December 17th, 2008 admin
Living on the Costa del Sol I am as aware as most of the current decline in the property market here. With the global economy on its backside, people are obviously reluctant to spend their money as they are not sure of what the future is going to bring us all.
But knowing the Costa del Sol I would say that if any area is going to whether the storm as well as any, it will be Marbella. This swank and chic town has been a firm favorite with the rich and famous for many years and has lost none of its appeal in current years.
Yes Marbella Property sales will be lower during the downturn, but I am sure that it will remain one of the stronger areas in which to buy on the coast.
So if you are going to buy property there do your homework as there are lots of bargains to be had.
I can fully recommend agents such as www.pgmpropertyworld.com , www.lacostapropertysolutions.com and www.alandahomes.com
I have experience of these three and they are some of the most reliable agents on the coast and will help with every aspect of your purchase.
Good luck!
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November 3rd, 2008 admin
Being a holiday home owner its important for me that I get as much value advertising as possible especially in these tough economic times we are currently experiencing, so its good to see that one of the leading holiday rentals websites as slashed its advertising prices from 75 Euros to just 35 euros per year for the first property and 20 euros per year for each subsequently property.
This is a good move I think as its such a competitive industry and is kind of dominated by a few major players that are owned by large U.S companies. This can only help to encourage other owners like myself to continue to actively market their holiday homes online and ride out this financial downturn.
Well done, Direct Holiday Lets for taking the lead.
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October 28th, 2008 admin
Being a web designer and SEO I recently took on a job for an alternative cancer treatment clinic in Spain which has been an elightening experience for me.
My mother passed away in the early 90’s from lung cancer and this was a terrible experience for a young man to have to nurse and look after someone who is dying of lung cancer. Lung cancer is a huge killer and took my mums life in quite a short time after the initial diagnosis.
Well my point of this post is this. There are other forms of natural alternative and holistic treatments for all types of cancer that a lot of people are not aware of. By understanding what cancer is and how our bodies are made and effects that cancer has on our bodies, we can learn new methods to help combat cancer and just as importantly the causes of cancer.
By taking an holistic approach to treating cancer we can cure these diseases and make many people well again, but by teaching people about how our bodies work and how cancer is “contracted” in the first place, we are able to treat the body and our immune system as a whole(holistic) and prevent ourselves from getting cancer in the first place.
It is going to be a real learning experience in working on the site and hopefully I can learn a lot from it and help to promote the site on the web and thereby, hopefully, helping to give the site more exposure and ultimately more cured cancer sufferers.
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October 15th, 2008 admin
La Costa Property Marbella
Hundreds if not thousands of expats are moving to the Costa del Sol every year, attracted to the coast of sun by the 320 days of sunshine each year, a lower cost of living and generally a more relaxed outdoor lifestyle to name just a few benefits.
One mistake many make though is to purchase a property on the Costa del Sol without due diligence and thought as to what the future might hold both financially and personally.
Emigrating to Spain and any other country for that matter, is a huge step. Many sell their homes in their homeland, make the move and then realize that living in the new country of their dreams isn’t quite what they thought it would be, leaving them litterally stranded in a foreign country. Problem areas can include work options, children’s schooling, local culture and possibly the feeling of being alienated in a new country.
I wiser option for those wishing to make the move to Marbella or other parts of the Costa del Sol, is to rent long term first. By renting a property in Marbella long term, you allow yourself to experience the new culture without commiting yourself fully. This allows you to get a feel for what life in a new country will be really like and will also enable you to get through that initial “honeymoon” period that everyone has to experience when moving to a new country.
Another good reason for renting long term first is the property prices. Over the last couple of years property prices have risen dramatically and although they have levelled out considerably recently, it will take time for prices to drop to a more reasonable sustainable level. This is another reason why renting long term will allow you to monitor the market situation and buy when the price is right.
Below are a few questions to answer to help you decide whether long term rentals in Marbella are the best option for you or whether you should just jump right in and purchase a property straight away.
- Have you looked at a number of areas on the Costa del Sol? - There are many great towns on the Costa del Sol and many have their advantages and disadvantages. Take your time to check out different areas and regions and get a feel for each area.
- Will you be bringing children with you? - If so, take some time prior to coming to Spain to check out both state schools and International Schools on the Costa del Sol. Both have their good and bad points and its important that you do lots of research first to find a school that is just right for the kids.
- Do you need to work? - Finding work on the Costa del Sol is very difficult and unless you speak fluent Spanish you will be at a definate disadvantage. Many arrive for a new life in Spain only to leave some months later as they are unable to support themselves or their families. Once again, do some research and if you can, make sure that you secure employment first before coming over.
