We can’t say it enough: Blogging is a great way to interact with your site visitors, easily create fresh content and increase your search engine rankings. Realzi real estate websites are already designed to rank highly and generate leads, but blogging will give you even more of an edge over your competition. Here are some tips for getting the most out of your real estate blog:

• Post at least once per week.
• Your blog posts should be around 300-600 words, and they should focus on one thing at a time, for SEO and readability reasons. For instance, you could do one blog post on Downtown Austin condos. Other topic ideas: Westlake real estate, a new and exciting listing, and even a quick story about how you got started as a real estate agent.
• Related to the tip above, choose one keyphrase (like “downtown Austin condos” or “Austin real estate”). Use it a few times throughout your post and link one instance of it to a relevant page of your site.
• When possible, use that keyphrase in the title of the blog post (“The 5 Coolest Downtown Austin Condos”). This is great for Google, since you’ll not only have the keyphrase in your title, but it will become the post’s URL. These are two important factors in determining relevance when it comes to SEO.
• Create and use relevant categories for your posts. The URL of each of your blog post should be set up to include the category of the post. Ever seen a blog post URL that looks something like examplesite.com/Uncategorized/name-of-post? You don’t want that “Uncategorized” in there — it’s a missed opportunity for site organization and SEO. Be sure to create and use good categories. For example, you may want to choose the category “Austin Condos,” “78701,” or “Downtown Austin” for that downtown Austin condos post. Each post should only have one category.
• Make it easy for leads to get in contact with you. This is especially important if you’re writing about a new listing. You may want to include a sentence at the end of your post that tells your readers how to best get in contact with you. Link to your Contact page and/or provide your phone number (“Want to see this home? Contact me online, or call me at…”).
• Spread the word! Once your post is up, tell people about it. You can use social media sites like Digg, Delicious, Facebook and Twitter.

We hope this helps you get the most out of your real estate blog. Good luck!

If you’re a Realtor, you have to make sure you have a solid web presence. And that means getting a powerful real estate website that allows your clients to easily search for homes and view listings. A Realzi real estate website will do this — and it’ll make your website easily found by people searching for homes online.

There are so many buyers using the internet to search for homes. Think about it: When you buy a car, a new television or want to go see a movie, do you go online first to check reviews and find out more information? Chances are that you do every time because it’s just so fast and easy, and there’s a ton of information. Home buyers are using the internet to search for homes, and if they can’t find your website, that’s a missed opportunity for you.

So get competitive and get a real estate website that does it all. Realzi real estate websites are branded with your logo, name, contact information, company colors and more. They enable users to search MLS listings for free, even allowing them to search by keyword like “oak trees” and “boat dock.” Map Search, keyword search and other features are all very user-friendly. Since Realzi real estate websites are search engine optimized, that means they’re made to rank highly in search engines. So when someone searches an MLS number or address of a home for sale, they’ll be able to find your site.

In today’s competitive market, a powerful online presence is key to success and is absolutely necessary for getting a consistent stream of new leads. With a Realzi search engine optimized real estate website, you get more clients and sell more homes. Find out more information about how you can take your web presence to the next level with a Realzi site: contact us. Also, feel free to view live implementations to get an idea of what Realzi can do for you.

Realzi is proud to announce the rollout of its new 1.5 release. Bigger and better than before, this release allows Realzi real estate websites to rank highly for MLS numbers, giving them even more of an edge over competing real estate websites.

What’s so important about ranking highly for MLS numbers? Simple: With more and more people using Smart phones like Blackberrys and iPhones — phones that can connect to the Internet — this means that should a prospective home buyer with a Smart phone drive by a home for sale, they could use their phone to quickly search Google for the MLS number.

While high search engine rankings are essential when it comes to staying competitive in the real estate market, it’s even more important for people search the Internet on their phones, as they are likely not going to continue looking at more than the first page of search results.

This is yet another powerful aspect of Realzi, your secret weapon in building a consistent stream of new business. Other things that make Realzi so impressive are the user-friendly Map Search, Quick Search and the ability to search by keyword. Home buyers can actually type in a keyword like “elevator,” “oak trees” or “dock” and will see relevant listings.

