I wrote a post about how to best use the link of your first and last name for Active Rain, how to make it an part of your overall SEO strategy and how to grab attention with it. Remember to go back and read it if you have not optimized your first and last name fields on your profile in Active Rain.
The next post in this series of articles to help you make the most of your Active Rain blog was the post about how to best use the other contact information and description section of your profile area on Active Rain. So if you are following along you should have made all the necessary changes and additions by now.
This article is going to address the body of your profile page. These are the sections that are listed right below your blog description.
There are three sections here. You can rename each of these sections. I highly recommend you to change these to some of your keywords and make them appealing to your audience.
I read a lot of profiles and most of them can be more fully optimized and more engaging. While you need to have a part of your profile be about you, more importantly this is a chance for you to reach out and pull your audience in. They will not get pulled in if your profile is only about your company. Having too much about your company on your profile also wastes valuable Google juice because Google absolutely loves the Active Rain profiles.
You want to make sure you use every chance to use your SEO.
Click on the field that says "rename section". This is where you should put your main keywords. You will see that I have our main key words as the name of this section yet it is not a turn off to the prospect looking at our profile because it makes sense. You want it to make sense.
Under the first caption what you will see here is all our buttons for search for homes, a link right to our short sale series and other links. After that is a little story of the markets we service with our longer tailed keywords in the body of that paragraph.
Below that we post our bios. Since there are two of us, to make it not look too long, we decided to go with the 2 column look. Nestor on the left side and Katerina on the right side. The bios are written in third person. The reason that is important is that it adds more credibility. If someone else endorses you it carries more weight than if you endorse yourself. This is a skill you learn in marketing. Just like with press releases, I always write our press releases as if someone else is writing about us.
We titled the next section with a higher demand keyword but that encompasses more than just our town of Wellington. Since Wellington is very small of course we list and sell properties outside of our town in neighboring villages and towns so this section is about what comprises our county. You will see again that there are many keywords being used in this paragraph.
Then the last section that is available on your Active Rain profile page we named: What Happy Wellington Homeowners Are Saying About Us. Again, contains keywords but does not take away from the attention grabbing headline. People love to know what others are talking about and doing. That is why Reality TV is so popular. Saying Testimonials is very bland and overused. This title is much more engaging. This is where we put our testimonials from some of our sellers that we closed short sales with and some regular testimonials also.
Make sure that you go to your profile and complete all three of these sections. There is also a difference in what a buyers' agent is going to write and add to their profile than listing agents. We are listing agents so we are attracting to us the sellers by the material we present on our profile. Sellers want to interview us and this is our interview. On the other hand a buyers' agent is going to need more information about the area like on Cyndee Haydon's profile. If you are a buyers' agent create something similar to Cyndee's profile. The videos in her profile are especially compelling and she has a lot of business just from her profile.
The most important thing to remember with working on your Active Rain profile is that it is being read! Our Active Rain profile has had more than 35,729 views.
So get creative with your copy writing and make sure you add links to your outside blog and add keywords throughout your profile. By all means add video and audio. I am working on that this year. Come back in a year and you will see even more changes to our Active Rain profile.
Your Active Rain Profile Page- Make It Shine For You! by Katerina Gasset is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Nestor Gasset and Katerina Gasset- Realtors®, CIPS, ABR, SFR, GRI, REOS
Great Suggestions - Please stop posting because you just make my task list grow. Thanks for the tips as I have seen more website traffic and higher google page rank after implementing the first two suggestions.
Ryan- That is awesome that your traffic is growing! It is the little tweaks that get 80% of your traffic. It is always the little things! You are welcome, have fun as your list grows:)
Katerina, Another bookmark and one I have wanted to redo for a long time but wasn't sure what to put....thanks for the helpful information. I'm also adding to my website and will follow these guidelings to get keywords in.
Great post guys! I am just getting started here and this will help out a lot.
I guess more homework for me. Thanks for sharing. Off to my profile page.
