Does the endless parade of 'Find An Agent' sites include any worth for your advertising dollars? Consider these three rules when judging their potential in sending more visitors to your personal Website.

In the late 90s, I noticed that a new "Find An Agent" site seemed to appear almost daily. Even after the dot-crash, a never-ending supply of these Realtor.com Jr. wannabees, keep showing up - usually as Spam in your inbox.

This took almost a comical turn for me, when a very serious sounding piece of unsolicited email announced the arrival of Bobbing4Agents.com. At first, I thought it was a joke one of my cohorts was playing on me. But no, it turns out Bobbing4Agents is AllToo4Real. The site really exists.

I don't know the people running this site, nor can I comment on the value their site offers agents. More power to 'em, as I always say; I like entrepreneurial efforts. Maybe the site is worth "raving about" - which is what the e-mail claimed agents across the country were doing. But if you are an agent trying to generate more traffic for your personal web site, as opposed to paying for leads via fees or referrals, how do you decide which "Find An Agent" - or "Find Anything Real Estate" - site is worth your time and dollars?

First, I suggest if a "Find An Agent" site arrives in your inbox as spam, you ought to give it just that much weight in your consideration. If the site operator resorts to, or can afford nothing other than spam, it well could be fly-by-night or snake oil. What type of company would allow their marketing message to be lumped in with the rest of the junk that arrives as spam? The impression is one of a company that's desperate, underfunded, or not savvy about online marketing. That's not a good bet.

Second, if they are making claims that strain credibility, maybe they don't deserve any. Claims like "biggest," "best," and "most" are red flags for me.

Here are some direct quotes from a few "Find An Agent" sites:

• "The net's best known source"
• "The nationwide leader"
• "The world's premiere online source."

Excuse me? I thought Homestore/Realtor.com ruled this perch - you know, the publicly traded company, licensed by NAR, with over a quarter billion in annual revenues? Seems like a lot of these "Find An Agent" sites haven't heard about Realtor.com, let alone other market leaders - at least based on the exaggerated claims they make.

Third, just how well is the "Find An Agent" site doing in search results? Is it consistently ending up on the first or second page of popular and highly competitive real estate searches, month after month, after year? If search engines think such a site is important, maybe you should, too, for two reasons: (1) Consumers will find the site when searching, and could find you thereby; and (2) Along with a hundred other factors, search engines take into account some measure of a site's 'popularity' when determining search results.

Getting listed in the right Find An Agent/Find Anything Real Estate sites can be of incremental value in increasing these measures of popularity for your site. While it's not a panacea, guaranteeing search engine success - remember there is no such thing - it is part of a smart, overall search engine optimization strategy.

When purchasing linkage, make sure your link can be reached with a few clicks from the home page, isn't hidden behind a search form which blocks search engines, isn't diluted by scores or even hundreds of other links on the same page, and the linkage URL isn't obscured by ad-serving software (http://adservingsoftware.blah=yourwebsiteaddress.com instead of http://www.yourwebsiteaddress.com).

But if a Find An Agent site isn't pegging the top of search results, arrives in your inbox as spam, and makes claims which strain believability, why bother?

Published: March 9, 2004

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Lawrence Schoeffler is Vice President and General Manager of the Advanced Access and Best Image Marketing Group, a division of Dominion Enterprises, and the founder of NUMBER1EXPERT. Advanced Access is the industry leader in website design, hosting and marketing, with 30,000 real estate agent clients, exclusive endorsements by over 10 State Realtor Associations and growing, and the Preferred Provider for over 40% of the National Association of Realtors' members. See their award-winning websites and marketing solutions. NUMBER1EXPERT is the industry's premium Internet marketing service -- offered exclusively by Best Image to Top Selling Agents. Agents must earn NUMBER1EXPERT credentials to gain access to this suite of acclaimed marketing solutions including enhanced, priority, featured, special and/or members-only advertising across the web. Find out more about NUMBER1EXPERTS - some of the top agents in America - with free Profiles of Internet Masters videos and webinars. Email Lawrence at .