All Forum Posts by: Mark Shaver

@Jonathan Hong, website development is my profession. But today my main occupation is different. I'm an REI analyst.

Teaser: "All-in-one software is designed for beginners and not suitable for professional use" ==

@Chris Levarek wrote: "It's always a two way sword when using one or multiple apps. If you find the full service, you are entirely dependent on that solution. If you find the mixed back of solutions, you must learn multiple platforms but diversify risk of failure, outage, etc."

The choice of "full service vs mixed back of solutions" depends on the degree to which the specialist is prepared. Professionals prefer to build a kit by themselves from a few specialized tools.

But beginners look for an all-in-one solution:

Image source

All-in-one software developers take advantage of the fact that their products are purchased by newcomers. Software developers:

• Greatly simplify the functions of their complex of software
• Add as many features as possible in the hope that a newcomer will find among them the features they need
• Make it difficult to switch to another software provider.

For example, the user of a general CRM and general hosting has full access to his data. He can take them and transfer them to another CRM or hosting. This is due to the fact that the IT-specialist will not even look at the CRM or hosting, which have no data export functions. But specialized CRMs for investors and website builders (Wix, SquareSpace, GoDaddy, Carrot,...) do not provide for data export!

One-way road

Newcomers sooner or later move away from comprehensive programs and begin to assemble a package of software and solve compatibility issues on their own.

Those who know how to collect software on their own, never look for ready-made software bundles. Addiction to a ready-made complex of software is like childhood illnesses. You need to get over them once and become an adult.

Teaser: "How to win with Google Ads" ==

@Amy Raye Rogers wrote: "I've been scrubbing through the forums to find people's thoughts on Google Ads. Anyone have any success with these? Any tips?"

I agree with @Ed Brancheau that a lot of real estate professionals don't know how to use Google Ads. This is because their websites are very slow to load. 2/3 of Google Ads visitors leave investor websites before they even load completely.

Example

Amy, let's check your website with Google PageSpeed Insights:

Image via Google PageSpeed Insights

Your website is in the red zone, where using Google Ads is unprofitable. The Google test shows that only 37% of visitors have the patience to wait for your website to finish loading because it takes a long 15 seconds. The other 63% of visitors leave your website before it has finished loading. They also take away 63% of your Google Ads budget.

It's great that Google provides an excellent service Google PageSpeed Insights. Every website owner can check the loading speed of the website himself.

Tips

1) You usually view your website from your notebook, it's more convenient for you. But most of your potential customers access your website from their smartphones.

Test-drive your website via smartphones. Ask people to access your website from their smartphones. Watch how they use your website. You'll find that your website responds much more slowly to a visitor on a smartphone than it does to a website on your notebook.

2) Before you buy Google Ads, speed up your website's load time to at least 3 seconds. Then your website will retain 90% of your visitors.

However, even if you don't buy Google Ads, speed up the loading of your website. It will increase 2.5 times the flow of visitors to your website from your digital marketing: FaceBook ads, media ads, your business cards, SEO, "House For Sale" signs:

Image source via TheBalance.com

Teaser: "How Wix takes away an investor's website articles, domain, and drop 2/3 of visitors" ==

@Amber Forkey wrote: "The brokerage I am with has their own already but my goal to develop my own brand and would like to have a website that reflects that mission."

Good for you, developing your website as soon as you get your license and don't want to use your broker's website. Most agents only start thinking about their own website when they switch from the first broker to the second. The first broker keeps all the traffic on his former agent's page.

Amber Forkey wrote: "Please note I have very little website building experience but can navigate my way around sites like Squarespace rather well."

Brokers, agents and RE investors actively use website builders like SquareSpace, Wix, Carrot,... Unfortunately, they lose 2/3 of the visitors in the first seconds of the site due to slow loading. Look for software developers who will make you a fast website. It will save you almost all of the visitors you're hard-pressed to collect and direct to your web site.

@Jason Shackleton wrote: "However I would spend 10x more effort, time and money on driving traffic to said website than the site itself. "

This is a popular view among agents and RE investors. Most of them use cheap mass-market website builders. But saving money on website development makes 2/3 of the cost of creating visitor traffic senseless.

Example

You are using Wix' website builder for your website. It's a popular budget solution. The flip side of the cheapness of Wix is that it's not well known among agents and investors.

1) The content on your website does not belong to you. Wix makes a note at the bottom of any page on your website:

When you want to leave Wix, it won't give you your content.

2) Wix offers a free .com domain. It looks like you decided to save money and took advantage of Wix's kind offer. Who do you think owns your domain? The Whois Domain Ownership Checker shows that your domain is managed by Wix.

3) I used the Google SEO test to check your website:

Image source via Google PageSpeed Insights

Google thinks your website retains only 35% of visitors while it is loading because it lasts a long 12.6 seconds. The other 65% of visitors leave your website before it has finished loading.

Bottom Line

A one-time savings on website development causes:

• Years of losing 65% of website visitors
• Years of ignoring a slow website in Google rankings
• Years of 3x budget overruns to bring in visitors
• Big problems with ownership issue when trying to change website builder to a more professional solution.

Advice. At some later time in the future you will be making a redesign of your site. It will be a good occasion to move away from budget website builders to more professional software. Then everyone will benefit from your new website - you, your visitors and Google.

Teaser: "SquareSpace' investor website is regularly unavailable several times each day."

