Dopp Juice Archive

Friends often send me questions about their tech troubles. To keep a log of my answers and to minimize repeating myself, I’m going to start recording them (stripped of identifying information) here under the category of “Q&A.” No, this doesn’t make me a professional advisor, and standard free advice guidelines still apply: you get what you pay for. Enjoy!

Question:

Hi Sarah,

I just started working for a small realty company. What we’re trying to accomplish in the near future is to create a web presence for her site. I know a little about this, but we’re trying to direct people looking for homes in the area to her site. We’re thinking keywords on Google, thinking about buying domain names that re-direct to her site, but I don’t really understand how to implement it. If you could give me a little more insight, that would be great!

Thank you,
Pal Who Needs a Site

Answer:

Hey Pal Who Needs a Site,

So, my first question would be, what does she want on her site? If she just wants static text with a description of who she is, what she does, and a sales pitch, then that’s easy. Just have someone with a little expertise throw together a website for her. I’ve spelled out an overview of that process here:

http://websites.sarahdopp.com

…and in that scenario, if she’s serious about directing people to the site, she probably wants to invest some cash in an online ad campaign (since there’s probably a LOT of people vying for those obvious “[region] real estate” -style keywords. Do some google searches now to check out your competition). If that’s the case, I can recommend this excellent firm who’ll make sure her campaign investment actually yields a decent ROI, and also make sure she’s doing all the “little things” right:

http://www.findmefaster.com

If she wants to actually display updated listings of homes on her site, then that requires some serious technology. I did a site like that last summer ( http://www.michaelshower.com ) and it was a bear to customize to work the way we wanted. In that scenario, you should find a company that specializes in real estate websites that display MLS listings, and expect to pay a decent amount for it, in addition to a monthly fee for the listing service. And on top of that, she should probably still invest in the ad campaign, unless she’ll have some prominent directory listings that people can find her through.

That give you an overview?

Sarah

Response:

You’re amazing. Thanks.