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🔥 Fast Fonts, Optimizing YouTube & Better Billing Updates!

Websites speed contributes to your rankings and a faster site can convert more visitors into leads. In the spirit of our Carrot core value of consistent improvement and innovation, we’re excited to share some improvements we have been making to all Carrot member sites! We continue to take your website’s performance very seriously and invest in optimization. Here’s a bit of what is new lately… Optimized Web Fonts, No Compromises What’s new? Fewer Downloads Less Javascript Fewer Domain Lookups Improved Readability Carrot sites have beautiful custom fonts available to help differentiate your site and look great. Previously served from Google Fonts, we’ve now simplified the font loading process and moved font files to the Carrot CDN (Content Deliver Network) – reducing lookups, and optimizing delivery. We’ve also audited all Carrot site themes and improved font weight selection to ensure your sites have great readability across more devices and rely on fewer different weights to load 🎉 Result: An average of about 2 points increase in PageSpeed score, but more importantly, a visible speed improvement in your browser for when the site looks loaded. Bonus: If speed is your only goal… there is now an option to forgo web fonts all together and just use the default browser fonts. Embed YouTube Videos w/ No Slow Down! What’s new? Better looking YouTube Embeds Faster page loads with YouTube Videos No performance hits for adding multiple videos Video is a great interactive way build credibility. Whether it is an informational video on your home page, or a series of testimonial videos. Unfortunately… loading up a YouTube video can take a lot of resources, and performance (especially on mobile devices) is worse the more videos you add to a webpage. We’ve solved this issue by implementing deferred loading of video embeds! Now, rather than loading all YouTube embed assets, scripts, etc. for every video on your page immediately, your Carrot site automatically shows a preview placeholder for videos until the visitor clicks the play button. Once the play button is hit, the YouTube embed is loaded and starts playing! 🎉 Result: We have seen dramatic load time reduction, for a page with single video this can improve PageSpeed scores by 15+ points (out of 100). Adding multiple videos, this can show an improvement of multiple seconds on your page load and as much as 25 PageSpeed score points! More Responsive Billing Feedback We also want to take a moment to share some more behind the scenes updates – we’re hard at work improving the visibility of your billing status for your Carrot membership. You will now get real-time updates in your account about the status of your credit card expiration or missed payments. We are also rolling out new systems to ensure that billing related communication comes your way more reliable, should there ever be a problem with your card. You’ll now also be prompted immediately upon sign-in if your billing has lapsed past the 10-14 days when your account will go temporarily inactive. That way you will have the quickest path to keeping your account current and your Carrot sites live! How to activate these new updates? You don’t! We’re already on it for you – that’s the beauty of Carrot 😄 Nothing to install, nothing to update 😎 We’re on it! Let us know what you think! Check out your own sites, and reach out to Carrot support if you have any questions – we love hearing from you!

