Online Assistant

For years now, the squeeze page has practically been the lingua franca of the marketing online world. Whether you're in real estate (and actually, the real estate industry in particular has leaned particularly heavily on squeeze pages), banking, e-commerce or anything else, the conventional wisdom has been to target tightly focused groups of consumers through these web pages/marketing tools.

These pages do OK at helping marketers identify which keywords or keyword phrases do well in terms of attracting targeted traffíc and if they're well designed, at gathering email addresses or other contact information from these visitors. However, there are much better methods of doing keyword research than creating a separate squeeze page for each of your keywords. Additionally, building and maintaining these pages represents an investment of time and money which isn't likely to produce a worthwhile return.

The squeeze page is dead - it just doesn't know it yet and neither do the marketers who still use this direct marketing-style methodology in their líst building efforts. I know there's probably at least a few of you out there reading this that still use them and are wondering what exactly is wrong with squeeze pages.

As it happens, the answer is plenty. They're unappealing to consumers and increasingly, they're seen as undesirable pieces of virtual property by the search engines as well. When you're trying to market your business with a tool that turns off both your target market and the search engines, it's clear that the time has come to abandon ship. I'll explain in more detail below.

You've seen a squeeze page before - and chances are you've hit the back button on your browser almost immediately. These pages almost universally feature incredibly unattractive cookie cutter designs and copy which is generally nothing but sensational hype. That alone is enough to turn off most readers, not to mention that squeeze pages seem all too often to be riddled with spelling and grammatical errors. Put simply, they don't look professional by any stretch of the imagination - but they do look professional enough to fool many business people who are new to the medium of the web into using them at least for a while.

Think of it this way - if you got a flyer in the mail that looked like one of these pages, would you be in a hurry to contact the marketer to sign up for their mailing líst, let alone actually do business with them? Probably not.

As a general rule, if it looks too awful to be true, it's just what it looks like and squeeze pages are a prime example of this. They lack any kind of credibility with your prospective customers, especially when you're in the real estate business. These pages make you look like the online equivalent of a shady used car salesman, not the kind of person that people want to do a real estate deal with. There are other things about squeeze pages that turn off your potential customers, but since there's some crossover with this and the SEO shortcomings of the format, we'll get back to that a little later on.

It's true: squeeze pages are nothing less than poison as far as your performance in the search engines is concerned. Google and other search engines have been working on ways to discount the rankings of these pages, which are rarely the kind of content that users are actually looking for when they use the keywords which these sites target. It comes down to what it always comes down to when search engine rankings are the issue - relevance. A webpage designed to entice visitors to fork over their contact information simply isn't that relevant to many, if any, actual search engine queries, no matter how much content you try to cram onto the page.

Speaking of the content, this is something which has changed about squeeze pages in the last couple of years. Once these pages started being penalized by search engines for their lack of content ("classic" squeeze pages, after all, feature little more than an opt-in form), marketers started turning them into the online equivalent of the long form sales letter - in other words, something no one wants to read, especially not page after page. This unappealing content has led to a further decline in the ranking of these pages in search results, making them even worse marketing tools than they already were.

Let's get back to that subtitle about Google "slapping" squeeze pages, because this is one of the most important points I'd like to make here today. If your squeeze pages either link to or are part of your main site, they're more than likely causing a slump in your main site's search engine ranking, making you less visible to your market online. In other words, the exact opposite of what you'd hoped to accomplish. If these pages link to your site, you can be penalized for these links from unpopular sites in what Google considers to be an iffy online neighborhood - and what are the three most important things in real estate? Exactly.

Another way that squeeze pages can drag down your online presence is through having a large percentage of duplicate content. Many businesses throw up dozens of squeeze pages which are basically identical other than the targeted keywords for that particular page. Even if you make an effort to rewrite the content on these pages, there's only so much you can do without putting a disproportionate amount of time or money into the effort.

So if squeeze pages are out, what are real estate professionals to do in terms of marketing online? There's plenty of options, all of which are better choices than building a series of squeeze pages. I won't go into them all here, but as always on the web, it's all about good content which is geared towards readers first and search engines second. When your market sees you as credible and reputable, they'll beat a path to your door and happily sign up for your email list. And where the market goes, the search engines will follow; but no one's flocking to squeeze pages.

