Anyone use SEO by Compass Internet Systems? (buying)

[Alexis_Jones]

Hi all!

James- I guess this is their response...

Hi Alexis,
I was going to wait until tomorrow, but I do have some time this morning so…
The phrases for both Debbie and Diana are for their target markets which don’t include Austin. So, if you decided to go with our company, we would write your tags based on your target market of Austin.
REAL SEO is not just the tags but also the links that I answered in the previous e-mail, the ability to capture leads in a timely manner and the coaching calls that we do monthly.
Debbie Copeland is on the first pages of all 7 of the major Search Engines with her phrases.
Diana Russell has more phrases than Debbie and depending on which phrase her placement varies from page 1 to page 2 with 6 of the major Search Engines. She is on Yahoos first page with all her phrases.

Normally there are 2 fears that all people have when spending money: 1) the fear of making a mistake, 2) spending too much money.

Since I understand both, I urge people who are not sure to by all means do research. Some people we talk to recognize immediately that what we do for them has value and the Return On Investment can be considerable. As a realtor, you spend money on advertising which is the category under which we fall. The top realtors spend 30% on advertising because they want to reinvest in their company. The Realtors who don’t perform as well only spend 10%. The biggest fault I have; is wanting everyone to understand the minutia of how the internet works with websites. Unfortunately, people start getting lost in the “how to” and miss the opportunity of the results. The whole point of what we do is to bring results that our potential clients are not already getting. What we do is not inexpensive but rather difficult. Not many companies can do what we do for the money we charge. In fact, there are companies that can’t do what we do for a lot more money

palmcoasting (Cyd?)-
I did email him, and have not heard back. Do you have his phone number?

Gretchen-
For Compass SEO... a one time fee of $399, and basic subscription is $239/mo, advanced is $289/mo. If you prepay for a year, you get a discount that totals about $400 for basic, and $500 for advanced

[Alexis_Jones]

James-
I almost forgot! Here are the websites of the two references they gave me.
realestateutah.com
texasareahomes.com

[Gretchen B]

Wow, that is pricey. If you spent $150 - $250 /mo doing Google Adwords and picking the right ads and keywords you can get your website to come up in the "blue" portion or "right side" portion of Google searches. If you "choose wisely" when it comes to your Adwords you should be able to get several visitors a day. (Also, be careful not to confuse "hits" with "visitors". Just to demonstate the difference, so far this month I've had 190 unique visitors but almost 10,000 hits on my website. It's "unique visitors" you're especially interested in, because that's the number of different people that have actually visited your site.)

Alexis, do you know where your statistics stand now as far as # of visitors, # of contacts, etc? That's really the first place to start - is to know what you've got presently. Your web designer should provide you with a webpage you can go to view your stats for the month. Mine is awstats. I think that's a pretty common one, but there's others, too. I sure wouldn't commit to some sort of a subscription until you're really sure your return on investment will make it worthwhile.

I'm a firm believer that Internet is definitely the premier marketing tool right now and will continue to increase. I applaud you for recognizing the value of the Internet -- just be sure before you leap. I'd really recommend consulting with a few web designers, Adwords specialist, and other realtors who have a great Internet presence. Ask them for their thoughts and suggestions and prices. Lastly, remember that Internet clients will look a long time online before they contact you . . . and even then, they may use your website for searches, etc, but call somebody else when they're ready to work with an agent. While Internet is definitely a better ROI than print ads, don't expect that you'll suddenly be working with multiple Internet clients as a result of SEO. Even with a really great Internet presence you may only gain 2 or 3 more clients a year, depending on the "value" potential clients put on your website.

[Jamesww]

Originally Posted by Alexis_Jones

Hi all!

James- I guess this is their response...