Introduction to Pay-Per-Click Advertising for Real Estate: A Beginner’s Guide

In 2018, PPC was the second highest lead generation medium for our members. Trying to rank on page one of Google can be a daunting task for some. It takes time and resources to invest in a full, all-out SEO strategy. Even then it could take months to notice. What can you do in the meantime? Well, many of our members make use of both PPC and SEO — using the former to generate short-term traffic and the latter to generate longterm traffic. In this intro to PPC for Real Estate, we run down what you need to understand if you’re considering this route. Including: What is PPC for Real Estate? How does PPC work? What are the benefits of using PPC advertising for Real Estate? Who should use PPC? How to get started with PPC? Introduction To PPC For Real Estate What Is PPC For Real Estate? (Image Source) PPC is a broad term used for various cost-per-click platforms real estate professionals use to get in front of their target audience. These include Google Ads (AdWords), Bing Ads, Facebook Ads, and numerous retargeting options. Overall, PPC is a digital marketing strategy in which you advertise within a search engine’s sponsored results by bidding for the keywords, ad sets, and/or retargeting list connected to your real estate niche. Pay-per-click is exactly that… you pay each time your ad is clicked. Although, there are times you can be charged for impressions (number of times your ads are shown). Google Ads (Adwords) still reigns as PPC king for generating motivated seller leads. Facebook ads can also be an effective way to generate motivated sellers as well as buyer leads. Facebook cost-per-click is also considered a lesser amount compared to AdWords. It’s important that you understand where your leads are coming from and the value of your cost per lead to fully understand which platform works best for you. How Does PPC Work? Starting with the basics. When a motivated seller types a search query into Google, the search engines provide two sets of results: pay-per-click ads (sponsored) and organic results. As seen in the picture below, the first three results on top are sponsored ads (indicated by the green square around the word “Ad”). The other results below the ads are organic results. More than likely, the organic website results have climbed the rankings by executing a solid SEO strategy. With PPC, when the searcher clicks on one of the ads, you (the advertiser) is charged for that click. The price of that click will vary per the competition for that specific keyword as well as your target location(s). You can use specific tools to find keyword traffic estimates as well as the competition and cost-per-click estimates. Tools such as: Google Ads Keyword Planner Ubersuggest SEMRush (free or paid) What Are The Benefits Of Real Estate PPC? (Image Source) Advertising with PPC ads can have many benefits. Here are some of the top reasons you should consider using PPC as part of your online marketing strategy. 1. You Have the Opportunity to Control Your Position on Page One of the Search Results PPC advertising allows you to gain the most valuable ad space on whichever PPC platform you choose to use. If that’s Google, then you have the ability to get on top of the first-page search results without having to dedicate the time and resources for SEO. Claiming ad space where most eyes will see them will increase your odds of getting solid lead generation and return on your investment. 2. Place Your Ads in Front of YOUR Audience This is … Continued

How To Track Your Real Estate SEO Performance And Improve Your Strategy

You want to generate more organic leads but you don’t know how to track your real estate SEO performance. That’s common. You want to pull more traffic to your website (with less money) and you want to convert that traffic into cash for your real estate agent or investing business. That’s good — you’ve chosen the right strategy: SEO. Since people who find your website all on their own are usually more motivated than those who see your ad on Facebook, SEO doesn’t just drive traffic but works to improve the conversion rate of your website. And with high-quality traffic and leads comes less time spent dealing with tire-kickers who’ll never convert, regardless of how hard you try. In other words, SEO benefits your business in a multitude of ways. Less time spent on the wrong leads, more time spent on the right leads, more website traffic, higher conversion rate, consistent lead generation, and even financial predictability. But there’s a problem… How do you know if your SEO strategy is working? How do you know that you’re SEO performance heading in the right direction? After all, SEO can take months or years to start having a tangible impact on your business, so how do you know you’re not just wasting your time? Here are 4 mission-critical SEO metrics to keep an eye on while you’re climbing your way through the rankings. 4 Mission-Critical Real Estate SEO Performance Metrics You Need to Be Using 1. Rankings This metric might be obvious to you… If you’re going to drive passive traffic to your website and you’re going to convert more leads without running more paid ads, you must get to the first page of Google. But that can take months, years even. How do you know you’re making progress? The simplest way to check is to open an incognito web browser window and type in the search phrase that you’re trying to rank for. Then click through Google’s results and see if you can find your website. Problem is, that’s time-consuming, especially once you’re trying to rank for 10 or 20 different keyword phrases. At that point, you don’t want to manually check all those rankings. This is why, at Carrot, we created our Keyword Ranking Tracker tool for our Content Pro and Advanced Marketer members. This tool tracks your rankings for specific keyword phrases in near real time. You can use it to quickly determine where your website is at for multiple keyword phrases you’re targeting. Every page in Google typically has 10 results, so 1-10 means you’re on the first page, 11-20 is second page, and so on. 2. Domain Authority Another way to determine whether you’re making progress in the eyes of Google is to check your website’s domain authority. What is domain authority? It might sound complicated, but it’s actually pretty simple when you get down to it. Domain authority is the overall authority that search engines (Google, mostly) attributes to your domain. More authority is better and means that your website has a higher chance of ranking in results. Conversely, a low authority means that Google is unsure of whether you’re trustworthy or not (yet) and it’ll be more difficult for your website to get on the first page of Google’s results. But the more content you create, the more opportunities you’ll have to rank in search engines (each page or blog post has a chance to rank). This is why we include monthly expert-written content as a part of our (Carrot’s) Content Pro and Advanced Marketer Plans. Plus, the longer your website exists… (Image Source) …and the … Continued