Mine needs some work, I like how you did this and explained the reasons. Sorta like on LinkedIN, I had website, blog, now I have my key words and names in there. Thanks have a good Sunday.
Terrific Tips !
... I'll try to look into this before my Steelers go for number 6 today !!!!!
Thanks as always guys !!
Sheldon
Katerina, Thanks again. I too have noticed an increase in traffic after the first two. I will revisit my profile page and improve it with your suggestions. Excellent, generous post!
This is a very helpful post that I am trying to bookmark - I see no option for bookmarking. Is that by choice? Perhaps I am missing it? Thank you.
Thanks for the tips you two are amazing. You always go out of your way to help all of us. thanks....
Good morning, Very helpful insights into our profile page. You guys rock !
Katerina - Great suggestions and recommendation regarding one's Active Rain profile page. I will check ours out this weekend to ensure we are utilizing these suggestions. You rock ! ~ Chris
Katerina, Thank you for the great tips! I am new to active rain and enjoy all of your great posts. I thought I had done a good job with my profile... :-0 I guess I need to reconsider.
Just hit the Bookmark key. So much great info here! I think I"ll redo mine tonight while pretending to watch the Superbowl:) Thanks Katerina!
Katerina -
I rely on your blog posts for very timely tips. Now, time for me to tweak!
Thanks!
DEAN & DEAN'S TEAM CHICAGO
I am new to active rain and this information is so very helpful. How do I bookmark so I can come back and read again and again?
Katerina, thanks for the homework here - my profile has been viewed about 10K times, so I realize the value, it comes up in keyword seaches quite a bit - but I don't think it is strong enough - more call to action?
Yours and Cyndee's are very effective and to the point, I will try to look at mine from a buyer point of view, that is what I am looking for.
Katerina - Thanks for helping all with the fine tuning :)
Hi Katerina -- thanks a ton of sharing your valuable knowledge and expertise with this platform, I know I have learned much from you, and I ditto Ryan's comment in that I now have another three things on my to-do list because of this post, and that is a wonderful thing to have.
Thanks again, sincerely! :-)
Thank you so much for all your insightful help - I've made the changes to my profile and think it's a great idea!
Very informative. Thanks for taking the time to share very valuable information. I am mesmerized by how the internet works. Pile my own website and blogging on to that and I am a bit overwhelmed.
I am going now to make changes to my profile page, then I am going to change my profile pitcure. I live in a very exciting town and want to relect some of that excitement in my profile photo. I am going downtown in a few mintes. I want to get a photo with the original Coca-cola bottling plant.
Thanks for the inspiration.
Kat Vallish
I keep thinking I'm going to work on my profile.....thanks for posting this today. I am setting a goal to work on this this week.
This is a great tutorial on how to make an impressive profile page. I believe my profile page is one of the reasons so many consumers end up contacting me directly when they stumble upon one of my posts via the search engines. About a year ago, I did my own little research study on profile pages, and it really helped me with creating my own. A lousy profile page is such a wasted opportunity!
Katerina- Excellent reminder... I don't when was the last time I looked mine over... I could stand to take some action- thanks so much for the pointers.
Fantastic tips! very helpful ;)
Wow...I feel like I have been to SEO school and now I have lots of homework to get finished. THANK YOU for all of your wisdom.....Kelly Willey
Thanks, I've followed your first two articles, now I'm going to do the same with #3. I plan to review and make changes to my profile sections. Also, now following on twitter.
Good SEO tips Katerina. I know I need to clean up mine and put some links toward my Outside blog:)
Yikes...I tried to change my name in my profile as you suggest and it disappeared. It is there on the edit screen, but not showing up when I leave comments. Any suggestions????
Katerina - This was rather timely because I was planning to do this tonight since it is badly needed.
I tried the same thing with my name and it worked fine on this, my other profile. Still dont know why my Coco Plum profile name is not showing up...Kelly
Hi Nester;
Great post and super information, I thank you for sharing.
