When it comes to marketing your real estate web site there are several things you should ask yourself before you decide that you will do it yourself.

Firstly, Do you know how to do it ? All too often people think they know what they are doing and receive advice form a whole multitude of web designers, friends, blogs and wherever. But is the advice right, we had a new client recently whose designer knew all about search engine marketing and was going to build his knowledge in as he went. The first thing we found was hidden text on the page an absolute no no of course, with all engines, but an immediate ban waiting to happen with Google.

Secondly, OK, you know what you need to do to get those elusive top 10 rankings but do you have the tools to do it, and the technical know how. It’s all well and good knowing you need links and to restructure the HTML of your site etc. But how do you go about getting links, what are you looking for, how do you find them. Without the right tools it is a daunting task and one that many set out on, but never achieve.

Thirdly, Do you have the time ? Many people ask me how long do I need to allow each week for internet marketing, well actually they still call it SEO. My answer to this depends on the site, but in general if you cannot give at least 10 hours a week, you are not going to succeed and even then you are talking 10 hours a week for at least 6 months in many cases and even after that around 5 hours a week. So is your time better spent on what you know best ?

After reading this article you like many people we speak to say, then how can you do a good job for the fees you charge ? The answer to this is volume and years of knowledge and expertise. When we are working with links we have many contacts already and can exchange or get one way links for many clients in one go. Hence we are more efficient than one offs, and contacts want to work with us as it is more beneficial to them. So we may achieve in 10 hours, 10 times what you would for a one off deal. Also we have technical writers who know how to write content to look good on your site, and be be good for the search engines. These people do it everyday and it’s second nature to them. We know how to title pages and write those meta descriptions so consequently we can make change fast and efficiently. All in all it’s our job.

So market it yourself or use a company ? - Should I sell my house myself, I think they call that F.S.B.O. You decide for yourself, but I think you know the simple answer.