A couple of weeks ago, we partnered with Google expert Jason Barnard (Kalicube) to do a Masterclass called ‘Teach Google How To Display Your Brand’.
Then we realized…
There are some MAJOR differences in how Google views real estate professionals.
That’s why WE’RE BACK with PART 2…
“Teach Google How To Display Your REAL ESTATE Brand”
We’ll answer your most burning questions about Google for real estate, and help you to make sure you’re utilizing your brand to your full advantage in your LOCAL market.
Jason Barnard (The Brand SERP Guy) Is Back on the Podcast to Discuss More Specifically the Branding of Real Estate
[00:00:00] Tonya Eberhart: Is that it? We’re live. Hi, everyone.
[00:00:06] Michael Carr: Hello, everybody.
[00:00:07] Tonya Eberhart: Hi. We are so thrilled to be back again with Jason Barnard from Kalicube. Last time, I think a couple of weeks ago, we did a presentation with Jason who answered a lot of questions for how to teach Google how to display your personal brand. And now we’re back because we realised there are some big differences in how Google views real estate professionals. So, Jason, welcome back.
[00:00:38] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): Thank you so much. I’m delighted to be back. And I didn’t realise there was so much complexity in being a real estate agent when you’re trying to manage your brand on Google, but we’re going to wade through the complexity and make it simple.
[00:00:52] Michael Carr: All right.
Introduction of the Podcast Host: Tonya Eberhart, Who Was the Founder of BrandFace
[00:00:53] Tonya Eberhart: That’s perfect. Okay. Well, let’s go ahead and get started for everybody. So, what I want to do right now is I’m going to add this presentation here into the stream. And of course, a reminder for everybody who’s new to us, just a super quick introduction. My name is Tonya. I’m the founder of BrandFace. And we basically help coaches, consultants, authors, speakers, podcasters differentiate themselves.
[00:01:27] Tonya Eberhart: And of course, as real estate clients today, you are in that consultant category. And we help you differentiate yourself by building that personal brand, so people get to know you beyond just your professional offerings, which basically sets you apart as an authority in your field. So, I’m the founder. This is Michael.
Introduction of the Podcast Host: Michael Carr, Who Was a Client Before Being a Partner in the Company
[00:01:49] Michael Carr: Hi, guys. I’m Michael Carr. I’m also a partner in the company, but what’s important to point out is I was a client before I became a partner in the company. I actually hired Tonya to teach me how to launch my brokerage, take care of my marketing at the time. I did not realise that branding was what I should have been focused on. She sold me marketing, and it taught me branding. It was pretty awesome.
[00:02:13] Michael Carr: I did not realise that she had written a book, became a number one best seller. She asked me to write the second book, which is focused just to real estate agents. We use these principles every day. Our brokerage has grown from in 2013, one agent and one office to offices in Orlando, Atlanta, Knoxville, and Greenville, South Carolina. And now, I’ve got about 30 of the greatest agents you’ve ever seen in a national network of thousands. So, all from the BrandFace principles.
Coming From the SEO World, Jason Barnard (The Brand SERP Guy) Niched Down to the World of Brand SERPs
[00:02:42] Michael Carr: Now, one of the things that’s missing in some of those is Google. Google is important to everybody, right?
[00:02:48] Tonya Eberhart: Yes, it is.
[00:02:48] Michael Carr: Very exciting because they lead everything, right? And we happen to have a very big expert to this who wrote his own stuff. So, Jason, welcome again. Thank you so much for doing this for us.
[00:03:01] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): Yeah. Thank you for having me. I love sharing what I’ve learned over the years. To present myself a little bit, I’m The Brand SERP Guy. And most people don’t know what Brand SERP is, and I forget that. A brand, you’ve got. You know that one. A SERP is a search engine results page. And so, that’s basically your brand message on Google is my specialty.
Jason Barnard Wrote a Definitive Book About Brand SERPs and Became the Leader in the Market for Brand SERPs
[00:03:25] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): I come from the SEO world, search engine optimisation. And I’ve decided to niche down in just the results that appear when somebody googles your brand name or your personal name for that matter. And that makes me, I think, the only expert in the world. And I’ve written the definitive book. And it’s the only book, so it has to be the definitive book, called The Fundamentals of Brand SERPs for Business.
[00:03:49] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): And somebody said to me the other day, wow, you really, really do manage to nail down the leadership of your market. And I was going, that’s easy, I’m the only one in the market so of course I’m the leader, but I’m also the last person in the queue. So, I’ve niche down so much that I’m all alone. And I’m here to help any brand, any person to make sure that Google represents them to their audience in the way that they intended when they build their brand with Tonya and Michael.
Jason Barnard (The Brand SERP Guy) Has a Gift for Explaining Things in Portions the Audience Can Consume
[00:04:24] Michael Carr: Yeah. And what I got to add to that, what we love about Jason is he can do it in ways that we all can understand. He knows all of the language on the other side, but he has this gift of being able to give it to us in portions we can consume. All right. So, it’s very important. You’re going to have takeaways today that you’re going to be able to get started immediately in helping your Google search and how you show up. And this is very important for real estate agents. So, I teach it to my agents. We want to teach it to you all. Okay? So, let’s get started and let Jason do his magic.
The Two Things BrandFace Helps People With: Brand Messaging and Brand Imagery
[00:05:01] Tonya Eberhart: All right. Now, to set the tone just a little bit, the last time we did a presentation with Jason, we walked you guys through the personal branding process and what we do to get people set up, so Jason can work best with them. I’m not going to take you through all of that today. I’m going to show you two slides real quick to let you guys know that when we work with people, we really help them with two different things and how they present that personal brand on Google.
[00:05:32] Tonya Eberhart: Number one, we work with them on brand messaging. And brand messaging is just that language you use to tell people who you serve, how you serve them, what qualifies you to serve them, how it makes their life better, and what makes you different from everyone else who’s also trying to serve that same customer. Okay? So, that can take place through a biography, elevator pitch, something we coined called signature soundbites. And really, those are just highlights of your brand at a glance, a call to action, those kind of things.
[00:06:06] Tonya Eberhart: So, when you go to Google, obviously you’ve got to put information into Google, but it has to be the right information to set you apart and to tell Google what you do and who you do it for and answer all those questions that I just mentioned. So, that’s the brand messaging.
Brand Imagery Is Your Brand’s Association With the Images That Represent You, Which Google Likes to See
[00:06:22] Tonya Eberhart: The other thing and my last slide for today, because I’m going to let these gentlemen take it over, is the next thing we do to set you up for success on Google is brand imagery. Google likes to see your association with the images that represent you as well, such as your logo, background images that are really associated with your brand and resonate with you, what you stand for, your clients, your photos from a photo shoot, brand colours. Those things matter to Google as well.
[00:06:54] Tonya Eberhart: And so, Jason, when we first met Jason, he says, wow, I just love what you guys do because I wish all of my clients came to me with these things ready, because he spent so much time working with his clients to get them ready for Google. Okay? So, that’s why we’re like peanut butter and jelly, right?
