If any of you have read my blog comments and questions, you know I am not computer savvy. One of my goals in joining AR was to move my website up on the search engines. I have gone from #125 up to #7 on Yahoo and moved up considerably on Google and MSN with the help of my web-guy, Sheldon Broes. This is how he explains it to me. This info may be helpfull to you.
W
hen your blog gets clicked on, it's called an impression and the search engines re-visit your blog more often when your blog is getting more impressions.
Each time the search engine spider bots crawl any website or blog, they also crawl (or re-crawl) every page that is being linked to.
As your website or blog increases in size and relevant information for the goods or services your website or blog promotes, it is crucial that the search engine spider bots give you credit for your effort by increasing your page rank.
Page ranks are from zero to ten, the higher your page rank - - the more relevant the search engines deem your site to be.
The easiest way to determine any website or blog's page rank is to download the free google toolbar. In the middle of the toolbar, is a little meter that tells the rank of the page you are on.
(This is Yahoo's home page and it has a page rank of 9.)
As you hold your mouse over the meter a number will appear. This is also the best way to find out your competition's web rank and valuable in selecting websites to link to you (which I will discuss in my next blog) on search engine stuff.
One of the primary purposes of the blog is to increase the page rank of the website it links to. Search engine spider bots are attracted to blogs and Active Rain has done a magnificent job of getting Active Rain member's blogs seen by the search engines.
The trick is to get the search engine spider bots (usually referred to as just "bots") to re-crawl your website as often as possible. Before I joined active rain and agressively started writing relevant blogs to my local real estate market place, my search engine placement and rankings were terrible.
A site that has grown semi-agrressively for one year or more will rank as a 1 or a 2, depending on how relevant the site is to it's keywords and how competitive the key words are for that websites geographical market.
Sandra, glad to see you are obtaining one of your goals with Active Rain! I don't dare check the site meter for my websites...I haven't been blogging much. But when I used to blog quite a lot, my websites were getting loads of hits.
Sandra - I'm not sure I can include linking on my website, as it is a point2site. If I can, I still need to figure out how to do it.
Sandra - Thanks for the info. I do not know what my page ranking on Google and I have not check MSN or Yahoo. All I know is if I type "Mytown Home For Sale ", sometime I appear on page 1 or 2 so I'm improving.
That's great and I think the reason is your Localism blogs you were mentioning. The search engines are looking for local info. It's interesting to me, I am a transplant to my town, (and have lived here 10 years now) by doing the local events and history blogs, I have learned a lot about my town, and have grown to appreciate what we have here. I never leave the house without my camera now and am having fun with it. Thanks for reading my blog. Nice to "meet" you.
Great tip Sandra. I learn something new every time I'm on Activerain. Thanks!
Kalika, you are welcome. I try to read all the posts I can and there are some very tech savvy people in this group. Some of it goes right over my head, but this is a great place to learn and share. I find most everyone is happy to answer questions and help me out. I love AR!
Sandra,
Thank you---I never heard of page rank on Google, and now I'm an expert. Cool!
Sandra, Good post; every day I'm learning more. Thanks.
Thanks Sandra I recently made a commitment to rebuild my website and contribute heavily to Localism and the bog on my page.
I have become addicted to AR, just to tune in and see what's going on and converse with all of you, but the great thing is, that the website is moving up! It is worth all the time you spend on blogging. Thanks for reading my post. If you have any questions send them to me and I will pass them on to Sheldon, my web guy.
Sandra- I think you did a great job with this post but would have to disagree with one thing you mentioned "you know I am not computer savvy"- I would have to disagree, as you sounded like you understand things quite well- you need to give yourself some more credit :)
Christine and Jennifer, no, it is true, I am not computer savvy. I just write down almost everything he tells me and then I do what he says I have to do. Sometimes I feel I should be out doing an open house or calling past clients instead of blogging, but we have a goal, and it does seem to be working. Thanks for reading.
Thanks for this piece of information. So much to learn!
Not leaving home without your camera or video HD is good advice. If you blog about your area, provide a service and not just talk shop about real estate and boring statistics, that will get a crowd heading your way that will get noticed.
What a great post, Sandra. You've gotten some great results. Active Rain is really good about getting us the Google juice we so desperately need to drive traffic to our sites.
This does seem to be working. Yesterday I received a call generated from my website. Love it! Thanks for reading.
Thanks for sharing this information, Sandra. Posting on AR has helped my SEO significantly as well. Glad to hear you just got a call from your website--excellent news! You sound pretty computer savvy to me!
Great post! I needed this information to see where I was on the meter scale!
Glad it helped. Please see my latest post on Search Engines posted just yesterday or the day before.
I did not know about the pagerank meter. I was able to get it for my google toolbar, but the browser freezes wehn I try to activate the yahoo one. Oh, well. At least I learned something new today about building my website ranking. Would you say that every blog post that you write has a link to your website? Curious to know...
Well, I actually put in a link in my blog post to my website, unless I forget to do it. Some people put in a whole advertisement which I feel is a bit much, but what the heck, that's what we're here for, to offer our services to people that need them.
I have been reading a lot of experienced Rainers blogs and it seems to be important to blog about your area. It is not as fun or social and you don't get the feedback from other AR's but that is what the search engines are looking for. Something substantial, original and about your area.
Since I have been faithfully doing this blogging, I have recieved a call for a listing, and a call from a man in California that just wanted to share memories of Port Townsend, where he grew up. Funny thing, he moved from Port Townsend to Santa Ana, CA where I was born. I told him we jus traded places. But the point is, he found me on the internet from one of my posts, that I got very few comments on, but talked about Port Townsend and an old building on Water Street. He could have very easily been a buyer.
I have also signed up for the $29.00 Rainmaker which allows your blog to be on the public site. If I would even get a couple of sales a year from this, it would be well worth it, as I really enjoy the interaction with all the other realtors, and I have learned a lot.
We are all a work in progress! Good luck to you.
I have to say as really a recyrcled newbie this information is good> i am trying to learn all about Activerain, facebook, linked in-twitter and the rest of them. I have hired a great vitual assistant who is not olny helping me but teaching me too check her out at www.activerain.com/chrisfisher she is brilliant. Good luck to everyone and se you at the top
Hi, Sandra. I am new to Active Rain and new to blogging. I started posting and commenting just to accrue points, I confess, but I have learned so much so fast that I would do it now without points. I have joined the SEo groups but there is still SO MUCH to learn! This post was very informative; I will download the Google toolbar today! I now carry my camera everywhere and find that a picture often suggests a post topic for Localism, not the other way around. I am much more aware of my surroundings and am seeing everydoay things with "new eyes."
Leslie, I have had exactly the same experience. My web guy told me to join and participate, and I love visiting with the other realtors, and I too have learned to appreciate this wonderful place I live in after writing more about it. My website is moving up and it is a very inexpensive way to do it. Thanks for reading and you might want to check out the next post on SEO that I wrote.
Good luck!