When I was a kid growing up in Syracuse, New York, I worked my way though my first 2 years of college by serving tables at an old school Italian (very Italian) restaurant. I had the time of my life. I learned so much about people-about serving people-people from all over the world. It wasn’t uncommon to see the Syracuse University men’s basketball coach-Jim Boeheim-there entertaining his latest recruit. It wasn’t uncommon to see the whole Syracuse Basketball team there. Go SU! 
When I first started waiting tables at the restaurant, I was trained by an older (much older) waiter named Rico. Rico was Italian, through and through, “straight off the boat”, as they say. His Italian accent was so thick I often found myself asking him “what did you say?” After awhile, Rico would get frustrated with me and say in his thick Italian accent- “Do something…..even if it’s wrong!”, which would send me scattering to do something, to look busy. Rico was incredibly frustrated with me. Here he is, this macho Italian gentleman, a professional waiter, he probably had served tables for most of his life and me, this 19 year old kid just learning the ropes. Rico knew the menu front and back, inside and out, I knew nothing. Rico knew the ingredients in the famous Braciole, Tortoni, Spumoni, Gnocchi, Canoli-I knew nothing. At least 3 times per shift I would hear Rico say to me “Do something…..even if it’s wrong!”
When ever I saw Rico coming my way, I learned to immediately grab something and go through the motions of looking like I was busy. Oftentimes, I made an even bigger mess than if I had done nothing at all-all to look like or feel like I was doing something. Rarely did anything good come out of of this strategy but I felt like I was at least doing something.
I see this same mentality in the real estate community, specifically in regards to agent websites. Many real estate agents have websites because they feel like they should. And they should, (90+% of consumers start their homes search online) yet they just go through the motions. They do something, and it’s often wrong, nothing productive comes out of it. An overwhelming majority of real estate agent websites just sit there on the web, doing nothing, all dressed up and no where to go, just waiting for someone to come along and look at them. Rarely does anyone come though. No one comes through because their websites are hard to find. There are many reasons for this but the most common reasons are:
- poor link structure
- website not properly optimized
- poor meta data
- no keywords
- poor keyword choices
- duplicate content
- no content
- no unique content
- no inbound links
- I-frame content
So what did I learn? Doing something wrong, or looking like I am doing something rarely turned into anything productive. I should have just asked the expert (Rico) what I should be doing instead of guessing and going through the motions. Today I’ve learned how to do things right the 1st time. I ask for help and look for expertise in areas I may need help in. I see a lot of shenanigans out there in the real estate industry: paying too much for a website that does nothing, focusing on only one piece of the puzzle, etc. A true Internet marketing strategy requires a complete picture, drawing traffic (consumers) from all available resources. You need an expert. Check out PRO-found Marketing. They start with a wordpress website, add social media tools, video, affiliate marketing, PPC campaigns, content writing, website optimization strategies, review sites and more to deliver a specific result: more inbound leads to you. They will build you a working-affordable-website, rich in unique content with the keywords YOU want to be “found” for online. They bring your customers to you. Don’t Do Something, Even If It’s Wrong…..
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