7 Habits of a Highly Successful Real Estate Investor

We’ve assisted thousands of real estate investors generate millions of leads online. × × Demo Carrot: How many deals are you losing to your competitor’s website? Take a Free Demo But we haven’t just helped our members with their online marketing strategies but joined them in their success. For years, we’ve put ourselves in the environment of high-performing real estate professionals — interviewing them (check out our podcast), going to their conferences, becoming real estate investors ourselves, and even hosting masterminds of our own (check out CarrotCamp). Throughout our time talking with high-performing real estate investors, we’ve noticed some trends in how they run their businesses, think, and even start their mornings. Knowing those similarities, anyone can work backward to build habits leading to a successful real estate investing business. But before we dive into the seven habits of highly successful investors, we want to first talk about the mind. That is the one mindset difference between top performers and everyone else. Or, you can skip down to the seven habits. Now we know claiming that one solitary mindset shift is what makes the difference between those who succeed in real estate and those who don’t is an ambitious claim. Could there only be one difference between the people who win and those who lose? Probably not. After all, there are a lot of factors that determine whether a real estate business succeeds: Many other unforeseeable events can derail your business or turn it into a thriving money-maker. When it comes down to it – if we’re being honest – a large part of building a successful business is cold, hard luck. Did you start at the right time? Did you launch your business in the right market? Did you have someone willing to teach you? But that’s not what you came to hear. You came to find out how to ensure that your business will succeed despite the unpredictable and often frightening events that can destroy a growing business. You don’t want to know what you ​can’t control but what you ​can control. However, you can’t understand what differentiates those who succeed and those who don’t unless you first accept that you can’t control much of what goes into building a business. But here’s the dead-simple thing you can control – and if you learn to, it practically guarantees your success, despite being lucky or unlucky. Your mind. Clichés aside, how you think won’t only ​impact whether you succeed; it will completely make that decision. Of course, telling you to think differently than you do now is about as helpful as telling you to buy a new car without describing the brand or make of the vehicle. The only mindset difference between top performers and everyone else is the belief that you will succeed before you even start. The business can’t be an experiment, and it can’t be a we’ll-see-if-it-works undertaking. You might not know when or how it will become successful, but you must have 100% confidence that it will. That’s what differentiates someone who builds a successful business from someone who doesn’t. Despite uncontrollable circumstances, someone with an if-then mindset will quit when things get hard. ​Maybe it’s not possible, after all, they’ll think to themselves. Someone who fully believes the business will succeed before starting is far more likely to push through all the difficulties of growing a new business. In other words, believe that you’ll succeed, and you will. Believe anything less, and you’ll fail. It is that simple. Of course, you know what ​isn’t that simple? Believing with your whole being that you’re going to … Continued

Real Estate SEO Copywriting: 7 Tips to Drive Passive Traffic and Convert Website Visitors

