Levitate Web Design and SEO

Category: Digital Marketing

How Much Does #SEO Cost?
How Much Should SEO Cost?

Everyone has either gotten the phone call or e-mail from someone offering affordable SEO services starting at $99 per month! Are these real? Can they really get your website on “Page One Of Google” like they said?

What Is SEO?

#SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. #SEO is having your website rank for specific keywords that your potential customer may be putting into Google. That sounds easy right? Keep in mind, there are ONLY ten places on Page One Of Google for any particular set of keywords. The next time you go to Google and type in a search… pay attention to the number of results. Why? Well, that will show you the number of pages that are trying to rank for the term you just put in. If I put in the search term “real estate SEO” you will see that we have one million six hundred thousands results. How easy do you think it is to be the “first ten”? Well what about page two you ask…

The old joke is “where do you hide a dead body? Page two of Google”

SEO Takes Work

This article will not cover what needs to be done to rank your website on page one of Google… there are millions of search results telling you how to do that– if you don’t believe me, just Google it! To give some explanation of the work involved in ranking a website — here is a Guide to real estate SEO. Real estate SEO is generally much more challenging than most verticals because of the immense amount of competition.

What we will go into is: Real SEO takes time! There is a ton of work involved including On-Page SEO, which is setting up your website properly including:
- H1, H2, H3 Headers
- Meta Title
- Meta Description
- Keyword Density (even if its simply double checking for keyword stuffing)
- URL Structure
- Internal Links
And that is just scraping the surface. Once the on-page SEO is done, then someone needs to write some high quality, original content. That’s right, every page of your site needs to be custom written and not written by Chat GPT. Once all of that NEW copy is written, then someone is going to syndicate that content on social media. That is not just posting the new blog on your personal Facebook page, but somehow figuring out how to have it shared, liked, tweeted, retweeted, upvoted and everything else that shows its a quality piece of content.

SEO Takes Time

Anyone claiming that they will have you on page one of Google instantly (or even within a month) is either lying to you…or simply running an Google Adwords campaign. It takes months, sometimes even years, to properly rank a site.

How Much Should SEO Cost?

Now that we have somewhat of an understanding of the work involved in SEOing a website. Understanding the work, time and ability that SEO takes, now we can look at the affordability of real SEO. Different SEO agencies provide different levels of SEO with different pricing models.

SEO Pricing is based on a variety of factors:
- How much work needs to be done to your existing website
- The number of monthly searches for your keywords you want to rank for
- How competitive the search is
- How strong the competition for the search results are
- Domain age and existing domain metrics for your existing website
- The going Cost Per Click paid for Adwords for those keywords
Once again, we are just scraping the surface. Needless to say, its easier to rank a website that wants to be found for “Dog Walking in Granbury Tx” than it is for “New York Real Estate”. One search term will have very few searches and very few competing websites. The other search term has thousands of monthly searches and millions of websites fighting to be on page one of Google.

NO ONE can guarantee page one placement on Google for a pre-determined price

Is SEO Affordable?

Affordable SEO is a matter of value. Any digital marketing service, such as search engine optimization, should provide a return on investment. The amount of ROI dictates its affordability. Most businesses are perfectly fine in spending any amount of money, if it provides a consistent return on investment. At the same time, it doesn’t matter how little you spend (yea, we are talking about you $199 per month SEO guru) if you don’t acquire any new business or generate any new revenue.

How Do I Know If My SEO Price Is Affordable?

There are many ways to qualify value in SEO services. Whether your long term business goals are brand recognition, product awareness or bottom line sales, there are may was to measure success. One common way is to compare your SEO Quote to what it would cost to run Google Ads (which ultimately gets you on page one of Google). This is not an direct comparison for a variety of reasons. Some basic reasons are:
- When you stop paying the ads go away instantly
- Some people skip ALL ads and go to the first “organic search result”
Comparing your SEO Spend to the Google Adwords equivalent costs is a quick way to get an idea if your SEO is Affordable.

When you get a quote for ongoing SEO services, it should include some of the main keywords the SEO company anticipates you ranking for. It should also include the average CPC or Cost Per Click needed to pay for an ad on Google. Simply multiply the number of searches by the Cost Per Click. Keep in mind when looking at comparing organic ranking to paid ads, don’t anticipate getting 100% of all of the clicks — but this process will give some relevance and assign a value for each search term.

