A lot of people will find your Website on the Internet, but what will they find when they get there? Here are 10 hints of things not to have on your Website.

1. Don't make them guess what cities you serve.

You need text or pictures/images that clearly say what region or cities you serve. If you are the agent for Mud Hollow Flats or Moose Horn Corners say so in a big way atop your home page.

Many agents think that they'll get more visitors to stay in their site if they say that they handle all of a huge urban area consisting of dozens of cities. Get real. Even consumers know better than that. Refer business to other agents in those cities you're not familiar with. Just do a good job serving clients in areas that you know.

2. Don't lack a headline.

How can people arrive at your site and know that you are what they searched for if you don't tell them? What do you tell them in a headline? You reflect the key words that are relevant to your site and your niche.

If you are the horse property RealtorŪ, have a headline that says something like:

"Your Horse Property RealtorŪ for Northern Michigan," or "Your Equestrian Property & Ranches Site for Mid-Washington State"

Also, be sure that your headline includes the key words that you assume people will use in searching for sites like yours. Better yet, have those key words be a hotlink to an interior page in your site that also has those key words as the headline. That way people won't get lost and search engines will like your site more because you used your primary key words in several headlines and not merely in your blocks of text farther down the page.

You also need a graphic of some kind that shows either you, or an image, that relates to the subject of your headline. (If you're a horse property agent, perhaps it's you on a horse. Hey, how about that dramatic pose that actor Clayton Moore used when he reared up on that white horse at the start of every one of his "Lone Ranger" TV programs?)

3. Don't put your contact information at the top of your site.

The "above the fold," topmost area of your site is its most valuable part. It is where you have six seconds to "hook" the visitor and "convince" him to stay in your site longer or to move on. Yet, you see agent after agent putting their office name, street and email addresses, phone and fax numbers at the very top part of their pages.

Get this! People will not stay in your site because you put your contact information at the top of your home page! It does not serve you to do that, no matter what you were told!

First you have to "hook" visitors with a benefits-oriented headline or subheads that promise them something that they really want.

Contact information should go at the bottom of your site. However, I prefer that it also appear several other places on a longer page, where the visitor can email you at anytime that he becomes so inspired. Above all, make it easy for people to find your e-mail address or call you.

Additionally, always put your Website address and your e-mail address on every page. They should be there both as clickable links, and simultaneously, as text links. Always! Why? Because the visitor may print out that page and later wonder what the page's URL was and what your email address is. If he doesn't find it on that page, he may just move on to another agent. So always print full contact info on every page.

4. Don't let one huge graphic occupy the top half of your home page.

Some agents believe that a "classy looking" image of Bentley cars in front of a Ritz-Carlton or a grand mansion conveys that they are a "luxury home agent." Often it does. Just don't have one single image span all the way from the left to the right margin across the top of your home page.

It is a waste of that valuable "selling" and "market positioning" space. You should use that space to "empathize" with the needs of the visitor. Show him, clearly, that you are what he wants. An image can convey a feeling, but the text that you use is what gets the point across instantly. Rely mostly on words, not solely on images, to make your point.

5. Don't design anything until you define your target audience.

Agents often see another agent's Website and tell a designer, "I want one just like that one." But the "look 'n feel" of one site may be totally wrong for another site. (Also, you have to be careful you don't plagiarize another agent's site---there are laws against that.)

If you sell mostly lots and units in mobile home parks and in lower income neighborhoods it would actually turn off your audience if your site looked like one that some luxury home agent has, and vice versa.

To hit the right design look n' feel, be sure to sit down beforehand and write out -yes, not just "think about it," but actually write it out - your profile of the average person in the audience that you want to attract to your site. Cover age, marital status, net worth, kind of car driven, favorite colors, types of clothes worn, number of kids, types of pets, typical career of both man and wife, etc. Once you finish that, you will have a good feel for what images, colors, models, and design nuances to include in your site. Mostly, you will be particularly clear what headline and subhead to use in your site and how big each one should be in relation to each other.

6. Don't let your designer run the whole show.

Have your designer give you rough drafts as he develops the concept for your site and as he moves through the stages of completion. You do not want him to completely finish the site and then have to fight him to make expensive changes.