Your posts are being very helpful. I am trying to learn and do a little everyday. Thanks.
Nestor & Katerina Gasset Realtors® Wellington Florida Luxury Homes (International Properties and Investments, Inc.)-Reading your blog you just reminded me that I need to update my Active Rain profile-AGAIN. Thanks for sharing this great information with us here on AR. Great post.
Great suggestions, thank you for all of your great content.
REALLY impressive.
Thank you so much for sharing.
I continue to be amazed at the wealth of free information that is available on AR, simply amazing.
Okay, implementing all of this good stuff is definitely on my list of things to do this week. Thanks for the information. Gina
Who can make my main profile page look better? Any advice? Recommendation? I haven't been active on A/R.
Happy Super Bowl Sunday everyone!
Regards,
Nima Rezvan
Senior Loan Officer
LADD Financial
Katerina- I love your posts and the information in them! I will implement some of this! Thank you so much!
Katerina...
I'm off to check mine out :), you are always so helpful for us non computer savvy agents. There were so many changes while I was away from AR I'm lost all over again. Still need to figure out how to get my custom page set back up on my blogs. I have a lot of catch up to do. Have a fantastic 2009, Liz
Katrina, Thanks so much for shareing your knowledge so freely. Every one of your posts just makes things so simple and clear, even if it gives us lots of homework.
WOW! I love all these comments! I have been at church and then on family matters as well as the tail end of the game I was able to catch. I turned on AR just now and was pleasantly surprised with 40 comments on this post and the gold star.
I will come back this week to address questions.
I will write a post about how to make those buttons since I got so many emails asking me about them.
The bookmark question: right under each post that you read there is a button that says, Bookmark. Just click that button and it will bookmark the post. Then to see your bookmarks, scroll down the left side of your home page and you will see it there with other links to statistics, invite someone etc.
Hi Katerina,
Thank you so much for your willingness to help and share! I cannot say thank you enough!!!
Great post topic. I just recently had a post about profiles as I revieved many when placing a referral and was suprised at the number that still had sample text in them
Good reminder - I remember your first post on this - it prompted me to make changes that helped.
Great reminder and so I have already gone and reworded a couple of my section names. Thanks for the advice and happy blogging!
Hi Katerina: Such great tips. Your information is right on the mark. I am bookmarking so I may follow the suggestions and re-power my profile - Thanks again!!!!!
Katerina,
I've had a client refer directly to my profile and she said she liked what she read. I got the listing. You bet it matters! Awesome tutorial.
Later in the rain~Deb
I just posted on the same topic - the profile page is "hit" so many times - it is just as important, if not more, than the blog posts.
Thank you both!!!
Passion Rules!
Tom Ferry
www.yourcoach.com
Great post. Thanks for the info.
Thanks for the info I'm going to make some changes tonight.
Katerina - I was reading over my profile today and thinking that I needed to put more keywords in. This post has given me some good ideas on how to do it. I will look forward to reading the post on how to make the buttons.
BTW. I'm looking forward to Wednesday's webinar. So much good info from last week.
Thanks for the valueable information. By the way your "home evaluation" page on your site reads "Toronto" which is where I happen to live and work. You may wish to change it and if you do happen get any responses from Toronto pass them up to me and I will certainly send a referral fee.
As always .. thanks for the info! pippa
Katerina,..... just getting to this now... some very useful information here. People don't understand that profiles are very important... and not just those so-called phrases that say... "I am cheap, quick, great, no costs, lowest rates, best service"... etc etc... I know I need to update my profile, but it's also good for google, when you update a static page. Nice job here... PS>. on another note, I never received that e-mail from you with your team members e-mail, so I can send you all an e-mail. jbelonger@ihmci.com thanks
I have put a lot of time in to my profile, but I will be leaving this up to do a little more work in the next day or so on this.
Katterina,
This really is great information, I enjoy taking your tips and then implementing them. Your writing style is very easy to follow.