The only way you get 100% of the clicks is if you don’t have any ads and rank for all ten positions.

The point here is that you can look at each key-phrase searched in Google and know how much it would cost to show up (in the ads) each time that keyword is searched. Your SEO for those series of keywords has a direct relationship to the amount of the equivalent Google Adwords.

Real SEO Can Be Affordable

Depending on your specific business goals, SEO can be very affordable. SEO has single handily created multi-million dollar, publicly traded companies. Let’s look at real estate SEO, Zillow for instance…They would only be a funny name if they did not beat out everyone else in the extremely competitive world of online real estate.

SEO is all about getting a return on investment. It really doesn’t matter how much it costs.

If every dollar you spend makes you a dollar fifty — spend 100 million!!
May 27, 2023
Why You Need a Real Estate Website

Having an online presence is critical for any business, and real estate is no exception. Real estate professionals need a website to establish credibility, generate leads, provide valuable resources and information, and enhance communication and customer service.

In this article, we’ll explore the benefits of having a website as a real estate professional, the key features of the best real estate websites, and how to create and maintain a website. We’ll also discuss why having a website is particularly important when starting a real estate brokerage.

Benefits of having a website

Establishing credibility and building trust

In today’s digital age, potential clients are likely to research real estate agents online before deciding to work with them. A website can help establish credibility and build trust with potential clients.

A well-designed website can showcase your experience, qualifications, and expertise in the real estate industry. Testimonials and reviews from satisfied clients can further establish your reputation as a reliable and trustworthy agent.

Generating leads and increasing visibility

A website can be an effective lead generation tool for real estate professionals. By optimizing your website for search engines and using digital marketing strategies, you can increase your online visibility. This will help to attract potential clients who are searching for properties or real estate services online.

It can also serve as a platform for digital marketing campaigns, such as email marketing, social media marketing, and pay-per-click advertising. By driving traffic to your website, you can capture leads and convert them into clients.

Saving time and providing convenience for clients

With a website, you can save yours and your clients time by providing convenient access to information and resources. For example, you can provide property listings, property search tools, and interactive maps and virtual tours on your website.

Clients can easily search for properties, view photos and videos, and even take virtual tours of properties from the comfort of their own homes.

By providing these valuable resources and information on your website, you can also answer frequently asked questions and provide guidance to clients. This saves time and reduces the need for back-and-forth communication.

Enhancing communication and customer service

A website can enhance communication and customer service by providing multiple channels for clients to contact you. By including contact and inquiry forms on your website, clients can easily reach out to you with questions or to schedule showings.

You can also include your phone number, email address, and social media profiles, providing clients with a variety of ways to get in touch with you.

Providing valuable resources and information

A website can provide valuable resources and information for clients, such as market reports, real estate news and trends, and guides for buying and selling real estate.

By providing this information, you can position yourself as a knowledgeable and helpful resource for clients.

Key features of a real estate website

Property listings

One of the most important features of a real estate website is property listings. Property listings should be well-organized and easy to navigate. This will allow clients to search for properties based on their specific needs and preferences.

Property search tools

In addition to property listings, a website should include property search tools that allow clients to filter properties based on location, price, size, and other criteria. Property search tools should be user-friendly and provide accurate and up-to-date information.

Interactive maps and virtual tours

Interactive maps and virtual tours can provide clients with a more immersive and engaging experience when searching for properties. By using these tools, clients can view the layout and features of a property in a more detailed and realistic way.

Contact and inquiry forms

Contact and inquiry forms should be prominently displayed on a real estate website, allowing clients to easily contact agents and request information about properties. Forms should be easy to fill out and should ask for relevant information that can help agents better understand clients’ needs.

Testimonials and reviews

Testimonials and reviews from satisfied clients can help establish credibility and build trust with potential clients. Including these on your website can demonstrate your experience and expertise, and show that you have a history of successfully serving your clients.

Blog or news section

Having a blog or news section on your website can provide clients with valuable information and insights about the real estate industry. You can share your expertise and knowledge, and provide updates on the latest trends and developments in the market.

This can help position you as a thought leader in the industry, and demonstrate your dedication to keeping your clients informed and up-to-date.

