Do You Know YOUR Best Keyword Phrase to get Listings?

Do You Know YOUR Best Keyword Phrase to get Listings? 

This is just one of the many topics we will be covering in depth in Listing Experts Academy. This is called, “highest and best commercial intent keywords”.

You won’t be finding any SEO gurus defining or leveraging keywords with highest and best commercial intent.

But the one thing to remember with this ninja strategic move is that you MUST dominate page one on Google for this to work to your best benefit.

Check out what one of my coaching clients did- she totally dominates page one on google for a very specific keyword that she and I discovered as one with high commercial intent and value-

Not only does she dominate but her efforts are paying off! She just got a $850,000 horse farm listing because the seller found her for this keyword online!!!!

These strategies work!

Sign up for my Listing Experts Academy early bird notification list now and get my free 5 key strategies for Getting the Sellers To Call You to List!

Go here now:

https://coachkaterina.leadpages.net/5listingstrategiesa/

Stay tuned for more updates on Listing Experts Academy. We are shooting for an early October launch date so make sure you keep up with our updates!!!

P.S. She dominated the SERPS by the end of June, she landed the listing by the end of July! You do the math:)

Sending Your Own Kisses in Seconds! Coolest Tech Discovery of the Week!

Sending Your Own Kisses! Coolest Tech Discovery of the Week! 

Google works on art projects around the world and has labs that use their creativity to come up with new ways to use the internet and to communicate. They also work with different brands to create combined projects like this burberry kiss project. 

I just tried it out by sending Nestor a Happy Father's day kiss and card- you can send images or text along with your kiss. But what is really fun about this project is that it is animated. 

The entire process is interactive. You first say you want to send a kiss. Then you take a photo of your own lips in the shape of a kiss right from your computer. Then you choose your lipstick color if you are a girl. If you are a guy you send your regular skin color lips. I guess if you want to send lipstick colored lips you can:). 

Then you create your message, you add the email address you want to send your kiss to. The envelope gets sealed with your original authentic kiss. 

You then can watch the kiss traveling the world to its' destination on the 3D website. It is fun, the song is great and it is quite a joy to watch. You also see other people's kisses floating to their destinations. 

On this map you can actually see all the kisses being sent around the world in realtime! http://kisses.burberry.com/map/

All kisses are private unless you choose to share. You can share them on google plus of course! 

Try it out now at: kisses.burberry.com

Burberry Kisses is the latest campaign in our Art, Copy & Code project, an ongoing series of brand partnershipsto re-imagine how brands tell stories in a connected world. With this project, we’ve tried to create a beautiful experience that comes to life across all screens, and helps connect you to the people who are important to you, wherever they are. For more details on the campaign, see our agency blog or visit our website.

Google Did Not Turn Over Your Access Of Your Information to the United States Government

Google's CEO- Larry Page and David Drummond the Chief Legal Officer at Google came out with their official statement regarding the latest requests by the United States Government and the rumors of PRISM. 

The rumor is that Google gave the U.S. Government access to their servers through a secret program run by the National Security Agency called PRISM. 

Google's official position is that they have NOT joined any secret program and have not joined any government program of any country that would give those governments secret access to their servers. Google is not giving anyone information about their users' internet activity. 

Google is very adamant about making sure that EACH and EVERY request by any government fulfills the law in which that request is based. Google has a full legal team that reviews every single request by any government that requires them to turn over information. If the request does not fall within the law- it is not granted. 

Verizon received an order to turn over millions of user records and data by the U.S. government. This of course, creates a lot of other press articles about other companies, Google included. 

Google stands by their position that there needs to be transparency in any requests made for their users' internet activity or records of any kind. That is why they have their Transparency Report page.  Google is the first company to create such a page. 

You can see by this chart that there is a continuous increase of requests for information about our internet activity which is very worrisome as to the errosion of personal liberties and the danger of subverting the freedom of expression. 

“But the level of secrecy around the current legal procedures undermines the freedoms we all cherish.” Larry Page

3 Facts That You May Not Know About Zillow- That are NOT in Your Best Interest

It is bad enough that third party aggregators get the MLS feeds and then sell the leads to the listings that you worked to procure back to you, the agent.   

