Set-up Checklist
The set-up checklist can be found in the left hand column of your control panel. This feature makes a good “starting point” for new clients. The set-up checklist contains links to the pages with in your control panel to help get the basic design aspects of your website set-up quickly.
Changing your template
The first link with in the Set-up Checklist is ‘Select Template’ this link will take you to a page where you can switch through the different template designs and select a template that best suits your needs. The templates are each labeled as to what kind of template they are- Flash, 100%, or no markings mean that it is a fixed width template.
- Flash Design - Has some elements of flash integrated into the design. Normally used in the header area.
- 100% Design - Also known as a “stretchable template” stretches to fill the entire screen at any resolution.
- Fixed Width Design - Is a standard 800x600 design most of the time centered on screens set at higher resolutions. Most of these designs have high quality elements in the header that restrict them from being made stretchable.
Uploading Agent Picture
Clicking this link will take you to a page that will allow you to upload your Agent Portrait. Click the ‘Browse” button and then select the image that you will be uploading from your computer. Click ‘Upload Agent Picture’ to publish the picture file to your public site. The image will automatically be resized and be displayed in the following areas-
- Be displayed on the home page of your public website.
- At The bottom of each listing that you add to your website.
- At the bottom of property flyers that are printed from your website.
Uploading Company Logo
Uploading the company logo is the same procedure as loading the agent portrait. Click the ‘Browse” button and then select the image that you will be uploading from your computer. Click ‘Upload Company Logo’ button to publish the picture file to your public site. The image will automatically be resized and be displayed in the following areas-
- Be displayed on the home page of your public website.
- At The bottom of each listing that you add to your website.
- At the bottom of property flyers that are printed from your website.
Choosing Realtor Designations
This page provides a complete library of popular realtor designations to choose from. Just select the designations that you have been certified for and they will display at the bottom of your public site after clicking the ‘save designations’ button at the bottom of the page. Each designation can be linked to a website by placing a URL in the box below the selected designation. If you have been certified and have a designation that we do not offer, sent us the designation and we’ll add it.
Review Home Page Content
This page will allow you to add or edit the default text on your homepage, as well as add or edit the links displayed at the bottom of your home page. Use the Rich Text Editor RTE) to format the wording on your home page. Pictures, Links, and files can be easily inserted with the RTE. It functions in much the same way as MSWord does. Click the ‘Save Changes to Home Page Text’ button to publish the changes to your public website. Further down the page in the control panel you have the option to add/remove the links that are displayed at the bottom of your website.
Review Contact Page
After clicking this link, please verify that all of your contact information is correct and properly formatted. The Rich Text Editor will allow you to edit the content displayed on your contact page as well. Be sure to save your changes by clicking the ‘Save Changes to This Page’ button.
Review Meta Tags
Some times referred to as the Meta-Wizard, this page will allow you to fine tune your website for the keywords that you want to come in for. Each site is generated with these settings set for the specific area that the website is generating leads for. Helpful Tips on how each of these fields can be edited are in the left hand column of the control panel. Here is a short description of each type of meta tag-
Title Tag - This is the most important tag in your website programming. Search engines place a major importance on this tag. You want to place the MOST important keyword(s) that you would like to come up for in the search engines. It is not recommended that you place your name, company name, or slogan in this area, unless they are the keywords that you want to be found for when people do searches in the search engines.
Keyword Tag - This is the area where you would type in different key phrases that you would like your site to come in for. Although it is tempting to place high volume of different phrases you want to come up for, we recommend that clients keep it limited to 20 phrases or less. The more phrases that are placed in these tags, the harder it is to come up for any one of them.
Description Tag - This should be a brief description of what your website is about. Search engines do not typically place a high importance on this Tag but they sometimes use the wording from it for their search results to describe your website.
Other Tags - We have also included controls for other less important Meta-Tags. RapidListings believes in offering as much flexibility as possible so that agents and/or web designers have the tools they need to be successful in their fields.
Selecting a Domain Name
This section gives tips and suggestions for picking out domain names for agents who are getting ready to upgrade their packages.
Here are some additional tips in selecting a domain for your website. Picking out the proper domain name for your website can take a little time. Careful consideration should be to the following factors in selecting your domain-
Check for availability of domains with your targeted keywords.
Often time keyword variation domains are difficult to find available, but it is well worth the time and effort to search for these “domain treasures”. Using 1 or more keywords within your domain can play a small role in helping your come up for your targeted keyword search. For example, www.lovelycaliforniarealestate.com would have a little higher chance of coming up for the search phrase “california real estate” because this example domain contains all of the words being searched for. If you are not able to locate one of these “domain treasures” do not be overly concerned. Keep in mind that domains that contain these keywords are not a guaranteed top rank. This only plays a small role in how the search engine determines your websites relevance to the keyword being searched.Spelling - Is it easy to spell?
Choose a domain name that is easily spelled. If the domain name contains words that are easily misspelled you may want to buy up the misspellings as well. These misspellings can easily be re-directed to go to the properly spelled website domain. This will keep competitors from buying up the misspellings and capitalizing from your traffic that may have been looking for your website. Sometimes agents buy domains for their site that is their first and last name, this is totally acceptable but not recommended if you have a hard to spell or hard to pronounce name.Memorable- Is it easily Remembered?
Your Domain will be as important, if not more important, than your business card. Your domain should be catchy or easily remembered. An easily remembered domain is great to attach to anywhere you are advertising- Newspaper ads, billboards, real estate signs, etc. This will help drive traffic to your website through media sources other than the web.Avoid the use of Hyphens when possible.
Sometimes good search engine friendly names can be found with hyphens in them. Before deciding to go this route you need to consider the pros and cons. The upside to this would be- you would have a domain that has a chance to rank a little better in the search engines. The bad side would be that they are typically a little harder to remember. Your returning visitor could possibly type in your domain name without the hyphens and get a competitors website.Try to pick a name with multiple variations available.
Buying up multiple variations of the same domain will help keep people who are looking for your website from finding a competing website by accident. Having multiple domain names on one website will not help your site rank any better. The two main reasons to attach more than one domain name to your website is this-Domain variations - misspelled or close domain variations that may be typed in.
Search engine friendly but not user friendly domains - In this case you would attach the search engine friendly domain to your website and then redirect a more easily remembered domain to your search engine friendly version. This allows you to refer people to your website quickly and easily with out a lot of questions.
Important Points to Note
Choosing the wrong domain will not make or break a website. Do not ever feel like all the good domains are “bought-up”. Domains are only a minor consideration in search engine results, you need to consider in what way you will be utilizing your website and look for an easy to remember, easy to spell, context relevant domain.
- Generic Top Level Domains (GTLDs) offered: .com, .net, .org, .biz, .info
- .com - recommended for commercial and personal sites
- .net - recommended for companies involved in Internet infrastructure
- .org - recommended for not-for-profit organizations
- .info – recommended for both commercial and personal sites
- .biz - restricted to commercial and bona fide business purposes
- Domains must be at least 3 characters and no more than 63 characters, not including the domain extension (.com, .net, etc.). Please note that certain web browsers, email programs and Internet related applications may not support domain names exceeding a total of 26 characters.
- Valid characters for domain names are letters, numbers or dashes [-]. The first or last character cannot be a dash [-]. Special characters such as blank spaces, periods [.], exclamation marks, etc. are not permitted.
- Domain names are not case sensitive, so you can mix lower and upper case letters.