Real Estate Agent, Brokerage and Mortgage Blogs

As you may have heard, Mary McKnight is no longer part of the day to day operations of RSS Pieces. We still have the same development and management team that will continue to provide the service you expect and keep our operations moving forward. New products are on the verge of being launched and we are improving the functionality of our platform to help you make the maximum impact in your market.

Here on the blog we will continue to provide you the information you have come to expect, offering fresh perspectives and insights into marketing, design and making the most of your real estate blog platform.

Webinars are Back!

Starting next week we will be returning to our webinar schedule and they will be hosted by members of the RSS team. We will offer information on topics like SEO, writing posts, marketing and training sessions. You can anticipate real estate webinars to be available 2 to 3 times per week.

New Products!

Next week, you will see the debut of our new real estate blog product, RSS Easy Pieces. This new site will provide a simple platform to start a real estate blog and use our system to start blogging right away. We will also be launching the Real Estate Expert Network, a revolutionary new social network allowing you to connect with fellow real estate professionals and your clients alike. Stay tuned to RSS Pieces for updates on all things blogging and SEO. We look forward to being the same great source of blogging information and SEO advice that you have come to know and love.

Because I love TMZ and The Superficial and because I just thought it would be fun to have an occasional real estate technology gossip piece - so, here are a couple of SEO related real estate rumors making their ways across the blogosphere.

Is Trulia cloaking pages?

Trulia Caught Cloaking Red Handed

Eric Bramlett catches Trulia in what appears by all accounts to be a serious case of cloaking.  Cloaking is an age old shady technique that based on user agent (i.e. GoogleBot, YahooSlurp, (robots) IE, Firefox (people)) serves one set of content to the search engine and another set of content to people visiting the site through regular browsers.  In this case, Eric shows how Trulia is using a redirect and cloaking to direct Google to Trulia's own Seattle Real Estate landing pages when it crawls Seattle Weekly's real estate section. This could be one of the possible cataysts to Trulia's recent jump on the engines in many major markets.  Basically, Trulia is boosting pageviews through partner sites and the techniques they are using while not necessarily evil it may be against Google's TOS.

Conspiracy Theories on Trulia's SEO

Is trulia cloaking? Interesting Sphin story

YouTube Video of Trulia Cloaking

Trulia.com Uses Hidden Text

Trulia's Web-ranking strategies catch heat | Inman News

Read also: White Hat, Gray Hat and Black Hat SEO Explained

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NOTE: TO THE FEW PEOPLE THAT USED THIS POST AS AN EXCUSE TO SPAM DOFOLLOW BLOGS, SHAME ON YOU!  MY ADVICE IS TO COMMENT WHERE YOU WOULD COMMENT NATURALLY- JUST LOOK FOR NEW PLACES AND COMMENT STATEGICALLY SO YOU DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME.  THE DOFOLLOW BLOG MOVEMENT IS IMPORTANT AND YOU SHOULD NOT ABUSE IT.

For those of you that know me- you must know by now there are two things I hate. 

1. Blogrolls

Read also: Real Estate Blogs and Reciprocal Linking Penalties: Does Google hate your Link Love?

2. Commenting for backlinks (That being said, since many of you do this, here are some tips)

Read also: Why commenting for traffic and backlinks to your real estate blog is a waste of time

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Alright, I've been reluctant to post anything about PageRank sculpting but since I have received a bunch of questions about it recently, here goes:    This is a three part series in how to sculpt PageRank so you have greater authority in Google and can increase your search engine position.  The first lesson simply explores what PR sculpting is, the various methods you can use to achieve it and how to determine if you even need it.

What is PageRank Leak/Bleed?

PageRank bleed/leak is the theory that Page A will lose some of its Page Rank when it links to Page B. This happens whether the links are internal or external as far as concept and effects. Even when there is a direct link back there still is Page Rank bleed.

The theory is that any single page can only pass up to 85% of its total PR value to any page it is linking to.  The total value of the page given to any site it links to is calculated by dividing it's total value by the number of links on the page itself (links, meaning anything you can click that do not have the nofollow tag on them).  Yes, that means the combined value of internal and external links.

RESOURCE: Sculpting Your PageRank For Maximum SEO Impact

RESOURCE: The PageRank Formula

FOR EXAMPLE: If you received a link from a PR5 page that linked out to 100 other pages, you would calculate the total value of that one link to your site as:

(PR5 * .085)/100

RESOURCE: The original Bob Wakfer PageRank Calculation Table  (while now quite old now this document is well worth a read)

Read also: What is PageRank bleed

Just a note on my favorite topic-  are you beginning to see why you don't want to have a blogroll on your home page?  You will leak too much PageRank and it it will make it harder initially for you to build rank.  Basiclaly- a large blog roll dilutes your PR and makes more work for you.

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SEO tricks that can have your blog ranking better in 24 hours

Ever wonder why 70% of all RSS Pieces real estate blogs have first page search engine placement? 1. We have a great, feature rich blogging platform and 2. We advise our bloggers to use simple SEO techniques that work fast. These techniques are so simple you can begin implementing them in minutes and start seeing results within 24 hours. Don't believe me? Ask Cyndee Haydon, Mariana Wagner, Laurie Manny, Ines Garcia, Diane Aurit. Dennis Blackmore, etc. Heck, ask people we help that aren't our clients like Colleen Kulikowski. (That's right- we help people that aren't our clients- so, unlike other vendors- our HELP and advice is ALWAYS FREE and publicly available.  I, personally, host daily public webinars where I DO NOT PITCH my services.  I give you the help you need to make your website and/or blog a success. So, if you like what you find here... come and join one of the public webinars. I pormise you - you will learn something new and valuable.)

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