to any real estate marketing strategy.

4. FACT:

Users age 25-40 make up 29.7% of users – making it the most common age demographic.

WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU:

This is the prime target demographic for first- and second-time home buyers, and you have an opportunity to engage these key consumers on Facebook.

5. FACT:

Engagement is 18% higher on Thursdays and Fridays.

WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU:

If you’re going to post questions or content that requires engagement, consider this stat to optimize your marketing results.

6. FACT:

More than 30 billion pieces of content are being shared on Facebook each month and an average Facebook user shares 90 pieces of content each month.

WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU:

This is another stat that verifies the fact that people are not only logging into Facebook, but they are actively engaging with it – posting, liking, commenting and more.

7. FACT:

83% of marketers indicate that social media is important for their business.

WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU:

Marketers get it – and, as a real estate agent, so should you. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to be engaged via social media. Your competition is out there; don’t let them steal your spotlight.

8. FACT:

80% of social network users prefer to connect to brands through Facebook.

WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU:

If you haven’t incorporated social media marketing into your business yet but you’re thinking about it – consider starting with Facebook. They’ve created the best atmosphere for brands wanting to promote their services and interact with consumers.

As you can see - Facebook provides huge opportunity when it comes to effective marketing for real estate agents. Now it's time to start planning your social marketing strategy. 

CONTACT ME for FACEBOOK MARKETING SERVICES for REAL ESTATE AGENTS. 

Advantages of Online / Digital Banking

With banking process going digital, a mere click has replaced all the hassles of physical visits, standing in queues and long waits. 

It has been a long journey. From the days when money transfer would take a fortnight or a week to today when money transfer, withdrawal, seeking loan or any other banking recruitment, has become a game or clicks and minutes. The small transaction of some thousands or money transfer of lakhs that used to previously take minimum 48 to 72 hours now can be done in minutes with the advent of technology; things have become way smarter and smoother. Long gone the days of standing in queues or rushing to banks before the lunch break or reaching bank by 4 PM.

Online Banking has allowed one to bypass bank lines. One can conduct the banking transactions safely and securely without leaving the comfort of one’s home. Online Banking also gives one around the clock access to your CD, savings, or checking accounts. Plus, one can have access to online statement. One can monitor one’s transaction and make sure that the balance information is correct. This is great for people who like to use their debit card but too lazy to use their check register.

Now the world has come closer with the technological leap and so has the process of banking to its customers. There was a time when one had to reschedule doctor’s appointment or send a driver to pick kids from school, because of morning would be dedicated for the bank work. But digital banking has freed one and all from such hassle. Now everything is just a click away and banking has become mobile. From the corner of the world be it Singapore or Seychelles or Surendranagar or Shyamlaji, one can manage to operate his/her account 24/7 round the clock. 

At the time of inception there were some security threats and many users were reluctant to operate their account using net banking. But gradually such threats have been dealt with; now net banking has become easy, safe and rapid. Major portion of India’s population today manage their account using means of digital banking.

The major advantage of Online Banking is, It has lessened the need of carrying large amount of cash around and the attention that is needed to keep that cash safe whether you are travelling, or on a holiday. The fuss of staying attended to your cash when holidaying abroad has become outdated with Online Banking coming into the picture. Features like OTP facility, 3D secure gates, online account password, third party involvement, gateway payment window and such thick security thresholds have thrown out the security threats. From a college going student to middle-aged officer or a senior citizen pensioner, digital banking has taken over all of them.

The World Wide Web has permeated virtually every aspect of modern life. If one has access to a computer with and Internet connection, almost limitless amounts of banking and financial transaction are at one’s fingertips.  

YouTube Statistics To Blow Your Mind

Source - http://www.designinfographics.com/social-media-infographics/youtube-statistics-to-blow-your-mind

10 Most Essential On Page SEO Factors

Search and e-mail are the top two Internet activities – Search Engine Land.

You have a question or query, what will you do? You enter this question or query in most popular search engine like Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. (to get answer) and hit the search button. Now you get a list of results relevant to your query. Have you ever wondered why a number of these websites rank higher than others? It is because of SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

What is Search Engine Optimization? 

SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” It is the process of getting traffic from the “free,” “organic,” “editorial” or “natural” search results on search engines.

- Search Engine Land

If you can do proper on-page optimization for your website you can not only rank well in a search engine but also can increase the overall readability of your website for your visitors.