Why having a website is important when starting a real estate brokerage

When starting a real estate brokerage, having a website is particularly important. A website can help establish your brand and reputation, attract potential clients, and provide valuable resources and information. By building a professional-looking website, you can position your brokerage as a trusted and reliable source for real estate services.

A website can also help you compete with other brokerages in your market by providing a platform to showcase your expertise, listings, and services.

It can serve as a central hub for your marketing efforts, and provide a way for potential clients to learn more about your brokerage and the services you offer.

Conclusion

Having a website is essential for any real estate professional or brokerage. A website can help establish your brand and reputation, attract potential clients, and provide valuable resources and information.

By building a professional-looking website, optimizing it for search engines, and regularly adding new content and resources, you can position yourself as a trusted and reliable source for real estate services.

February 18, 2023
Digital Marketing for Real Estate: Beginners Guide
Digital Marketing

Disruptive technologies have led to a significant transformation in the real estate sector, just like many others. This movement has been accelerated by the current pandemic, which has only served to strengthen its efforts to create a new, better and more digitized model for real estate operations.

Rapid innovation has made it possible to streamline every stage of the real-estate buying process, whether that’s searching for listings on realty aggregators, applying online for financing options, or even showing virtual houses in exchange for real ones.

It should not surprise that digital marketing is essential for the success of fast-changing industries such as this. We have compiled some of the most powerful marketing strategies that you can use to help your business grow and ensure its future success.
1. Create Real Estate Videos
The shift towards video content is the one trend that will redefine real estate marketing. Agents must have a solid video marketing strategy if they want to remain competitive in this highly competitive market.

Video enhances every stage of the real estate buying process. Photos and written content no longer work when it comes to attracting potential clients to your properties. Listings that include a video receive 403% more inquiries than those which do not. Listing videos should be professionally done to attract potential buyers.

Videos can also be a great way to build your brand and connect with potential customers. Your target audience will trust you if you create educational content that is valuable. Educational video content can be a personal and effective way to show your expertise on the local housing market. Educational videos offer agents a great opportunity to show their expertise and knowledge.

Your videos should be promoted on the same platforms as your content. Agents should aim to have a presence on at least one social media channel in order to maximize exposure. Your following will draw attention to your content, regardless of whether it’s LinkedIn, Facebook or YouTube. Though the growth strategy for each social media platform differs, here are some tips to get you started on the channel of your choice.

If you prefer to get your content out there faster, you can use Ads on social media platforms. This allows you to bypass the hurdle of building an organic audience, and puts your videos in front of your target audience quickly. Here’s a helpful guide to get you started with Facebook Ads.
1. Optimize social media accounts
This brings us to the next point. You probably already have business accounts on many or all social media platforms. Social media success is more than having an account. You’ll need an independent real estate social media marketing strategy to succeed in this increasingly competitive space.

Recognize that every social media channel is different and can attract different types. This doesn’t mean you have to use the same content on all channels. However, you can adapt the content depending on which platform it’s being posted on. You can save an infographic you create to post on your website in several formats.

Your success stories will help humanize your brand.

You should engage users and not just post content. You should check for potential leads’ comments at least once per day, and then respond immediately. Social media should serve as a channel for communication with potential clients, not a showcase for your business.

Use relevant hashtags to increase traffic to your social media posts. You should not only use generic hashtags like #realestate or #housing. Also, do your research on hashtags that are specific to your area and niche. This will allow you to attract more people to your posts, and therefore generate more leads via social media.
1. Take Virtual Tours of Listings
According to a study from Realtor.com, listings which offer virtual tours receive 87% more views than properties which don’t have any. It’s not surprising, considering the rapid rise of virtual reality and the current pandemic.

Even if you aren’t tech-savvy, creating virtual tours of your properties is easy. Online software tools are available that will help you create professional-looking tours without spending too much money. In an increasingly digital world, property listings that only include photos and text descriptions are not sufficient.

FACEBOOK

Facebook still reigns as one of the most widely used online platforms by adults. The vast majority of users use it daily. This gives brands and businesses the opportunity to have maximum visibility when they implement a Facebook marketing strategy.

Of all the tasks involved in Facebook marketing, the hardest part is often getting started. However, we have seven steps that will help you get your Facebook marketing off the ground.

