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As most of you know, I’m not a big fan of attempting SEO (Search Engine Optimization) on your own and believe it is some of the lowest paying and most risky work we can do in our business. We had a long discussion about this on the cruise that I will post here at RMP when I get it edited.

Anyway, the problem with doing things ourselves when it comes to optimization is we are not experts and as busy as we are there is just no way for us to keep up with what is going on with the search engines, particularly Google. Because what was true last week is probably not true this week when it comes to optimization.

I even heard yesterday from a pretty reliable source that Google is now penalizing for duplicate content, including sequence of Meta Tags, Title Tags, etc. so the old “copy a site” that is ranking well for your keyword may just get you banned from Google altogether in the future.

I have a lot of #1 and first page Google rankings in both the real estate side of the business as well as the training side but it didn’t happen overnight and I have set up my business to not be “dependent” upon those placements for my business just as I am not “dependent” e-mail. I generate a ton of business from those sites. I try to keep up with the algorithms and changes to the major search engines and like to think I am pretty well versed, but I still have a professional when it comes to actually doing the work on any sites when it comes to SEO.

There is just so many other things we can do to create long term salable income streams in our business. I strongly encourage you to hire a professional if you absolutely must focus any time on trying to rank well in Google. Even hiring the wrong professional can be disastrous.

I don’t know the exact number, maybe Rich can help me out her, but I believe it is like 75% or higher of all searches originate in Google or Yahoo which is why I focus so much on those two.

To put this thread in concrete, I will close by giving you a link to an article which talks about how Google blacklisted one of the most well respected companies in the world, BMW. Yes, BMW, the Germany division, which is the largest of all divisions within the company was delisted by Google.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20060206/tc_pcworld/124621

If BMW isn’t immune to being blacklisted we as local Realtors in our little markets certainly aren’t immune.
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Make it a Great Day!

Brian