From Chicago Agent’s feature on “Secrets of Online Success,” featuring Dream Town Realty owner Yuval Degani:
“The search engines are pretty smart, and the days of successful bad sites with heavy links are long gone,” says Degani. He warns against placing too much emphasis on SEO tactics, because it can be expensive and time consuming to build a top website that ranks highly in search engine results. “Consider who’s competing for meaningful placement: newspapers, national real estate websites and every brokerage in town. It’s a hard game for an agent to play,” he says.
…Agents can promote themselves and their sites through a combination of traditional marketing and social media, says Degani. “Blog, blog and blog some more. Tell it like it is, with your distinct flavor, with candor and show off your expertise,” he says. Twitter and Facebook also are useful tools that can help agents showcase their neighborhood knowledge and expertise. “The explosion of social media gives agents an opportunity to shine,” he says.
Downplaying SEO in favor of personalized agent blogging and news you can use? Boy, that’s a dramatic shift from Dream Town’s old MO. Too bad the story didn’t link us to any of this flavor or candor, because the only Dream Town blog I can find is the one on the brokerage’s website.