"Singing in the Rain!"

I am going to go back now and check out my profile. I think it is good...but could it be better? Now...you've made me think. TY & GBU!

I was trying to figure out how to give more info in my name.  I didn't know I could put more in the first name box.  Thank you!

Great tips, never really realized that the name on my profile mattered that much for SEO. Thanks!

I wasn't aware of the SERP affect.  Mine are short tail.  I'll have to think about this a little more.  Thanks.

Great post very insightful, headed to my settings to change my stuff now...

I will go and check mine. Now, does this have anything to do with the way you are categorized? I am coming in the category "Brokerages". It is fine, but I think it just happened this way, not that I knew how to set it as an agent, or brokerage.

I do think it makes it a little more difficult to search for someone within A|R, but I still have mine set up with key words and descriptive phrases. 

Always helpful when someone is willing to share SEO tips with the rest of us.  Thanks guys !

Great advice, I remember once I changed mine to Ann Arbor, Missy Caulk. Everyone kept calling me Ann so I switched it back. Thanks for your answers on my HOT blog post.

Very nice that you constantly are reminding and teaching people about the tricks that we've learned along the way :)

It took me a long time to figure this out, Katerina, and you have just saved some Newbies a LOT of trial and error.

HI KAT!

A very KEY post!!  I'm headed to my profile page to get it right!!  Thanks for the mini tutorial that will yield max results!!

Katerina - Thanks for the advice.  I just went back and tweaked mine again.  We'll see how this works.

Hi Katerina...Another Great How to Post for us all to improve our SEO and real estate Business. Thank you for sharing with us all here.

Cheers, have a great day!

Thanks for the reminder! I'm updated.

Katerina - I, believe it or not, had already made that change. Now, if I could only figure out how to use widgets. Too much to read, too little brain to absorb it all into.

As always, you teach me so much.  Thanks a whole lot.

This is great information, Katerina. I'm going to check it out and change it. You work with Nestor - I also work with my husband but he doesn't blog. Do you recommend I add his name as well?

Sharon- Nestor does not blog either. But since we are a team it would not be fair to leave him out. He gives me ideas for localism posts and he takes care of a lot of things so I can blog! That is enough to make him part of our profile. We are also very well known in our town. People all know us as Nestor and Katerina so to leave his name out would be SEO suicide. Peope actually look for our website with our names.

Katerina - You never cease to amaze me with your great tips.  I had just one small minor adjustment to make on mine  Thanks so much for sharing! :-)

Katerina, very educational, now I will have to bookmark your post and revisit my site. Thank you. BTW I responded to your comment on my post and it disappeared. so to repeat. Please do not feel bad, you are so bussy and it was not about you. Thank you for visiting my post.

Thanks for the great info!  I am definitely going to edit my settings and figure out how to do this.

Hello Nestor . . .

Can you give me a quick tip on adding "Join ActiveRain" Gadget and the Invitation to Subscribe to Ones Blog GADGET,

Thanks

Much

Jim

Absolutely.  I often see comments to one of my posts and I would like to know the persons name or their location.  Neither may be in their AR signature.  I'm tempted to answer TWIMC, but of course I don't.  I click on their signature line and see who they are and where they are from.  But, it's time consuming and if I'm rushed, I may not.  Their comment may get an acknowledgement addressed to a business name. 

It took some doing but my signature line has my name, my company name and my location.  No guessing required. 

Truth told, I didn't do it for ActiveRain.  I did it for Google.  Of course, almost everything I do is for Google. 

Thanks for sharing this and all the great information that you give to us. I havent put much thought into this and I hope I have it right.

Thanks for post this....when I figured this out, my last name is Homes Brunswick Georgia.  Will Lenn tell us everything she has "done" for Google? 

Thanks for sharing - I will change mine now!

Hi Katerina - I learned a long time ago to do this for Google, learned it here on AR as a matter of fact.  I especially liked the comma point.

