PROOF

With so many companies out there promising real estate web sites that will place high on the search engines and directories, it's hard to know who to trust. We hear from clients all the time that empty promises were made to them.

It's not that designers always mislead you on purpose -- they sometimes just don't know what they're doing when it comes to search engine optimization. There's much more to search engine placement than submitting -- you have to design the page to be search engine friendly, establish related links, research and implement changes, continually monitor and re-tweak when necessary, etc.

The only thing that will ensure you're with a company that knows what they're doing and who you're sure will deliver on their promises is to take a look at their track record. You want to see that the site they created comes up when you type in popular search terms that real world people would search for. If they "guarantee" they can get you up in the top 10, it's a red flag cause it's pretty much impossible to make a promise like that.