1. But did you know that a homeowner can list their property as a FSBO on Zillow too? Yes, for FREE, they can list their house for sale by owner on their website, in case you did not know that. 

2. If you have a widget from them ( see, I don't want to use their name over and over again- because that helps their branding on Google) on your website you are telling Google that they are the authority for homes for sale. Of course, you are not as big as they are, so the authority benefit goes to that link to them and not back to you. 

3. They bought Postlets. Did you know that whenever you create a postlets flier and you have that on the internet, there is a link back to their website at the very bottom of the postlet under the flier? 

From an SEO standpoint – these are not in your best interest. 

From a listing agent standpoint- this is not in your best interest. 

I know, many agents tell me they have to play the game or they lose business. I have never believed that one must compromise their principles, values or business in order to make a profit. There is always another way. 

Of course, it is all up to you how you play the game and how you run your business. But real estate agents who don't pay attention to the actions they take online are the ones who begin to wonder why they no longer have their website ranking on the first page of Google, and guess who has taken your place! Agents are the reason for their own loss of control of their inventory. 

Google Is Unleashing Penguin 2.0 Soon

Google is Unleashing Penguin 2.0 Soon

The buzz all around the SEO forums and google webmasters forums is all about the anticipation of Google's actual announcement that they are rolling out a new update to their penguin update. It has been nearly a year since the last update to the algorithms so this has been expected.   

Most of the time Google just makes updates and does not really announce that it is going to take place. However, this is supposed to be a big algorithm update, so big that Matt Cutts said you can you look at Penguin as 1.0 and the new update as Penguin 2.0. 

There has been some movement in the SERPS already since the announcement so most people who are keeping an eye on their SEO are noticing the shifts. 

Google did talk about a few things they wanted to work on in this update. It all remains to be seen for the most part. 

What we do know is that Google has made a HUGE shift towards brands. That is why they took out patents related to detecting brands. The bad part for the real estate agent is that that means the big 4 took over most of the top spots you used to dominate for in the SERPS. 

For hyper-local content this is not what the consumer, the searcher normally wants. When a searcher is looking deep for information on the hyper local level they are not interested in clicking on zillow or trulia. Those sites don't get to the real nitty and the gritty about lifestyle in specific neighborhoods and certainly don't have a voice that the searcher can relate to. 

Google says they are trying to work in this update to be able to discover sites that are not as authoritative as far as pagerank goes but that are more what the searcher is looking for making the smaller site the authoritative voice for that brand. The brand equals the keywords. The keywords when used correctly signal to Google that they are that brand. 

We hope to see some shift back to real estate agent and broker websites for the content that the searcher is looking for. 

But we saw something very unnerving in several areas this past week where most SEO folks believe the algo shift and update have already started to take place: 

1. We ranked for a keyword phrase for over 4 years now, totally dominate page one for this keyword holding 8 out of 10 spots. Two competitors each have one spot on this SERP. Suddenly, lo and behold, this past Monday- guess who showed up on page one? Yep, zillow. And they were given a spot without the keyword being in their title. The phrase match was not even in the description or the title tag. Google could only pull up a word here and there throughout a page that somehow they considered authoritative enough to rank on page one. This goes to our original theory that the fear is to make the big brands even stronger rather than the small companies have a shot at page one on the SERPS. 

2. The next concerning SERP situation was Debbie Gartner's keywords that she uses. She owns a flooring store. She sells hardwood floors and carpet, etc. She has ranked for a cherry wood flooring for a long time. She dominates the SERPS for this keyword. Suddenly there was zillow when you do a search for looking for hardwood cherry flooring in her town which is in New York. Zillow was given a spot on page one of the serps for a listing of a home in Boca Raton Florida with hardwood flooring. Now, the obvious search is that someone is looking to remodel their home in New York and wants to put hardwood floors in their house so they do a search for hardwood flooring in their town so that they can find a store that sells the wood flooring and get the prices, etc. So either Google is too stupid in their algorithm to be able to figure that one out or they are so far bent in preferring the big brands over anyone including Debbie Gartner who sells flooring. And the listing from zillow was not optimized either for the keyword phrase! 