If you’re a broker or agent who is interested in getting a well-constructed, search engine optimized MLS website, contact Realzi.

A new “Real Estate 2.0″ website has been launched for the Austin Real Estate Market. Powered by Realzi, the new site featuring well known Austin Realtor Gary Dolch makes searching for real estate fast, easy and intuitive for the realtor. Features that visitors can take advantage of include saved searches, send to friend, send to realtor, ask a question, schedule a viewing, RSS feeds and email updates when a new property matches a saved search criteria.

Realzi benefits for the realtor include the ability to capture and convert more leads. Real estate agents running Realzi can take action on visitor events so they can cater to their customers better than ever before. Also, the internet marketing features built into Realzi are unmatched. Realzi has unique built in search marketing and search engine optimization features found nowhere else. Realzi also offers unsurpassed social media features such as RSS syndication, integration into Facebook, integration into Twitter, listings integrated into WordPress blogs, auto-generated Craigslist property “posters” and many, many others.

Real Estate Brokers and agents interested in the Realzi search engine optimized IDX should visit the main site at http://www.realzi.com. House hunters looking for some great Austin Real Estate should visit Gary’s website at http://austin.realzi.com.

Why Improving Your Real Estate Website Isn’t Optional

Real estate websites are not once-and-you’re-done kinds of projects. Just like your business, your real estate website should be constantly evolving and improving, reflecting your growth and the way your real estate business is adapting to market conditions.

Your real estate website is the public face of your business. As more and more home buyers and sellers turn to the internet for real estate information – leaving classified ads and other media behind – you should be aware of the potential of your website to catalyze and attract new clients.

Our friend, an Austin realtor, was satisfied with using his real estate website solely as a fancy brochure. “My clients know how to find my real estate office,” he told us. “And my website is the first listing I see when I Google my name!”

We had a few real estate website questions for him, though:

• Do you want to attract clients who haven’t heard of you?
• Do you know that your competitors are at the top of the Google listings for things like MLS numbers, house addresses and “buy an Austin home”?
• Did you know that 87% of home buyers use the internet to search for a home – more than use a real estate agent?*
• Did you know that Google positions are affected by seniority – that, once a real estate website ranks well for something, it will continue to rank better than an identical but newer real estate website?
• Are you happy with relying solely on word of mouth for the growth of your real estate business?
• Are you happy with your real estate website being a sunk cost instead of a revenue generator?
• Did you know that local metropolitan MLS websites – also called IDX websites – are used by 60% of internet home buyers, easily beating Realtor.com (48%)?

* Source: 2008 National Association of Realtors® Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers.

Why Improving Your Real Estate Website Isn’t Hopeless

We thought he’d be happy to get some straight talk about his website, but our realtor friend’s first reaction was despair.

“This is horrible!” he said. “I can’t compete with those other guys. They already have a head start.

“And I can’t spend that much on my real estate website! Building an IDX or RETS website will cost a fortune!”

We calmed him down as best we could. We told him a few soothing real estate website facts:

• We already have a fully-functioning IDX solution called Realzi. There’s no need to hire a battalion of programmers and web producers. Our real estate website clients just sign up and bang, their clients suddenly can search up-to-date MLS listings right from the website.
• Since our real estate website technology is already functioning, you don’t have to risk thousands of dollars on programming a new IDX system. Realzi is affordable.
• Realzi is a real estate website designed for real estate SEO. That means that it beats most of the competition for search engine optimization right out of the box. Realzi real estate websites are built specifically to rocket to the top of the search listings in Google, Yahoo and MSN.
• We can match your existing design perfectly, using your current logo and look.
• And if you don’t already have a real estate website, it’s no problem.

Evolve Your Real Estate Website

Wondering how a Realzi MLS website might help your business?

Get in touch with us and talk to our real estate website experts. No charge, no hard sell. We’ve been building websites for years.

Based on our experience building SEO websites for major clients like HealthCheckUSA, CORT Furniture and ApartmentSearch.com, we’ve developed best practices and proprietary technology that help us beat the pants off competing websites. Other real estate websites aren’t designed to show up in search engines. Realzi real estate sites are!