I've had several clients ask me how I check their sites for keyword rankings on Google.

Here is an SEO software download I've been using for years to monitor my clients' rankings for hundreds of keywords at a time.

It is a free trial, so you have nothing to lose by giving it a try. This tool is invaluable in helping me achieve high rankings for my websites. I have actually been able to achieve page one Google rankings before a site is even launched!

You'll be amazed at how much information this SEO software download gives you about your website. (In fact, it is great for checking your website rankings of your competitors as well!)

So what is your website worth, anyway? This is a much more philosophical question than it may sound at first glance. Add the words "to you," and maybe you'll get my drift. Think about this for a moment; what is your website worth TO YOU?

If you're like most website owners, the question is easily answered by checking your credit card statement for last month: $29.95 per month, no more, no less (or $49.95, or $99, etc.).

Now let's ask the question a different way. What long term value have you invested in your site to make it perform better than the other agents who are forking over $29.95 or $49.95 for the same cookie cutter site? And you wonder why you are suffering such dismal results from your website?

Email marketing is a tool used by highly paid pros in Big Business to add customers to their sales pipeline and big profits to their bottom lines. If you as a real estate agent are not using it to its full potential, you are leaving sales (and commissions) on the table.

If you want to grow your real estate business, learning more about automating your email marketing efforts is an essential item on your to-do list. It doesn't have to be intimidating, and you don't have to be a disciplined or accomplished writer to make this tool work for you.

Thanks for all of you who are visiting this site from up in beautiful Spokane, Washington. I appreciate the inclusion of my article entitled How to give your leads to your competitor in the most recent newsletter of the Spokane Association of REALTORS®.

Things you can do while you're here:

• Get Real Estate Marketing Tips
• Learn about the importance of link exchanges for real estate SEO
• Exchange links with my site
• Get into my Washington Real Estate Agents directory (Click on your city to link it directly to your website. See the Idaho Real Estate Agents directory for an example.)

Don't you hate seeing a thousand other real estate agents right next to you on the real estate agent directories out there? There's certainly a need to be listed in as many places on the Internet as possible.

But what if you could be the only agent listed in your primary service areas...permanently? And what if your city name could link directly to your website (or any page on it)?

I've designed a way for every agent in the U.S. to do just that. It's extremely affordable; it is a one-time cost, not a subscription. Once you're in the directory, you're in for good. And when space runs out, that's it. There won't be more listings added.

Here's how it works...

Every real estate agent who has flirted with blogging needs to pick up a copy of Hugh Hewitt's book Blog: Understanding the Information Reformation That's Changing Your World. Better yet, read it, and see how it impacts your strategies for real estate marketing. I'm adding the book to my homeschooled kids' required reading list. It's that important.

Why would I recommend a book by a nationally known political commentator to a readership of real estate agents across the political spectrum? That could be dangerous, as I certainly don't want to lose readers over politics.

How much time did you spend writing your bio for your real estate website? Five minutes? Maybe even less? Uh oh. Dig it out right now!

Writing a persuasive bio for your real estate agent website is very important, because you're selling yourself long before you're selling a house. You won't convert a single lead to a client unless you sell them on who you are and what you do, first and foremost. Only then do you have the opportunity to list their home, or help them buy a new home.

When a visitor goes from one real estate website to another, participants in the Alexa program allow that information to be collected and analyzed for "related links" and traffic estimates.

Here's why this can be beneficial for website owners. You spend a lot of time on your own site, right? (If not, you probably need to talk to me about your website!) With Alexa, you can add your own traffic to your own website into the Alexa database, as well as the other real estate sites you visit on a regular basis.

If anyone doubts the high value Google places on internal linking (deep-linking), I have hard evidence that should blow them away. Google recently bumped a client of mine up from no results for a particular set of real estate keywords (local schools) to the top ten over a weekend. Yes, that included a coveted number one rank. All this for nothing more than taking the time to internally link, directory-style, to a number of very relevant pages for these terms.

Nothing too fancy, but very powerful.

This SEO project involved creating a page of useful keyword friendly links to internal pages (MLS listing searches, actually) on his own site. I knew it would be worth the investment, but even I was shocked at how fast this strategy would be reflected in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).

Have you ever wondered how some of your Realtor colleagues got to become the experts in a particular area of real estate?

Whether it's commercial real estate, development land, vacation properties, or even a neighborhood, city, or county, it's possible for you to become a real estate expert by combining your experience with focused search engine optimization strategies.

Everyone wants to be all things to all people, but sometimes it is better to narrow in on your strengths and really get that message out clearly.