As many of you know, I'm an Internet guy. I've been at it for a long time, and have seen many changes in the industry.
I've seen the web (which is a subset of the Internet, by the way) be transformed from a novelty to the de facto standard of disseminating information. It has qualities that are not matched by any other distribution outlet:
- It is accessible by anyone, anywhere, any time!
- It is extremely cost effective.
- Creative opportunity is unlimited.
- New ancillary technologies have emerged as a direct result of the expansion of the Internet user base.
The upshot of all of this is that every day it gets harder and harder for one person working alone to keep up. I have always owned and maintained multiple websites, but it is getting much more difficult to keep them updated with fresh and lively content.
It used to be that the little guy could keep up with the giant corporations, which made the Internet very appealing and allowed for some great innovations. Now, the individual webmaster is rapidly falling bay the wayside, yielding to those willing to spend millions to knock them aside!
I one had a competitor that spent over a hundred thousand dollars in an effort to dethrone me. He failed, but he weakened me. I cannot withstand assault after assault. The endless battle is draining me of all of my time, The battle is fought in the wee hours of the morning and I'm exhausted.
And now Google is changing some of its relevancy algorithms! I am not a quitter; I will fight to the bitter end. I have worked too long and too tirelessly to surrender to the big money operators.
Sometimes, I think that all I really need is a little help once in a while!
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Same here Richard. I've been at this since 1995. When I "discovered the Internet" in 1994, I remarked to a loan officer that "the Internet will change the world".
I got a call yesterday from a nice young fellow trying to sell me advertising on their new search engine. He wanted me to search keywords for my area so he could show me the companies that were at the top of SERP.
My sites were in place #1, 7, 8, and 9. He still tried to sell me advertising on his site. Geez.
But, you're right. It's getting a lot more technical than in the past and I have to work harder and harder. But, I will. So far, Google hasn't hurt me. I am, however, not feeling very secure.
Just when you think you know what you are doing they change the playing field! Sheesh!
I wouldnt change a thing that you are doing. Google is only improving on certain things and what you are doing now will only rank you better then. They are not overturning the whole thing or getting rid of pagerank.
Richard, Sounds like the same boat, same story for me. Not only am I competing against other agents, which I relish, but NAR, my MLS, and my Broker too. After a while the deep pockets do tend to wear you down. I'm bloodied but not broken yet.
Richard - I did contract work at LLL and part of that was working with the people developing ARPAnet, the predecessor to the internet. I have met with Bennet Cerf and some of the other pioneers of it. I know what you mean about how hard it is to keep up with it. We have agents in the office spending hundreds of dollars a month, or more, trying to get more pulp in their google juice. Right now I can't afford that so I am trying to make my approach a bit more holistic.
This one's for you.
Lenn...
I kind of look forward to those calls. What amazes me is what you said ... once you demonstrate that you are in the number one organic position why don't they give up? What do they have left to sell at that point?
Caren...
In fairness to Google, they don't want to be gamed by SEO, they want to return relevant content. It just makes the work different, and challenging!
I am another relic of the 1990s internet. Things have certainly changed. I am juggling more and more projects: a new site for this, a new blog for that, edit plugins, work with PHP, learn flash, yaddayadayadayada, and it feels like my brain is bursting with all the stuff it has to process......
I've been simply hanging up on the SEO marketeers. I don't have any energy left to talk with them. :-)
But I can't say I feel threatened. In the end, it still comes down to connecting with real, individual people, face to face, one on one. The corporate giants still can't outscore my little firm on that one.
Shane...
I think that the established sites will be fine, but I still lose sleep over it! Plus, I consider my sites relevant but you still have to plan to make swift changes! THX!
Rich I...
I think that competing against the broker hurts the most, even though I have made repeated offers to sell my site! It would actually be cheaper for them to buy it than to compete but you know how it is!
Big Mike...
That was a great video, and one of my favorite "Ringo" tunes. I like playing that because you start out with the "I will try not to sing out of key!"
Cheryl...
We are dealing with huge groups of IT professionals that powwow and assign and get paid whether they succeed or fail! It IS really hard to compete.
It is very hard to keep up. I just try to learn better strategies from you and other web savvy friends here and elsewhere. Like everything else, the playing field changes when people just throw money at it. Thanks Richard, it's good to know I'm not the only one frustrated!
Laura G...