- Do you speak the language? - There is no doubt that speaking Spanish can give you a real edge over other expats in Spain. It’s so much easier if you are able to communicate even at a basic level in everyday situations. So if you are thinking of living in Spain, take some spanish lessons or buy your self a good book or CD and make sure you have a basic understanding of the language before arriving. It will help!
- Do you have a good lawyer? - Another thing you will need to sort out is someone to help you with the everyday administration tasks here in Spain. The bureacracy is crazy, and if you can find a good english speaking lawyer who can help with getting your NIE or residencia then this will help no end. So make some enquiries before you arrive and find yourself a good lawyer.
- Do you have a letting agent you can trust? - There are many unscrupulous real estate agents on the costa del sol and its import that you can find one that you trust. So once again, BEFORE you arrive, make some enquiries and find one that you feel comfortable with. Also, make sure you find out as much as you can about rental agreements and security deposits required so that you are not dealt any unexpected financial blows.
Well thats just a few things to consider if you are looking to rent long term in Marbella or another part of the Costa del Sol. If you do plenty of research before you get here, your “honeymoon” period will be that much easier. By renting long term, you will be able to get a feel for Spain and whether living here permanently is something that is right for you.
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August 20th, 2008 admin
If you are looking to purchase property as an investment or are looking to buy a property for retirement purposes, why not try Famagusta in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus?
With its miles of sandy beaches, warm seas, friendly people, long hot summers and mild winters, northern Cyprus has become one of the best places to invest.
For those who are unaware, Famagusta lies on the east coast of the country and has gone from a sleepy little fishing village to a lively and bustling major center for tourism in northern Cyprus.
Famagusta has some of the finest mediaeval monuments in Cyprus and it is said that if you spend a day in Famagusta, this will provide you in a nutshell, the complete history of northern Cyprus.
Homes Abroad Group are an estate agent in northern Cyprus and have a wide range of property on offer including villas and apartments for sale. Prices start at just 30,000 GBP.
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July 21st, 2008 admin
Since moving from Alhaurin el Grande in Inland Spain we have been rather at a loss since we didn’t have any British television. The kids have been going mad with boredom, the mrs misses her soap operas and I haven’t seen a decent film in ages, well, not one I could understand fully anyway.
So I decided to get sky tv installed by The Sky Doctor. Went for free view in the end as it provides us with all the channels we need. The guys who installed the dish and box etc were great and done a great job with hardly any mess.
So if you need sky tv and are living on the Costa del Sol, give them a call or visit their website www.theskydoctor.com
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May 16th, 2008 admin
Well its been a tough couple of months here in Spain, as it appears that we are going through a mini recession, most probably due to the economic situation in the UK and the U.S.
Real estate companies have seen a huge drop in demand for properties on the Coast although there does seem to be some demand still for rural inland spanish property as there are some real bargains to be had especially if you don’t mind some renovation work.
A lot of Brits are leaving Spain to head back to the UK but the situation there does not seem much better.
Personally I think these things generally run their course. There are peaks and troughs not only in the economies of the world but also in life in general.
So if you are a Brit living in Spain keep your chin up as things will pick up.
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April 1st, 2008 admin
With online auction sites such as Ebay now feeling the backlash from disgruntled sellers and bidders due to recent changes to their fee structure, there have been a number of emerging auction sites popping up across the web focusing on local communities rather than the global internet community as a whole.
There are a number of online auctions in Spain now being set up to cater for the British and English speaking communities on the coast and they are proving to be very popular among expats.
There are many advantages to using local auctions in Spain and include the following:-
By trading on an online auction site in Spain, as a buyer there is a good possibility that the delivery costs will be significantly reduced compared to the larger global auction sites. This is because delivery is within the same country which saves you the buyer money and also enables the seller to keep the price low to attract as many bids as possible on the item.
Another great advantage of using a local auction site is that delivery time is usually a lot quicker due to buyer and seller being in closer proximity to each other.
How about viewing the item in person before buying? Not something you can do on the larger global internet auction sites or course! This enables you to be more selective and make sure that you are not bidding for one thing and then receiving something totally different.
All in all, online auction sites in Spain and other parts of the world are a great idea and I think that eventually the major auction websites will feel the effects of these increasingly popular sites.
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January 24th, 2008 admin
Well, thought I would write a post on some of the basic ways of improving your search engine rankings overnight(well, not quite). So here goes. Some important basic SEO advice to help drive you up the SERPS. This ones about on-site SEO. I will write another on off-site SEO soon.