He can present to you his initial design thoughts on a sheet of paper. Most designers, sadly, focus more on the graphics and not on the words. So it's up to you to keep him focused on textual matters. Remember, the words he chooses to use are far more important than his precious design elements.

Words take precedence over art on web sites. So make your designer justify to you verbally why each element is going where it is going on each page---that will tell you if he has carefully thought out your site from a marketing standpoint.

Your site is a marketing tool. If you think of it that way, you will find yourself working with your designer in a much different way than if you think of it the same as you do a letterhead, business card or static brochure. A web site is not a static brochure. It is a dynamic marketing tool. The two are as different as a photograph that rests on a table and a live play that is performed in a theater.

7. Don't settle for making your site merely search engine-friendly; build it to become highly ranked, too.

Most Website designers are not strong marketing people. Most strong marketing people are not strong designers. Most Search Engine Optimization (SEO) experts are neither. But you can find firms out there, who have on staff, experts in each of these disciplines. For better results, look for such firms so that you can get the best of marketing, design and SEO intelligence all in one place.

With firms such as this kind building your site, the participants work as a team, compromising with one another in key areas to give you the best of each discipline. Tell them that your goal is to have a site that can beat all other agents in your city---or in several cities.

See, you don't ever want "just a Website." You should want to have the best found one in your area (as far as search engines go), better than any of your RealtorŪ peers. Do that in your metro area and you could easily put an extra annual $100,000 in your pocket within a couple years. In rural areas, you'd practically own your entire region on the Internet compared with your peers.

Your chosen design firm will love the challenge and you will be creating for yourself something far more than another "me too" agent site that is no better nor worse than the rest of the mediocre pack of most agent sites that we see today.

8. Don't ever have a site unless it allows you to add pages, pictures, and text yourself.

It costs a fortune to have to go back to your designer every time you want to make a change in your site. So have him set up administrative pages enabling you to make the majority of text and photography changes within certain parameters or template restrictions. Be sure you can add reciprocal links to your site all by yourself.

9. Don't deal with adding and re-adding your URL to the search engines yourself.

Unless you know what you are doing, do not, yourself, make your annual web site renewals in Yahoo, Lycos, Inktome, etc., and other engines that require payments. Nor should you have to, yourself, continually REsubmit your site to the engines. Have your design firm do all that for you. Unknowingly, you could make mistakes that might take years to correct.

You should also have your designer firm be responsible for making your site come up better and better on search engines, especially Google.

What you might start doing yourself, though, is learning which are the better real estate directories. Doing so keeps your head in the online realty game insofar as which sites are dominant in the industry. These directories are myriad and a list of them can be found on Google.

Begin experimenting on how to buy links in these directories, paying for them online with your credit card. Eventually, you can take over this sometimes-expensive work from your web design or web management firm.

10. Don't put goofy photographs on your site.

If you want to be treated like a professional, show up like one in the pictures you use in your site. Consumers seeking homes - and an agent to help find them one - are not enamored with close ups of your prize roses, your oh-so-cute Irish Setters, you in your furry Halloween costume, or all your charming kids swarming all around you. What if your M.D. did that?

You can, however, and should, show many photos of you being involved with your clients, with your community, and interacting with your civic leaders, such as mayors, city council people, police and fire chiefs, planning commissioners, etc. Such photos are not goofy, but instead, impart much credibility upon you---they say that you know your community and are definitely a part of it, not just some bystander resident. Be sure your captions state who the other people are, including their titles.

Consumers relate to photos of you or even videos that show you helping other consumers.

How about one of you and a happy couple standing in front the SOLD sign on their lawn? Or a couple looking over your shoulder as you show them homes on your laptop?

How about a photo of you, listening to a client in your office, as Judy McClure does on her site. Or you gesturing with your arm towards a huge great room as the eyes of the couple beside you look covetously into the same space? Think of some more photo possibilities yourself.

Need to add photos that give you credibility? Enroll a friend or family member, or a good client, to become a model for your photos. Know a public official or two? Next time you see them at a social event, have someone take your picture with them. Get the official's permission to use their likeness on your site.

Take these 10 "Don't Dos" and evaluate your own Website. Are you violating some of these same Don'ts? If so, get them corrected as soon as possible.