Hi Alexis,
I was going to wait until tomorrow, but I do have some time this morning so…
The phrases for both Debbie and Diana are for their target markets which don’t include Austin. So, if you decided to go with our company, we would write your tags based on your target market of Austin.
REAL SEO is not just the tags but also the links that I answered in the previous e-mail, the ability to capture leads in a timely manner and the coaching calls that we do monthly.
Debbie Copeland is on the first pages of all 7 of the major Search Engines with her phrases.
Diana Russell has more phrases than Debbie and depending on which phrase her placement varies from page 1 to page 2 with 6 of the major Search Engines. She is on Yahoos first page with all her phrases.

Normally there are 2 fears that all people have when spending money: 1) the fear of making a mistake, 2) spending too much money.

Since I understand both, I urge people who are not sure to by all means do research. Some people we talk to recognize immediately that what we do for them has value and the Return On Investment can be considerable. As a realtor, you spend money on advertising which is the category under which we fall. The top realtors spend 30% on advertising because they want to reinvest in their company. The Realtors who don’t perform as well only spend 10%. The biggest fault I have; is wanting everyone to understand the minutia of how the internet works with websites. Unfortunately, people start getting lost in the “how to” and miss the opportunity of the results. The whole point of what we do is to bring results that our potential clients are not already getting. What we do is not inexpensive but rather difficult. Not many companies can do what we do for the money we charge. In fact, there are companies that can’t do what we do for a lot more money

palmcoasting (Cyd?)-
I did email him, and have not heard back. Do you have his phone number?

Gretchen-
For Compass SEO... a one time fee of $399, and basic subscription is $239/mo, advanced is $289/mo. If you prepay for a year, you get a discount that totals about $400 for basic, and $500 for advanced

I checked out the agents page from Utah and they are or the agent is doing all kinds of on the edge sort of stuff. Like linking from obscure directories from cities other than her own. More and more of these link pages are getting "black listed" you need to stick to white hat type stuff. Building ligit backlinks and making sure your web page is easyly crawled by the search engines spiders.

You can do a better job on your own if you follow a few key points dont waste your money especially on something edgy that can end up giving you the opposite of what you want.

If you request it I will give you a place to go to get legit links, network and learn about SEO.

[Alexis_Jones]

James-
Sounds good. Send me a DM or email with the info. Thanks again.

[Alexis_Jones]

techpro-
Good to know. I decided against using them anyway.

[Charlottean]

Originally Posted by Jamesww

I checked out the agents page from Utah and they are or the agent is doing all kinds of on the edge sort of stuff. Like linking from obscure directories from cities other than her own. More and more of these link pages are getting "black listed" you need to stick to white hat type stuff. Building ligit backlinks and making sure your web page is easyly crawled by the search engines spiders.

You can do a better job on your own if you follow a few key points dont waste your money especially on something edgy that can end up giving you the opposite of what you want.

If you request it I will give you a place to go to get legit links, network and learn about SEO.

James

Can you send me that link too? Thanks

[QC Misfit]

I'll take it too

[TampaKaren]

Alexis, You do not need to pay anyone to do SEO. It's very easy and I'll bet if you contact the folks at Point2, they will give you the directions on how you can do it yourself. Sorry if this is a repeat...I didn't read every response.

[Jamesww]

Sorry everyone I have been slammed the last month. So I havn't been visiting the forum much. Below are some links for helping you learn how to do your own SEO.

15 Minute SEO List - Learn how to SEO

What's an SEO? Does Google recommend working with companies that offer to make my site Google-friendly?

Real Estate Forum - Realtor Forums - Powered by vBulletin

Seo Forums (inc. Google forum) : Open discussion of all seo techniques and methods

List of Real Estate Directories | Free Real Estate Directory | Real Estate | New Homes for Sale

Here are some links to get you started. Just remember not to use directories that openly charge for links. You will get away with it at first but over time google will catch it. If you are looking for short term results buying links can work great but after a while you will get sand boxed.

I am working on starting a Digg group to help members develop better content for their web pages and to help direct more traffic to our websites than we can do alone. If anyone is interested let me know.