@Cody Lewis, after you corrected the typo in the name of your website, I was able to start monitoring it. Your website is hosted on SquareSpace. It has been unavailable via "Forbidden 403 Error" 12 times in the last 3 days:

• 2021-07-29 04:35:28 UTC+0, timeout 10 mins
  
• 2021-07-28 22:28:09 UTC+0, timeout 5 mins
• 2021-07-28 18:35:49 UTC+0, timeout 5 mins
• 2021-07-28 15:12:50 UTC+0, timeout 5 mins
• 2021-07-27 17:18:11 UTC+0, timeout 5 mins
• 2021-07-27 14:56:25 UTC+0, timeout 5 mins
• 2021-07-27 12:30:04 UTC+0, timeout 5 mins
• 2021-07-27 08:07:04 UTC+0, timeout 5 mins
• 2021-07-27 07:16:04 UTC+0, timeout 5 mins
• 2021-07-27 02:26:04 UTC+0, timeout 5 mins
• 2021-07-26 23:39:04 UTC+0, timeout 5 mins
• 2021-07-26 03:49:55 UTC+0, timeout 5 mins

Your website is only accessible 98.679% of the time (2 "nines"). The website must be accessible 99.9% or 99.99% of the time (3 or 4 "nines").

The regular unavailability of your website is due to the fact that it's hosted on SquareSpace. Web site builders (including SquareSpace) were never intended for businesses. The target audience for website builders is novice website owners with small businesses - hand-made work, small doggie suits,...

Image source via LittleBearDogApparel.squarespace.com

Probably, your website with the "Capital" domain word  in the domain deserves more reliable hosting than the newbie friendly SquareSpace.

Link

"Uptime also has a direct impact on your SEO ranking. If your site is down frequently, Google and other search engines will penalize you for it."

The Citation via the article: "Everything You Need To Know About Web Hosting Uptime"

Teaser: "How to determine the right time to start the SEO campaign." ==

@Philip Coiro wrote: "We would also run a text campaign, some SEO and some targeted mail."

You have a great website. But it's not ready to start an SEO campaign right now. Google SEO test is showing the results of a survey on your website:

Google is thinking your website is in the red SEO zone. Only 38% of visitors have the patience to wait for the website to load because the time to load ("Time to Interactive") is a long 8.2 s. The other 62% of visitors leave the website.

Before you start your SEO campaign, reduce your website's load time to 3 seconds. This will retain 90% of visitors to the website. Then your website will be in Google's green SEO zone. You will start an SEO campaign.

Teaser: Links to videos of "REI AI and Machine Learning" Round Table ==

@Jonathan Roberts, the problem is that the roundtable materials are posted on my website. Anyone else can publish these links here at BiggerPockets. But I can't because it might be considered advertising for my website.

I sent you to DM the links to the reports and discussion of the roundtable on AI and Machine Learning of REI. Enjoy reading!

Teaser: "Promote in SEO not one, but many key phrases." ==

@Parker Larsen wrote: "At the time, I was greener than grass and can see how my question was misguided and confused. Buuuut enough about the past! Today, I sit in the number #1 google ranked position for my key word in my target market "sell my house fast Santa Cruz CA" - much thanks to Carrot.com!"

Good for you for mastering the website. But webmastering is a big and complex topic. Be prepared that 9 months is not the pinnacle, but only the beginning of your big journey to the perfect website.

You have the next 2 steps to take.

Step 1. More keyword phrases

The phrase "sell my house fast " is iconic among investors, but not the only one. Note that @Jerryll Noorden demonstrates the effectiveness of his SEO on a good dozen keyword phrases.. You have to work with other equally important queries, too.

Step 2. Website engine changing

You use a carrot website, it does not mean that it's available to all of your visitors. I checked its loading speed with Google PageSpeed:

Image via Google PageSpeed

Google considers your website to be in the red zone for visitors. Only 43% of visitors have the patience to wait for your website to finish loading. It takes 10.5 seconds. The remaining 57% of visitors leave your website before it has finished loading.

Carrot is a website builder. Unfortunately, all website builders - Carrot, Wix, SquareSpace, Tilda,... lose most visitors to slow loading websites.

You need to increase the download speed to 3 seconds, then 90% of your visitors will wait until the end of the download and start exploring your website. At the same time your website will get into the green zone of Google. This will make it a lot easier to promote your website to Google' top for other keywords.

Tip. Start using a good, fast engine (CMS) for your website. Do not use WordPress, it's a slow engine (Carrot, for example, uses WordPress). Use the fastest web engine you can afford.

Parker, good luck in your future mastery of SEO and web design.

Teaser: The dangers of ready-made "full service" software solutions". ==

@Cody Lewis wrote: "We're evaluating "full service" solutions along with CRM, Investor Portal, and Marketing independently as well."

It sounds like you are looking for a Swiss knife for real estate investors:

Image source via Pixabay.com

But professionals use a separate tool for each task:

Image source via AliExpress.com

I sent you the DM articles:

• "Top 50 CRM Software for REI": reviews, testimonials, pros and cons, recommendations
• "CRM choice for beginner RE investors"

P.S. The link to your website in your signature has one wrong letter and refers to a non-existent website. It's potentially dangerous. An adversary could buy a phishing variant of your website and offer BP visitors to pay for non-existent services on your behalf. Please correct the mistake.

Teaser: "The website with slow loading is in the Google red zone."

@Henry Clark wrote: "SEO- search engine optimization. Our SEO is working on this new site to increase the Google recognition."

Google has already recognized your website and placed it in the red SEO zone of websites. Such websites are shown on the last pages of search results. Google PageSpeed test shows the loading results of your website:

Henry, ask your webmaster to speed up the website load time to 3 seconds. Your website will be able to retain 90% of visitors while it loads. The number of website customers will increase by 3 times. Google will place it in the green zone. Your SEO specialist will keep up the work.