Are you wondering what real estate SEO copywriting is and why it’s important for your website? × × Real Estate SEO Bible: The Ultimate SEO Keywords Guide Download Now SEO copywriting for real estate is niched writing that: At some point, you must put pen to paper (or rather keyboard to a computer, I suppose). Now is that time. In this article, I will teach you how to write every page on your website that you’d like to rank so that it will have the best chance of ranking. This will likely apply to your homepage, consistent blog content, and about page. Use this blog post as your guide whenever you’re trying to rank a page on your website for a specific keyword phrase. Writing for Search Engines VS. Writing for People… It’s an easy enough mistake to make… You intend to write content that ranks in search engines, pulls passive traffic, and generates consistent leads for your business. So you optimize, optimize, optimize until your fingers are bleeding. The problem is there is such a thing as over-optimizing your content for search engines. Google itself refers to including too many exact match keyword phrases on a single page as “keyword stuffing” — a naughty word that’ll get you fewer rankings. Similarly, building backlinks with PBNs or similar shady tactics can hurt your rankings when Google finds out what you’re doing (they don’t like being manipulated). Learn more: Are you Sabotaging your Real Estate Website’s Rankings With These 3 Black Hat SEO No-no’s? Not just that, but writing a page purely for search engines without thinking at all about the people you’re trying to attract will naturally increase your bounce rate, decrease your click-through rate and conversion rate, and, again, hurt your rankings. In other words, you must walk a fine line between writing for your ideal market and writing for SEO. Ideally, you’ll do both. 7 Real Estate SEO Copywriting Tips to Drive Passive Traffic and Convert Website Visitors Tip #1: Keyword Research and Implementation: Hitting the Right Target (Image Source) Keyword research forms the foundation of effective real estate SEO copywriting. By understanding the specific terms and phrases your target audience uses when searching for properties or real estate services, you can tailor your content to attract the right visitors. Here’s a breakdown of different keyword types and their strategic placement: Primary Keywords: These are the core phrases investors like you are likely typing, such as “motivated seller leads,” “cash for houses [your city],” or “wholesale properties [your state].” We’ll strategically place these in key areas like titles, headings, and throughout your platform content, ensuring high visibility for the right audience. Secondary Keywords: These are more specific variations that drill down further, like “inherited property cash buyers” or “foreclosure deals [your area].” These help you attract sellers with unique situations and specific property types, increasing your chances of finding the perfect investment opportunity. LSI Keywords: These are semantically related keywords that search engines associate with your primary topic. Think “sell my house fast for market value,” “sell my house fast reviews,” or “need to sell my house asap.” Including these helps search engines understand the broader context of your content and improves your ranking potential. Remember, the key is to integrate these keywords naturally. We want your platform to speak directly to motivated sellers, providing clear and concise information while ensuring search engines recognize the relevant context. This way, you can attract the best deals and maximize your success as a real estate investor. Tip #2: Headlines that Hook: Captivating Attention and Driving Clicks Headlines are the first impression your real estate … Continued

Ep 146: From Firefighter to $1.4million Wholesaling Real Estate w/ Christian Marin

People ask me what the next big thing is in marketing. If you’re already doing marketing, the next greatest thing is to build up your credibility, so you can stop losing deals. Trevor Mauch, CEO of Carrot Christian went from Firefighter to an employee at a house flipping business making money for his boss, to going it alone (and failing the first time)… and finally made things click and over 2 years went from $0 to $1.4M in revenue. Hear his journey, what made wholesaling finally work for him in a big way, and why he didn’t quit when he burned through his whole marketing budget with no results. Listen to the CarrotCast Podcast: The Conversation 3:04 – A look at Christian’s business: wholesaling since 2014, recently launched a private lending arm and property management arm, and plans to launch a full-service investment firm in 2019. 5:11 – How to turn a dead lead into $14,200 of commissions. 6:33 – Growing from $330 gross revenue during his first year to $1.4 million in gross revenue in 2018. 8:12 – From firefighting to real estate: how he made the transition and who helped him on his journey. 11:09 – “My girlfriend found a Groupon deal for real estate license”. 15:31 – Making an incredible comeback from failing as a real estate agent. 16:32 – How to talk with sellers and study the various personality types. 21:01 – How being transparent in your business can get you more deals. 22:45 – Why owning your credibility and reputation will ultimately help you close more deals. 27:34 – Christian’s marketing plan for hitting $3 million in revenue this year + His current ROI and cost per deal. 34:31 – What to do when your online leads aren’t converting. 36:31 – Christians unique strategy for finding buyers. 46:35 – What’s changing with MLS? 55:03 – How to make more money on the same deals you’re already closing. 58:35 – The one thing you should be focusing on as an entrepreneur. RESOURCES FOR YOU Check out Christian’s site at buycheaporlandohomes.com Check out Rich Dad Poor Dad Check out our blog! Check out our podcast! ADDITIONAL CARROTCAST EPISODES EP 103: Forgot To Have Fun? Lost Touch With Your Passions? This 7 Minutes Can Change It All For You: CarrotCast EP 101: I Hung Out With 6 People Each Worth $300M+ This Month… 6 KEY Lessons I Learned: CarrotCast EP 36: What’s Your Credibility Score? The Top 5% Of Earners Are Doing These “Simple” Things To Build More Credibility In A Cluttered Market w/ Trevor Mauch: CarrotCast We want to hear your thoughts on the podcast! Drop them in the comments section below or hit us up on Facebook or Instagram

