[Mert]

Originally Posted by Jim Messenger This still looks like an attempt to disguise a reciprocal link building effort. Mert said: "I believe every agent that is being your referral partner should have its own specific portfolio page for a small geographic area." If I understand your comment correctly, you propose setting up a page on your site for "any of your referral partners." What is your end objective?

My objective is to make most money for my real estate brokerage by actually creating meaningful referral pages rather than blank state pages.

Originally Posted by Jim Messenger Who are these partners? Partner, by definition is "two people sharing with another or others in an activity". What is the activity you share in? Hmmm, Is it I'll build a page for you on my site and you build a page for me on your site?

Partners are you will send me your Phoenix referrals I will send you my Chicago referrals. That is why knowing each other is a big deal before posting the person on your website.

Originally Posted by Jim Messenger Or, are you just going to be a really nice guy and build a page on your site for anyone who wants one - without regard to whether or not they do the same for you? Otherwise known as "reciprocate."?

I want to build a site that will actually rank for that small area keyword.

Originally Posted by Jim Messenger Let's just imagine that you are going to build these "referral partner" pages without any reciprocal requirements. If these pages start ranking for their keywords - which are not in your market - you can bet that the agents that do work in those markets will call it Spam! Expect - in advance - that you will be the target of many filed Spam notices. It's not necessary for us to debate whether it is or isn't Spam. Just know that you will be a target and, if you choose to implement such an approach, accept the consequences should they arise..

It entirely has to do with website and webpage representation of your company. There are relocation companies out there and there are lead generation companies out there (homegain etc) that rank just fine. It is a human decision and so presentation should be made fit to the human eye. Of course you have a point that 99% of the real estate agent sites will not be able to sell the idea as you said in your last paragraph Jim. For example Baird & Warner largest illinois real estate brokerage (1800 agents) also has a relocation division. Are you telling me that if they created a relocation page for clients who are moving to Chicago from Arizona, that is irrelevant????). In my opinion it is a matter of how you present the page. And as long as there are no irrelevant link backs from other agents' links pages or such it is legitimate (and yea I dont recommend actually putting links to those agents' sites. I actually think you should really just put contact us forms (adrhi example).

Beyond the human eye also spider based relativity calculations can be done by simple sidebar internal link editing. Ken knows this tactic the best as his old site used to rank for the state relocation keywords bringing decent traffic i am sure to those pages.