- Search Engine Journal


Below I have tried to summarize some of the most important on-page optimization factors for you.

1. Content of Page 

This is most vital on page SEO factor. A website with good quality content will become even higher with SEO. Search engines don’t like duplicate content as a result of it's not good for visitors.

Content should be original which provide valuable info to users. Human Readers First!! Deliver the relevant content to right users, continuously keep in mind – SEO regarding User expertise (UX). So, simply concentrate on users! individuals need to browse the content that satisfies their question.

Also read: Google Algorithm Updates 

2. Keywords Research 

It all begins with words typed into a search box.

Keyword research is one of the most important, valuable, and high return activities in the search marketing field. Ranking for the right keywords can make or break your website. By researching your market's keyword demand, you can not only learn which terms and phrases to target with SEO, but also learn more about your customers as a whole.

It's not always about getting visitors to your site, but about getting the right kind of visitors. The usefulness of this intelligence cannot be overstated; with keyword research you can predict shifts in demand, respond to changing market conditions, and produce the products, services, and content that web searchers are actively seeking. In the history of marketing, there has never been such a low barrier to entry in understanding the motivations of consumers in virtually any niche.

- Moz

Avoid keyword stuffing; this is not good for your website. Try to keep your keyword density to 3-5%.

3. Title Tag 

The title element of a web page is meant to be an accurate and concise description of a page's content. This element is critical to both user experience and search engine optimization. It creates value in three specific areas: relevancy, browsing, and in the search engine results pages.

- Moz

Length of title should be 55 to 60 characters

Include your primary and secondary keywords in web page

Sample:

  • Primary Keyword, Secondary Keyword | Website Name 
  • Website Name | Primary Keyword, Secondary Keyword

4. URL Structure 

A URL is human-readable text that was designed to replace the numbers (IP addresses) that computers use to communicate with servers. They also identify the file structure on the given website.

URLs should:

  • Use hyphens to separate words when necessary for readability. They should not use underscores, spaces, or any other characters to separate words. Overuse of hyphens in URLs can be seen as spammy, so it’s best to use caution and limit hyphen use in URLs when possible.
  • Never be longer than 2,048 characters; otherwise Internet Explorer won't be able to load the page.
  • Avoid the use of parameters, if possible. If parameters need to be used, they should be limited to two or less.

Read: 15 SEO Best Practices for Structuring URLs

5. Images

Images not only add life to a website, they also make it convert better. People no longer want to browse a website – they want to experience it. Using the right images can boost your site’s conversions and get you to connect better with your target audience.

- Kissmetrics 

Use ALT tag and description to describe the image, this helps search engine to understand the image. By using Alt tags, crawlers index the information provided by the images.

6. Page Speed

Page speed is a measurement of how fast the content on your page loads.

Page speed is often confused with "site speed," which is actually the page speed for a sample of page views on a site. Page speed can be described in either "page load time" (the time it takes to fully display the content on a specific page) or "time to first byte" (how long it takes for your browser to receive the first byte of information from the web server).

No matter how you measure it, a faster page speed is better. Many people have found that faster pages both rank and convert better.

- Moz

7. Internal Linking 

Internal Links are hyperlinks that point at (target) the same domain as the domain that the link exists on (source). In layman's terms, an internal link is one that points to another page on the same website.

- Moz

Try to use some meaningful set of phrases based on targeted keywords instead of using generic words “Click Here.” For instance, “How to Use Internal Linking to Improve Your Website's SEO” is more effective than “Click Here to Learn More”.

8. Robots.txt

The robots exclusion protocol (REP), or robots.txt is a text file webmasters create to instruct robots (typically search engine robots) how to crawl and index pages on their website.

- Moz

9. Google Authorship

This is at its early stage but using this, your ranking may change. So you have to create a Google+ account & publish relevant content on the web with your profile. Your ranking depending on how many followers you have.

10. Social

In modern SEO, social media plays a key role to get traffic, good ranking and customers. SEO also depends on social activities. So Be Smart, Be Social! Create profiles and business pages or channels on different social media platforms – Facebook, Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube.

If I've missed any important on-page factor that you love or you have any queries, please let me know what they are by leaving a comment below.

10 SEO Tools to Analyze Your Website Like Google Does


Learn about 10 tools that can help you see your website the way Google's algorithm does so you can improve your SEO.