EP 145: What 5 Days Without Power or Running Water Taught Me This Past Week… (Snowpocalypse 2019)

What do you need to do to force yourself to slow down and get out of the busyness that you create? Trevor Mauch, CEO of Carrot What made you decide to become an entrepreneur? Why do you show up to work every single day? What makes it all worth it? For me, it took a week off work, 5 days without power, and a couple of powerful conversations with my mentor to see what I was missing out on… Listen to the CarrotCast Podcast: The Mindset of Money Conversation 1:05 – Masterminds & Disneyland – What I’ve been up to! 6:47 – Fixing the struggle to fill every moment with your cell phones and not being present in the moment by reliving memories with your family, 8:38 – Busy-ness is usually something we create ourselves. This week made me realize I need to force myself to slow down. 9:47 – Take a hard look at WHY you became an entrepreneur and why you put it in the hours. 10:16 – What it actually means to 10x your business and how people wrongly interpret it. 11:42 – My mentor’s challenge to me: Think about the long game, find your WHY, and find the right people in your life to unlock you. 15:24 – My WHY and the impact I’ve been able to make on the town that I grew up in. 22:53 – The most exclusive mastermind for high achieving real estate investors… CarrotCamp.com RESOURCES FOR YOU Check out our blog! Check out our podcast! ADDITIONAL CARROTCAST EPISODES EP 103: Forgot To Have Fun? Lost Touch With Your Passions? This 7 Minutes Can Change It All For You: CarrotCast EP 101: I Hung Out With 6 People Each Worth $300M+ This Month… 6 KEY Lessons I Learned: CarrotCast EP 36: What’s Your Credibility Score? The Top 5% Of Earners Are Doing These “Simple” Things To Build More Credibility In A Cluttered Market w/ Trevor Mauch: CarrotCast We want to hear your thoughts on the podcast! Drop them in the comments section below or hit us up on Facebook or Instagram

On-Page SEO for Real Estate: 16 Steps for Optimized Websites

The real estate market thrives on movement, and in today’s digital age, that movement starts with a click. Gone are the days of relying solely on yard signs and classified ads. For real estate professionals in 2024, a strong online presence is no longer a luxury; it’s a necessity. × × Real Estate SEO Bible: The Ultimate SEO Keywords Guide Download Now Here’s the reality: over 93% of homebuyers utilize online resources while searching for a perfect property. But the online world isn’t just for buyers. Motivated sellers, eager to sell fast and streamline the process, are also turning to the web in ever-increasing numbers. This digital landscape presents a golden opportunity for real estate investors and agents: a platform to connect with motivated sellers looking for a trustworthy investor and eager homebuyers ready to move with the right agent. However, with countless real estate investors and agents for online attention, simply having a website isn’t enough. To truly stand out and capture valuable leads, you need a strategic approach to search engine optimization (SEO). This blog post dives into the 16 best practices for on-page SEO specifically tailored for the real estate market in 2024. By implementing these actionable strategies, you can ensure your website surfaces at the top of search results, attracting potential buyers and motivated sellers, ultimately propelling your real estate business forward in the ever-evolving digital landscape. You know how powerful SEO can be for your real estate business. With over 15 million users on our Carrot member’s websites and over 45,000 leads per month right now (as of the update of this post), there is a huge hunk from SEO. Table of Contents On-page SEO for Real Estate: 16 Steps for Optimized Websites Understanding the Importance of On-Page SEO for Real Estate Imagine a beautifully staged property with a “For Sale” sign hidden behind a giant, opaque billboard. That’s essentially what a real estate website without strong on-page SEO is like. Potential buyers and sellers can’t see it, can’t find it, and can’t connect with the valuable resource you offer. On-page SEO is the art and science of optimizing the elements within your website to improve its ranking in search engine results. In the competitive world of real estate, ranking higher means more visibility. More visibility translates into more qualified leads, client conversions, and a thriving real estate business. Here’s a breakdown of the magic on-page SEO works for real estate professionals: By investing in on-page SEO, you’re essentially investing in the foundation of your online presence. It’s the key to unlocking the full potential of your website, transforming it from a hidden gem to a lead-generating powerhouse in the ever-competitive world of real estate. Keyword Research: Unlocking the Language of Your Audience in Real Estate In the dynamic world of SEO, understanding user intent is the Rosetta Stone to crafting a website that resonates with your target audience. This is especially true in the real estate market, where homebuyers and motivated sellers navigate the online landscape with distinct goals. Moving Beyond Search Volume: Traditionally, SEO focused on keyword volume – finding the most commonly searched terms. However, modern SEO delves deeper, prioritizing keywords that reflect user intent. This means understanding the “why” behind user searches and what potential buyers and sellers are truly looking for when they type their queries into search engines. Homebuyer Focus: A Journey of Discovery For homebuyers, the search journey often involves a mix of informational and transactional keywords: By targeting both informational and transactional keywords, your website caters to buyers throughout their search journey, establishing you as a valuable resource … Continued

