Point 2 Agent Help Blog

Using Multiple Domain Names on a Point2 Site

I just responded to a question on the Point2 message board that I though a few blog readers might find useful.

The question was along the lines of:

Does anyone know if you can have more than 1 domain point to your primary domain? As I understand it, there is no good reason to mask and point domains, but it is better to re-direct them? I have several domain names and would like them ALL to go to my primary site, but also be searchable on the search engines. As I understand it, masked and forwarded sites don't come up on the search engines. Right?

Here is my answer:

There is a way to have multiple domain names pointing to the same site or page and still remain searchable. But it's not a good idea (at all) to do that. Eventually the search engines will realize there are different domain names pointing to the same site and they will penalize them all (potentially including the main site domain). Penalty could range from lower search engine placement to banning the domain names from the search engines.

They see multiple domains pointing to the same site as "duplicate content". They implement this penalty to keep people from buying dozens (or hundreds or thousands) of domain names and manipulating search results with them.

Redirecting a domain name (properly, with what is known as a 301 redirect) tells the search engines to ignore the redirected domain, and eliminates the dup content penalty.

That begs the question, "What is the point in redirecting a domain name?"

That's best illustrated by an example:

We have a page on our site about a certain area in Phoenix called Whispering Ranch. The address for that page is:

http://www.thompsonsrealty.com/Whispering_Ranch_AZ_Land/page_1365554.html

If I want to put that domain name in an ad, on a postcard or a flyer or a yard sign, or even give it to someone over the phone, it's almost impossible due to the length of the domain name. (just try saying that link out loud like you'd have to do with someone on the phone...)

So we bought a domain name and re-direct it to that page.

http://www.WhisperingRanch.info

That can fit in an ad, be remembered, and is easy to communicate. But it's not "searchable". However, the page itself (the one with the big long domain name) is most certainly searchable. It's #1 in Google for the terms "Whispering Ranch", "Whispering Ranch real estate", "Whispering Ranch land", "Whispering Ranch Realtor", "land in Whispering Ranch" and many more related terms.

So I don't really need "WhisperingRanch.info" to be indexed in the search engines. This page gets plenty of search engine exposure without WhisperingRanch.info being indexed.

If it were allowed to be indexed, what would happen is the exact same page would be showing up multiple times in Googles results, and that's not what Google wants. If they allowed multiple domain names pointing to the same page to be indexed, there would be nothing to stop me from getting 10 Whispering Ranch domain names, pointing them to my page, and having all 10 of those domain names showing up on page 1 of Google. Not that I'd mind that, but I can see why Google doesn't want it that way. I don't want it that way when I'm searching for something. I want to see different options, not the same page over and over just with a different name...

Make sense?

Hope that helps!

Jay

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Services available will include turn-key Point 2 Agent web sites. I'll do all the work to customize your site and get it running. Or, using remote log in technology, I can instruct you on how to edit and get the most out of your Point 2 site.

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So slide on over to RealtyTechHelp.com and drop us a note. (This site is under serious construction, so please spare the mess!)

Regards,

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The Long Tail and Local Content Blogging

This post isn't exactly Point 2 Agent help related, but it does cover Search Engine Optimization (SEO) -- a subject that is (or should be) near and dear to anyone that has a web site.

I wrote a post on "The Long Tail" and local content blogging on my main blog. I encourage all to read it as knowledge of the "whats and whys" of the Long Tail can help you get better search engine placement for both your web site and blog. It also demonstrates how a blog and web site can work together.

Phoenix Bloggers Meet; Much Conversation Ensues, Including The Long Tail

Enjoy!

Chosing a URL for Your Website

Your URL (Uniform Resource Locator -- aka your "domain name" or web address) is important. You market your URL so people can find, and use, your web site. (You DO market your URL, don't you?)

There are some good things, and some bad things to do when selecting a URL. First, of course, is finding a URL that is available. And with 50 gazillion URLs in use, that's not always easy. Odds are overwhelming that you aren't going to find a URL like "PhoenixRealEstate.com". URLs like that were sucked up years ago.

But that doesn't mean there aren't some good ones still out there....