[00:07:14] Tonya Eberhart: All right. So, the next thing is we’re going to share with you guys. We came up with 10 burning questions that we have learned over the years from real estate professionals and how Google sees them, how they should put their information into Google and other resources that Google picks up, so that Google sees them the way they want to be seen. So, I’ll let these gentlemen take it from here. And here’s question number one.
How Does Google See Real Estate Differently?
[00:07:41] Michael Carr: All right. How does Google see real estate differently?
[00:07:46] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): Right. Yeah. I find these questions really, really interesting. It made me think a lot about what I do and what’s specific for real estate. And the first thing that struck me is real estate is physically immovable. And Google loves things that are physically immovable because they don’t change or they change rarely.
[00:08:14] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): Google is trying to understand the whole world. And something like basketball players statistics are going to change potentially second by second during a game, certainly week by week. And that’s a real problem for Google to keep up with. The house, the street, that’s not going to change fundamentally very often. So, it’s much easier for Google to deal with.
Google Maps Has a Huge Understanding of the Physical World, Which Helps Real Estate Because It Is Hyperlocal
[00:08:38] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): And the other thing is, because of course houses are immovable, it is by definition going to be hyperlocal. I’m looking for a house in a specific area. And I need Google to show me what’s available in that specific area. And Google has Google Maps, which we all know about. And Google Maps is a huge understanding of the world, the physical world in terms of streets, houses, shops, traffic lights, railways. It’s an amazing piece of engineering, I would say, that Google has managed to understand right down to the closest metre, what is where, who is where.
[00:09:30] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): And it sounds a bit complicated, but a guy from Amazon said Google Maps is unique because it can solve geospatial queries it has never seen before in real time. And that simply means it can get you from A to B when it never has had that question before from A to B, from this person for that specific purpose. And Google Maps is therefore incredibly powerful, incredibly important, and especially for real estate, a major, major player.
The Importance of Android and Google Maps on Managing Traffic in Real Time
[00:10:01] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): And then the other thing that struck me is how important Android is. And we don’t think about Android necessarily in this context. And I’ll tell you a little story, which is really quite cool, is me and my friend played a concert. I’m a double bass player in my spare time. We played a concert in a town called Leon in France. And the people at the concert said, whatever you do, don’t leave now because the traffic’s awful.
[00:10:27] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): But my friend Hugo wanted to get home quickly. And so, we decided to leave, and we used Google Maps. And Google Maps took us the most torturous route you could possibly imagine through these tiny backstreets. And I realised that the same car had been following us throughout this entire process. And what Google was doing using Android phones was managing traffic in real time.
Android Allows Google to Better Understand the Local Environment and to Be Incredibly Hyperlocal
[00:10:58] Tonya Eberhart: Michael has said that for years. He said Google is telling these people to go this way.
[00:11:03] Michael Carr: Yeah. But it’s in traffic situations telling other people to go another way. It’s the only way that they don’t cause other bog downs.
[00:11:10] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): Yes. Exactly. So, three cars behind us will have been sent a different way and therefore spread out the traffic. And that’s just to illustrate the power of Google Maps and that idea of being able to solve geospatial queries it has never seen before in real time. And obviously, from that perspective, you then have Google Maps with Android. And Android allows Google to understand much better the local environment, allows Google to be incredibly hyperlocal.
[00:11:42] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): And we’ll see further down the line where mobile phones, desktop comes in in terms of what people are looking for. But yes, right, definitely, from the off, real estate, your first thing to bear in mind is I need to be hyperlocal, I need to address the audience who are actually either in my location or looking for a house in the location I deal with.
Why Should Real Estate Agents Utilise Google’s Local Services?
[00:12:06] Michael Carr: All right. How about Google local services? Why should real estate agents utilise Google’s local services?
[00:12:16] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): Well, in terms of navigating or using the local results, Google is way, way ahead of everybody else who uses Bing Maps.
[00:12:29] Michael Carr: Right.
The Concept of Being on Top of the List in Google Through Paid Results or Organic Free Results
[00:12:30] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): Relatively few people use Apple Maps. Even people with Apple iPhones will often use Google Maps. They are the leader. And the point about Google is when you search, you’ve got both paid results and you’ve got organic free results. And you can play on both tableau, as it were. The incredibly important thing here is that Google needs to know that you offer the deal that the audience is looking for.
[00:13:04] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): So, your example here is realtor near me. The concept of near me is hyper localised. The person is looking for a realtor. I need to be top of that list. Now, I can be top of the list organically for free or I can be top of the list by paying. Now, obviously, Google makes its money from the paid results. Some people just scroll through the paid results because they don’t like the idea of paid results. Some people don’t. Paid results can get very expensive. When you got high ticket offers like selling a house, I would imagine the cost per click in Google is going to be pretty high.
Whether It’s Paid or Organic, the Important Thing Is to Make Sure Google Understands What It Is You Offer and to Whom
[00:13:46] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): But the important thing, whether it’s paid for or organic, is to make sure Google understands what it is you offer and to whom. And I said earlier on, Google wants to understand. It’s up to you to educate it. That was the last program we did together. It isn’t enough for you to sit there and think, well, Google’s really smart. It’s understood already. Yes, it might have understood already. Has it understood completely? Has it understood correctly? And is it confident in that understanding?
[00:14:25] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): And so, that idea of confidence in understanding is built into the organic results. The fact that it is confident it has correctly understood, it is recommending you as the best solution to the problem the user has expressed. In this case, somebody said, I’m looking for a realtor near me. The person at the front there, the top of the list is either paid or the best possible solution that Google can find to recommend.
The Paid Results Still Has the Idea of Being the Best Solution and Not Just Because You Paid for a Lot of Money
[00:14:53] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): The other thing about the paid stuff is it still has that idea of best solution. So if I wanted to bid and become top of the list in the realtor business in Washington State, because I’m not a good solution, I would not be able to get there. It’s not even that I would have to pay a lot of money. Google will not put me there because I am not a good solution, because Google’s only hope or only aim in life is to find the most efficient solution for its user possible. And whether that’s paid or organic, it’s the same aim.
[00:15:33] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): So, don’t get the idea if I pay enough money, I can always get to the top of paid. You need to pay attention to the paid offers that Google is allowing and think how can I demonstrate to Google’s paid algorithms the value I can bring to their users, who are my audience. Because Google will put me at the top, not because I pay most, but because I pay something and I’m the best solution. So, you end up with this situation in both of them where you are saying, I need to prove to Google that I am the best solution.
It Is a Good Idea to Have a Balance of Both Paid Results and Organic Results
[00:16:07] Michael Carr: And do you suggest that in this space that a little of both is the best way to go, some paid as well as teachy? Do you think that that’s probably one of the best hand?
[00:16:23] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): Yeah. I would suggest that some paid, how would you put it, organic, the free stuff is for life. Basically, you get these people coming to see you and it’s free and it’s for life, as long as you maintain your credibility and Google’s understanding. And paid, I would suggest that there are going to be periods when you’re going to be struggling. If you have a paid campaign running, you can turn the tap up.