Ann

Katerina and Nestor

Thanks for the tip, I have changed my profile accordingly. I had changed my company name to include my business description, but had not learned yet about placing first and last name on same line and then placing Google search words into my last name section.

Again, thanks for posting this information.

Peter Vekselman

Thanks Katerina, once again, for paying it forward. Aren't I lucky to have you & Nestor as my real estate/SEO broker and mentor!!

I've had a lengthier name for a while, but had no idea to not put in commas.  Thanks so much for this tip!

Well I better go take a look and make some appropriate changes then.  I think I did ok but I'm going to see if I need to tweek it.  Thanks for all the little techie details that sharpen our presentation!

I recall a post covering this awhile back and then, I made some modifications.  Guess I'll look into this a bit further.

Hi guys.  Thanks for the post.  I was aware of this from a long time ago, but after reading your post, I decided to add Realtor to my first name!

Thanks again,

Ken

Thanks for such a well-written and concise post about this important subject.  After reading it I went back and "tweaked" my name and hopefully did it correctly!

I too am going off to check my settings - Thanks!

I had the Real Deal as part of my name and that's just me but I removed it because I thought it was more appropriate just to have my name. Simple is better for me.

thank you for sharing this information - i just made some changes with your advice

Good stuff Katerina. As REALTORS(R) we also need to use these areas to cover our disclosures i.e company name, realtor status. I also think your name is very very important. I see many on here who don't use their name at all. To me, when I don't see a name, I immediately have a trust issue.  

Thank you for the tips!  I do have a few questions...

My husband and I are a team but only my picture is on my blog.  Would you still recommend that I add his name?

Also...I plan on replacing my commas with hyphens as you suggest, but I'm curious as to why commas are bad?

Thanks again for the suggestions! 

Thank you for sharing that with me. I need to go back and make some changes as I'm sure evryone else will be doing. By the way hope to see you NAR.

Great Idea with 1st and last name on the first line, followed by our town. Being a husband & wife team here in Smithtown Long Island we too want to get the most "googlejuice" to our name, and adding Realtor at the end of our names is a great idea...Thanks!

Great tips and info as always !  Will make sure we are good to go with our info.  Maximizing ones position only makes sense !!

Thankyou so much, You are a blessing!

Intersting info. Now I need to check my own and see what I have in the profile.

Boy...you put alot of effort into this post...good job!

Thank you for the helpful advice.  I can use all of the help in SEO that I can get.

Thank you! I just went and made the description more accurate and removed the commas. This is my first post with the new improved signature :)

This is great info and I thank you for it...  I feel like I'm in class with you.  Can you use backword slashes, or just hyphens?

Thanks so much. I've changed mine already. I often see blogs with a company name, then I don't know who to respond to by name.

Katrina--Nice reminder for me and great tutorial for newbies! I did this so long ago but your post had me go take a look and make a few changes to mine. Thanks!

Love it, I never thought of that...thank you..  AR never ceases to amaze me......learn something new every day

Thanks!  I wondered how to get all that infor up front.  Never knew it effected so many other things like seo!

Thank you for the tip, went and changed mine too. You rock!

Thank you for the great info. I am new and still learning. I am going to change my profile!:)

This is GREAT information.  I'm a newbie and still trying to figure out AR.  Thank you so much for this tip...I can't wait to update my profile!  Thanks!

Katerina - I just did it! I never thought our names on the comments would need "keywords" too. Now I need to rethink which are the best to use. Thank you .

Great Stuff!  Thanks for the first and last name info.

I will change mine and I will notice other AR to see how they are formatted!

Kevin

Thank you! I made the changes. Let the fun begin!

Great point and very true.  It is the Google juice.

Just made the change. Thank you for the info.

good stuff, google juce is always important. Have a great day!

Hi!

This is a wonderful post - so many people think they should just put your first and last name in there and you are absolutely right - I have played around with my profile quite a bit over the last year and this was one of my favorite thigns to change around:)  Good info!