Continue reading to learn how you can get the most from this powerful social media platform.
1. Set goals for Facebook
Setting the right goals is the first step in any marketing strategy. This will serve as a benchmark against which to gauge the success of your Facebook strategy. To set goals you will need to do some research so that your plan can be achieved through Facebook.

In the Sprout Social Index, we found that marketers on Facebook had a few top goals in mind:
- 34% want to increase brand awareness
- 21% want to increase community engagement
- 11% want to increase sales and lead-generation
These survey results can be a great place for you to start if your company doesn’t yet have Facebook goals. If your company has set goals for general marketing, you can look at how they overlap with your plans to market on Facebook.

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Setting Goals

These are the most common goals businesses have for the year. Here’s how a Facebook strategy can help:
- Quality sales increase: Better targeting is key to improving the quality of your sales. A well-planned Facebook marketing strategy will help you reach your target audience better. You won’t get more fish just because the pond is larger. Focus on the things you are most familiar with and use Facebook to increase your reach.
- Adding value to your organization: Facebook can help you better nurture your customers, increase awareness and offer more resources to your audience. Facebook should be your first source of information.
- Get a better pulse on the industry: Are your competitors always one-step ahead of you? With the help of Social media monitoring tools you can monitor, listen, and report on any social conversation that revolves around you, your industry, or your competitors. Before speaking, increase your listening skills.
- More efficient recruitment: Nobody said that social recruiting is easy to use, but it’s growing in popularity. Social media can help you increase your recruiting efforts and reach top talent quicker. You can increase your chances of recruiting high-quality employees by using the social networks of your employees.
- Smarter growth: A successful business will have a reduced churn rate, lower spend, and increased acquisition. Facebook can help with all of these aspects. Facebook can help you in areas, including increased targeting and ad spending. Addressing your Facebook marketing strategy will help you reach these goals.
Follow-up: Keeping track of your progress is crucial.
1. Know your Facebook audience
It is important to understand who is on Facebook, and how your audience split looks before you decide which Facebook marketing strategies to use.

After you have done that, spend some time familiarizing yourself with your Facebook demographics by using Facebook Page Insights.
1. Engage your audience proactive
They’re designed to be used as social media networks for sharing, discussing and conversing with others. You must remember the basic concept of what makes a social network. This means that engagement and conversation should not be neglected.

Instead, be a community for the people you serve.

Facebook is a great place for industry discussions and chats, with your customers or with other people. While Twitter often gets all the limelight of being a social customer care mecca, don’t forget about Facebook too.

You can help drive Facebook engagement by asking people to simply engage in the first place. You can’t wait for your followers and sit back. There are many ways to increase engagement, even though you can’t reach all people.

GOOGLE

1.Want to get yourself some free advertising on Google?

All you have to do is claim your Google My Business listing (formerly known as Google Places), and your business can get featured in the search results (as well as in Google Maps). You can see that all of the businesses in the red call-out are local Google My Business results. A great thing is that none of these businesses paid for their position in the local results, unlike Google AdWords.

If you haven’t already claimed your Google My Business listing, you need to do so immediately. As Google guides you through setting up your listing, pay close attention, as you will want to fill out as much as possible.
1. Google Webmaster Tools
You want to know how healthy your website looks in Google’s eyes? Just set up a Google Webmaster Tools account. Google Webmaster Tools will notify you of any red flags that may prevent your site being found in search results. It also helps you analyze your search traffic to see how visitors are finding you.
1. Google Suite: Slides, Slides and Docs
Collaboration with other marketers in your team is possible. Google Suite is a set of great collaboration tools that you can replace your desktop software with. These are the links:
- Google DocsWord documents
- Google SheetsExcel spreadsheets
- Google SlidesPowerPoint presentations
- Google Forms for easy collection of simple survey responses
Consider using them to share and collaborate on marketing data analyses, ebook or blog post drafts, marketing or SlideShare presentations, or surveys and polls. You can save your projects automatically and access them across all devices by downloading a mobile app.

SEO and Digital Marketing

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It’s the process of getting traffic through the organic, editorial, and natural search results. It is the term used to describe the activity of improving search engine rankings. It’s essentially quality control for websites.