Here are a few tips to consider when selecting a URL for a real estate web sites:

• When at all possible, select a "dot com" address. The vast majority of web users just expect a URL to end in .com, particularly for a business URL. Yes, you can find more names available with .net, .info, .us etc. But a .com address is best.
• Do not use hyphens in a URL. You want a URL that's easy to tell people, and that people can remember. Adding hyphens to a URL makes it very difficult to relay the URL over the phone, and also makes it difficult to recall. Try telling this URL to someone over the phone: Buy-Phoenix-Real-Estate.com. You have to say, "Our web site is www dot buy hyphen Phoenix hyphen real hyphen estate dot com". It just doesn't work. Say OUT LOUD any URL you are considering, and think about whether or not someone on the other end of the phone will get it easily.
• The National Association of Realtors has trademarked the term REALTOR. It is a violation of the trademark (read - ILLEGAL) to improperly use the term REALTOR in a URL. It can ONLY be used in conjunction with your name or the name of your brokerage. URLs like "BestRealtor.com" or "Number1Realtor.com" or "PhoenixRealtor.com" constitute improper use of the trademark and the NAR could demand you remove the URL, making all your marketing efforts for naught. (see this statement from the NAR (Section III) for details)
• Search engines don't place MUCH importance on keywords in a URL. You do NOT have to have a location, or "real estate" in your URL to get good search engine rankings. Don't believe this? Look at some very highly ranked real estate site URLs -- Trulia.com, Zillow.com -- those are completely fabricated words that rank very well. Sure Realtor.com ranks well too, but it doesn't get it's ranking because "Realtor" is in the URL. Still don't believe that keywords in a URL don't matter? "Yahoo" and "Google" are fabricated words too. "Amazon" has nothing to do with books. "GoDaddy" has nothing to do with domain names... the list is endless. It may help slightly to have key words in your domain name, but content and backlinks make a MUCH bigger impact.
• Many agents put a location in their URL. There's nothing wrong with that, but it does severely restrict you if you ever need/want to move. I can live anywhere in the world and use ThompsonsRealty.com. If my URL was PhoenixRealEstate.com and I wanted to move back to Texas, it would be difficult to keep that URL. Consider using a location neutral URL. You may THINK you'll never move, but you never know.
• The same holds true for putting a brokerage name in a URL. I see a lot of URLs like "JoeSixpackC21.com" or "BettySueRemax.com". Well let's just hope Joe Sixpack and Betty Sue never want to change their brokerage....  (besides, those names are also trademarked and their use could well be illegal. If you insist on doing this, best to check with the old corporate office first.)
• Watch your URL length. Shorter is better. A URL like, "PleaseBuyArizonaRealEstateFromMe.com" is difficult to communicate, remember, and fit on a business card.
• Consider purchasing "close spellings" of your domain name. The URL for our main site is ThompsonsRealty.com. We give it out over the phone all the time. People also misspell "Realty" all the time, often typing "Reality" instead. So we purchased "ThompsonsReality.com" as well and point it to our site. Now it doesn't matter when someone can't spell realty.

Keep these tips in mind when looking for a URL and eventually you will find a suitable URL for your web site. And getting your own URL is one of the first things you should do when you get a new Point 2 Agent site. The URL that Point 2 provides (such as YourName.Point2Agent.com) does not lend itself well to marketing. A domain name costs about $9 a year and is a cheap investment to make (you can buy domain names through Point 2 Agent, GoDaddy.com or dozens of other sites). Buying one through Point 2's Domain Store simplfies getting it pointed to your site (though it's not difficult to point any domain to a P2 site. They make it easy, and free).

Submitting Your Point 2 Agent Site to Search Engines

I was recently asked this question on the Point 2 Agent Users Forum:

How often do you submit your sites to search engnies?

The answer... never. The best way to get Google to find your site is to have a Google indexed site link to you. When Google crawls that site, it will follow the link to your site and crawl your site.

Once it crawls your site and indexes it, there's no point in re-submitting your site. It's in their index and they will continue to crawl it. The more often you update your site, the more frequently Google will crawl it. Google crawls our site at least every day or two.

The only search engine I've ever submitted my site to is DMOZ (DMOZ.com). That's a human edited search engine that feeds a lot of other SEs. It can take months to get your site in DMOZ. Submit it ONCE, in the proper category and wait. (and wait) Submitting multiple times to DMOZ will just get the editors in a tizzy and they won't add your site.

There are a lot of services that advertise they will submit your site to SEs on a regular basis. There's really no point in doing that. Once your site is indexed, it's indexed, and re-submitting it does no good. It could in fact do harm. It probably doesn't hurt anything to submit it every 30 days, but it doesn't do any good, so why waste the time? Multiple submissions to a SE can be viewed as spamming and result in penalty, so why take the chance?

Very basically, here's how Google knows when to crawl a site....

Say Google crawls your site on Day 1.
It comes back on Day 30, and sees that changes have been made. So it decides it should crawl your site more frequently.
It comes back on Day 45, and sees changes have been made. So again it sees it needs to crawl more frequently.
It comes back on Day 50. Sees changes, decides to come back sooner.
It comes back on Day 52, sees changes, so it comes back on Day 54, 56, 58, etc. As long as it sees changes, it will keep coming back.

Now say Google crawls your site on Day 1.
It comes back on Day 30 and sees no changes. So it decides to wait LONGER to re-crawl it.
It comes back on Day 75 and sees no changes.... it will come back at some point and look again.

That's why frequent changes help get your site crawled and new pages get indexed faster.

