A while back I have written a post about a friend of mine Trace Richardson, who had been subjected a to vicious attack on RipoffReport.com. Due to the nature of Ripoffreport.com and the ability to post anonymously, it is difficult to come to conclusion who is behind these attacks. But it doesn’t really matter who is writing these posts about Trace on Ripoffreport.com. What matters is that any one can be subjected to such underhanded attacks. It is still wonder to me that no one used Ripoffreport.com to post false allegations about my interpreting and translating business. But to be completely honest I see it coming and will not be surprised at all to see the allegations popping up after I publish this post.

Some of the complaints posted on Ripoffreport.com are aimed at LeadPress, a company founded by Trace. The interesting part of it is that LeadPress has not yet officially launched and as far as I know there is not a single paying client as of today. Yet the lies about Trace continue to be posted on Ripoffreport…

The unfortunate effect that Ripoffreport.com benefits from is it’s ability to rise in the search engines. Since Rioffreport.com does not provide a way to address the false accusation, the only other option that we have to our disposal is to try outrank them for the keywords they are ranking.

I would like to thank Matthew Brown (aka Lord Matt) who wrote about Trace Richardson on his blog after my first post with the call to link to Trace’s online profiles.

If you would like to help trace, use the code provided below in this post to links to Trace’s profiles and pages. I have chosen these particular pages about Trace around the Interned because I feel they have the best chance to beat Ripoffreport. Feel free to copy and paste the code when you write a post, but if you think there are other pages that can be brought to the top of the search results fee free to link to them as well. Here are the links:
Trace Richardson on LeadPress

Trace Richardson on BrokerScience

Trace Richardson on Google

Trace Richardson on Twitter

Trace Richardson on YouTube

Trace Richardson on Flickr

Trace Richardson on Diigo

Trace Richardson on Tumblr

Trace Richardson on Vimeo

Trace Richardson on FriendFeed

Trace Richardson on IntenseDebate

Trace Richardson on MyBlogLog

Trace Richardson on Naymz

Trace Richardson on Technorati

Trace Richardson on Delicious

Trace Richardson on Digg

Trace Richardson on Facebook

Trace Richardson on LinkedIn

Trace Richardson on Bebo

Trace Richardson on Pandora

Trace Richardson on Blip.FM

Trace Richardson on Blip.TV

Trace Richardson on Virb

Trace Richardson on ActiveRain

Trace Richardson on Disqus

Trace Richardson on Yelp

Trace Richardson on DailyMotion

Trace Richardson on Plaxo

Trace Richardson on Seesmic

Trace Richardson on StumbleUpon

Trace Richardson on Pipl

Trace Richardson on Vator.tv

Trace Richardson on Last.FM

Trace Richardson on Viddler

Trace Richardson on Zillow

Trace Richardson on Trulia

And here is the code, again please feel free to modify the code by adding the links that you think will help Trace:

Trackbacks that did not show via bot communication :
LeadPress get’s bad press, it’s fake and I think I know why.

[slideshow id=2 w=300 h=200]
Photo Ceredit:
The Harriman Team of Wallingford, CT
Besides branding themselves with a watermarks on pictures they never took, your local MLS is probably resizing the images you upload to accompany your listing, messing them up in the process or at least greatly affecting the quality of your pictures. Fortunately many agents today have their own website and at least one place where they have control how the photos will appear.

If you are operating a WordPress powered website, you might want to take a closer look at NextGEN WordPress Gallery Plugin by Alex Rabe. This plugin has already been integrated into variety of WordPress themes and even other plugins. There is a learning curve in in figuring out how to use this plugin effectively. But it is well worth the trouble.

Possible Problems With Installing and Configuring NextGEN Plugin.

Not sure if any one else experienced the similar problems, but when I attempted to install NextGEN plugin uploading it via FTP client, it would never work properly. I believe it may had something to do with file permissions (CHMOD) configuration of the particular files withing the plugin folder. Apparently my FTP client messes them up. If you come across the same problem, consider installing the plugin through the user interface of your WordPress (presuming your are using WordPress 2.7 or later). Installing the pluging through the WordPress interface fixed my issue and as you can see in the upper left corner of this post, NexGEN plugin is working well.

The NextGEN also requires JW Image Rotator – an important component for the sideshow function of the plugin. You should follow carefully the instructions on how to tell NextGEN plugin where to find JW Image Rotator- another problem I ran into trying to configure the NextGEN plugin properly.

Have you used this plugin? What do you think about it?

Guest Blogger: Cole Pannell

Website: The Banson Pro

Title tags are arguably the most important on-page SEO factor for any web page. When utilized properly, they can really help to boost your site in the SERPs. But when they are abused or used wrongfully, the impact could be fatal.

