Makeover with Andrew Hales, sales associate with Hightower Realty, Kissimmee Before No clue how to get consumers to nd his Web site. after Hales calls in the experts and gets tips for improved search engine rankings. Search engine optimization Drive Prospects to Your Web Site Our expert shares his tips for improving a Web site s ranking in the search engines. no leads through the site as yet, he says. At the end of the day, I just want to make some money. Bring in the expert For advice on how to position his Web site and make it more appealing to prospects, Hales consulted real estate technology trainer Randy Eagar. Here s what he had to say. A ndrew Hales is the consum- mate do-it-yourselfer who cringes at the thought of paying someone else to do what he might just as well do himself. And if he doesn t know how to do it? No problem. He reads everything he can nd on the subject or nds someone who can show him how. This was the case when he constructed his own Web site, oridavillasmanagement.com. I put it together in my spare time, and it took weeks, says Hales, a sales associate with Hightower Realty in Kissimmee, who acknowledges that he was in a little over his head when he did this. A British expatriate who moved to Florida in September 2007, Hales is new to real estate and lacks the budget for anything beyond the basics. I m just an idiot trying to do these things, he jokes. Hales even tried his hand at search engine optimization to no avail. We get as many as 30 hits a day, but we ve gotten 1. get real To be brutally honest, Andrew, your Web site looks like a glori ed business card, Eagar says. It s scary to think you did it yourself and attempted to do your own positioning too. Those are two specialties that are quite di erent. It s like you wanted to win the Indy 500 and went out and bought books about how to put an engine together, how to buy a Formula One racecar and You can t compete with the professionals in Web design and search engine optimization, so stick with what you do well. Randy Eagar 32 fLoriDa reaLtor February 2009 PHotograPHy by rEy VILLaVICENCIo