[00:16:53] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): So, I think it’s a good idea to have a balance of both to make sure that you can maintain throughout the drought periods, as it were, that you have a solution. Because Google Ads actually also works on the fact that if you’ve had a long running account that spends a little bit each month, it’s easier to turn the tap up and get more. If you tried to start from scratch, it’s really difficult. So, keep a little bubbling paid campaign going underneath.
As Realtors and Entrepreneurs, You Have to See Your Work With Google as Teaching and Training a Child
[00:17:24] Michael Carr: I like that. Because again, it’s teaching Google on how to see you. So at all times, if we’re focused on saying, okay, I’ve got to teach. I loved it when we’ve met with you several times, and you first pointed out to me you should view Google as a child in which you were rearing up in the way you wanted to see you, in the way you want it to go. And so, we tend to look at it much bigger than that, right? It’s Google. It’s Uncle Google. It’s Dr. Google. Tonya was playing Dr. Google last weekend because I wasn’t feeling good. And apparently, I’m dead from what she found on the Google search.
[00:18:04] Michael Carr: But we see it as this big giant thing that it clearly is. But we as realtors, we as entrepreneurs on the street level, we need to see it as something we’re training up as a child to see us this way. So, at least some small paid campaign moving along is also helping with that.
Is It Important to Hyper-Localise the Area You Were in?
[00:18:25] Michael Carr: Charlene Bayes is a good friend of ours. And she asked, is it important to hyper localise the area you were in, county versus town or city? Do you know if that’s even possible on the local services?
[00:18:39] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): You can hyper localise down to towns. There’s no point in educating Google that you can sell a house through somebody in the town next door if you can’t. So, you need to make sure you’re communicating where you actually can help its audience, because Google wants to help its users. Google wants to solve users’ problems. And if you’re not an appropriate solution, don’t even get in the game.
It Is Better to Meet People Needing a Specific Need Than Serve a Whole Town, City, or State That You Can’t Service
[00:19:08] Michael Carr: I really love that, and I will tell you why. From the other side, the non-Google side, the actual realtor side, I teach my agents and the agents across the country my example. Okay. I would love to take over just Atlanta alone, to be the biggest realtor in Atlanta. Extremely hard to do, extremely. You don’t have demand power. It takes a lot of money, that sort of thing. You have to keep in mind, Zillows and realtors, they spend 10, 20, 50 million a year in advertising campaigns, things like that.
[00:19:41] Michael Carr: So, the more you shrink that thought process when you’re going to geo farm a community, then the more you can do affordably and the more your top of mind awareness. So, we can view Google the same way with our hyper localisation, because you would rather do that and be introduced to a whole lot of people needing that specific need than, as Jason said, serving a town over or a whole city over or a whole state over that you can’t actually service.
Google Can Even Identify and Geo Localise Deep Down to Districts and Buildings
[00:20:13] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): Yeah. And you could even go for districts in towns. Google gets that deep down, so absolutely no problem with that. Google can identify where you are to within two or three metres. I was actually in Italy. And it said, we haven’t got a very good idea, we can’t really geo localise you properly, take a photo of a building near you. And I took a photo of the most boring building I could find that didn’t have any identifying features. And it immediately moved my little blue button to the left, to exactly where I was.
[00:20:44] Michael Carr: Wow.
[00:20:44] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): And that’s astonishing. That’s building level.
[00:20:46] Michael Carr: It is astonishing, absolutely.
The Importance of Reviews: It Gives Google Information About Who You Can Serve in Specific Cases You Never Thought of
[00:20:49] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): Another thing I wanted to point out is reviews. Reviews are phenomenally important. I was just looking there. And also, Diana popped up that she bought my book and it arrived last week. And somebody asked what it was called, The Fundamentals of Brand SERPs for Business, Jason Barnard. You can search Jason Barnard book.
[00:21:07] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): And one thing there is, Diana, please can you search on Google for The Fundamentals of Brand SERPs for Business, click on give a review in the Knowledge Panel, and give me a review in the Knowledge Panel. That is the equivalent of giving a review on Google My Business. And it’s injecting not only what you say about the book, but your impression of the book, i.e. the five stars.
[00:21:28] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): And if you say something like I found this very valuable as a realtor, the day that somebody searches for branding book for realtor, Google will remember that review, and it will pull up my result, whereas otherwise it would not. So, those reviews give Google extra information about who you can serve in those very specific cases that you would never think of.
Long-Tail Keywords: Very Specific Queries That Can Be Used by Smaller Companies Against Big Companies
[00:21:52] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): And the trick as well for the smaller companies versus the bigger companies is what we call long-tail. It’s the very specific queries. So, a house in a street or a house with two floors in a specific street or a house with 15 toilets in one specific street, those are going to be cheaper to pay for if you’re paying, and they’re going to be easier to get to the top of Google if you’re not. And Charlene Bayes, you can give me a review on Amazon.
[00:22:19] Michael Carr: That’s right. Go, Charlene. She will.
[00:22:22] Tonya Eberhart: She’ll do that.
[00:22:24] Michael Carr: Are you all hearing what Jason is saying? You pay attention, obviously, right? Reviews, reviews, reviews, reviews. And because again, that is teaching Google how to showcase you. Okay. All right. Next question here. And also, we’ll put the way to the book, a link to the book in the show notes too also. So, I’m sure Lesli is taking care of that for you. All right.
Is It Possible to Tie Multiple Individual Agent Locations?
[00:22:50] Michael Carr: Next question is can you tie multiple individual agent locations? I think the question here that what we’re asking is is it possible to tie multiple locations in a case like me, where I have a brokerage and I have agents in different cities? Is that the question that we’re asking? And can you tie that in together? Will Google see that and pull those things together?
[00:23:20] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): Yeah. Right. Okay. And this is where I got confused, and I had to ask Tonya to explain to me what the structure of the organisation of the real estate industry is. And my understanding is you have a company that has an office or potentially multiple offices. They have multiple realtors each attached to an office. The realtor themselves is an independent contractor, and so, is not an employee of the company.
Every Office Would Have a Google My Business, as well as Independent Contractors if They’re Doing Business From Their House
[00:23:54] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): So that then, we can answer all of this in one go. It’s a pyramid. I’m not going to say pyramid scheme because it sounds rotten. You need to explain to Google. You need to educate Google that there is a company and that company has a head office. That head office will have a Google My Business, even if it doesn’t necessarily have staff in it. Then every office it has, where a bricks and mortar office would have a Google My Business.
[00:24:31] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): Next down, you have the people who are doing the actual selling. They are at the same time a human being, but also an independent contractor. And the independent contractor can potentially have a Google My Business, but only if they’re actually doing business from their house. The idea of Google My Business is that Google wants to have places where people, clients can walk in off the street.
[00:25:00] Tonya Eberhart: So, it’s a physical location.
[00:25:02] Michael Carr: Again, hyper location based. Yeah. Okay.
