{"id":5130,"date":"2008-11-17T08:38:53","date_gmt":"2008-11-17T15:38:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=5130"},"modified":"2008-11-17T05:32:14","modified_gmt":"2008-11-17T12:32:14","slug":"the-difference-between-the-best-website-and-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/5130\/the-difference-between-the-best-website-and-results\/","title":{"rendered":"The Difference Between the Best Website and Results"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Web Marketing Association has an annual competition<\/a> in 96 industries to recognize what they believe are the best websites. In the real estate section, they list 7 criteria they look for:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Design<\/li>\n
  2. Ease of use<\/li>\n
  3. Copywriting<\/li>\n
  4. Interactivity<\/li>\n
  5. Use of technology<\/li>\n
  6. Innovation<\/li>\n
  7. Content<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    All seven are subjective, which is fine: the organization giving the award gets to set the criteria. But looking at the winner last year, their award is doing a great disservice to any real estate agent who uses that site as their inspiration. Here is a link to the site<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    Now I don’t know the people who built the site, and I don’t know those agents or their company. Nor do I have anything against them, or the award.<\/p>\n

    Personally, I think the site is fine but not spectacular in execution for what it is: a nice-looking website<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

    But there’s not one mention in seven criteria of results<\/strong>.\u00a0 My assumption is that most businesses want a website that is going to help them get results (i.e. generate visitors and turn them into leads<\/a>). And here’s why this site is at a severe disadvantage<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

    It is invisible to search engines.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    To you, me, and anyone else with a Flash <\/strong>plugin, this is what the site looks like to human eyes:<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    What does this site look like to Google<\/strong>? Here’s a visual of the actual page using a text-based browser:<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    It looks like nothing. Want proof?<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    One entry.\u00a0 Name.\u00a0 Rank.\u00a0 Serial Number.<\/p>\n

    A site exists.\u00a0 Beyond that?\u00a0 No information.<\/p>\n

    This site leaves money on the table<\/strong>. For my real estate site, according to Google Analytics, 73.4% <\/strong>of my 150-250 visitors per day come from search engines.<\/p>\n

    But the only way to find their site from Google is by its own name, “Elizabeth Lofts”, and if one goal of marketing is to get people who don’t already know your name <\/strong>to contact you, then this site had failed by that criteria.<\/p>\n

    And as of today, you won’t find it under “Pearl District” or “Pearl District Condominiums” (until the purgatory of page 5) so it wouldn’t have generated leads from people who express interest in that district.<\/p>\n

    Worse, this site has plenty of information Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The Web Marketing Association has an annual competition in 96 industries to recognize what they believe are the best websites. In the real estate section, they list 7 criteria they look for: Design Ease of use Copywriting Interactivity Use of technology Innovation Content All seven are subjective, which is fine: the organization giving the award […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[185,19],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5130","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-bloodhound-seo","7":"category-technology","9":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1785,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1785\/how-do-you-win-the-odysseus-medal-write-your-heart-out-and-follow-the-rules\/","url_meta":{"origin":5130,"position":0},"title":"How do you win The Odysseus Medal? Write your heart out — and follow the rules . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 10, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I've posted the rules for The Odysseus Medal competition, but there aren't so many that I can't also show them here:The Rules (few and fair):The entry must have been posted within the two weeks before the entry deadline The entrant must be the author of the post More than one\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Carnivals"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Carnivals","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blog-carnivals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2737,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2737\/the-odysseus-medal-competition-voting-for-the-peoples-choice-award-is-open-23\/","url_meta":{"origin":5130,"position":1},"title":"The Odysseus Medal competition — Voting for the People’s Choice Award is open","author":"Greg Swann","date":"March 9, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"My take is that the most important news this week was Zillow.com's announcement that it will be doing background checks on the loan originators it will be referring to consumers as a part of its forthcoming mortgage product. In consequence, this week's short list is all about Zillow's announcement and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Carnivals"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Carnivals","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blog-carnivals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1825,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1825\/the-peoples-choice-award-pick-the-best-of-this-weeks-real-estate-writing\/","url_meta":{"origin":5130,"position":2},"title":"The People’s Choice Award: Pick the best of this week’s real estate writing","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 19, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is the (not very) short list of this week's nominees for The Odysseus Medal. You can vote for one of these posts for the People's Choice Award. These are this week's entires:Dan Green -- How Sub-Prime and Alt-A Mortgage Markets Are Behaving Like NFL Draft Picks Patrick Kapowich --\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Carnivals"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Carnivals","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blog-carnivals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1791,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1791\/vote-for-the-peoples-choice-award-nominees-on-line-now\/","url_meta":{"origin":5130,"position":3},"title":"Vote for The People’s Choice Award — Nominees on-line now","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 12, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Okay, the live version of the People's Choice Award voting interface is on-line. My short-list isn't all that short, alas -- 18 entries total, including seven from BloodhoundBlog. I'll do a better job of eliminating posts in the future. The selections are shown in random order in the voting interface,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Carnivals"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Carnivals","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blog-carnivals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2742,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2742\/the-odysseus-medal-a-breathtaking-daisy-in-the-deserts-of-the-mind\/","url_meta":{"origin":5130,"position":4},"title":"The Odysseus Medal: A breathtaking Daisy in the deserts of the mind","author":"Greg Swann","date":"March 10, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I was talking to Teri Lussier in email last week about Desert Daisies, an annual wildflower you find in the Sonoran Desert. People harvest the seeds and bring them home, and the flowers will eventually take over the whole yard -- for the few weeks they're around. Beautiful little clarions\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Carnivals"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Carnivals","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blog-carnivals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1932,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1932\/odysseus-medal-nominees-voting-for-the-peoples-choice-award-is-open\/","url_meta":{"origin":5130,"position":5},"title":"The Odysseus Medal: Voting for the People’s Choice Award is open","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 16, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"We had a ton of very strong entries this week. I had to eliminate more than half to get to a short list of twenty nominees. If you didn't make the cut, don't despair. You'll come back even stronger next week. Everything was terrific, a real treat for me going\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Carnivals"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Carnivals","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blog-carnivals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5130"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5667,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5130\/revisions\/5667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}