Wow, the system shut down comments right after you wrote this! It is frustrating, isn't it?
Richard: The system was really screwed up there for a while. I was goign to say, if you need a breather, hire (on the cheap) a techie geek from a local high school.
It is really hard to keep up...especially when you haven't been in the game with SEO for as long as you have....
Richard...Sounds like you could have been Al gore's partner in inventing the internet!
I don't know where you get all the time to be on it. if I tried to keep up, I would have to give up fishing, hunting and life!
Chris Ann...
I have found that it's hard to keep them focused, they go off in all directions, but it's not a bad suggestion!
Sonja...
It's harder to stay there than to get there, I can assure you! Because at that point you have something to lose! Thanks for taking the time to comment!
Bill...
Hmmm, I guess I have given all of my other life up. That's kind of sad.
Richard, you're bigger at this Internet thing than I am for sure. Don't let it swamp out your life. I always try to have a life outside these walls.
THe internet is a totally amazing thing. Brings some joy, some sadness & some CASH. It's tough to keep up! KM
See what happens? I wrote a blog this morning about the free rice program from the UN first...even before reading your blog. No good deed goes unpunished. So. here I are...late afternoon. Late to the party as usual. Drat! I want you to know that whatever you need as far as help goes, you can count on me. I do all our web stuff. There are, after all, only two of us. So, I have some free time..hmmm. You cannot not do the web stuff. But, I understand the stress. All the cooking, cleaning, decorating and whatever else you do that keeps your home a happy one, and I know that it is. Don't give up what makes you happy though. Been there, done that. If something has to go, let it go. What is most important is that you are content at the end of the day. And, quit that staying up all night! That's for those of us who are either unhappy, sick with worry or nuts~
I qualify for all three, thank you. :)
Google is ALWAYS fine tuning their algorythms. They want the most RELEVANT page for a particular search to float to the top. That's their business. They will continue to fine tune and fine tune - mostly to foil those to try to manipulate search results.
Don't fall into the trap of believing the so called "Google Experts" who are out there stating what they 'believe' is fact, when in fact IT IS NOT.
The FACT is... Google is very secretive about everything they do. They have to be, because if the public KNEW how they ranked sites, the results could be easily manipulated.
If you're interested, read Matt Cutts' blog. He is FROM Google, and if there is any factual PUBLIC information or hints, you can find it there..... If you're following all the so called experts who 'claim' to know what Google is doing tomorrow in regards to ranking... what's "in", what's "out" - you're wasting your time. THEY DO NOT KNOW ANYTHING. A recent blog post that I've seen surfacing quotes some supposed expert about all the 'changes' being made to the Google algorythms after the first of the year. And of course everyone is freaking out.... because they BELIEVE this hogwash!
You're foolish if you believe ANY of these so called "experts". They KNOW nothing.... they "theorize" much. Continue to make your site relevant, continue to watch rankings, and continue to follow Matt Cutts blog if you're really interested. I've actually personally spoken with the Crawl Manager at Google. He's the man in charge of rankings, etc. Trust me when I tell you..... they will tell you mostly NOTHING except what is clearly obvious.
Richard
You are really internet master mind. Keep posting they are great!
Edward
Wait a minute! I posted a comment here early this morning but cannot find it. I don't remember what it was but I am sure it was insightful and thought provoking as always.
Geez.... if the tried and true webmaster of the sages is tired and overwhelmed can you imagine how us dorks but learning are feeling right now? Sometimes I feel as if I will never catch up so my business plan for next year includes bringing a techie on board so I can spend more time selling more homes!!
Richard,
I am so happy to have found my friends, like you, in the Rain. I will keep up with what Google changes by checking it out here. It has made my life a little easier. And I can sure use that these days!!
April
Richard, I thought I was alone! It does get lonely at the top! I have been doing this for over a decade now. It is like pulling a rabbit out of your have over 1 million times. What worked yesterday does not work today. There was a time my new websites could be on top of the Internet in 2 weeks. Now it takes months, and I can only get one page indexed. Hang in there buddy!
Gary...
I think that the walls are closing in!
Kristin...
And I have to catch up on reading all of my friend's posts!
Suzanne...
Thank you for your kind offer, but as you probably have guessed, I am a serious control freak! I know of at least one other here, I won't say her name out of respect but her initials are MB!
Mickey...
