EmeraldCoast.com launches new real estate website

Aug 5, 2009 real estate 1 Comment

EmeraldCoast.com is proud to announce the launch of a new real estate site… www.ChristinaMeinen.com This site features full MLS integration making the MLS searchable by its users. If you would like to find out more about our real estate service packages please contact us at sales@emeraldcoast.com

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Best Practices

Aug 4, 2009 pay per click, seo, web building Leave a comment

To leverage your PPC ad spend, it’s crucial to have a website and/or landing page that is optimized for search. The following is a list of some of the processes we perform in order for your website to be easily found on the web.

1. 301 redirect - This is a server setting (in our case Apache) For example, http://yoursite.com will automatically redirect to http://www.yoursite.com This is important since you always want Google to index the “same” URL version of your website.

In the .htaccess file on the Apache server, the following code needs to be inserted

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^emeraldcoastdesign.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.emeraldcoastdesign.com/$1 [L,R=301]

2. Create a “robots.txt” file in the root directory of the server. This tells Google what directories to index and what directories not to index. For example, if there is a directory where all of your video media is stored, you would want to “Disallow” that directory to be read. Whereas, if you have a directory that contains the majority of your keyword-rich content, you would want Google to read that and only that content since it is relevant to the search terms that you would like to be found for.

3. Always separate the “style” from the “content” by creating a separate style sheet. This makes it easy for the Google Bot to distinguish between your relevant “content” and your source code.

4. Always provide keyword rich descriptions in the “alt” tags of your images.

5. Try to use text in your navigation bar rather than images. This is because text can be “crawled” by the search engines.

6. Name your directories with good descriptive words. For example, if you have a “beach condo” website, name your main content directory “beach-condo”. By doing this, the search engines “see” your site as very relevant to “beach condo”!

7. Use a blog powered by Wordpress. Wordpress blogs are already fairly optimized for search engines and blogs are simply a great way for you to get great content uploaded quickly that the search engines love.

8. Use includes where possible. If you need to make changes on a site, make it easy on yourself by having common elements on your site split up into “includes”. There’s nothing more agonizing than wanting to make a small tweak for SEO sake, and realizing that the change has to be made on dozens of individual pages:(

9. Create individual titles for your pages. The “title” tag is one of the most important, from an SEO perspective.

10. Customize the meta content and keyword tags. This is important in that these are the tags that “describe” your page’s content to the seach engines.

These are just some of the search engine optimization techniques we use here at Freedom Florida. Contact us today for a free analysis of your website.

Leveraging the Internet - Part Three

Aug 3, 2009 email advertising, social networking Leave a comment

Part Three of a presentation by Peggy Mahone, Internet Specialist with Freedom Florida, on how to “Leverage the Internet - Actions You Can Take Today to Drive Audience to Your Website - at Little or No Cost.” The video covers everything from email campaigns to social media.

Leveraging The Internet Part Two

Jul 27, 2009 online advertising Leave a comment

Part Two of a presentation by Peggy Mahone, Internet Specialist with emeraldcoast.com, on how to “Leverage the Internet - Actions You Can Take Today to Drive Audience to Your Website - at Little or No Cost.”

Leveraging the Internet - Part One

Jul 10, 2009 online advertising Leave a comment

Part One of a presentation by Peggy Mahone, Internet Specialist with emeraldcoast.com, on how to “Leverage the Internet - Actions You Can Take Today to Drive Audience to Your Website - at Little or No Cost.”

New Real Estate Blog

May 14, 2009 blogging Leave a comment

EmeraldCoastDesign.com introduces a new real estate blog from Christina Meinen.

Christina’s new real estate blog will be designed and built by the Emerald Coast Design team. The new blog is one of many new features Emerald Coast Design can offer real estate professionals along the Emerald Coast.

Blogging, banner ads, SEO, PPC and our very own real estate vertical, which can be found here: http://real-estate.nwfdailynews.com/

Our real estate vertical is an ideal place for real estate agents to get in front of buyers. The section pulls new listings and updated information about listings everyday - straight from the MLS. But just having your listing on the section isn’t enough. You can also take part in our Featured Agent, Featured Broker and Featured Listing. These spots on our landing page highlight you and your properties to ensure that they get maximum exposure.