If Google Creates a Google My Business for You, Just Use It; If Google Doesn’t Create One, Only Create One if You Actually Have a Workplace
[00:25:06] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): Exactly. So, from that perspective, it’s a little bit ambiguous. Kalicube, for example, nobody can walk in off the street to Kalicube, but I still have a Google My Business because Google created one for me. I didn’t have a choice. So, you also have that. If Google creates one, just use it. If Google doesn’t create one, only create one if you actually really have a workplace. And obviously, you’re not going to get people walking off the street all day long. So, that’s the kind of level of balance you need to hold.
[00:25:40] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): I had somebody who was asking me about having a Google My Business for her blog. That’s a big no. A blog isn’t a business. It isn’t a bricks and mortars business. It isn’t something where you’re actually dealing with clients face to face, whereas real estate, generally speaking, is. And so, that distinction between you as a person and you as a contractor is something you need to figure out and you need to find the balance.
You Need to Explain to Google in a Very Clear Manner Who You Serve, Where You Serve Them, and Why Are You the Best Solution
[00:26:06] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): And the other thing about the whole aspect is that you need to be clear. And that’s what I’m thinking now about Google My Business, not Google My Business, and the structure, the pyramid structure we were talking about earlier on is you need to be very clear and you need to explain it in a very clear manner. And a lot of people say, I’m a person and a bit of a realtor, then I play football, then I do this, then I do that. And it all becomes this jumbled mess that doesn’t make sense to their clients, doesn’t reassure their clients, and doesn’t make sense to Google.
[00:26:46] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): So, you really want to sit down and think, shut your eyes for 10 minutes and think, who do I serve, where do I serve them, and why am I the best solution? That’s what you’ve got to communicate to Google, but you need to be clear in your own mind before you do it.
[00:26:59] Michael Carr: I love that. That’s where dialing your brand is so important at your personal brand, because living that is very, especially as realtors, it’s very important. We never stop being realtors, and we never stop being humans. And so, you really need to infuse both of that, but be very clearly about it.
Being Specific About the Location, Simple Copywriting, Corroboration Around the Web, and Adding Schema Markup
[00:27:19] Michael Carr: And hopefully, maybe, Patricia, that’s going to answer your question. How are you, by the way, dear? It was good to see you. She doesn’t want to be repetitive here, but should she say Maryland Metro Region or she serves Bethesda? And I would think Bethesda would be the answer to that. The more localised you can get, then the better off you’re going to be.
[00:27:42] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): Yeah. I’m not a hundred percent sure what the difference is. But if Bethesda is a district and you offer houses and you have an offer within that district but not outside that district, that’s what you should focus on, and that’s what you should explain to Google. If you have things around that district that include other districts, you can potentially add a second district, Bethesda and Milltown or whatever it might be.
[00:28:10] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): So, you don’t have to say it’s either one little district or the whole town or metro region. You can say it’s this district and that one very explicitly. And at the bottom, simple copywriting. I serve clients looking for houses in Bethesda and Milltown. It’s simple. Corroboration, make sure that same thing is said on all the sources around the web that talk about you, including your My Business, if you have one, where you can say this is the area I serve.
You Can Use Tools Like Kalicube Pro to Generate the Schema Markup for You or You Can Hire a Developer to Write It for You
[00:28:42] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): And then the geeky bit is Schema Markup. Now, it’s quite geeky. But on our Kalicube Pro website, we have a free tool that will generate it for you, but you might want to also talk to a developer to get this written for you. Because what Schema Markup does is it adds to a web page, if you have a website. You have to have a website for this to work. You add that to the page, and it’s got a thing called area served. And then you can name the area served or you can name a point and a radius around it.
[00:29:16] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): And Google is looking at Schema Markup, which is in the back end of the page that human beings don’t see. And it’s a message explicitly to Google to say, this is the exact area I serve, be it a district, a point with a radius around it, multiple districts, multiple points with radius around them. And it’s geeky. You do it once, and you never have to do it again. So, it is worth investing either the time to do it yourself or get somebody to write it for you. It costs you, let’s say, a couple of hundred dollars. You’ve done it. If you don’t change where you’re doing business, that’s going to be valid for the next 15, 20 years.
Schema Markup Is Google’s Native Language, Which Helps the Machine Assimilate Information in Its Brain
[00:29:57] Michael Carr: That’s awesome. Is Schema just in layman terms, how you took the picture of the benign building and then it found you? Is that sort of how those link together or are those two separate things?
[00:30:09] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): No, that’s two separate things. The photo thing was image recognition. Schema Markup is it’s Google’s native language. What it does is it says, I’ll take something that’s written in the page, and I’ll translate it for Google, and I’ll make it so that this information is presented to Google in its native language. Because English isn’t its native language, French isn’t its native language, reading off a page isn’t its native language.
[00:30:41] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): Schema Markup simply says, this person is called this, this person does this job, this person serves this audience, this person serves this area or this district or this point with the radius, and this person has this review, for example. And what it’s doing is it’s just presenting all the information we see and we assimilate in our brains very quickly as human beings, in the manner that allows the machine to assimilate it in its brain at a similar speed.
[00:31:14] Michael Carr: Got you.
[00:31:15] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): If that makes sense.
[00:31:16] Michael Carr: It cleared it up. That’s for sure.
Comparing Schema Markup to a Series of Boxes With Specific Values in Them
[00:31:19] Tonya Eberhart: Yeah. It reminds me of a programming class I took way back in high school before there were computers, right? And the programming class says if then, right? If this says this person’s name is this, then show this. If this show is connected to this, then show this. So, I take it way back to the beginning of programming, but yeah, it made it much clearer for me.
[00:31:45] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): Yeah. No. I actually had, when I first started programming, a friend of mine explained to me, basically, Schema Markup is name value pairs. And that sounds a bit weird, but basically it’s a name of something with a value. And what he said to me is think of it as the name is a box, and then the value is what you put in the box.
[00:32:08] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): So, the box is person. The value I put in it is Jason Barnard. The box is region served. The information I put into it is Paris. So, we’ve got this box and what you put in, name and value. And that’s all Schema does. It’s a series of boxes with values, with information in them, specific to those boxes that are specific to the person we’re talking about.
[00:32:36] Michael Carr: Very good.
[00:32:37] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): That makes sense. I like that.
[00:32:38] Michael Carr: I like that. That was very good. I told you all he would be able to explain it.
[00:32:41] Tonya Eberhart: That’s right.
Should Real Estate Agents Have Their Own Website?
[00:32:42] Michael Carr: I’m telling you. All right. Next question, should agents have their own website?
[00:32:47] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): Yes. I’m not even going to let you finish the sentence.
[00:32:49] Michael Carr: Right. We agree wholeheartedly.
[00:32:53] Tonya Eberhart: That’s it for that one, guys.
[00:32:55] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): A hundred percent, yes. You’re an expert, you’re an authority, and you’re trustworthy. Google needs to know where you live on the web, because it will reference that to understand more about you. And that’s where you can explain to Google that you’re an expert, that you’re an authority, and that you’re trustworthy. You need to own the website, where you are doing that. If you are doing it on Twitter or on Facebook or on LinkedIn, what happens if they close your account?