EP 144: The Mindset of Money – How the Wealthy Become Wealthy

I don’t use money as a way to gauge my self worth, but as a tool. Trevor Mauch, CEO of Carrot I wasn’t always wealthy… I didn’t come from money, I never had an upper hand in life, and I’m not even that great at managing my own money. But thankfully I had a few people in my life who took their time to show me how to view money in a completely different way, recognize the opportunity that is available to everyone, and create abundantly, lasting wealth that brings real freedom & flexibility and allows me to make a massive impact. And today, I’m going to break it all down for you. Get ready to take notes and follow me on IG @trevor.mauch to get my wealthy “cheat sheet” and other golden nuggets from this episode. Listen to the CarrotCast Podcast: The Mindset of Money Conversation 4:13 – Whether good or bad, our worldview of money is shaped at an early age. Hear Trevor’s backstory of growing up without much money, but having parents who built their own businesses and shaped his mindset around money. 10:15 – My journey from making $16k/year to $200k in my late twenties to Carrot bringing in just under $6 Million in revenue. 13:59 – Wealthy people don’t gauge their worth by how much money they make. After $60-70k/year, income has diminishing returns. 16:19 – Wealthy people realize the opportunity to create income is abundant – Scarce vs abundance mindset. 17:24 – Breaking down misconceptions around money and happiness. If you don’t first find purpose in your work, the money will never make you happy. 19:05 – Chuck’s Texaco – How one mechanic found happiness and purpose in his work, and never wants to retire. 21:48 – Wealthy people create income from assets vs creating income from a job. 22:43 – How Trevor entered real estate at age 21, by buying his first rental property with only $600. 26:12 – Wealthy people invest and give, while others save and spend. Check out The Latte Factor! 28:51 – Wealthy buy only what they can afford in cash. Others take loans and debt on consumer goods. Create wealth-building habits that map to your goals. 30:41 – Wealthy people use credit cards the RIGHT way – to grow wealth and help manage finances. 31:55 – Wealthy people’s expenses stay well below their income threshold, instead of rising. 33:09 – Wealthy people buy back their time in the early stages, instead of buying more stuff. 35:33 – Finding Happiness in a 535 square foot apartment. 38:19 – Wealthy people focus on adding income, not cutting expenses. 39:54 – Wealthy people become wealthy by adding value to others, not by taking money. 43:20 – Working for free…People pay what your services are worth to them. Understand your immense value, have the confidence to tackle your insecurities, and start charging what you’re worth. 48:17 – “The best things I ever spent money on were experiences.” 51:05 – “You are rich right now” Money aside, what do you have in your life that makes you rich? Share with us on Instagram, what makes you #richrightnow 59:50 – Create positive, situational affirmations around flawed money mindsets. Follow Trevor on Instagram to get the True Wealth Cheat Sheet!   RESOURCES FOR YOU Check out our blog! Check out our podcast! ADDITIONAL CARROTCAST EPISODES EP 103: Forgot To Have Fun? Lost Touch With Your Passions? This 7 Minutes Can Change It All For You: CarrotCast EP 101: I Hung Out With 6 People Each Worth $300M+ This Month… 6 KEY Lessons I Learned: CarrotCast EP … Continued