Buried near the end of Bill Gassett's post on SEO and business cards is a gem, suggesting that buyers and sellers check out their agent by googling them. If they can't market themselves, how will they market your property? He says there should be several pages of links to the agent.
Compare agents - if you're interviewing 3 agents, google each one of them and compare the results.
You might also want to google your neighborhood or your condo building and see what comes up. Don't bother with the general terms - i.e., "San Francisco real estate" - they are much too broad and don't relate to the niche marketing that's more important.
Sharon-great suggestion...it's also a good idea to Google yourself every so often so that you know what your potential customers are or are not finding out about you!
LaShawn - you're right. The easiest way to go that is to set up a Google Alert for your name. I've set up Google Alerts for my name, my competitors, favorite neighborhoods and condo buildings, my team members. Great info.
Sharon - what would we do without Bill?? We'd be lost in Googleland! I always tell people to google me. I also google my clients!
Sharon - I recommend this to potential listing clients all the time. I also shwo them my Google rankings, as well as the Google rankls for the lsitings that I have. They are always on page 1.
Like Linda, I always Google clients, and tell them to Google me (buyers or sellers).
Jeff
Thanks for the pointer. I may suggest to a client to Google the other agent competing with us and see who wins!
I've been pushing the idea of an online presence to every potential client, especially since most of them find me that way! Never hurts to ask if your competition has the same amount of "juice".
Good Grief! If they Google me they'll think I'm a dominatrix porn star! If any of my clients read your blog posts, I am toast!
Not sure where I came up with this tip, but I've been using it very successfully for a few months now. Lucky for me, I don't have much competition with my name. (I feel for you Patricia!)
Sharon, You always have such good advice! I love it when at a listing and they have a computer on, and one of the kids googles me. Oh so impressive.
Just had a call tonight, asking about my marketing. My suggestion...google me and call me in the morning. And by the way, they found me on the internet.
Hi Sharon, I read that and had intended to google myself and forgot. I guess I show up, I wouldn't be afraid to do that. Usually my presentation does the job but will check this out and see what happens. Thanks for the reminder. I had intended to do this and forgot,lol
Sharon,
Before I started blogging I never really had any web presence..just never wanted to pay for it and take the chance of not being happy with the service. Now I'm grateful because most agents in my area pay for it or don't have it at all...they don't even take advantage of it either.
Hi Sharon - Thanks for the link love :) I like your idea about Googling the neighbrohood as well. As you have seen from my posts I do an aweful lot of marketing on my listings which will mention the neighborhood it is located in but I really need to start developing some neighborhood profiles. These kind of post would be highly indexed and would be great for business!
Ya know, I may have to go Google myself first! I have when sending out referrals lately done that with the referring agent.
Jeff - we always google clients, too. It's important to know who you're dealing with.
Mindy & Jay - absolutely. Encourage them to compare.
Lisa - yes, there's a big difference between putting something out on the internet and having it found.
Patricia - the real you is much more fascinating!
Debbie -you're lucky not to share your name.
Margaret - I love your phrases. Google me and call me in the morning! I've also used "google me" to insistent SEO salespeople.
William - after meeting you and hearing/seeing your presentation I don't know how anyone would turn you down.
Neal -isn't blogging wonderful?
Bill - and then of course you'd link to all your wonderful neighborhood posts from your listing posts.
Jeremy - me, too. If I don't know an agent, after I've found them in the CRS directory or such, then I google them, before ever making the first contact.
Amazing how google has become part of our lives.
Linda - we have such great people as leaders here on Active Rain - how wonderful that they're so sharing.
Sharon, this is a good point. I ask the seller today on a listing appointment to google me and let me know what they find.
I google my name about once a month to see what comes up. Sadly there is another me out there that likes to have a potty mouth, so I tell clients that she is not me. :)
Sharon - Exactly....a great SEO practice that will help give strength to these posts :)
Frank - it's a great suggestion for those of us who do have a significant presence on google.
Jennifer - why wait and do it once a month? Set up a google alert and you'll get an e-mail whenever you appear.
Bill - you always have such great additions!
How so very true. I've started telling people just to Google me, if they lose my card, info, etc. 6 of the top 10 are me, and 7 of top 20 are me. I'm not hard to find! Have a great day!