[00:33:24] Michael Carr: Amen.
A One Page Website Is Enough to Describe Who You Are, What You Offer, and Why You Are an Expert, an Authority, and Trustworthy
[00:33:25] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): You have to have a website. And once again, it’s an investment for once. If you do it properly with the branding and you think about it ahead of time, you can do a one page website if you don’t want to complicate your life. One page website, this is who I am, this is what I offer, this is why I’m an expert, this is why I’m an authority, and this is why you can trust me because of all these reviews, end of page. That’s it.
[00:33:49] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): So, one page website is absolutely fine. And it needs to be a domain name that you own. Mine is jasonbarnard.com. For my company, it’s kalicube.com. It could be jasonbarnard.info. The .com isn’t very important anymore. So, there must be a real estate dealer, .realestate or something.
Having Your Own Website as a Realtor Is Not Against Any State Law or Brokerage Law
[00:34:13] Michael Carr: There actually is but it’s through NAR. So, I don’t know ownership wise what that looks like. Of course, I’m a big fan of NAR obviously, but I don’t know what that looks like. But I’m very big on this. Years ago, I quit getting any kind of reviews on Zillow because I was like, this seems ridiculous because Zillow could change their mind, i.e. they have on Richard Barton’s whim, right? And so, then all of a sudden, what have you got? Whereas Google is going to serve the public forever. And if you get reviews on that, then you have ownership of those reviews or at least more ownership of.
[00:34:59] Michael Carr: I love the idea of the website. And it is not against any state law or brokerage that I know of to not have your own. Obviously, there are laws that concern how you display the brokerage name, and each state has their little variance of that. Some of them say equal prominent. Some of them literally get down to inches, in pixels, and all that. But nobody has a problem with you owning your own website to let the world know that you’re a realtor.
It Is Important to Link Your Own Website to Your Agency’s Website to Prove Your E-A-T and Credibility
[00:35:29] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): Right. And at the bottom there, I put you need to own that. And then you lend yours to the agency and vice versa. And that’s really, really important. Your website represents you. Google understands your expertise, your authoritativeness, and your trustworthiness through of reference to that website. That’s very, very important because what Google calls E-A-T, as you can see it’s an acronym, is the foundation of why it would send somebody to you rather than to somebody else. But also, the company, the brokerage has a level of expertise, authority, and trustworthiness as well, which is credibility, let’s say.
[00:36:03] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): And so, when you link from your website to theirs and they link from their website to yours, you’re exchanging, you’re indicating clearly to Google there’s a relationship here. So, some of their E-A-T rubs off on you and some of your E-A-T rubs off on them. So if your brokerage is saying, oh, I’m not sure about the link or about the representation, you need to say to them, you need me as much as I need you.
[00:36:28] Michael Carr: Yes.
Google Looks at Both the Credibilities of the Real Estate Agent and the Agency
[00:36:29] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): Because Google is looking at both of our credibilities, and both of our credibilities will help each other. That is phenomenally important.
[00:36:38] Michael Carr: Yeah. And I want to take it just a little step further, not to start a storm by no means, but listen, that guys out here listening, this is how we defend ourselves against huge disruptors that say we want one website. And everybody goes to that website, and then we will piecemeal out to the order takers who get leads. That’s how you do it. You own your own website. You link your own website to your brokerage back to you. You have some autonomy there to build your bank of business, which is very important. And if you’re with a broker that doesn’t want you to build your own bank of business, find another broker.
Should Real Estate Agents Have a Google Business Page of Their Own?
[00:37:16] Michael Carr: Right. Should agents have a Google Business page of their own?
[00:37:21] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): Right. Yeah. We touched on this earlier on. It depends on the relationship with the agency. If you’re an employee, no. Google will be aggressive about things that it sees as manipulation. So if you’re independent and you have a website and you have an office in your home and you have a Google My Business linked to your home and a website that represents it, yes, makes sense.
[00:37:48] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): And you can use Google My Business to feed information Google about your area served. You can then link it to your website with an additional piece of Schema with area served. You can write it in the copy, in your Google My Business, and in your website. And what you would then do is basically, Google My Business is your little mini website on Google’s results and Google Maps, and your website is your other website. And you need to make sure the two are always consistent.
Don’t Just Rely on Your Google My Business; Your Own Website Should Be Your Entity Home
[00:38:16] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): So, that perspective is number one, yes, if you are working independently for a broker. Definitely, it’s possible if you have a physical location. PO boxes are not acceptable. And the other thing is to make sure that you don’t just rely on Google My Business or Google Business Profile as it’s now called. You also have your site, even if it’s a one page site, so that that’s your Entity Home. And the Entity Home is the place where Google looks, where the entity lives in Google’s brain. And whatever happens to Google, whatever happens to your Google My Business, whatever happens to anything else, your website is always yours.
Does Google Accept the Physical Address of a Mailbox You Bought as a Physical Location?
[00:39:00] Michael Carr: Yeah. Here’s a specific question, no PO boxes obviously, but what about incubator offices or offices where here in the United States, I assume where you are, it is probably of the same thought process. You can buy a mailbox, but you have a physical address to that place, with your mailbox being a physical suite to that, but there are hundreds of other businesses that could have that same thing. Does Google shy away from that or does it accept it as a physical location?
[00:39:41] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): I think that question actually comes up either next slide or the one after.
[00:39:45] Michael Carr: Okay. All right.
[00:39:47] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): But I’ll answer really quickly because I’m not a hundred percent sure. Google is looking at this from a perspective of there can be multiple businesses within one location. And so if you have a mailbox and mail is coming in and there’s a physical location, you can potentially have a Google My Business. However, that’s really on the edge. But if you actually have an office within a building, absolutely fine.
[00:40:16] Michael Carr: Got you.
Whatever You Do, Don’t Put All Your Eggs in the Google My Business Basket
[00:40:17] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): A co-working space can be a Google My Business. And the justification, if you ever need to give it, would be I actually have a dedicated desk or whatever. But you’re really on the edge, and you can be caught out and deleted by Google. Getting deleted by Google and Google My Business isn’t a huge, huge, huge issue if you have your website, you’re collecting reviews elsewhere as well. Whatever you do, don’t put all your eggs in the Google My Business basket. Make sure you get your website. Make sure you’re collecting reviews on Facebook, whatever other platforms are relevant to realtors. And Google My Businesses is in addition to.
[00:41:00] Michael Carr: Got you. Okay. Very good.
[00:41:02] Tonya Eberhart: Yeah. And I just want to repeat that, Jason. I love that you say that, because we’ve been telling people forever don’t consider another platform your personal website. I know a lot of small businesses that use their Facebook business page as their website. Big mistake. Don’t do that. Yes, put stuff there, but always have your own website to send them back to. So, yeah, this is a great question from Lorrie.
Is It Advisable for People to Use Their Home Address as the Business Location and Make It Public?
[00:41:27] Michael Carr: Yeah. Lorrie has got a great question. There should be an answer both from Jason, and then I want to answer it as a broker. Jason, what do you think? Do you advise people to use their home address to make it public?