For those of you who don’t know, a title tag is the actual title of a document or web page. It is the text content contained within the section of the HTML code. You can always tell the title tag of a webpage by looking at the upper-most bar of your web browser window, as the title of the document will always be shown there.

Also, title tags give the actual “name” of any web page that is displayed in the search engine results pages or SERPs. Not only are they read by the human reader, they are also read by the search engines as well.

As a general rule, you want to use no more than 70 characters for the entire length of your title tag (spaces included). And you will want to use no more than 2 keywords in any title tag. It is very important not to keyword-stuff your title, like many webmasters do. But we will get to that in a minute.

Using too many words can actually dilute the keyword effect of your title. So try to keep the “filler” words down to a minimum. Try to use basic symbols (dash, underscore, comma, or the pipe symbol “|”) to break-up your title, instead of words like “the, and, of, by,” etc.

A good title tag should follow a similar format to this: “keyword1 | keyword2 | company name” or “company name – keyword1 – keyword2”. If you have more than 2 keywords you are targeting (as well do) then you should create separate pages and implement unique title tags for those pages and keywords.

Please remember to include the company name or actual website name inside of your title tag. This is for the benefit of the human reader, whereas the keywords are more for the search engines. You can place you company name either before or after the keywords, as shown in the above format, just as long as it is included.

So let’s take a look at a couple examples of what good title tags should like. Instead of giving you examples base on theory, I’m going to base this entirely from real-world, cold-hard facts and evidence.

Look at the site: bransoncanyon.com.

The title tag reads “Branson Real Estate – Branson Missouri Homes for Sale – Branson Canyon”. Obviously, the primary keyword for this website is “Branson Real Estate” and the secondary keyword is “Branson Missouri Homes for Sale”. Branson Canyon is the actual name of the company.

This is a perfect example of an effective title tag – for both SEO purposes and for the human reader. It has good keyword placement and also clearly shows the website for the human readers.

Also notice how it keeps the filler words down to a minimum. Using something like “Branson real estate and Branson Missouri homes for sale here at Branson Canyon” is not as effective as the existing format using the “|” symbol to break apart the words. It also would have been just as effective to use “Branson Real Estate, Branson Missouri Homes for Sale – Branson Canyon” (or any other variation that utilizes a symbolic naming convention).

What evidence do I have to back this up? I was actually hired by Branson Canyon to do the SEO work for them. Before I started, they were at position #53 for Branson Real Estate and position #26 for Branson Missouri Homes for Sale (both in Google). They now show up at position #19 and #17 for the same keywords, respectively. And at the time of this writing, it’s only been 3 weeks! And they will continue to rise as the SEO campaign progresses.

Granted, I also built about 50 in-bound back-links for their site and used the same keywords for the anchor text. But that’s a different topic for a different day .

Now let’s turn to a good example of how NOT to use a title tag.

Check out: bransonwestrealty.com. This lame is using exactly 471 characters in his title tag. And it’s definitely one of the worst cases of keyword-stuffing I’ve seen yet.

His title tag reads “Branson West Realty | BRANSON + REALTY + BRANSON MISSOURI REAL ESTATE + Branson West Real Estate + BRANSON + MISSOURI + VACATION + INFORMATION + PACKAGES + Tri-Lakes Area-Reserve Branson Vacation Packages-Cabins, Condos, Motels, Hotels, Music Shows, Area Attractions and Information-BRANSON MO Nightly Rentals-Branson Missouri Attractions-Vacations + Golf, Lodging, Show Tickets – Branson West, Missouri -Branson Real Estate Locator–A Service of Branson 1 Realty-Welcome”.

If you visit his site, you can clearly see that there is something wrong with this dude. There is no real content on his site. It’s just a bunch of junk links. Also, if you view the source, you can see that he is using 5349 characters for his description tag (it’s recommended to use only 150) and he has 332 keywords in the keywords tag (out of a recommended 10).

This is blatant and disgusting abuse of meta tags in general. Not only is he harming himself in the eyes of the search engines (his SERPs suck) but he is also being unfair to his visitors.

This type of “SEO” can have seriously detrimental effects. The search engines can penalize you or even ban you from the index for pulling stunts like this. And it will NOT help you in the least bit.

To summarize, let’s go over the key points again:

• Use short, descriptive title tags (less than 70 characters).
• Always include your company name or the official name of the website – you are not only writing for the search engines but for humans as well.
• Use no more than 2 keywords for each page’s title.
• Title tags should be unique for each page in your site.
• Use common symbols instead of filler words.
• Do not keyword-stuff
• Don’t be a lame

Remember that effective usage of title tags is only 1 piece to the SEO puzzle. But when properly implemented, you will be well on your way to seeing your site rise to the top.

Thanks for reading!