1) Google Webmaster Tools

Cost: Free

Also See : Things You Should be Doing in Google Analytics

2) Check My Links

Cost: Free

3) Moz Pro Tools

Cost: Free 30-day trial, then paid plans from $99/mo - $599/mo

4) SEO Report Card

Cost: Free

5) HubSpot's Website Grader

Cost: Free

6) Woorank

Cost: Free 14-day trial, then $49/mo for a Pro Plan or $149/mo for a Premium Plan

7) Screaming Frog SEO Spider

Cost: The Screaming Frog SEO Spider LITE version is free (with limitations*), and the paid plan is $160/year

8) Found's SEO Audit Tool

Cost: Free

9) Remove'em

Cost: $249 per domain or a subscription option starting at $99/mo

10) Varvy's SEO Overview Tool

Cost: Free

Source: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33164/6-SEO-Tools-to-Analyze-Your-Site-Like-Google-Does.aspx

Google Releases Panda 4.2 & You Didn't Notice

Originally posted by Barry Schwartz 
As I announced last night at Search Engine Land, Google has released Panda 4.2 after being without a Google Panda refresh for about 10 months.
The most interesting thing about this Panda refresh was that virtually no one noticed. Really, no one. I track the forums heavily, no one this weekend noticed.

Google told me on the record that the Panda refresh began this weekend, around Saturday and is rolling out incredibly slowly. It can take up months to fully roll out and even on a site by site basis, not all of your pages may pick up on the roll out for months. This does not mean the algorithm is page-by-page basis, it is a site-wide algorithm, I've confirmed that too when I heard about the roll out being slowly pushed on a page by page basis.
Google wouldn't tell me why it was going to be such a slow roll out, I asked, but they didn't want to say much about it.
One point to add, even though it is rolling out slowly, making changes to your site now, won't make a difference with Panda 4.2. Of course, it may help when Google pushes Panda 4.3, whenever that might be.
That being said, I can say for sure, that this site does seem to see an uptick in Google organic traffic since this weekend. Yes, this site was hit by the Panda 4.1 update on September 25, 2014. But now, it seems that there is a significant recovery happening since 4.2 released this weekend.
Here is my graph (click to enlarge):

I'll keep you all posted on how this site does over time as this Panda rollout impacts more of the pages on this site.
Google also told me that this Panda refresh impacted about 2-3% of queries, so it was relatively small.
The last Panda shift we saw, unofficially was in October 2014. So we are due an update, however, many folks are not happy it will take months to fully roll out.
Either way, Google did tell me, without me even asking them, that there was a Panda refresh this weekend. This is what we've been waiting for weeks and weeks and it is finally here.
For more on our Panda coverage, see our Google Panda section.

Best Practices and Tips for Content Curation on Social Media


Content Curation allows you to share what you’re reading with your audience, establishes you as a thought leader in your industry, and helps you build relationships with the people whose content you share. It’s a great way to build up industry knowledge, establish yourself as a source for valuable information, and create meaningful relationships in the social sphere with other influencers who engage with and find your content helpful.

How do you curate content? What should you look for in the content you choose to share?

When you’re thinking about curating content, the biggest thing you want to keep in mind is how useful and applicable the content will be to your audience. This really boils down to knowing your audience well enough to gauge what types of information they might be interested in. Keep in mind that the content you post is also a representation of you, which means that what you post builds trust, so posting things that are of value will build that trust from your audience.

Want to Read more? Click Here

Reasons to Combine Search Engine and Social Media


58% of consumers go to search engines to search for something online, and 40% would then seek further decision making advice from family and friends on social media. All in all, about 48% of consumers are using some combination of search and social media to help them in their purchasing decision.

Therefore it is only practical for business owners and digital marketers to combine search and social media. By combining proven search engine optimization strategies with the enhanced and continuously evolving marketing strength of social media any kind of business can achieve far better results than by using each on its own.

Digital Marketing Tips for Restaurant & Hotel Business Owners

In this digital era, most of business owners do their marketing online since it's quick, affordable and interactive. If you’re in a business of restaurant and would like to be one step earlier than your competitors, here’s a list of digital marketing tips and concepts to catch the attention of more customers and keep your business blooming.

