Using Data to Devise Your SEO Strategy

How much money have you spent building out your website? If you are like most business owners, having an online presence makes up a good portion of your revenue. If it does not, that is a problem.

Many novices are under the impression that if they have a great website custom built for them, that naturally, they will start showing up on Google Searches. Truth is, having a great website is somewhat like purchasing a gym membership…just having the membership doesn’t get you in shape. The same with a website, just having a website doesn’t mean that anyone knows that its there and will visit it.

Ways to Generate Website Traffic

There are many ways to generate website traffic. In 2019, the most common is to simply share your website on social media. Truth is… unless you are a major influencer on social media, that will in no way, generate enough traffic to provide a return on investment much less add to your bottom line.

Paid Social Media Advertising

Paying for social media advertising is most likely the easiest way to generate a little bit of traffic to your website…If you can define the perfect target audience is critical. The spend on social media marketing has continued to increase. The big players in this space are Facebook and Google and more recently Amazon. Both of these behemoths use the data from their user base to “target the perfect audience”. You must understand how to set up your ads. There are hundreds of other articles that will provide that for you. Our point here is that you MUST leverage their user data to get your ad in front of the right people.

Whether you choose to do Facebook advertising, Google re-marketing, Twitter ads, Google Ads or anything else, you should seek out a professional if you are going to spend more than a couple hundred dollars per month. The beauty of social media advertising is that the barrier of entry is very low. Just about anyone with a credit card can “boost a post” on Facebook and generate some traffic.

Google and Facebook together make up a HUGE share of the digital marketing spend.

Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization (SEO for short) is a very complicated process of having your website rank organically for search engine results involving your potential customers. This entire process starts by analyzing the keyword research data. That will at least let you know what you would LIKE to rank for. Don’t get confused, that is only putting you on the starting line. Then the work begins to build backlinks, complete on-page SEO, advanced schema, internal links and much more to ultimately rank your site.

For most business owners, you should find a professional. The challenging aspect of finding a good SEO agency is that the results of any search engine optimization campaign can take months or even years to reap results. Because of this, there are many supposed SEO gurus that would be happy to take $99 per month from you for a year and provide just about nothing.

Google Dominates Search

Google is by far the most dominant of the search engines. If your business shows up for major searches, it turns a small business into a publicly traded company. Many companies such as Trulia and Hotels.com got their start simply by dominating people searching the web for real estate and hotels. Trulia by combining real estate data from across the country and layering an advertising site on top of that. Zillow did the same thing but had the Zestimate gimmick. In the end, Zillow bought their #1 competition Trulia.

Looking for statistics on the US real estate market?

Digital Marketing is ALL Data Driven

At the end of the day, all current digital marketing is data-driven. Today, data is literally a currency and can be directly converted into money. That is what makes data breaches such as the Cambridge Analytica scam. Most small business owners, at least the ones that provide a service, are constantly attempting to convince their clientele that using a professional is much more cost effective than attempting to do something you are not familiar with. By that exact same rationale, unless you are comfortable analyzing data and creating ads, you should leave your digital marketing to a proven Digital Marketing Agency.

If you need some assistance, just drop us a line.

Canada Used Fake Real Estate Statistics to Spur Borrowing

December 22, 2018

Jay Brent

Canada Used Fake STATS In Real Estate

Fake news has made sure that you cannot differentiate between an expert opinion, personal opinion, and authority opinion. If the reports go by, the real estate boom experienced in the last 12 months could be an engineered wave.

By June 2017, various government sources mostly OFSI, Canadians have borrowed $266 billion against residential property. That was an abnormal increase considering that such an increase happened last in 2012 — the market then was recovering after the economic crisis of the late 2000s. This change represents a 5% increase from last year. Curiously, it coincides with a period the government and the media are accused of manipulating the property market. It is not a new phenomenon though, as at least 30 governments around the world are actively using the World Wide Web to manipulate public opinion and perception. Canada, which did not make it in that list initially, finds itself in unfamiliar territory with these allegations. According to one source, they are not allegations. The government is actively buying curated content from media outlets to ‘inform’ the public.

Widespread Misinformation

Various departments have used taxpayer’s money to pay curated content companies such as News Canada and Fifty Stories to promote or generate certain opinions. Statistics Canada used over $60,000 to distribute several pieces about trends in the real estate sector. It would cost the same institution virtually nothing had it released the information through their official website, but they did not. Something does not add up. Industry trends are well within their mandate, but they choose to inform citizens indirectly. Why would they do that? According to one report, countries such as Turkey, China, and Ukraine are using thousands of online troops to guide public perception. Could Canada be doing it too? The evidence suggests that that is a real possibility.

The Facts

Last year, the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) also distributed content that promoted home equity as a crafty line of credit (HELOC). In fact, they said that it is a way of sorting your long-term financial goals. Well, though this line of thinking would be typical in a sales pitch, FCAC has nothing to sell.