Remembering a loved one who has already left you can be so moving and brings up all kinds of emotions, but the best ones are times when we remember the love we had for them and the love they had for us. There are times when, for no reason at all, their memory will suddenly appear and we will remember their quirky little ways or perhaps something they had said or done and it will make us smile or perhaps laugh out loud. It helps alleviate the sadness when we can focus on the happy memories, the funny stories and recall the special moments that meant so much to us, rather than how much we miss them. Their memory becomes alive and they are here with us as we relive a special memory.

Though we are physically apart from our loved ones, I believe spiritually they are here with us. We don't know what happens after a person dies, but it makes me feel better to think of them as angels guiding us through life. In the movie "City of Angels" there are scenes of angels whispering into people's ears, putting thoughts in their subconscious mind, to help guide them through their life or to prevent an accident. Wouldn't it be wonderful if that is what happens - that our loved ones become our guardian angels? If we were quiet enough and cleared our head of all those busy thoughts, could we feel their love surround us and know they were still with us? I've never been able to do that, but certainly wish I could. I believe it would help us heal knowing that they were still with us; guiding us through our life.

We are people not bound by blood, but by the unity of spirit. We are different, but yet we are very similar. We share many of the same experiences and adversities of life such as, hopes, fears and the pain of losing loved ones.

Can you imagine the great changes that would take place in our world if everyone started treating each other and the Earth with respect? If everyone followed the "Golden Rule" of "Do onto others as you would have them do onto you" (Luke 6:31). There would be no need for military forces, or police or court systems, etc. Our stress levels would decrease and therefore our health would improve. Our climate and pollution levels would improve since we would respect our planet. What a wonderful world this could be.

Although it is impossible to go throughout your life without disrespecting others, you can make a conscious effort to be better. How many times were you in a rush to get somewhere that you didn't realize someone was behind you and the door closed in their face? How many times have you cut someone off in traffic or reacted in a cruel way if they cut you off? How many times were you vindictive, due to something someone said or acted towards you? Do you respect your pets and make sure they are loved, played with, fed and brought in out of the cold and rain? How many times were you rude to a waiter in a restaurant or a retail store. How many times has someone bumped into you, not watching where they were going or they were busy talking on the phone, and you gave them a dirty look or said something that wasn't very nice? Regardless how you are treated does not mean that you have to react in the same manner. You never know what adversities someone is going through in their life for them to act the way they do and with you choosing to react with love and respect, rather than mirroring their attitude, may help them to realize that they have disrespected you and help them become a better person. Most of the time when someone acts out of disrespect it isn't about you, but something that is going on in their life and they are unconsciously taking it out on you, but then again there are some people that are just plain rude and disrespectful. As the saying goes: "You get more from honey than vinegar." Since you have no control over how someone acts, getting upset about it doesn't help your stress level or improve the situation, so act out of kindness and love and keep that stress level down.

There was a time when children spoke to adults with respect, but there has been a severe decrease in respect for their elders in recent years. Teachers today are especially affected by this. One can only wonder what children will be like as adults if they continue down this path.

Do you know that it takes five to twelve years for a cigarette butt to biodegrade when thrown on the ground or out your car window? Not to mention the fires that cigarette butts can cause when thrown out a car window. Image how long it takes candy wrappers or other items that are dropped on the ground to biodegrade. I see recycling bins all over strip centers and in some cases your neighborhood has a recycling program, but I wonder how many people really take advantage of that program to its full extent. It is far easier to throw a can into the rest of your garbage rather than rinsing it out. However, it is wonderful to see the "Go Green" campaign taking off and people are becoming more aware of their environment. It's so important to respect our environment and protect it for future generations.

When you leave this world you will be remembered and judged by how you treated people and the world. Respecting others, at times, is hard to do when people can be so cruel and disrespectful. You do have a choice to walk away from any situation and not get involved or ask for assistance until you have calmed down. It seems to have become a "me" society where the most important thing is what I like and what I want. It would be wonderful if we went back to the teaching of God and "Do onto others as you would have then do unto you."