This is a nice, simple to read tutorial -- and it is important to make sure the name says it all. 

Hello Nestor and Katerina: I did this a long time ago and have definitely noticed a HUGE difference in the Google rankings of my AR blogging efforts.

Once again you post something that I did not pay enough attention to, Thank You Again.

Great advice!  I will make that change right away.  Once again thank you!

Katerina - this is also where you can put earned designations, if you choose, either in the first or last name blank of your profile.

Everyone! Thank you for your comments! Just got home from Church and saw all these awesome comments and a gold star! Thank you all for supporting my tutorials. I love doing them for you!

Now, I see some of your names on the links in your comments, and some can use some altering in order to get better google juice.

Cheryl- get rid of the comments between ABR, Broker, Realtor. Search Engines see the commas as a separation of keywords. The keyword 'Broker' and the keyword 'Realtor' are Way TOO competitive for you to try to own.

Remember everyone- IF You are using the word Realtor in your name YOU MUST add the registered trademark symbol -®

Thank you VERY much for sharing! These are great tips.

Katerina- As I often comment. Another fantastic post =) Thank you again and again for sharing such important information for all of us to use.

Best,

Scott

Hi Katerina...Well Done Girl !! Another Featured Post, Go Girl Go!

Thanks for Sharing!

Great information, thanks for sharing.  I'm headed over to change mine now.  Thanks.

Great idea! I just changed mine.

Thanks for sharing.

Rich

Charlotte NC

Good advice from a good team of realtors. This should help many people.

Ok, time to go check mine again!

great tip - I'll have to take a look at mine.  Thanks Katerina.

Thanks...great tip and something I will have to fix...question though...how did you decide to use Wellington Florida Luxury Homes? 

Sonja- I do a lot of keyword research. Those are my keywords for SEO. I use keyword tools across all SE's and I have special software that does helps me with the research. YOu have to have keywords that have a lot of searches and little competition. Most people live in small towns that are not even searched for and then they wonder why no one calls them.

It is also about who my audience is. We niche in luxury homes. We also niche in short sales, but short sales will be gone in a few years, luxury homes will still be here.

This of course is for organic traffic. I you are driving your own traffic through google adwords, banner ads and other promotions then you don't need to rely so much on organic traffic. I prefer organic traffic. Katerina

Thanks for the help. I, too, as so many others did, change my settings. I did notice that the field for your last name is limited to a certain number of characters...darn. I thought I had it going on!

Lenn- I know what you mean. Also many times I get emails from agents and I have no clue where they are from, what time zone are they on, am I calliing back too late? If it is hard to find out about an agent from another agent here on AR, I can imagine how the consumer feels. We need to keep things very explicit and simple.

Great tip and thank you for helping other AR members. Just changed my settings.

Thanks for the pointers.  How do I look?  I could not get the trademark to come up using control + alt + r.  Any suggestions?

Katerina...

In light of BB's comment do you think he may not trust me? :)

Someone had to say it...Might as well be me :)

TLW...ROAR...No Names Please :)

Nice and simple tip that everyone can use quickly.  I believe I had this one done, because of something you wrote before.  Thanks.

Katerina, I am constantly learning from you.  All I can say is Thank You, Thank You!

Great info!!I already went back & tried it out!

TLW- Oooh, I think there is a trust issue thing coming up here! We must have touched a nerve in BB! Gotta get him back on the couch, I'll call the shrink so we can get to the bottom of this! :)

Bryant- So I see you have a trust thing going on:)

Seriously though, I don't like it either when the real name is not being used, first, I think it is TOO Much SEO going on when you just have keywords, after all, this is a community and to build relationships we need to know your name. Plus for Google alerts! It would be foolish to not use your name in your link.

Everyone- I am trying to get back to any of you that have questions first. I am not sure I can get back to all the Thank You and great post comments.
Please know that I do appreciate your comments no matter how short or long, and to accept this comment as my appreciation to all of you.

