A first impression is that moment when you first meet someone, reach out, shake their hand and get a feel for who they

really are. The handshake makes it tactile, real...tangible. It could be argued you close the deal at that moment.

Your web-page needs to convey that same tangibility without the physical contact. It needs to reassure the website

visitor that you are a real, genuine person, wanting their business and willing to go the extra mile to earn it. Your

website should reflect this attitude as well as fulfill it's related requirements. Let's look into what some of those

things are...

The "Handshake" starts at the first (Home) page and builds from there, with the ultimate goal being the "contact"

happening by the website viewer making the choice to become a real person to you, as well. They would do this by signing

up for your newsletter, subscribing to a drip listing system your website offers, filling out a "contact me" form or

simply picking up the phone and calling you. Our goal here is to look at offering the best practices for accomplishing

that contact.

It really begins locally, when you are interacting with a real person, face to face. A first time buyer perhaps, or

a seasoned buyer looking for investments, whatever your day to day business is. After the exchange, recall the questions

they ask, the knowledge they anticipate you will have about the area, the market, the schools, the shopping, etc. Then

answer those questions on your website. A visitor to your website will wish to know the same sort of things. When you

get a new question or situation in real life, that apples to your business, add a short write up (blog is best) about it

on your website. There's no excuse to not have pictures - a cell phone can take excellent images that can be easily

emailed to yourself, processed and added to a blog post from your local PC. We all love a great picture!

Think about where you drive in your area with real people and the comments they make along the way - then expand on

those things and make them into words on your website. Be specific about where you are, geographically. Don't say " We

drove into town and had a great lunch." say "We drove into Durango, CO, that historic town of the old west and had lunch

at a cafe called "Durango Joe's" on Main St., Durango, CO that has been in business for over 80 years." This

personalizes the text, draws people in and makes you a real person having real experiences in an area they may wish to

relocate to. Priceless, as the saying goes. Additionally, it gives you great places to install text links to other areas

of your website. Cross linking various pages and areas of your website is always a great practice. Let's expand using

our above blog post:

"We drove into Durango, CO and had lunch at a cafe called "Durango Joe's" on Main St. that has been in business for over

80 years. After lunch, we walked the sidewalk down Main St, Durango and viewed a few store fronts that were available

for rent and /or purchase. Some had residential living areas for rent available above the store."

You could easily create text links using several of these "key" phrases that are found in the above sentences.

"residential living areas for rent" could be a link to residential listings

"store fronts that were available" could be a link to available commercial listings

"Main St, Durango" could a link to listings in Durango, CO

The front page of your website should clearly define, where you are and what you do. You should use very specific

area and place names, including the State and Zip when you can. Real estate searches are always geographic in nature, so

you should make it easy for your website visitors to know where you do business. This applies to search engines as well.

If a person isnt able to identify where you are - a search engine doesnt stand a chance. So, if a search engine cant

find out where you are - they will not return you in ANY results as all real estate searches are geographic in nature.