Russell Volk : Destiny or Smart "SEO"?

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Destiny or Smart "SEO"?

By: Russell Volk
Wednesday, October 24, 2007 9:21 AM

Hey gang,

I ran into a very interesting situation lately and I just had to share it with you. Perhaps my story will inspire others to work harder on their websites and continue optimizing it.

Here goes the story.

About 3 weeks ago, I received a call from a lady. I wasn't able to answer the phone when she called, but she left me a voice mail and I called her back within minutes. When we started talking, she starts describing to me the following situation. Her and her husband, went riding on a hot air balloon on a Sunday. About 45 minutes into their ride, they started experiencing technical difficulties with their balloon. They had to make an emergency landing. From above, they spotted a big field and decided to land there. After landing in the field, a guy ran out to them and started offering help. That field was actually a farm field. About 30 acres of land and a beautiful 1850's colonial on it. So they're all dragging their equipment towards the road, while admiring the area, the view from the field and the house and all of the sudden, the lady sees a "For Sale" sign infront of the house.

The guy who was helping them, was the owner of the house and told them that the house was actually for sale.

She went online, went to Google and typed in "Bucks County MLS". My website came up #2 in the search and she called me. She only knew that the house was located near a specific intersection. She didn't have the address. So she's telling me this story and said that she absolutely felt in love with that property and wanted to know more information about it.

I found the house she was looking for, we all went to see it the last weekend, they loved it, put in an offer on Monday, offer was accepted on Tuesday, they offered the full asking price of $1,850,000. The settlement is December 14th.

If I didn't spend all that time and effort on optimizing my website towards specific keywords, the lady would find somebody else and would buy that property through another agent.

It's a strange story, but is it destiny or is it smart SEO?

Good luck everyone.

Comments

Member Since '06	Joe Schutt said: Congrats Russell. That is awesome. I would say it is a bit of both, but you can take full credit since your site came up. October 24, 2007 7:57 AM
Member Since '03	Mike Farmer said: This is the kind of story that nails a point home. thanks. October 24, 2007 8:06 AM
Member Since '07	Shelly Constantz said: Rock on!! All that hard work is paying off!! Great story and thanks for sharing. That makes me want to get on the stick and get mine done : ) shelly October 24, 2007 8:18 AM
Member Since '06	Russell Volk said: Thank you all and honestly, all you Relibbers here, you guys have been an inspiration to me for the past year. I received a top of valuable advice from all you guys and I couldn't have done it without all of you. October 24, 2007 8:28 AM
Member Since '07	Candice A Donofrio said: Destiny, smart SEO, all I can say is hot air balloons RULE! I LOVE stories like this! October 24, 2007 8:38 AM
Member Since '04	Mary Welch said: Wow Russ, when some are wondering where there next buyer is coming from, you can tell them the story about the day your buyers fell from the sky. Just shows you what my husband always says, "you women are always shopping." True. October 24, 2007 8:43 AM
Member Since '06	Cathy Clark said: Now, that's what I'm talking about! Nice. May it start raining Buyers! In accordance with the Prophecy. October 24, 2007 9:12 AM
Member Since '07	Craig Barrett said: Great job Russ! You rock! October 24, 2007 9:14 AM
Support Staff	Carey Tufts said: Now the burning question . . . was it a Re/max baloon? ;-) Good work Russell - a good story that seems like just a happy accident, but really was the result of a lot of hard work on your part. I'm sure you earned that one through hours spent optimizing your site, which I hope will continue to pay off for years to come . . . October 24, 2007 9:19 AM
Member Since '06	Cathy Clark said: Carey's right, we create our own good fortune. October 24, 2007 9:24 AM
Member Since '07	Candice A Donofrio said: LUCK = Laboring Under Correct Knowledge October 24, 2007 9:32 AM
Member Since '04	Mary Welch said: Russ, Careys comments about it being a remax balloon, all I can say is you can change the topic to "Don't count on hot air when buying a home". LOL October 24, 2007 11:35 AM
Member Since '05	Millie Rowan said: Russell, this is definately what we need to do. Make sure we have the right search terms so that people can find us. Great story, hmmm how can I get a plane to land near my airpark listing? October 24, 2007 11:47 AM
Member Since '06	Sharron and Steve Lobman said: Awesome! October 24, 2007 11:58 AM
Member Since '07	Rod Rebello said: Great story! Hmmm...I did see a Re/Max balloon hovering around our house couple days ago (that time of year in Phoenix for balloons) - I'm going to have to start following them for deals like yours :). October 24, 2007 12:25 PM
Member Since '05	Lonn Dugan said: That's The Way! Uh Huh Uh Huh!!! Way to GO Russel !!! Wondering, what SEO books or web sites do you find most helpful? October 24, 2007 3:44 PM
Member Since '03	Mipeco Realty, Inc - Michaela Krestenic, Broker-Owner said: too bad most of my listings are heavily wooded! Congrats! It's good to know that website optimizing really works! You must have done a great job! October 24, 2007 4:28 PM
Member Since '06	Russell Volk said: Wonderful comments everybody. I really appreciate them. Carey, I don't think it was a ReMax balloon, although that would be too funny, since I don't work for ReMax. ;) Lonn, there was not one specific eBook or website that I've been reading. I've tried to read all the free information that is available on the web. I'm a big fan of "free". It takes time and effort, but eventually it pays off. When the offer was accepted, I was on cloud nine. It was like a fairy tale, but that tale involved a lot of time, frustration, lost leads and effort. Eventually, it all pays off. As I'm writing this, I would like to thank P2 community and the organization for providing, us Realtors, for an amazing set of tools, that not only allows us to establish our presense on the web, but also to support our families and grow our business. October 24, 2007 5:44 PM
Member Since '03	Howard Arnoff said: Russell, that is terrific, and your excellent follow up skills were certainly a big part of the reason you were able to work with this client. I'm wondering whether you are blogging on your website or optimizing with keywords or both. October 24, 2007 5:53 PM
Member Since '06	Russell Volk said: Howard, honestly, just including the keywords on my home page and working on inbound links to my site from various directories, message boards and blogs. Also, try to vary your anchor text in the inbound link. Other than that, I don't really blog much. I also, only care about my home page. The other pages on my site, are pretty much canned. I didn't change the text or the structure of the pages. I only care about my home page. Once the visitor is on my home page, they can get to pretty much anywhere on my site. October 24, 2007 6:04 PM
Member Since '03	Howard Arnoff said: Thanks Russell, once again, congrats, I'm going over to take a look at your home page and see what I can learn. October 24, 2007 6:28 PM
Member Since '06	Russell Volk said: Howard, there's really nothing to it. Just put relevant text on your home page. I concentrate on Google only. I don't care about other search engines. Google is the king and there's a reason why their stock is over $600 a share. Instead of trying to satisfy every search engine possible, concentrate on one big one and you'll be just fine. Think of a search engine as a big hungry dog. This dog wants to eat and the only thing it likes to eat is text. Lots and lots of text. Feed this dog some text and it will be your best friend for life. Visit my site as often as you wish, just make sure my UltraStats don't go through the roof. lol ;) October 24, 2007 6:37 PM