Company Profile

The most recent issue of Time Magazine names the best 25 sites on the Web. Included on the list are:

• Amazon
• BBC
• Citysearch
• Craig's List
• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Ebay
• ESPN
• Facebook
• Factcheck
• Flicker
• and 14 more...

To view the full article, visit Time's 25 Sites We Can't Live Without.

Yahoo! News reported this week that although the real estate market is experiencing a slump, industry Web sites are on an upswing.

With house shopping happening more and more online instead of door to door, real estate Web sites have spruced up their curb appeal. With features such as online mapping capabilities, photo galleries and virtual tours as well as detailed pricing searches, consumers have access to homes right at their fingertips.

The article reports quotes Pete Flint, CEO of www.trulia.com who says the housing market's downturn has played to the strengths of real estate Web sites.

"Although it's unfortunate what's going on in the housing market, it's really the online sites that are benefiting because consumers are spending a little bit more time before they make decisions and traditional real estate brokers are rethinking the way they're marketing themselves," Flint said.

In addition to the large sites like trulia.com and other listing services, individual agents are beefing up their efforts to provide better service to customers and potential customers online.

Just among the local agents and real estate companies who have become clients of Plexus over the past few years, a similar trend is occurring.

Agents want all the necessary features on their personal sites including listing capabilities, mapping, photo galleries, document uploads and more. And perhaps the biggest trend is that of optimizing a real estate site so that it is appearing near the top of the search engines.

In our experience, real estate SEO - especially in the Athens market is perhaps the most competitive around. Agents are busy vying for the coveted top spots ranking for "Athens Georgia real estate," "Athens homes," "Athens Georgia neighborhoods," "Athens Georgia real estate agent," and more.

So, according to the trends, if you have a real estate Web site lacking in the abilities to:

• immediately post and update listings with multiple photos and accompanying information
• have potential clients contact you directly from your site instantaneously
• regularly communicate with clients and interested parties with up to date listings and information
• improve your search engine ranking

Then, watch out for your competition because they are certainly stepping it up!

President George W. Bush stands with members of the University of Georgia Men's 2007 Championship Tennis Team Monday, June 18, 2007, during NCAA Championship Day at the White House.

White House photo by Eric Draper.

Okay, so I got a call at work yesterday and the first thing I hear is, "I heard I have to have a Web site in order to come up on the Google."

My response...."ummmm yes." But that's not all.

I think what people don't realize is #1 the importance of a quality site and #2 the extreme importance of optimizing it. If you are in a competitive industry at all, it will take some work and extra steps to "make your site come up in the Google."

At Plexus, the sites we build intuitively come with search engine optimization tools built in but that doesn't guarentee that you will automatically rank first in a search engine query - there is much work to be done if that is a goal you have for your site.

First, you must think like your customers...what are they typing in to find you? This will help you identify your key words - then you have to optimize your site based on these words. There are several tools in doing this including keyword density, search engine copywriting and more.

Second, you must analyze your competition and see what activities they are engaging in that is making them rank higher than you.

And third, you have to make sure your site is linked on other highly ranked, relevant site. Link popularity is key to a highly optimized site.

While these are just the bare bones of search engine optimization, it is important to engage if you, too want your site to "come up on the Google!"

Coaches Will Glenn and Manuel Diaz with Honorary Team Captain, Raul, a recent cancer survivor.

On May 22, 2007 the Georgia Men's Tennis Team completed an undefeated season and became the 2007 National Champions!

During the week, Lesley Platek created a video to commemorate the victory! Watch it here!