1. Build A Website For Your Restaurant Business
2. Blog About Your Amazing Restaurant
3. Get Your Content Ready
4. Build A Facebook Business Page & Manage Accurately
5. Promote Your Brand on Instagram, Pinterest, Google+, Youtube, And Twitter
6. List Your Restaurant on Local Business Directories
7. Search Engine Optimization Your Restaurant Website
8. Improve Your Conversion By Maximizing Calls-To Action
9. Know Your Competition
10. Manage Online Reputation
11. Send Email Newsletter And Greetings

If you are restaurant owner or having hotel website and need SEO, Social Media Optimization and Digital Marketing services, then Contact Me.

Things You Should be Doing in Google Analytics

Creating More Than One View : Having more than one view allows you to experiment with your Google Analytics data without having the fear of data loss.


Read details at


Event Tracking: Event tracking allows you to track actions whether or not a URL change is recorded. Examples include clicking on links; email addresses, social media icons, or file downloads.


Read details at


Using the Benchmarking Report: Benchmarking is an extremely valuable report since it tells you how your metrics are stacked up against others in the industry. It lets you compare and understand how each of your channels is performing compared to the industry standard.


Read details at


Using UTM Parameters to Track Campaign: UTM parameters are simply tags that you add to a URL.

When someone clicks on a URL with UTM parameters, those tags are sent back to your Google Analytics for tracking.


Read details at


Integrating Google Webmaster Account: Many of us are not in a habit of looking at our Google Webmaster Account on a regular basis. Integrating the same via Google Analytics once helps you look at the search queries.


Read details at


Tracking Percentage of Mobile Users


Read details at


Contact Me for Google Analytic & Webmaster Setup, Search Engine Optimization services.

Actionable Onpage SEO Tips for Ecommerce Website


Research, Research and Research (Keyword Research)
Write Killer Meta Tags (Title and Meta Description)
Create Easy to Access Site Navigation
Create Unique Description for Each Category & Product
Design Product Page with All Necessary Features (Social Sharing, Image, Text, Videos)
Interlink Page with Each Other Strategically, Don’t Avoid Internal Linking
Keep Eyes on Dynamic Pages and Solve It Whenever Required
Watch Broken Link Periodically and Remove It Whenever Required
Go with Mobile
Use Rich Snippet
Handle Out of Stock Page Strategically
For Ecommerce, Site Secure is Must
Leverage User Generated Content (Reviews)
Update Sitemap Periodically

Contact Me for Ecommerce SEO services.

Source: http://thenextscoop.com/13-actionable-onpage-seo-tips-for-ecommerce-website/

Google rebrands Webmaster Tools as ‘Google Search Console’ to target ‘everyone who cares about Search’

For nearly ten years, Google Webmaster Tools has provided users with constantly evolving tools and metrics to help make fantastic websites that our systems love showing in Google Search. In the past year, we sought to learn more about you, the loyal users of Google Webmaster Tools: we wanted to understand your role and goals in order to make our product more useful to you.

It turns out that the traditional idea of the “webmaster” reflects only some of you. We have all kinds of Webmaster Tools fans: hobbyists, small business owners, SEO experts, marketers, programmers, designers, app developers, and, of course, webmasters as well. What you all share is a desire to make your work available online, and to make it findable through Google Search. So, to make sure that our product includes everyone who cares about Search, we've decided to rebrand Google Webmaster Tools as Google Search Console.

We're looking forward to an exciting future with Google Search Console, and hope to see users of all types—including webmasters—drop by and use our service to diagnose and improve the visibility of their content in search. We'll be rolling out the updated branding across the product over the coming weeks, so stay tuned.

Just come over to g.co/SearchConsole and get started!

Source:- http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.in/2015/05/announcing-google-search-console-new.html 

Five Ways to Strengthen Engagement on Google+


#1: Follow the Formula

If your intent is to encourage engagement, writing a post that is formatted properly for Google+ is practically formulaic:

1. Create a post title that is no more than 40 characters long and use asterisks at each end to make it bold.
2. Summarize the post so the reader knows what to expect. Keep your summary close to 159 characters and you’ll have exactly three lines of text, which ensures that most people will see the whole thing without having to click Read More.
3. Include a link to the destination post if you’re using an image or video.
4. Add some personal insight (in your brand’s voice) to create a connection with the reader. Ask a question or include a call to action to help boost your engagement.
5. Add three to five hashtags to improve discovery in Google+ and Google search.

#2: Stay On-Topic

#3: Share Business Posts From Personal Pages

The first step is to share your initial post to the company Google+ page, then share that Google+ update from your personal Google+ page (and ask your team to do the same). You could also link directly to the post from your personal page if you prefer.

