Web Design for Business Brokers a Specialty!
In the good ol' days Real Estate agents and Business Brokers could get someone in the office that was "familiar with computers" to build a web site with Microsoft Office. Those days are way over, and years of edits in Microsoft Word and Front Page have created a huge "log jam" on the net.
If your web site has not been upgraded in five years you are surely experiencing difficulty competing now.
Effective Web Design and SEO are not two separate things!
Since I started web design I have built sites for insurance groups, financial organizations and business brokers as well as fitness trainers, non-profit organizations, etc., etc. However, over the last few years I seem to have to honed in on the business brokerage market.
Through these years I have developed the ability to see through the eyes of the business broker and know his needs. Add to that, learning industry terms and strategies and you have a web contractor that is not an outsider to your industry.
Search Engine Upgrade was designed to address the problem of web sites that have become outdated in either appearance, technical issues or both. The most serious of issues are the technical ones - they affect your business and bottom line. Since real estate and business brokerages have become almost entirely web based enterprises, failure to perform well in searches can be devastating — especially in the current bad economic times.
Let me explain: Microsoft Office was never designed to create " lean " code - it was designed for print output. It doesn't' matter how much code is generated because it disappears in print. However the huge amounts of style code it uses forces the web bots to dig through a veritable mountain of characters to glean a small amount of content. With the unbelievable growth of the internet, the work load on the search engines has become too much.
Google, Yahoo and all the rest are demanding that you assist them by trimming unnecessary code characters or they will pass you by. They won't alot you that extra time.
Typical Issues for Business Broker and Real Estate Sites:
- Huge graphic image file sizes
- Real Estate and Business Brokerage web sites often use pictures to display properties and businesses. These pictures are created by agents with pocket digital cameras. They are then uploaded at full capture file size and squeezed down to display dimensions with Microsoft Word sizing "handles". With the cheap new hi-rez pocket cameras the file size can be measured in megabytes instead of kilobytes.
- Just squeezing them down to size with the
MS Word sizing handles
does not decrease file size - it just makes them look smaller
- MLS listing displays that don't limit per-page listings can easily go over the 100 link maximum and be penalized in the search results.
- Microsoft Word and Front Page edits, even to professionally created
sites, can literally create a ratio twenty style characters for every one character
of content. I see it every day.
- These edits can also cause numerous page errors. Get enough of them and they will hurt your performance in the search engines all by themselves.
- Outdated search code.
- Affiliations to organizations with weak listing services.
"Listings" is not a search word! Most new business sales are to.....
- First Time Buyers
- And "New Americans"
It is not impossible that a Real Estate agent or Business Broker with only....
- A good haircut and one clean suit
- A decent car
- An impressive web site and a wireless laptop....
....could do a bang up business. Even if he still lives with his parents! Your web site is your office - and the cheapest office you'll ever have. It is your credibility - and it conveys your image to your client before he or she even meets you. You only get one chance to make a first impression.
A holistic overhaul is the most cost effective method. It is actually less expensive than fixing what you have now. The added benefit of also upgrading your front end is, you would then also look more successful.
........Michael Walls