[00:41:39] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): I’m not particularly precious about my private life, so I would. If I were concerned about my children, for example, or having people drop by my house unexpectedly, then I wouldn’t. So, it depends on your personal attitude towards that. And if you really feel my home is my home and my home is my castle and I don’t want anybody coming in, if you put it out on Google My Business publicly, people might just turn up at your door.
Just Like Jason Barnard, Michael Carr Is Open to Using His House as the Physical Location of the Company
[00:42:07] Michael Carr: Yes. And I’ll tell you this, so Lorrie, let your conscience obviously be the guide on that, like Jason said, because I thought that same thing. Safety first. Obviously, we teach that with realtors. So if you are concerned about that, don’t do it. But I will say, I’m like Jason. I’m like, okay, stop by. You know what I mean? Especially if you want to buy something and will make a big commission on it.
[00:42:31] Michael Carr: But I started the company, my company in the basement of my house. I had a dedicated space in there. I had employees that came and went. I didn’t even know they were there. It was my living quarters. The way we sectioned it off, they had their own drive, everything about it. It’s still listed to this day on a Google page of its own. So, I think I’ve had one person ever knock on the door and say they want to buy a house. We got them with a realtor that night, and I think they signed a contract the next day. So, use safety first and then decide which way you want to do with that.
How Should Real Estate Agents Handle the Differences Between Google Maps and Google Business?
[00:43:07] Michael Carr: Okay. All right. Differences between Google Maps and Google Business, how should the agents handle that?
[00:43:16] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): Right. Now, distinguishing between the two. I found the question interesting because for me it’s terribly obvious. And of course, what’s obvious to me isn’t obvious to other people that better spend their whole lives looking at Google results. Your Google Business Profile, Google My Business is part of Google Maps. As I mentioned earlier on, the idea of Google Maps was the cars drive around to map out photos of the entire world, all the roads. And then Google My Business is a way of identifying businesses to which people can go to buy things or to consume or to do business.
[00:43:55] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): And so, basically, Google Business Profile or Google My Business is just dropped into Google Maps at specific locations. And Maps is hyper localised. And it’s a question of when I’m using Google Maps is I want to go somewhere now or maybe in the future, but obviously I want to go somewhere. And generally speaking, it’s now, and it’s predominantly phones.
Google Maps Is Integrated in a Google Search at Certain Points, But Google Search Is Not Integrated Into Google Maps
[00:44:21] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): I’m walking around the street or I’m about to go out or I want to find a realtor, then I would be using Google Maps, but it also appears on Google search. And on Google search, it will appear in one of two places. It can appear in the search results itself. So if you searched on Google on a desktop on search or even on a mobile on search realtor near me, it would show you blue links for local companies, but also a little Google Maps. So, you click on the Google Maps and then you go into the full Google Maps, which is within parts of Google.
[00:44:57] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): So, that tends to be, if you’re coming through Google search onto Google Maps, longer term process where I’m researching, trying to figure out who I might want to work without checking out reviews rather than going there. So, they live together, but they’re parallel. And so, Google Maps is integrated in a Google search at certain points. Google search is not integrated into Google Maps. Google Maps is isolated in that sense.
How Does Google See a Fixed Location Versus No Location at All?
[00:45:31] Michael Carr: Got you. Okay. Let’s try the next one here. How does Google see a fixed location versus no location at all?
[00:45:41] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): No location means no Google Business Profile. So if you say, we were talking about my home, if I don’t want my home to be my business location, then I can’t have a Business Profile. Don’t even bother trying. But then you can also have your website. You can promote through Facebook. You can have Google Ads where people click and then they come to your site.
[00:46:04] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): So, you don’t have to have a Google Business Profile. It’s a massive disadvantage if people are actually looking to go somewhere immediately. I’m not sure to what extent people have spontaneous decisions to visit a realtor as they’re walking down the street. But certainly, if there’s an immediacy, that’s a disadvantage.
Ultimately, an Agent Would Need to Have a Physical Address, Even a Co-Working Space of Shared Office Will Be Fine for Google
[00:46:26] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): But with Google search, I think I would imagine in the realtor business, where the decision process is quite long, people research, people have very specific needs as well, and they need to talk to an expert. Google search is a good place to be visible and a good place to do business. That can certainly perhaps overcome the disadvantage of not having a Google My Business.
[00:46:52] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): I think ultimately you need to have a phone. I think ultimately you would need to have a physical address. And for people who are worried about safety, take a place in a co-working or a shared office. That is actually fine for Google. Some people even get annoyed because it creates them without them wanting to. So, you can do without it, a physical location, but I would suggest it’s probably a good idea to figure out a situation, even if you’re paying a couple of hundred dollars a month to rent an address.
There Is Absolutely No Problem for Multiple Businesses to Share the Same Address
[00:47:31] Michael Carr: Yeah. And depending on the brokerage, you could use the brokerage. I don’t know if you could use a brokerage address though. That would become confusing, wouldn’t it?
[00:47:39] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): No. Multiple businesses can share the same address. Absolutely no problem at all. Once again, you just have to be very clear. And on your website, if you say the business address is there and you are specifically saying that is also the business address of another business, there’s no problem.
Which Is Better to Be Shown: a Picture of Your Home or Just the Location That You Serve?
[00:47:56] Michael Carr: Got you. Lorrie’s second question, I just want to get this right. She said she was using her home address, then changed it to zip code areas. Map of area showed the map instead of her home address and a picture of her home Google posted. Which is better?
[00:48:16] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): I would suggest if you can get rid of that picture that they put of the home, it’s a really good thing to do. Ideally, for me, I don’t really know why Google does that. But if you can get just the locations that you serve showing, that’s absolutely perfect. It will show a picture of the home or the office. We had that problem at Kalicube. And I solved that just by putting my own photo as one of the photos, and now it shows my photo instead of our horrible office.
If You Are Using the Brokerage Address, the Brokerage Website Needs to Confirm That for the Long Term
[00:48:46] Michael Carr: That’s awesome. We have that run in. I have, like I said, we started off in my basement. So, we still have listed a legal address there with the commission. So, what’s interesting though is two of my agents at two different times, if I put in my home address, they come up. So, I assume that’s from stuff that they have done, right? Google is doing, Google is looking and pulling up, and there is some profile that has Kelly Dennie on it or Jennifer Fast, and that showed up. And it did show up as Michael Carr & Associates, which was interesting. It never bothered me again. I could care less.
[00:49:31] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): One point about that is, yes, it’s an interesting point that they can just put the information, and Google will pull the information up and put it at the top of the results without your confirmation. But increasingly, Google is looking for corroboration not to get this kind of thing wrong. So if you are using the brokerage address, the brokerage website needs to confirm that long term at least.
[00:49:54] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): So, once again, you need to work with the brokerage and say, we can help each other, this is a win-win. And if I’m using your physical address, I’m actually making you look more important to Google. I’m bringing my E-A-T to you in addition to the link to my website by saying that I’m actually based in these offices.