-Cole Pannell

www.thebransonpro.com

If you enjoyed this post by Cole here are few more you might enjoy The Power Of Backlinks and Finding The Right Keywords For Your Niche.

Last few days I have been pocking around RealBird’s latest product – Property Search Engine. To put it as simply as I can their new product is impressive. With a few clicks and a “copy and paste” – you can be featuring thousands of listings on your blog or website. Just as you see in the examples at the end of this post as well as to your left. The search query for a zip code with 3 miles radius can return hundreds of listings. I have limited my widget to only 16 properties because I do not have an active licenses and do not look to get it active any time soon. The 16 properties listed in my widget are the listing of good friends of mine Pat and Wayne Harriman- so if I receive a lead or two as a result of this post, the leads will not be wasted. This also gave me an opportunity to discover a flaw in the search results which RealBird might want to address in the future updates to their system. The number (16) of course can change as RealBrid works on eliminating the duplicate results and/or my friends take in or sell some listings.

Embedding RealBird’s Property Search Results.
There are two ways you can currently embed the search results into your website. A side bar widget which you can see in action to your left. And a wider widget which can be embedded in to a post/page or other parts of your website. You can specify a custom width for both widgets to accommodate your websites look and feel. You are free to brand your widgets and full page results by adding you logo/pictuire along with contact information.

Email Inquiries Are Sent To The Publisher Not The Listing Agent…

Each property detail page of RealBird’s search results has an contact form. Once a visitor decides to use the form to inquire about further details, the e-mail sent to the listing publisher rather than the agent who owns the listing. For example, all the listings I am showing in the widgets belong to Wayne and Pat Harriman of Wallingford, CT. If a visitor happens to use the contact form from the detail page the e-mail will be sent to me. I think this is important to know for any agents hesitant to publish RealBird’s property search results on their websites.

Use Google Analytics To Analise The Traffic To Your RealBird’s Property Search Engine.

Once you have decided to publish and promote the property search engine, RealBird offers you an option to use your own Google Analytics code to track and examine the traffic.

The Widgets Are Fast.
Unlike RealBird’s Virtual Tour, I reviewed in the past, the property search widgets are extremely fast. It is rather obvious RealBird is reinvesting to improve their product.

Things RealBird Might Want To Improve On
It appears as if RealBird is pulling in results from several different sources. While it is not noticeable when your widget is showing hundreds or thousands of listing- it sure catches your eye when you limit your search results. Some listings can appear two or three times. It would be good idea to develop some sort of filters to eliminate the duplicate results.

About RealBird
RealBird is a technology leader with a solid track record in the real estate industry. The founders of RealBsird have pioneered some of the tools that are now ubiquitous on the Web: they built the first real estate websites back in 1994, first MLS email alert and CRM tools, and invented the patented wireless access to MLSs.

The company was established in 2003, and our initial emphasis was to provide affordable and powerful GIS (Geographical Information Systems),s mapping and aerial photos to the real estate industry.

Disclosure
As of this morning (April 22, 2009) the RealBird is an active sponsor of Go Beyond MLS. However this post was in the working since the end of last week and is not related to RealBird’s decision to sponsor Go Beyond MLS.

Since relaunching the list of real estate blogs las week, there were number of new blogs submitted. I will take time every week to introduce the blogs. This week we welcome ten new blogs to the list:

• Developments- this is blog is a part of WSJ blog section. I was rather surprised to receive the request to include this blog. Even more so, I was hesitant including the blog to the list as it has an “unfair” advantage over the signle blogger who is just starting to write their blog. I can see the Developments blog going to the top of the list with the next update.
• All About Mortgages – this blog is written by Kristen Emery. Kristen is a Mortgage expert from California and is dedicated to provide you with the most comprehensive information and to make your transaction as seamless as possible! Make sure to visit here and blog and hit the “subscribe button”!
• The Big Orange Press- written Rick Smenner of Knoxville, TN. Jennifer Stinnett – Jennifer is a New Media / E-Business Consultant for Real Estate Brokers, Agents and Small Business owners.
• Living Twin Cities- by Jason Sandquist. You can also find Jason on Twitter.
• CraigMische.com – written by Craig Mische. Craig Mische is a licensed real estate broker in the State of Minnesota.
• Focus On Crofton- a real estate blog by Margaret Woda.
• Let’s Talk Real Estate- a real estate blog written by Cristina McBreairty.
• Georgetown Texas Real Estate Blog- written by Edward Lui.
• Denton County Real Estate – written by Jay Myers.
• Lake Lanier Real Estate Blog- by Nesa Kleinheksel.

If you don’t see the blog on the list yet, it is most likely because I added your blog while the script was going through a scheduled update. The above mentioned blogs are now in the database and will be included in the list with the next update. Please follow GoBeyondMLS on Twitter to be notified about updates to the list.