They too should know better the repercussions of over speculation in the housing market. In fact, their role contradicts the use of HELOC as a way of avoiding bankruptcy. Recent surges in the home valuation in major cities remain unexplained. There is no economic explanation to the price surge. Even the 4.5% GDP growth announced in 2017 cannot explain the newfound wealth of real estate, and it certainly cannot tell why people are eager to borrow against these new values.

An article posted in Montreal Times, paid for by a government agency, encourages homeowners to use the overvalued residential property to create an ’emergency cache’ in case of job loss to cover regular expenses. The wisdom in that advice is questionable at best, as caps and interest rates on loans far outweigh interests paid on savings. If you want to buy a home in Calgary, you will most likely go to a local Realtor. The long-term value of a house, irrespective of the economic cycles, should be consistent, but properties in major cities are swinging from 50% to 100%. If you sell a home at the current value, you can pocket the difference if you bought it sometimes back when the prices were almost 50% lower. The buyer can borrow against the current value, which may not be sustainable. If loans are used to lock people into their mortgages so that they don’t sell, that is akin to extortion, it would mean that the government knows that the current values are not sustainable in the long-run. If they are doing what they are doing with the best interests of Canadians at heart, then it is no biggie! If they are manipulating the public, that is not a problem; it’s a scandal.

Managing public interest is a government responsibility

Interest and exchange rates are some of the tools that governments have used to guide economic policy. In a country where every industry needs a serious stimulant, the options might be few.

Real estate industry will continue to be a big talking point. If you are buying a home that you can afford, it is a long-term investment that you can do anything with it. Again, borrowing to do something meaningful is encouraged. The problem arises when you borrow for fun, and you default. If the government is using untrue stories on the media, what would prevent authorizes from using bots and human social media swarms to manipulate real estate market?

On the overall, it would be a delicate balancing act for a new buyer to sieve through online content before making a decision.

The Importance of Curb Appeal

November 15, 2018

Jay Brent

Real Estate Tips No Comments

The Importance of Curb Appeal – From A Cocoa Beach Resident

Any house, be it in a metropolitan city or a rural land, needs to have a curb appeal in order to sell. Experienced Realtors know this very well. This is a lesson to learn from the very moment you put your house up for sale, and I learned it the hard way.

I own a property in Cocoa Beach, home to around 12,000 people and a tourist spot to nearly 3 million visitors from around the world. This place is fascinating in its own way. There are many places to relax during your leisure time apart from the beach pier, including but not limited to, Alan Shepard beachfront park, Cocoa Beach Aquatic Center and Pool Complex and Thousand Islands Conservation Area. And if you are one of those planning to relocate to Cocoa Beach permanently, there are many houses that are up for sale just like mine. Some of the houses are ready to be occupied and others need serious upgrades.

Lessons Learned

I had yearned to live the beach life for years. What I learned from my Realtor who has more than three decades of experience in beach properties is that, curb appeal can go a long way at any time. On a Sunday night, after several weeks of putting this house on the market, I was talking to my agent about getting the price reduced since there were hardly any offer at the time. I was feeling down and out because of the urgency of this move. I thought having the price reduced may make potential buyers willing to listen to the offer. After all, buyers are looking for deals and are more receptive to reduced price. My agent suggested that I improve the curb appeal and not to wait too long to get it done, to stay in tune with other neighboring homes.

I agree, that this house needs to be upgraded on the outside. It needs a cleaning crew, probably a landscape architect to uplift the mood it is bringing right now. Though it’s closer to beach and all the perks that living in Cocoa Beach offers to its residents, not having the desired curb appeal is just as bad as selling a house during the recession. My real estate agent has years of experience with this type of homes in the area. Although built recently and in an upscale neighborhood and despite all the modern features in every room inside, the front and back yard lacks the charm. It’s plain with no vegetation or design element.

“I’m sorry but your yard looks plain and boring. Imagine that someone who wants to buy a home has looked at a dozen houses around and is a little tired by the time he or she is at your driveway. But when they drive up and see nothing in the yard, they might feel discouraged to explore what is inside”.

said the agent.

In fact, he proceeded to say that this kind of thing has happened to him numerous times. And I totally get it, that my agent is not trying to interfere. Right now, I have got a lot on my mind, but this thing needs immediate attention.

Real Estate Stories

I have heard stories and seen real estate statistics from my agent about how hard it is to sell a home that is customized and built according to individual tastes. What piqued my interest is about a story where the buyer was particularly looking for a house that was pet free from the time it was built. He said one of his clients had a houseful of pets. It literally looked like a zoo where people had to walk on the limited space due to hutches and cages occupying most of the rooms. The owner later closed the zoo, but the house still smelled like it. The asking price had to be reduced even after many attempts to make the place odor free. The buyers had a sharp nose despite the baking cinnamon cookie in the oven.

The lawn of my front yard with 100 square feet of sod from the local nursery is looking great. They are going to be mowed, weeds eliminated but it’s not that hard of a labor and surprisingly cheap. Two weeks into the yard renovation and the agent has brought four offers that look enticing. What a difference it makes!

Data Driven Marketing