If You Have a Real Estate License in Multiple States, Is It Better to Have One Fixed Location or Different Websites for Multiple Areas?
[00:50:13] Michael Carr: Love it. Great stuff. All right. Next question. If you have a real estate license in multiple states, are you better off having one fixed location in Google, like a home base, if you will, headquarters with multiple service areas? Or do you think a different website named close to what you have, a different Google page? What are your thoughts there?
[00:50:37] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): Yeah. It’s a question as well of do you have multiple offices? If you have an office at each state, then you would have a Google Business Profile for each state. So, from that perspective, and if you don’t have an office, then obviously you shouldn’t have the Google Business Profile. I would suggest that would put you at a disadvantage if you’re not in the same state as the place you’re selling, because that doesn’t look to me to be very credible from Google’s perspective, but also from a human perspective. If you’re in Texas and telling me you can sell me a house in California, I’d be a bit dubious.
Does It Help the Business to Have a Dedicated Website for Each Location in Terms of Being Clear to Clients?
[00:51:11] Michael Carr: Right. But let me give you a specific, and then you answer from that perspective, if you would. So, we have a Tennessee office, Knoxville, Tennessee, Papermill Road. But we also have a website there. That website though, here at headquarters in Atlanta, it’s michaelcarrrealty.com. And that’s the website we’ve built out. That’s our Google My Business page. That’s the maps. That’s everything.
[00:51:36] Michael Carr: But so, then in Tennessee, we have michaelcarrrealtytn.com, and we did the exact same thing. And then we, of course, we link back and forth between the two. Are we maximising what we could be doing or should we be michaelcarrrealty.com with another location in Tennessee, as far as Google search goes?
[00:51:57] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): Right. Okay. In terms of website. Yeah. You can actually argue it both ways, unfortunately.
[00:52:04] Michael Carr: I’ve heard and argued both ways.
[00:52:06] Tonya Eberhart: Yes.
The Advantage of Having One Single Site Is That All Your Information Is Focused in the Same Place and It Is Easier to Manage
[00:52:08] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): Google doesn’t pay an enormous amount of attention to the .tn. It’s one signal amongst 200,000. So, that isn’t vitally important. Two different websites, now here you have a question, which is basically does it help my business to have a dedicated website for each of those locations in terms of my clients? Will it be clearer to my clients?
[00:52:38] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): If I have clients coming onto one single website that serves two different states, and I have to say to them which state are you in, that potentially doesn’t make sense for the user and doesn’t help Google. But the advantage of having one single site is that all of your information is focused in the same place. It’s easier to manage. And any signals that are credibility signals about the website are going to be stronger because they’re more focused. Whereas when you have two websites, you’re dividing them.
Kalicube Has Five Different Websites; They Are and Do Not Rank Well, But They All Come up When You Search for Kalicube
[00:53:08] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): Now for Kalicube, we’re not a realtor, obviously. I created five different websites as an experiment. So, I have a webinar series, I have a podcast, I have a SaaS platform, and I have my own website, and then the kalicube.com main business website. And what has happened is that the sites that I created are weak and do not rank very well in Google, because they have no history and they have relatively little in terms of back links, in terms of mentions.
[00:53:49] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): But if you search for Kalicube, they all come up all the time. So, because I’m pushing my brand name and getting people to search my brand name, it’s an advantage because then I get to dominate that message with the two or three websites. So, there’s another consideration you can throw in the mix. If it’s state to state, I don’t know America incredibly well, I would think yes, it would be better generally to have two websites. But once again, it could be that one single website that’s easier to manage.
[00:54:27] Michael Carr: Yeah. I’ve seen big brokerages do both. And of course, we’re always aspiring to be one of those. And so, I’ve seen success in both areas. I did a lot of research on it. From the layman’s on the street, I was like, okay, if I want to be something, I look to imitate that’s already done it. And both have happened. So, we went the route of more websites. So, we’re going to stick with that path for a minute, see what happens, but it’s been working good so far.
How Does It Help or Hurt to Have Several People Showing Up at the Same Address?
[00:54:56] Michael Carr: All right. Hey, next question. Brokerage view versus agent view on Google, how does it help or hurt to have several people showing up at the same address?
[00:55:07] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): Yeah. It isn’t a problem in and of itself. This is the question I was talking about that I remembered from earlier on, is that idea of multiple people at a single address. Now, from that perspective, obviously for Google, when you are searching for the brokerage, it will give you the brokerage. When you’re searching for the individual people, it will give you the person’s result. When they’re searching for a specific service within that area. The company website, the brokerage website will always rank, unless the people have optimised for those terms within their own websites.
[00:55:48] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): But in terms of Google’s understanding of multiple people working from the same office, there is absolutely no problem, except the fact that the multiple people from it’s perspective, it’s going to be looking and saying, well, at what point does it become unreasonable in terms of Google Business Profiles?
[00:56:06] Michael Carr: Got you. Okay.
Make Your Mind Up, Be Clear, Educate Google, and Spend the Time to Think About Where You Are Going and What You Are Trying to Do
[00:56:09] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): So, from my perspective, once again, it comes back to what I was saying is make your mind up, be clear, educate Google. And the most important thing is to sit down and spend the time to think about where am I going? What am I trying to do? Safety questions also need to be taken into consideration. Where is my career going to be going? And how do I need to set myself up today to make sure that I don’t have to change something in two years time?
[00:56:38] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): Because one thing with a child is if you’ve taught it something for two years and then suddenly say, well, actually now it’s changed, that can be quite a complicated terrain. So, sit down, think about it, build a strategy, build a way forward, and stick to it. Make sure that it’s the right one right off the bat, very much like branding is. Don’t rush in, think it through, figure it out, and don’t do what I do, which is mad experiments of creating five sites to see what will happen.
[00:57:08] Tonya Eberhart: But that’s your thing.
[00:57:09] Michael Carr: That’s what makes you the expert though, Jason. That’s what you have done. You’ve put in the labour, man. You’ve done the walk. That’s why we can come to you for these kind of information and get your book to tell us. Did we cover this business address on Google? Should you list your home as a business address? Yeah, we covered that.
[00:57:31] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): Yeah, we covered that. And it really is a question of, oh, and one additional point is if you intend to go it alone, prepare the terrain. I’m not sure whether people leave brokerages and become independent completely. But if that’s part of your life plan, plan it from now, work with the brokerage, but make sure it’s all prepared in your head and that your explanation of everything is already in place.
Join a Brokerage Based on What You Want Out of Your Career, Not Just Today But in Years’ Time
[00:57:59] Michael Carr: Hey, great advice right there. Okay. Listen, do not quote me anybody on this thing that I’m telling you to leave your brokerage. Listen, people ask me all the time, big brokerage, small brokerage, boutique brokerage, puppy mill brokerage, where do I join? And I’m like, look, join based on what you want out of your career, not just today, but six months from now, a year from now, two years from now. There really is a comfortable spot and arguably that any one of those is perfect for you, okay?