3. The worst part came when Debbie posted about the flooring keyword on her google plus page. Google now assigns hashtags to your posts. You have the option to delete the hashtags that google puts there but most people don't know that. What really bothered me is that Google put the hashtag of zillow on Debbie's posting. Now, even if the algorithm could see that there was discussion about zillow why did Google choose that hashtag instead of the main topic hashtag which was hardwood flooring. 

I am hoping that I am wrong, very wrong. I am hoping this new shift is back to the good quality content websites that agents and brokers have worked hard to offer good content to consumers serious about moving, selling and buying homes and properties in their respective areas.

But I am not holding my breath in light of what we have encountered over this past week. 

I was quoted in RISMedia about the Trulia acquisition of Market Leader

I was quoted in RISMedia about the Trulia acquisition of Market Leader.

When the news of Trulia buying Market Leader surfaced last week I was doing my daily posting and networking on Facebook. I chimed in on some posts on Facebook about this news event. I posted on my Facebook page what I thought about this event. 

Then I wrote a post about the acquisition and my take on the SEO factor and the big 4- you can read that post here: http://activerain.com/blogsview/3720156/trulia-buys-market-leader-what-does-this-mean-for-your-seo-

RISMedia wrote an article about the acquisition and used one of my comments from Facebook. This goes to show that you can be picked up in any of the social platforms these days.

When something newsworthy comes along and you add to that conversation you can get quoted or interviewed in regards to your opinion on the matter.

This is great exposure to your business and brings traffic to your blog and website.

You can read the RISMedia article here: http://rismedia.com/2013-05-08/trulia-to-acquire-market-leader-securities-litigation-firm-investigating-sale-for-shareholders/

What I am really grateful for is that RISMedia picked up and reported about who I was and what I do. This is a great way to add credibility to a business. “Katerina Gasset, owner and CEO of Coach Katerina a business consulting company” is how they credited me. 

Not happy about this. I love Market Leader and train companies to efficiently use Market Leader. It is the best tool for CRM and lead funneling. So for Trulia who is one of the “big 4”, a top competitor of us small independent brokerages in SEO and in prices of PPC- this is very disheartening. I don't like providing funds to my online competitors. Trulia does not wish for an even playing field in the SERPS space and we who use SEO as our main source of lead generation have to work harder and spend more money to keep Trulia off page one for our “money terms”.

Whenever you are picked up by any news source make sure you print out a copy of the article, get the link to the article and create an article about the article that you can place in your media room on your website.

Beware of BankerREO | FootprintsRE- SCAMS against Real Estate Agents

Beware of BankerREO | FootprintsRE- Scams against Real Estate Agents

The complaints are in the dozens against BankerREO. Just google them to see all the complaints against them. Mike Linkenauger who owns Short Sale Specialist Network sent out an email with evidence that FootprintsRE is the same company that BankerREO was. 

They are just out to scam you out of your money. Beware of these kinds of companies that promise to get you REO assets to list. Check out the phone numbers they are calling your from. Do your due diligence before turning over your money to them.

They call you on the phone and tell you that you can have your city as an exclusive area to do REO listings in for $349. Don't give them your money! 

The REO business is not easy to get into. Asset managers from REO companies most often do not solicit you! They have plenty of agents to give their assets to. Please don't fall for these “too good to be true” stories. 

Mike created a video about the proof that FootprintsRE is the same company as BankerREO. Here is the video:

You can follow the video to see that through a google cache this is the exact same company, just with a different name. In fact, when you look at the websites, they are exactly the same except they changed their banner. 

Please help this go viral. Please post on your facebook page, google plus page and linkedin. 

Reblog this blog. Write a post about this and add the video. Link to the video. Help stop this scam. 

Google Street Views Around The World

Google street views around the world is a really interesting and beneficial feature. We own property right near the Baltic Sea in Latvia. We wanted to get a different 3D style view of the property and the surrounding land and homes. I have photos that we have had taken of the property and where it is in relation to the waterfront. It is considered waterfront property in Latvia because you can not build directly on the water any more. So there is a short path to the beach from our property. 