Thanks for the terrific comment. I will take it to heart and just keep on keeping on by keeping my sites relevant!
Edward...
Thanks my friend. I will see you tomorrow!
Mel...
A lot of the comments this morning "didn't take!" Thanks for following up and for the feature!
Martha...
I guess it's because we ALL must keep learning every day. You can never rest!
April...
Amen to that. It seems harder every day!
Jim...
I put up a new site about two years ago that I thought was a killer. It NEVER gets fully indexed, and I can't figure it out. I guess we just keep learning every day.
Keep fighting the power Richard. As long as there are major businesses to spend major money, we will always have a hard time keeping up. But, that doesn't we go down without swinging.
Some interesting comments here. Sounds like we just need to keep plugging away, as exhausting as it can be.
Richard - I could not agree more. I have been at this for ten years now, and it seems like there is always a new challenge or competitor. We continue to get business from our site (and my blog now), but it is tough to maintain the edge that I once had. I also had a competitor spend a bunch of money, and I was dethroned. I still can't bring myself to do the same thing.
Richard, Have you thought about getting a high school student to help with all of the updates? Maybe a team of them, each with a different area to work on for you.
We can all help each other by doing something as simple as linking to another member's outside blog and localism blog. Internal linking doesn't count to Google, Technorati, etc but external links do.
You want to dethrone them back? Start networking with your closest pals and show someone else a little link love. They will link love you back, my friend when you least expect it. I talk about the blogs I enjoy all of the time and my habit of linking to my friends increases their SEO. My benefit? People read me more because they want to know where are we going today (LOL). I get e-mail requests to follow-up on older posts by the public when I least expect it (e.g. the teenager and Shea Stadium, Citi Field post). When kids bookmark you or embed a realtor video because they like your music, what else can a person say?(LOL)
Don't outspend them. Out perform them with a little help from your friends. BTW, everyone who participated in the Fall Eye Candy contest got a boost because the linkback went to their outside blogs. Posting to Localism.com made their original post originate from the highest tier, but my links to their outside blog gave them each an authority link on Technorati. See... there was a method to my madness when I insisted the contest must run a particular way. I maxed out their SEO for that one post for them with that one participation. If we each did it for each other, more authorities linking back externally will move them up in Google, Alexis and Technorati.
So, you guys wanna play with us for the Winter Eye Candy contest? You could always play among yourselves as well. Seriously! ;-)
JL...
But it does make you wonder how long you can stand the assault!
Terri...
I am afraid that is the bottom line!
Jason...
But you must kill them with content. We need to chat about all of this one day.
Don...
Chris Ann had the same thought ... but I can never find the combination of geek and artist that I need.
Carolyn...
Thanks for the "succinct" comment! I just now had another call from an SEO person that couldn't get off the phones fast enough after she pulled my site! lol
As far as the contest, I'm IN!!!
Richard,
You seem to have quite a handle on things. I wish I had your knowledge. I read Carolyn's comment and my head is spinning. Too much to learn. Keep your head up though. You seem to be doing great! And, you are teaching me with most of your posts - so THANK YOU!!
~A:)
Richard - It seems like there will always be someone with deep pockets. I think most people would rather deal with someone who is real to them rather than the giants. But it scares me to read your post. As a newbie here on the rain, I need what I am doing to matter. Things are touch here in Michigan but I am not willing to give up on real estate yet.
As fast as Google , makes changes to its site ranking methods, others come along to implement methods to put them to your favor. It is probably a good thing from their perspective. People are attracted to the change, the challenge and Google thrives on (and is well aware of) the free publicity they always get when they make these changes. Even people on blogs are talking about them I'll bet.
It depends on what you are trying to accomplish. Our site shows up very well for our small, specialized niche, and it gets us business. Most people now days who call us are either on our web page or have been on it. Our site is not on top of all the latest bells and whistles, and we don't care. If we were in a bigger and more competitve market I guess it would matter more, but potential clients want information, want the site easy to understand and navigate, want an easy way to search listings. These things are easy enough to provide.
Another great post from the famous Richard Weisser. Please keep posting I injoy your post very much.
Edward
The internet is exciting. Like Prest Realty, I sell in Payson, AZ, a very small market. So you can make a few mistakes, but not many. It is fun and I spend far too much time on it. Thanks for the post that has provoked so many comments.