#4: Post Third-Party Content

It’s OK to link to other blogs or share other people’s posts. In fact, a good rule of thumb is to provide 80% content that is not promotional in nature (including content from someone else) and 20% that speaks to what you do.

Add your own insights or opinions to the third-party content you share to increase your authority, as well as the chance that others will take the time to read what you share and engage with you.

#5: Track Standard and Unique Metrics

When you know what moves the needle for your business, it’s easier to measure the metrics that relate to it.

As you analyze metrics from the Google+ dashboard, you might also want to look at the momentum in metrics like the four below to determine whether your social media efforts are working. As you note trends in these metrics, you can tweak your tactics as necessary.

Source of Content: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-improve-your-google-plus-marketing/

6 Social Media Monitoring Tools to Track Your Brand


#1: Social Mention

Social Mention is an excellent way to learn about brand mentions and interactions in an easy-to-digest visual format.

#2: Mention

Mention is one of the newer tools that replaced Google Alerts. (Google Alerts would send emails notifying you whenever a keyword or phrase you specified was cited online.)

#3: Talkwalker

Use Talkwalker Alerts to set up a search query for your keyword or phrase. Narrow the returned data by result type, language, frequency and quantity.

#4: Topsy

Topsy is a search engine that lets you monitor brand mentions across the web, with a focus on social insights from top conversations online. Topsy’s database is in real time, and it measures sentiment and provides analytics.

#5: Hootsuite

Perhaps the easiest and most common brand-conversation monitor is Hootsuite. It helps you keep on top of chatter in real time on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

#6: PinAlerts

PinAlerts is more of a Pinterest alert system than a traditional brand monitoring platform. It monitors links to pins from your website, and notifies you via email when someone pins from your site.

Source: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/6-social-media-monitoring-tools/ 

8 Tools For Google Penalty Recovery

Google penalties can be a major setback, but regardless of why your site gets hit, it’s vital that you take quick and aggressive action to recover your organic search rankings.

If your site has been penalized, don’t panic! With the right tools and a thorough process, you can get back in the game and continue to excel in SERPs. These tools for penalty recovery can help you get out — and stay out — of the Google penalty box.

1. Fetch As Google
2. Screaming Frog Web Crawler
3. Majestic SEO
4. Ahrefs
5. Monitor Backlinks
6. Copyscape
7. Moz’s Google Algorithm Change History
8. Google Webmaster Tools

Source of content: http://searchengineland.com/8-tools-google-penalty-recovery-216649 

11 Tactics to Get More Click-Throughs from Social Media

Tactic #1: Twitter users love pictures
Tactic #2: Space out your updates
Tactic #3: Only share the best content
Tactic #4: Follow the 80/20 rule
Tactic #5: Place your links near the beginning of your social posts
Tactic #6: Don’t post on Facebook unless you include a photo
Tactic #7: Don’t forget to use #hashtags
Tactic #8: Post when your fans and followers are online
Tactic #9: Be short and to the point
Tactic #10: Be careful which words you use
Tactic #11: Test, test, and test some more

See details at http://www.quicksprout.com/2015/03/02/11-tactics-to-get-more-click-throughs-from-social-media/ 

15 SEO Best Practices for Structuring URLs


#1: Whenever possible, use a single domain & subdomain
#2: The more readable by human beings, the better
#3: Keywords in URLs: still a good thing
#4: Multiple URLs serving the same content? Canonicalize 'em!
#5: Exclude dynamic parameters when possible
#6: Shorter > longer
#7: Match URLs to titles most of the time (when it makes sense)
#8: Including stop words isn't necessary
#9: Remove/control for unwieldy punctuation characters
#10: Limit redirection hops to two or fewer
#11: Fewer folders is generally better
#12: Avoid hashes in URLs that create separate/unique content
#13: Be wary of case sensitivity
#14: Hyphens and underscores are preferred word separators
#15: Keyword stuffing and repetition are pointless and make your site look spammy

See details at http://moz.com/blog/15-seo-best-practices-for-structuring-urls

5 Things to Think About When Considering the Impact of Social on SEO

1. Social Links May or May Not Boost Your Search Rank
2. Social Media Profiles Rank in Search Engines
3. Social Media Channels Are Search Engines, Too
4. Not Now Doesn't Mean Not Ever
5. Don’t Forget Bing

See details at https://blog.kissmetrics.com/social-media-and-seo/