A website is only as good as the words on the page. Without words, your site is virtually invisible to search engines. Because search engines have become the gatekeepers of the world's information, it is imperitive that a real estate agent's website contain more than pretty pictures and boilerplate content. If your site is going unnoticed by the search engines, it is probably going unnoticed by your potential clients as well.

You'd have to have lived under a rock not to know the value of the Internet in marketing your real estate business. But simply putting a webpage out there doesn't really constitute brilliant marketing, any more than sticking a sign on the front of your place of business. That's the bare minimum you need to do, but frankly, everyone else is already doing that.

The days of website-as-billboard are over. Today's web surfers, particularly those looking for a new home, are increasingly sophistocated. They want to find useful information. They may not be seeking to contact an agent yet. But it's your website's job to put that thought into their heads.

How can real estate agents can make their website work harder?

There is a common thread to all sites that perform well in this regard. Good writing.

The words on your page are not just read, they are counted, parsed, indexed, calculated, crunched with complex algorhythms, and otherwise analyzed by search giants like Google, Yahoo, MSN, and AOL.

It's cliche by now, but content is indeed king. Because search engines have become the gatekeepers of the world's information, and search engines analyze text, it is imperitive that a real estate agent's website contain more than pretty pictures.

What are home buyers searching for?

This is a trick question. If your first response is "homes," think again. They are actually searching for relevant information about homes. This is an important distinction, because you can't search for homes by submitting photos to a search engines. So it's extremely important to think about the words your potential clients are searching for.

Then it's your job (if you want to show up in search results) to have information that is relevant to what your potential clients are searching for.

With websites, beauty counts, but...

A real estate website should not be designed with the sole gole of winning a beauty contest - although looks definitely count in this game. Of course, every agent wants the pride of ownership associated with a great looking site.

More importantly, though, your website should be designed to attract leads. In the process, if it wins a beauty contest, that's great too! We all love good looking sites, and an attractive design can help to increase your chances of getting a potential client to click "Submit." But it isn't going to do it alone without the aid of good information.

I have seen ugly websites that rank #1 in their search term. I have also seen slick looking websites that have no substance to them, and therefore rank poorly in the search engines. I'll personally take a simple graphic design with highly relevant, user-friendly content over a hot-looking design that no one can find or use. More importantly, so will search engines and prospective clients.

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