I am working this weekend on writing our short sale book and only have 60 pages written and about 30 pages of a bonus, the forms we use in our short sales. I have a lot more to write and it is long overdue. I had 3 featured posts this week with tons of comments that I am not able to get all back to. I hope everyone is having a blast as we are here on AR!

This is a great tip and so kind of you to point it out.  I figured it out right away when I got here, seeing so many others doing it.

Mindy- Richardson where? What are you keywords for name and town? There has to be more than one Richardson wherever.

I hope everyone reads this and does it because I like the comments to have useful information about the person writing it.  Thanks.

Great advice. I am going to change my name to include my company name as I know many clients who have googled it for info.  Thanks!

 hi Katerina, great words of advice, re "When you comment on other members' blogs you want people to know who they are answering back to, who they are talking to"...

 Absolutely, I hate replying to a comment and not really knowing who is leaving the comment, i.e. ABC Realty???

 As you said it's also another link back for each of us plus a subtle way to spread our brand. As usual, another really well done post!

Good advice. Yes, we did a similar things with the boxes for information. All the best.

Bob and Carolin- Yes, that is right, you can be creative with all the boxes, descriptions, links, etc. That is a good idea for another tutorial.

Marti- I like to know who I am having a conversation with. I also think that it is a great way to start branding yourself but I do not agree with agents promoting big company names instead of their own. Thanks for visiting.

Jennifer- Do you have any keywords you can use or  niche you can promote instead of using up so much room with broker associate? Or is that something that NY requires?

Erik- Yours are NOT short tail, they actually are long tail keywords. What determines whether a keyword is short or long is the amount of searches there are for those keywords. How many consumers search for your keywords- Louisville-Bullitt County Real Estate? Across Google, MSN and Yahoo?

Follow my Active Rain blog- SEO Sessions weekly to learn more about SEO for Blogging and websites. If you have not subscribed yet, I invite you to do so, so you don't miss out on the series. Katerina

Very helpful, thank you!

Great information ..... the power of active rain and google juice is something elese....

Katerina,

Another good article and one worthy of a Gold Star.  I have done some revision let me know what you think.

You guys are amazing!  I read each and every blog you write, and I learn bucket loads everytime.  Thanks for the insigntful postings!

Hi Katerina!  Great advice and congrats on that little gold star!  A little bird once told me that...hmmmm...Oh, yes, I do believe that little bird was my FAVORITE coach EVER!  Thanks--you are the BEST Katerina!

Great information.  I am constantly learning from your posts.  This keyword/google juice thing can become a full time job but I'm trying to get it right.  Thanks!

Awesome post! I am off to modify my profile right now! Thanks a bunch!

Betina

Awesome post, I need to definitely go back and revamp my profile page, thanks for the wake up call

Katerina - Good advice of course. It is crazy when you see someone who does not include their name along with their keywords though.

Thanks. Did it.

Excellent points, and great reminders, thank you!

Elizabeth- That depends if your keywords are being searched for enough to bring you business. The bilingual thing is a good niche and is going to be good and is important too. You should be doing keyword research each month, about 1 hour a month to stay on top of the keywords and up and coming trends.

Jon- When you first set up your profile, one of the things you set is what you are, a real estate agent, a broker, a mortgage broker, a stager, etc. We first used Broker, but discovered we were not ranking high in the SERPS, most consumers don't search for broker, they search for agent or Realtor. I do not believe you can change that setting once you have picked it. I think you put in a ticket for that change, but I am not positive about that. Back when I made the change to agent from broker, I had to ask Bob Stewart to do it for me.

Lane- Yours says, Lane Bailey - REALTOR & Car Guy (Diamond Dwellings Realty)

You say that you are using keywords but I don't see any keywords there that a consumer who does not know you is going to search for.

Katerina, I'm sorry I was out of the rain, this is wonderful advice and it's interesting that so many AR profiles are going to be looking differently--including mine :)  Thank you~~!