It seems that there is no difference in SEO and digital marketing strategies. Both perform the same functions and have the same skills. Different titles only be used for marketing purposes. This is why we must take a close look at these concepts. SEO is really based as a subset of digital marketing.

SEO can target various types of searches, such as image search, video search and news search engines. A sound SEO strategy can help position your website to be found at critical points during the buying process, or when people are looking for it.

Various companies offer SEO services if you feel like you don’t have the time to invest in learning the ins and outs of the complex world that is SEO. While SEO pricing structures can vary wildly, finding one that works for you can be the key to unlocking your digital marketing strategy.

Read our list of the top SEO tools for 2023

Wrapping Up

Having a solid digital marketing strategy is a must for the success of real estate agents. Using these tips, you’ll not only be able to draw more leads and establish a credible reputation, but you’ll also be able to stay ahead of the curve in an industry that’s particularly tumultuous during these tough times.
August 6, 2021
Getting Started with a Website

Basics of Creating a Website

There are many reasons you may need a website. Building your very own web site is more than just purchasing a domain, finding website hosting and deciding what kind of website creation software you’ll use. Here’s your step by step tutorial on the way to create your first website.

Have a Purpose

Who, What, Where, When, and Why. These 5 W’s will be your site’s base so these are very important to begin with while building your site. Keep the main reasons in mind when choosing what your website is about. Make sure that you are filling a need or correcting a pain point. When doing so, think of Who, What, Where, When and Why.

Have a Niche

Locate your Niche Market More times than not, you are constructing a web site to create a profit. Research the market to see if it’d be profitable. Ensure you narrow down your idea. Having a unique niche is critical for the success of your website.

For instance: if you love your dog and wish to market pet supplies, you may want and narrow it down and specific products rather than attempt to sell all pet goods known to the animal world.

Choose a Platform

Pick Website Platform With lots of website builders online, choosing a web platform is a balancing act between ease of use and functionality.
Godaddy has a very popular website builder, but does have many limitations for more complex sites. Wix is another alternative for getting a website up fast, but once again, has many limitations when it comes to search engine optimization. For SEO, many SEO agencies choose the WordPress platform because of its flexibility and ability to rank well.

Choose Your Registrar

Select your Registrar There are plenty of hosting companies online you’ll have no problems. While you’re comparing web host businesses look at how much there is a domain purchase.

Registering and buying a site domain name is simple as a lot of the hosting firms have particular deals with their hosting plans. The content of the vast majority of you site need to be original. You need to have content weaved into the pages, Even though there are lots of ways of getting content on your website.

Choose Your Hosting

Choosing Your Website Hosting. Although you may choose to use the same hosting company that you have chosen as your registrar, that may not be the best option. Although it is convenient to have your domain and website both hosted with the same company, you should choose your hosting based off of your needs.

There are multiple types of hosting available for a new website. The least expensive is shared hosting. Shared hosting will also be the slowest in regards to how fast your website will be to users. For a step up in shared hosting, you can usually purchase more RAM. More advanced hosting includes VPS – which are Virtual Private Servers and are substantially faster than shared hosting but usually require some knowledge of operating a server.

If you have chosen WordPress as your platform, most companies now offer WordPress Managed Hosting – which is generally pretty fast but has limited control of the server. With WordPress managed hosting, the hosting provider keeps everything up and running for you. Needless to say, this is only available for WordPress Websites.

Search Engine Optimization

SEO for your website. Spend some time to learn the basics of Search engine optimization as there are lots of great free tutorials online to assist you. Since each of your pages will probably become a landing web page, create sure that each page is optimized.

SEO helps to generate web site traffic. There are several methods to generate traffic to your site. You can run Facebook Ads, leverage Google Google Ads or attempt to rank organically. Regardless, you should implement some basic SEO strategies. Let the search engines know about your new site, write articles and publish with article directory sites, use social network Facebook, YouTube, twitter, etc. Building an internet site isn’t difficult, but you’ll have and put time, energy and even a bit of cash.

Content Creation

Adding copy to your website. Start with keyword research to know what you need to write. Take some time to discover how to do market and keyword research, help to define your niche, learn how to select an exceptional content for your website – as that is what your readers and search engines alike will see.

