Aside from my extensive art and design education, distinguished ad agency career in design and marketing-strategy development, 16 years of Web site design and a decade of creating lead-generating, award-winning real estate Web sites, what do I offer you that other Web designers generally do not or cannot?

Sound SEO (search engine optimization) — I help you get the content created and other necessary SEO work done to economically kick-start the process of getting traffic to your site. However, if you're in a very competitive search market, you may need more. In that case, I will recommend you budget to work with a company dedicated to SEO.

To me, doing design work without first addressing SEO issues is unthinkable and would be a shameful waste of your money. I know far too many agents who have sunk thousands of dollars into a Web site that looks appealing, but because it shows up on Google's page 20 for its search terms, no one ever sees it. What help is that?

Consideration for your likes and dislikes — I want you to love your Web site design, so your likes and dislikes play a big role in my design process. I get your input on your design's look and feel as well as your favorite photo picks. And before installation, you preview the design via a detailed layout in Photoshop, which is subject to your input and final approval.

Professional copywriting for your home page — I'm one of a very few independent real estate designers who includes copywriting as part of the design package. And I know of no other designer who provides the level of copywriting supplied by my current copywriter. Her in-depth telephone interview truly discovers what distinguishes you in the marketplace. And she submits all copy directly to you for approval. I include home page copywriting in my design package because I understand its critical importance to attracting search engines AND to engaging the interest of prospective buyers and sellers to draw them deeper into your site.

Sound branding strategy — I'm never one to do a cheap, quick design job with no input or approval from you, hand off low-resolution graphic files created for the Web but no good for your print needs, collect the fee and drop from sight. Instead, I'm the designer agents turn to after receiving such work. I offer long-term marketing consultation for creating a lifelong brand that's professional, aesthetically pleasing and suited to your personality and style—your brand that you can take with you anywhere you decide to practice real estate.

Your site design is yours exclusively — I license your custom design to you for your exclusive use. You would be surprised at how often new clients ask me to do a design "just like" a custom design I previously created for someone else. Don't worry — that's not going to happen!

Your new website will be turnkey and ready to go! — If you're like most successful Realtors®, you probably don't want to spend your valuable time working on your website. Once you have approved your new custom design, I completely building out your site so that it's ready to launch. I do, however, encourage you to use those features Myrsol has created especially for "do it yourself" editing: the subdivision module — easy to use and great for SEO — and the agent module, which means you can add or delete team members yourself whenever you need to, without knowing any HTML.

Quality assurance — this means I retain limited rights in the ownership of your design files—not to inhibit your ability to do business ... but to protect the integrity of your Web site design, which will become your brand identity throughout the world.

And to help you ensure quality across different vendors, I'm always happy to provide the files and information your other vendors may need to create high resolution files needed for print work such as brochures, letterheads and biz cards. In fact, I recently provided creative input and graphic files in the large dimensions and high resolution needed for a client's truck wrap. Of course, there's a charge for the additional work.

Curb Appeal for Your Real Estate Web Site