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New Members: Why You Should Optimize Your Active Rain Profile for Better SEO Results

Lately, I have been getting out of my comfortable office chair and pushing myself into areas outside my comfort level. 

I have been making it a part of my list to call at least two new members from Active Rain on a daily basis.  This person suggested it in her blog a few months ago.  Since I have moved into a new (bank) office that allows me to work for agents in 48 states (48 is more than one), I can now go outside of Florida to help other professionals. 

What do I do when I talk to someone.  You see, most members are not Rainmakers.  So they have the free account that allows them to only post to other members.  The first thing that I review is their profile page.  I would estimate that of the profiles I have reviewed, less than 5% are optimized for Google, Bing, and the other search engines

So Let The Class Begin

Active Rain Profile Page Optimization 101

GOALS:
By the end of this class, you will know how to optimize your profile page on Active Rain
By the end of this class, you will know why that is important
By the end of this class, you will understand why you should become a Rainmaker
By the end of this class, you will learn how to become a Rainmaker for $1 for the First 30 Days (for those of you on the fence)

Where is that Profile Page at anyways.  Do you see the Blue bar running across the length of your screen at the top?  Look at the right corner -- See "My Home" in white.  Click on that button

What now.  There are a lot of places to click.  Do you see on the right side, 3rd Block down, "My Profile (Edit) -- Click There, (please)

Good Job, Grasshopper! You have now successfully negotiated the challenge of locating and manuvering to your Active Rain Profile.  Here you can upload an HD Picture (for more points) and create your own unqiue customized, optimized Active Rain Profile

SEO Techniques

Step One:
Add one or two key phrases after your name.  These terms must be very specific.  These can be location (geographically) specific or title specific.  For example -- "Short Sale Specialist" or "FHA Loans in Tampa, Florida." Get the idea?  Your typical "Homes for Sale" just won't cut it, after all everyone else is doing that.  But "Luxury Multi Family Homes under $200k in Bergen County New Jersey"

Step Two:
Lather, Rinse, and Repeat Step One, but this time do it in the "Company Name" Field

Step Three:
Most common mistake is what to put into "Address Lines 1 and 2".  (Hint: It is NOT your address that you want!) Instead of actual company location, insert your market area.  Bigger is NOT better here.  Instead of the cities or metropolises, do Suburbs, Communities.  Instead of Florida or Tampa, I should have Temple Terrace, Easton Park, Hunter's Green, Riverview, etc.  Make sure that you seperate each with a comma.  Again - Lather, Rinse, Repeat one address line #2 for shinier results!!

Step Four:
You now see three larger form fields.  This is where the bulk of your information about you is going to be at.

But Chuck, I don't know what to say?  No problem -- Use this model - WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHY - Essentially -- Who the heck are YOU.

• WHO are you
• WHAT  do you specialize in?  What niche product or market
• WHERE do you offer your services at? Remember, geographically specific is good
• WHY do you do what you do?  (That's all you, cause I am not inside your mind, not yet at least)
• REFER BACK TO STEP One Thru Three: Repeat Key terms from the key phrases your added in your name and company name.  Repeat also locations from step three
• Make those Key Phrases Stand Out:  Make those phrases stand out by either bolding, underlining or italics.  If you add images, put those key phrases in the title.
• Linking: Second Most Common Mistake (I think this is the NUMBER ONE BIGGEST MISTAKE.  Employ proper search term anchoring.  What is that you ask - Find a phrase that people search on.  Again, specificity is best here.  NEVER, NEVER, EVER, NEVER (ie - don't do it) make a link of "click here" or "email now".  Make a link with the phrase of "Luxury Homes for Sale in Tampa, Florida - Hunters Green" (See Below for an imaged example)

Rinse, Lather, Repeat, Rinse, Repeat Again: For a Flake Free, Shiny Profile and Blog - Repeat once per week (minimum) by adding new content and incorporate terms into those articles (blogs).  Not sure what to say, Talk about Listings, Programs, Industry News, Community Events -- Still Not sure what to see - Here are 101 things to talk about.  My point is, everything you do (or don't do) will have a consequence - Optimization of Your Profile without additional content pointing back at it, will do nothing for you. 

The more often you talk about the same subject (and associated keyowrds) the more times you take someone else place on page one of google!

Check out the Continuation to See the Results of Optimizing Your Active Rain Profile