Building your very own web site is more than just purchasing a domain, finding website hosting and deciding what kind of website creation software you’ll use. Here’s your step by step tutorial on the way to create your first website.

March 20, 2020
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Easy Instructions to Guest Post on Levitate Web Design
1. Register and Login to Levitate Web Design. Scroll down briefly on the home page to see the Main Menu
2. When Logged in, Click New >> Post
3. Compose Post with either classic or blocks editor.
4. Create internal and external links.
5. Use Yoast Plugin to edit snippet and other information for on-page SEO.
6. Publish your Article related to Web Design, SEO, and Internet Technology.
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February 19, 2020
Mixed Content Issues

The Push for a More Secure Web

Google is forcing websites to be labeled as secure. They are doing this by leveraging the browser – Google Chome, to label non-secure sites directly in the address bar. They are also speaking of making non-secure websites not able to be added to the Google index – which means that a Google Search won’t find your website. This makes one of the most current SEO trends to be insuring a website is fully secure.

Dealing with Mixed Content Errors

As a web developer or an SEO professional one of the things you will inevitably have to deal with is the dreaded mixed content issues. For those still learning, mixed content is what happens when your HTTPS website either requests resources from an HTTP location such as an image, or when that HTTPS website has links on pages pointing to HTTP websites.

I know what you are thinking, “But I installed an SSL”. Well, the SSL certificate does not automatically fix those images being pulled from HTTP when the website is now using the HTTPS protocol. Fixing the issues, for the most part, is not that difficult with the correct access to the backend of the website.

Resolving Mixed Content Errors

There are several ways in which these errors can be resolved. The most common are doing it manually or using a plugin that forces HTTPS on everything. When dealing with a situation where you do not have access to the file system on the server the plugin option is the only option that you may have. Having full access to the file system on the server gives more options other than the plugin route.

Get a FREE SEO Audit on your website INSTANTLYhttps://t.co/O0xh7ECufC

— Dean (@DEAN_Knows_Tech) November 14, 2019

WordPress Plugins

When working with WordPress most people try to limit the number of plugins installed and/or active on the site at any given time. The more plugins you have, the better the chances of some of them being way out of date and creating security vulnerabilities.

If plugins are the only option you have then something like Really Simple SSL may provide all the features you need. It will force all URLs and resources to use the HTTPS protocol. Just know that plugins such as these are not always perfect. There are times where it will resolve 99% of all your HTTP/HTTPS issues. But, it may leave a thing or two untouched and forcing you to do some manual on page fixes.

really simple ssl plugin

Other Plugin Options

Another plugin option that seems to work well but does pose some risk for the inexperienced would be a Find and Replace plugin that can edit the database. One such recommended plugin would be Better Search Replace.

The nice thing about this one is that it has a preview mode where you can test your changes and it will show you how many items will be altered. This is great if you know or think you have around 15 URLs that you know are still going to HTTP addresses.

If you test and the results come back with anything from 15-30ish URLs you can be confident that nothing will break if you commit those changes. I have also found that you can actually find all http:// entries and change every single one to https:// in one clean sweep.

Do I need to say do a backup first? Work smarter, not harder. Keep the rookie mistakes to a minimum and always run a backup of your site before making any modifications.

Manually Correcting Mixed Content Errors

For those who possess Jedi web powers, you may prefer to do things manually and keep that WordPress installation nice and clean. Ok, maybe not “clean” but damn close to it. Using tools like SEMrush or SERPed will give you a report of all the mixed content on the site.

Looking at your report you might see that of the 100 mixed content errors reported, it may be the same 10 or 15 things repeated several times across the website. It may show 100 items but you really only need to fix around 15. This can be done relatively fast, especially when you know or built the website to begin with.

Mixed content errors are not extremely difficult to fix. At times they may be hard to find depending on the theme used for the website. Unfortunately, they are something that has to be addressed in order for your SSL Certificate to fully cover your site.

Your choices are doing the work yourself or outsourcing to someone else. If you decide to do the work yourself make sure you create a backup before you start then take your time and check your work. Don’t forget to clear that cache if you have one.

If you decide to hire outside help make sure they know what they are doing before handing over access to your website. In either case, you should be able to resolve all mixed content errors and secure the website with the SSL Certificate.

November 14, 2019