We discovered that Google street cars have been down our road!  We were able to place our little person marker, step down on the street and walk up to our property and all around the surrounding streets in a very clear and consise way. I was very impressed. Here we are in Florida virtually walking our beach front property in Jurmala Latvia!!! 

The clarity is amazing! The only thing missing is the smell of the pine trees and the sound of the sea. I am sure that is all coming along one of these days too! 

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Coaching for Real Estate Agents- Private or Group Coaching?

Coaching for Real Estate Agents- Private or Group Coaching? 

If you are ready to add coaching to your business then there are several ways to get that coaching. 

There are systems you can buy from big name guru coaches in real estate, there is one on one private coaching and there is group coaching.   

The choice most of the times comes down your financial ability to pay for coaching. Private coaching is more expensive than group coaching but it is lazer focused just on you and your business. Systems coaching works great for the short term for many agents. The problem with systems coaching is that there is not a lot of flexibility, it is like one size fits all coaching. The success of those systems is determined by where you are at in your business, who well those specific systems will work in your area and in your market and mix with your personality. 

Group coaching is very affordable and the synergy that a group creates makes it a good fit for those who want to start with some coaching but are not quite ready to commit to private coaching. 

Private coaching is one on one. We develop your own systems and then you learn to delegate repetitive tasks so that you can work on income producing activities that have the best rate of return. There are many reasons to get coaching and there are many areas of the business that can be worked on. 

For instance, I just helped an agent create her dynamite listing presentation. The first seller she presented it to listed their home and is having their best friend list their home and buying a home from this agent. So three transactions from one presentation that knocked it out of the park. 

Another agent needed me to help her decided whether she should stay in the business or get out of the business because she was only making $28,000 a year. That is not enough to survive. She used a leap of faith to hire me and she went in just a month to making over $28,000 in a month. She made more money in a month than she had in one year. 

An REO broker that I coach has a ton of listings and gets more than 62 phone calls in one hour. I would be going insane! I hooked her up with our virtual assistant team who took over answering her phones for her and gave her a tiny bit of her life back before she had a heart attack. 

Another broker was tired of not seeing his wife and kids. He was doing great and did in only his third year in the business $8 Million in sales. But he hired me to help him learn to delegate and get his life back. The first thing we did was change his adwords campaigns and set him online to dominate with SEO- then changed the price range of clients he was attracting. He went from $8 Million to over $13 Million in just 6 months of private coaching. 

Here is his testimonial: 

The Best Advice to Get More Business

The best advice to get more business: 

When you first start your business you make personal sacrifices to get your business going. You get the support of your spouse, your kids, your siblings or your significant other. They are all behind you! They want you to succeed.  

Then your efforts start to pay off big time, you paid your dues and now you are a top producer cashing in. But the problem becomes: there is only one of you. Then your family wants you back. 

So there are three things that you have to do: 

1.Work more on your business than you do in your business. 

2.Delegate, delegate, delegate

3.And then the most important thing you can do is to: Take one day off each week. 

If you are a Christian the day off needs to be Sunday. If you are Jewish then the day needs to be Saturday. If you are Muslim, then the day needs to be Friday. Keeping the Sabbath day holy will pay you back tenfold. The Lord promises you that if you rest on the Sabbath day and use that day to honor your callings- your church or temple attendance, helping the sick and the homeless, etc that your business and relationships will be blessed and you will be prosperous. 

If you are not a Christian then choose another day of the week where you can spend time in reflection, contemplation, helping those around you and so on. 

I coach brokers and agents who are at this junction in their real estate journey. They are on the brink of burnout. Without a day off, I promise the burnout will happen! 

The best compliments I get are those from the spouses of the agents and brokers I have the blessing to coach. “Thank you for coaching my wife to take Sunday off, to go to church with us as a family on Sunday. Your coaching fee was worth every penny for this one requirement!” 

It works, I promise you it works! Make a commitment today, this Sunday, that you will take this day off of work each week or whatever other day you need to set aside. 

And then be ready for blessings to be poured out on you!