- Write great titles
An important attribute of any website in SEO terms in the title tag of each page. Make sure all of your pages have unique title tags and that they are descriptive in
regards to the pages content. Try not to stuff too many keywords in there as don’t forget, these titles show up in the SERPS results and if written well can mean more
clickthroughs. So if I was targeting “Dating UK” and maybe “Online Dating” keywords I could have good title that was both readable by humans and beneficial to the search engines. So the title might read “Online Dating UK - Internet Dating Just Got Easier”. Writing unique titles also helps to avoid keyword canabalization.
Normally you should try to target one search term per page but if you must have more then try to overlap your keywords within the title for maximum effect.
- Canonicalization
Ok, so www.domain.com or domain.com?? Its your choice and doesn’t make the slightest bit of difference to the search engine or the user, just make sure that you 301 redirect the one you don’t want to use. For example, if i want the search engines to index and rank www.domain.com I would set up a 301 redirect in my .htaccess file so that if anyone types domain.com it will be forwarded to www.domain.com and will show this in the browser address bar.
Why?. Well if you don’t do this, search engines can see both as different sites. This in effect will split page rank and rankings. So be carefull.
- Keyword rich URL’s
Another overlooked aspect of SEO is using keyword rich URL’s in your sites structure. For example, if you have shopping e-commerce site and you sell sports equipment and you are doing a page for baseball stuff, then why not structure your site something like www.domain.com/sports/baseball-equipment.html? This makes a big difference to both users navigation and to the search engines algo and rankings. Don’t beleive me? Then do a search and have a look at your search terms keywords highlighted in the search results in those URL’s.
- Internal Linking
It’s not just about linking from external sites to your own. It’s also about linking internally to your pages from other pages using the correct anchor text. So if you have a page again on our ficticious shopping site and its got other pages on different sports equipment, link to the baseball equipment page from the martial arts equipment page using he anchor text “baseball equipment” or similar, and do this from many pages on your site. These links are all valued by the search engines. It also means that you pages are less likely to suffer from keyword canabalization in the eyes of the search engines as if they do come across one or more pages with the words baseball in them, they will be able to tell which page is the most authoritive for “baseball equipment” etc.
- Keyword Density
Not so much an issue in meta data now but you should be featuring your keywords within your H1-H6 tags. These are not only good for people who scan read pages but is also good for page layout not to mention being valued quite hight by search engines. You should also use your keywords within ALT tags and title= within your a href tags when linking to other pages. You should also make sure that you feature your keywords within the pages copy multiple times. Every little helps.
Well, thats it for now. Happy SEO’ing.
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January 14th, 2008 admin
Google PageRank was invented by Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and is only used by the Google search engine. To some(me included) it can be referred to as the web’s currency.
In its basic sense, Pagerank is the measure of global link popularity and is determined by the amount of links/backlinks that you have pointing to your sites web pages. So in general, the more back links you have pointing to your site, the more pagerank you will have which is a number from 0 to 10. This in itself though is not an accurate statement as you will see further down in this post.
Google has a theory/idea of what they call “the random surfer”. They beleive that If you were to pick a random web surfer and that person was to start at a web page and then click random links on the different pages he/she visited, the likelyhood that they would eventually hit your page is your pagerank. So if you have a page/site with a pagerank of say 9, its very likely that sooner or later the random surfer will hit your website/page.
The reason that I say page/site is that pagerank is awarded to each individual page and not to the site as a whole.
To view your sites Google PageRank you can download the Google toolbar which shows you the pagerank of every site/page you visit.
So now I hear you say. “So how do I get pagerank and do I need it?”
You don’t need pagerank unless you want to sell links on your website. Pagerank will happen naturally as you build more and more backlinks to your website’s pages. For example if you have a link to your mainpage on somebody else’s site if that page that is linking to you has a PR of 6, you and all the other sites that are being linked to will share that pagerank. Obviously its better to get a link from a page that only links to a few external sites than it is to get a link from a page that has hundreds of links on it.
There is a formula for working out pagerank distribution but it is very very technical and I will not go into it here. Just Google for it!
Some people believe that PR is a factor in ranking. Its hard to say for sure but as your pagrank is determined by the amount of links you have to your site, and the more links you have generally means that you will have good rankings, I would say that PR is just an indication is is not in itself a factor.
So there you have it, a brief explanation of Google PageRank. Keep building quality backlinks to your site and your pagerank will increase naturally.
For a detailed description of how Google ranks and index’s pages and of how pagerank works please view their original document The anatomy of a search engine. To me, this document is fascinating and gives you a real insight as to how Brin and Page think and how their search engine has developed since this document was first written.
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