I love all the good advice. I'm trying to work my day where I spend at least an hour a day updating my knowledge on technology.
Katerina - Thanks for posting this as I am in the process of setting up my own blog here on A/R and I could use the tips. Lisa set up the last one so I was out of the loop on the set up. Oh and thank you for your wonderful birthday wishes the other day. I appreciate it. Bob H
Hello, do you happen to know how to rearrange the order of the links/buttons on the far left side of the AR blog, or is that just some kind of upgraded feature? thank you--"Rain-Newbie"
Katerina - This is something I definitely need to work on especially since I've learned from you the importance of having the proper keywords in all the right places. I will definitely make it a priority to make the changes to my profile page.
Thanks, this will help me to set my profile correctly right from the start
Hi Nestor & Katerina,
This could keep me busy for a very long time, but it seems like a very productive set of goals to establish for the new year. Great post.
Nice job, thanks. I've never looked at the Statistics page, so I didn't even know that I could track the number of times my profile page had been viewed. Wow! Good reason to optimize the profile page.
Tim- I had to stop in and tell you that I absolutely love Jackson Hole and have been there many times! Katerina
Sooo much good information you guys share! thank you thank you, I am a newbie obviously, and yet I am so excited to actually finally learn about all this blogging stuff!! A stretch for me, since I am not of that/this generation...hee hee...I'm old! oh well, gotta keep learning new things to stay the Best at what you do. I did a blog about Generational Profiling and I need to practice what I preach! Thank you again. God Bless, Amanda
I am new to AR, thanks for the great tips! I have already made some changes.
I just put my picture up last night. Baby steps.
Great, great post. I'm all over it. Thanks so much for taking the time and explaining everything so well.
I took your suggestions and went right to work on my profile. Any other great tips? Thanks for the "Raindrops" of knowledge and information!
great tip on profile. Thanks.
I have another question although unrelated to the profile. I am a newbie on AR. Anyone here knows if there is a way to post a blog on Trulia automatically when I post a blog here at AR?
Thanks for the tips and motivation. This will help me give my profile some "juice".
Thanks for sharing this valuable information with us, I really enjoy reading your blogs.
Wonderful tips Katerina. Thank you!
Thank You Nestor and Katerina, I stumble into your blog and found it very informative, you will be saving me lots of time by your detail and wonderful posts. I sincerely appreciate you sharing this stuff with us.
Antonio
I am so new to all of this and I just love when the pros are willing to share information. Thanks so much - I can't tell you how much I learn from posts like this. Now if I can only put it into practice.
Thanks so much for the great tips! I appreciate you sharing your expertise!
I followed several of your links and am impressed that you spent 5 hours a day studying SEO until you had mastered it - that's persistence! You've obviously become an expert and your posts are helpful and informative.
This is the most informative and helpful post I have read so far on AR. Lots of great pointers and tips. I can't wait to try them. I am pretty new to AR and haven't been all that successful in getting my blog just right. Thanks Again.
Hi Nestor and Katerina: Great ideas on how to make your profile page stand out and enhance your SEO! I've been working on making my page better and am hoping to add video soon as well.
Have a great day,
Anne Rains
Anne- I am working on adding video and audio to mine too. Just not high on my priority list today:)
Just came aboard. Thanks for the tips. I've got a long way to go!
Katerina,
All such good ideas...thanks so much for sharing!!!
Thanks for the posts they're very helpful...I'm new to AR and ther is a lot of good stuff in the posts. Keep them coming..
Thank you for the thorough posts. Your information is pertinent and valuable!
Excellent ideas. Not is all as it seems when you first join AR. Thanks for the tips. So far 2/3 were extremely helpful.
Thanks for the tips. They are easy to implement and I have improved my information, but it is a work in progress as I begin to understand and use all the tools.
Hi Katrina
Can you tell me where to doenload the "clickable" buttons you have on your site? It would be greatly appreciated