Thanks for the wonderful tips - will be using them shortly - will be checking your blog on a regular basis.  Thanks again -

thanks for the tips & advice, you guys need your own Active Rain Channel - maybe I will reblog this post, and add to a new Channel :)

This is great information.  Thank so much for sharing with the AR community.

Great Post Nestor and Katerina Thank You!

Thanks for the tip....just made the change today!

That Was A Very Helpful Post As An Agent Who Is New To Active Rain And The Industry I Need All The Help I can get Thank You I goind To Update My Page Right Now

Hi Katerina,

Great tip!  I will remember this one when I register. 

Now I'm curious about who has the L-O-N-G-E-S-T entry?  :)

Katerina - Thank you so much for your time and generosity. I will now review my profile to be sure I am maximizing all opportunties.  You are clearly way ahead in understanding all the ins and outs of using this technology!

Thanks so much, I am always tweaking my profile!  You helped me to see my name in a different light!

Debbie

Thanks for the info.  I knew there was a reason I signed up for the newbee group!

Thanks for this info, Katerina.  It will be useful to many people.  I'm going to double check mine.

I think I had picked up this tidbit about my name at some point, maybe even from here.  Thank you.

I've been playing with this a bit. Still not sure it's the way I want it or need it to be. I serve the Ozarks, country property, in three counties. One tip that I hadn't thought about: you mention above the agent vs. broker status. I think I am listed as a brokerage.

Kat  - once again, thanks for the simple , but Critical advice, a few little tweaks and i am as good as new, have a good day

Thanks for helping out all the newbies.  It took me a while to get that little trick

Thanks again for another great post!  Back to the drawing board for me.

Great stuff.  I am changing mine name right now. Thanks for you help!

Thanks for all the fantastic info...

Great stuff!  Very much appreciate your generiosity!  Making changes right now.

Thanks for these tips.  It was good to come across them again. Better go back and check my profile again here.

again a great post I appreciate you taking the time to help us newbies this is what i came to active rain looking for. Thanks

hyphens instead of commas, got it.

Thanks so much for your advice.  You just saved me hours of efforts trying to figure this all out myself!

Carol Andersen

Katerina,

Thanks for your helpful information.  I am still figuring out how active rain works and how to change my home page from the dull white background and adding other features such as signatures and this was a great blog.  I had actually looked to see what I could do and wasn't able to figure it out on my own.  Your blog was very helpful.  Keep it coming please.

This is great stuff to know. Thanks

Everyone who commented since the last time I was on! Thanks so much for all your comments and I am very glad that this post helped you with your profile pages. I am writing my next tutorial. It should be up either tomorrow night or Sunday night, keep your eyes open! Katerina

Thank you so much for this --- new information for me.

Thank you for the information. I've bookmarked this because I'll probably need to refer back.

Thank you for the information. I've bookmarked this because I'll probably need to refer back.

I am new at Active Rain and just lerning. The power of name advice is great.

Thank you 

Just went through some of your older posts and for this one a big huge THANK YOU. Great stuff

I often wondered how people had their full company names and descriptions in their signatures!  Thank you for the tip - I am going to tweak my profile now!

Great tips! Thank you so much!

Thank you for the tip on this one!  I love reading your blog posts!

Thanks for the tip!  I didn't realize the link-back potential.  Name is changed and I'll be more diligent with making comments!

Thanks for the great information.  I went right back and added more information.  Will work on your other tips as time permits.

Great tips here Nestor And Katerina. I 'm currently making my changes right now.

This is great info!  I appreciate your help on all of this!

Great!  I have done this on other sites but did not think about it on my AR profile.  Thank You!

Thank you so much for your advise. I just love Active Rain. I learn something on it every day.

I just changed my name. I'm working on other parts of my profile now.

I am reading your tutorials.....I just updated my profile. 

I just changed my profile & catch phrase

Thank you so much for this insightfull post giving me great advice.

Mark Ilderton