[00:58:32] Michael Carr: Some brokerages are famous for training. Some are famous for recruitment. Some people say they come to me and they’re like, I don’t want to get lost in a big brokerage. I want a brokerage that’s going to support me and help me and support what I want to. But what Jason is saying is very important. Plan not just for today, but also look at with the future.
[00:58:52] Michael Carr: You don’t want, even if you think yourself, okay, I’m never going to be a broker. I’m never going to be an independent broker. I want the support of a bigger broker or something that’s around me. And you have your own website though. You start now with that, using that information, because you don’t want to just start over. Now I’m going to be a broker. I had this shining epiphany. Now I want to open up my own company and whatnot. And you’re starting from scratch. And you literally are having to reteach that infant Google how to see you. So, great advice. We’re coming towards an end right here, guys.
The Foundational Aspect of the Real Estate Industry: Get Your Brand Right, Plan Where You Intend to Go and Have a Home on the Internet
[00:59:27] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): Yeah. From my perspective, that last point, having not understood anything about the brokerage and real estate industry, I now understand a little bit more and I understand the specific problems. But the foundational aspect is sit down, think about it, get your brand right, which is what you guys do, but also plan out where you intend to go, and most importantly, have a home on the internet, one website that you own, that you control, whether it’s for Google or anything.
[01:00:03] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): Don’t send people to Facebook on your advertising. Send them to your website. I never understood why peoples are sending other people to Facebook. And your website can be a one page website today, and it can grow into a big website tomorrow, or it can always be a one page website, but have a website. It’s 15 bucks a year for the domain name, maybe 20 bucks a year for hosting.
You Can Use Services Like Duda in Making Your Website and Having Your Own Domain
[01:00:33] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): There’s a great service called Duda. They have a really good system. It’s not WordPress. It’s a bit like Wix, but it’s better than Wix. And it’s cheap, and it’s easy. And anybody can do it, because WordPress can be difficult to manage. There are always advantages and disadvantages. With WordPress, you can do lots of different things. You’ve got bells and whistles and plugins and all sorts of things, but it can be heavy to manage and difficult to manage.
[01:01:02] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): Something like Duda, which is pre-built, they look after all of the updates and the difficulties and the technical stuff. And you can just get on with designing your website. So, something like Duda is a great solution with your own domain. Start with one page. Define who you are, who you serve, what you offer. Build out from there when you’ve figured out what your career is going to be.
It’s Important to Look Far Ahead and Prepare Google to Show the Path to Where You Want to Go
[01:01:26] Michael Carr: I love it. Tonya, you got anything to add?
[01:01:31] Tonya Eberhart: No. I just want to reiterate that prepare your terrain, right? Prepare it, as Jason says, which is a perfect way of saying it. We deal with a lot of people who come in to start to build their brand and they say, okay, here’s my future plan. I want to open my own brokerage. I want to move to another brokerage. I want to start with this brokerage. I want to bring my family member into and build a family business. Or I want to prepare for retirement in 10 years. Whatever those things are, that’s important that you look that far ahead for it and prepare Google to show the path to where you want to go.
Good Quality Copywriting for SEO: Write in a Way That Both Pleases Humans and Google Can Understand
[01:02:13] Tonya Eberhart: So, now I think there are also what you see on your screen. These QR codes will take you to a free guide to produce great copywriting for SEO in 2022. And that is Jason’s authorship.
[01:02:30] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): Yeah. And a quick word on copywriting. Copywriting for SEO, people think, oh, I’ve got to put lots of the word in and synonyms and repeat myself. And it’s not. It’s good quality copywriting written in a way that both pleases humans, humans can understand, and Google can understand. And it’s quite a good guide. It’s actually one of the lessons from one of my courses that I never released, and we’ve turned it into a PDF guide. And it teaches you to write in a way that will educate Google without the geeky code. Great copywriting alone will educate Google.
[01:03:09] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): And we’ve had clients just using copywriting techniques, getting great Brand SERPs, getting great representation of their brand on Google. Copywriting is the foundation. And I love that, because copywriting for marketing is human and it’s talking to our audience. And all we are doing is talking to our audience through the filter of Google. And if our writing is understood by Google, it will represent us accurately to our audience.
[01:03:37] Michael Carr: Great takeaway.
[01:03:39] Tonya Eberhart: Yes, it is.
Jason Barnard (The Brand SERP Guy) on Writing 4,000 to 7,000 Words a Day for His Courses
[01:03:40] Michael Carr: Jason, thank you so much for your time. I know specifically this one, squeezing it in is we really appreciate it.
[01:03:47] Tonya Eberhart: Yes. On top of this, you guys should know Jason teaches courses. And he said he has written 47,000 words a day for the last week or so.
[01:03:57] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): Sorry. Oh, no, it was four to seven, between four and seven.
[01:04:01] Michael Carr: Four to, I understood that.
[01:04:03] Tonya Eberhart: Oh, four to. I thought you said 47,000.
[01:04:05] Michael Carr: No. 4-7,000.
[01:04:06] Tonya Eberhart: I thought, my goodness, that’s a lot, Jason.
[01:04:09] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): No, that would be exciting.
[01:04:11] Tonya Eberhart: You’re killing it. Okay. But still, 4-7,000.
[01:04:15] Michael Carr: That’s still a lot.
[01:04:16] Tonya Eberhart: That’s a lot when you’re trying to manage a whole lot of other things, plus a move. And he’s in Paris right now. So, we appreciate you so much. And I appreciate all of you attending today. Thank you.
[01:04:26] Michael Carr: Yeah. Thank you for your time, guys.
You Can Avail of the Copywriting Guide Provided by BrandFace and Kalicube
[01:04:27] Tonya Eberhart: Thank you so much for sticking with us. Make sure to snap those QR codes. And Lesli also put the links in the comments as well. It’s for you to go grab our guide so that you can attract, convert, and charge more for your services. Okay. And in the real estate world, that’s a big deal.
[01:04:48] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): Oh, yes. I’m actually thinking. So, I was thinking now I might go and download my own copywriting guide on kalicube.com. Because maybe if I read it, I’ll be able to write 47,000 words.
[01:05:00] Michael Carr: Love it.
[01:05:03] Tonya Eberhart: Well, I know I’m going to try. I’m downloading it. I’ll be happy to write 400 words today.
[01:05:11] Michael Carr: I am actually going to be doing it and going to be setting up a literal system to do so. It’s how much I believe in it, so I hope you guys do too. Jason, thank you so much, man. And Tonya, thank you so much for what you do. Thank you, everybody, that tuned in. Remember what we tell you at BrandFace, prosperity favours the bold, so be bold, especially with your brand and on Google.
[01:05:37] Tonya Eberhart: That’s right. And thank you, Lesli, for all the work in the presentation. It looks beautiful, once again, appreciate it. Thanks, Nicole.
[01:05:44] Michael Carr: Yes, Lesli, you’re an angel. Thank you.
[01:05:47] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): It is indeed.
[01:05:48] Tonya Eberhart: Bye, everyone.
[01:05:49] Michael Carr: Bye, Jason.
[01:05:50] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): Thank you for having me again. It’s wonderful.