But the crawlers are pretty smart. Changes have to be "worthwhile". You can't just change a word or two and expect the crawlers to return because of that.

Frequent changes are one reason blogs do well in search engines (assuming you post to your blog frequently). But don't make changes just for the sake of change. The crawlers get smarter every day and can see that's what you're doing.

I don't make changes every two days to our site. But I do make significant changes (adding and/or removing pages) a couple of times a week. And I've been doing that a long time so the G crawlers have "learned" that and come back often.

Even if you can only make changes once a month, it's helpful. Go much longer than that and Google will quickly figure out not to waste time crawling your site. You'll stay indexed, but without frequent crawling, it can take a long time before any new content to your site gets crawled, indexed and ranked.

Hopefully that makes sense...

What's the First Thing I Should Do to My Point 2 Agent Website?

There are agents across the world signing up for a Point 2 Agent web site every day. Some are very well versed in how web sites function, some not so much. Regardless of your skill/knowledge level, there are a couple of things that EVERY P2 site owner should do as soon as they get their Point 2 site. (If you're interested in getting an invite for a FREE Point 2 Agent site, please click here.)

When you first log on to a new Point 2 Agent website, there will be several "to do" items listed in the top left corner of your "online office". Complete as many of those items as you can (upload your photo, logo, etc.You don't have to complete them all at once. Do what you're comfortable with, you can always come back later). Once those are done, it's time to get to work!

Point 2 provides a lot of "canned" content for a new site. And there's nothing wrong with this content. It's well written, and pertinent content. The problem with it is, every single Point 2 website has the same content. Search engines like Google want to see unique content. So you need to change the content on every single page that Point 2 provides. Yes, EVERY page.

You don't have to write like Hemingway. Just write in your own voice. Write like you speak. Write SOMETHING. On every single page. Don't jsut shift stuff around, DELETE the provided content and write your own. No web surfer wants to see the online version of War and Peace. You don't have to write endless streams of content. 150 - 250 words is plenty. The important thing is to change the content Point 2 provides so it is unique to your site.

An important note here regarding website content.... it's protected by copyright laws. Just because you can view it on the Internet doesn't mean you can take it and put it on your site. Doing that is *ILLEGAL*. Besides, like I just mentioned, Google wants to see UNIQUE content. Stealing someone's content (and it IS stealing) won't give you unique content. DON'T DO IT! It's fine (and recommended) to visit other sites to get IDEAS, just don't take actual content from other sites.

Claim Your Blog on Technorati

Technorati is a "blog directory" / search engine, and it's helpful to have your blog listed there. (Think "Google for Blogs").

To do that, you need to "claim" your Point 2 Blog. And to do THAT, you need a Technorati account. (It's free).

So go to Technorati, sign up, and claim your blog!

You have to insert a little bit of code, so Technorati knows you are claiming a blog that's yours. That's what this is: 

Technorati Profile

That's all there is to it!

How to Create a Blogroll

Many Point 2'ers have asked "How do I create a blogroll on my shiny new Point 2 Agent blog"?

First, a brief description of a "blogroll"...

Wikipedia defines a "blogroll" as "a collection of links to other weblogs. When present, blogrolls are often found on the front page sidebar of most weblogs."

And that's pretty much it. It's a list of links to other blogs you think your readers may find interesting.

So how do you create one on a Point 2 blog?  It's easy... Point 2 refers to the things in your sidebars as "Lists". (The "sidebar" is the right column (in this blog - could be the left column depending on what "Style" you've chosen for your blog).

To Create a "List":
Go to your blog dashboard and click on the tab labeled "My Blogs"
Click on "Manage Content"
Click on "All Lists"
Click on the button labeled "Create New List"
In the pop up window, give your blogroll a name ("Blogroll" for example...)
Type a description if you like (Perhaps "Blogs we like")
Click the box by "Enabled" (otherwise, no one will be able to see it! You can leave this unchecked while you build your blogroll, and enable it when you want it to appear on your blog).
Click "Save"

You've just made a space in your sidebar for a blogroll, but there's nothing in it yet.

To add blogs to your blogroll:
Click the "Add List Item Button"
In the popup window, type in a title for the blogroll entry
Type in the URL (web address) to that blog
Make sure the box next to "Enable" is checked.
Click "Save"

That's it, you just added an entry to your blogroll! Just repeat the "To add blogs to your blogroll:" instructions for each blog you want to add.

In a few minutes, your blogroll will appear in the sidebar of your blog!  You can add multiple "lists" to a sidebar. I have yet to figure out how to change the order the lists are displayed in. I suspect it takes some manipulation of the CSS code.

Blogroll on! As you add blogs to your blogroll, chances are good others will add you to their blogroll, which can in turn drive traffic to your blog. If anyone would like their Point 2 blog added to the blogroll here, just leave a comment!