Call us today if you are interested and getting your name and listings in front of buyers.

Dolphins in Destin

Apr 7, 2009 travel sites Leave a comment

That water color is real, we didn’t add any coloring or anything:-) This is a video shot by a couple visiting Destin recently. If you would like to find out more about Destin, Panama City or Fort Walton Beach, please visit our travel websites.

Local businesses looking to expand their advertising reach, are headed in the right direction by finding out more about our travel and destination websites.

If you are visiting Destin for the first time, we are certain, we will be hearing from you when you come back! Enjoy your stay in Destin Beach:-)

-The Staff at EmeraldCoast.com

Google Search Term Realities

Apr 7, 2009 pay per click Leave a comment

Here’s a test. Go to Google and find out how best to advertise on the internet…

OK. How did you do your search? Did you type in “advertise on the internet”, “online advertising”, “internet advertising”, “internet + advertising”, “how best to advertise on the internet?”, “advertise + media + internet”? Any of those?

No matter what the subject, it’s very unlikely that any given 2 people will search for a subject in the same way. Why? Because we are all individuals and we are all human.

Our point is this. You do not know how someone is going to find your business or website on the internet. It is fascinating to see our PPC reports that tell us what search terms people use to land on one of our client sites. The truth is no one knows how someone is going to find your website. Don’t limit yourself to “Flowers in Destin” if you’re a florist. Our PPC experts can help you expand that search of keyword terms and optimize your campaign as you go. You only pay for “clicked” keywords (Cost per Click - CPC), so go wild, have your PPC guy or gal test different keywords, get the results, throw out what’s not working and try new ones. This is called A/B testing where you have different batches of keywords. After a few days the “losers” get tossed and you try new ones. Eventually, your new terms “beat” your winners, so you toss those and try some new ones. The key is testing, testing, testing and we here at EmeraldCoast.com look forward to finding those keywords that will take your business to the next level of sales!

Email Advertising Tip - Call To Action

Apr 7, 2009 email advertising Leave a comment

Here is a great email advertising tip that has lessons that every online advertiser can draw from. Have a call to action in the very beginning of the message that is “click-able”. Why? Because this link will show up in the window of software programs like Microsoft Outlook. The most impulsive of your target audience will click on the link even before they open the email! Think about it, have you ever watched someone in sales read email or browse a website? They just click on whatever is click-able! They are in a hurry and just want to find out what the “prize” is or what the “deal” is! (I can’t wait to see the reaction to this blog is from the sales team at EmeraldCoast.com … They’ll deny, deny, deny of course

The lesson is clear though, many of us are impulsive, so whether it be email or a website, provide a quick call to action in the beginning or at the top of the page. By doing this, you’ll be able to harvest those impulsive buyers!

What is Search Engine Optimization?

Apr 7, 2009 seo Leave a comment

Search Engine Optimization gets a bad rep. There are all kinds of slick sales people trying to sell the latest trick, the latest gimmick that will guarantee you that coveted number 1 spot on Google. There are legitimate methods of getting you to the top of search engines within days. These methods are somewhat more expensive. A professional web developer can use Search Engine Optimization methods to get you to the top of Google over time. Once you are there, you’ll pretty much “stay” there as long as you have your website “maintained” properly by someone who knows how.

Another reason SEO gets a bum rep is just the name itself. Search Engine Optimization… somehow the name implies that you can “optimize” the search engines. The reality is the search engines just “are”. They crawl each website exactly the same way giving no preferential treatment to certain companies or striking secret deals. No, you can not manipulate the search engines, but here is what you can do. A professional web developer codes your site in a way that the search engines finds “friendly”. Do you have great content, yet low Alexa rankings? Chances are the way your content is “shown” to the search engines is not optimized. Our web developers at emeraldcoast.com will gladly analyze your website to see if this is the case.