Setting up your IDX Blogger site

Creating your IDX Blogger site

Your IDX Blogger site can be created from the “Websites” tab of your HomeQuest account.  You have the option to convert an existing site to IDX, or create a new site with a new domain name for your IDX Blogger.  You may have 3 websites with your HomeQuest account and you may have a mix of the old style and the new IDX Blogger sites.  Extra sites are available for $10/site if you need, just contact HomeQuest Support to get another site setup.

It is important to note that if you convert an existing site to IDX, you cannot return that site to the old style and your customized text and images are not retained.

Editing the default information

About Me: Your IDX Blogger site comes with some standard default text and settings that should be customized before you have visitors to your new website.  The “About Me” text should be changed and is editable from the Dashboard, or the “About Me” widget page (pictured below).

Agent Info: The Agent contact info that appears in your Agent widget can be edited with the other widgets in your IDX Blogger page under the “Design” menu.  Click here to see more on Adding and Editing Widgets.

Remember to save your settings using the button at the bottom.

Contact info: Your name, phone number, personal image/logo and your partner information are all edited from the “Preferences” tab of your HomeQuest account.  Any changes to your contact information in your HomeQuest account will automatically reflect on your website.

The last part of an IDX Blogger page that is important to edit when you are setting up your site is the All In One SEO information which can be found under “Manage > All In One SEO”.  Click here to see more on All in One SEO.

How To: Choose the Perfect Domain Name for Real Estate

I’m often asked whats the best way to choose a domain name, what are the important factors to take into account etc.

So I decided to write a list of ten tips and tools to help you find that perfect domain for your real estate business

1. At the very top of the list is to use a relevant term that people trying to find you would search for! Don’t worry if its too long, you can always buy another, shorter domain name and forward it.
2. Use a tool like domainsbot – its fast, efficient and will help keep you focused whilst searching for the perfect available domain name.
3. Always, always use top level domains (.com .net and .org) .com obviously being the absolute best choice.
4. All the search engines can separate words in a phrase, don’t-use-too-many-hyphens!
5. Try and research your domain names search popularity, use a tool like Wordtracker or Google Adwords keyword tool to quickly gauge the traffic for that search term / potential domain name.
6. Avoid .info, .biz, .cn etc – they are treated differently by the search engines and are incredibly difficult to rank
7. Make the domain easy to type, easy to spell, easy to remember!
8. Avoid using numbers and hyphens, a single hyphen is fine. Numbers get confusing when talking about the domain name verbally.
9. Make sure the domain name is unique! there is nothing worse than loosing type in traffic to another domain that’s plural of yours!
10. Watch out for copyrights, don’t use terms that are registered, you will get caught, you will get it taken from you.

Next up this week is a guide on how to extract the links from our IDX map and display them within your site!