As a part of its national What Renters Want series, each year Apartments.com conducts its popular Moving Outlook survey, and the results for 2011 are in! Over 1,800 of our website visitors responded, giving us a look into their 2011 moving plans including reasons they are moving, when they plan to move and which tools they value most during their apartment search. Some of our key findings are outlined below, but please take a look at our full results and press release for more detailed information.

• The number one reason respondents said they are moving is to relocate for job opportunities
• Nearly 25% of respondents are starting their apartment search as early as five months to more than a year out from their moving date
• 64% of respondents said the most important thing during their apartment search is the ability to check real time availability
• 80.9% of respondents use an Internet Listing Service, like Apartments.com, for their apartment search, with only 5% of respondents using social sites
• 80% of respondents are using a mobile device during their search

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This post was originally written by Kerry Sugrue, former Social Media Specialist at Apartments.com. 

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that, according to credit agency Experian, the lowest credit scores belong to those 18 to 29 years of age. In fact, a recent National Multi Housing Council (NMHC) survey found this age demographic also happens to account for the largest segment of renters in the United States.  In the past, renting an apartment had little to no effect on a person’s credit score, but thanks to Experian’s recent acquisition of RentBureau, you can help residents increase their credit scores by reporting timely rent payments! Read More

Check out this video clip of The Ellen DeGeneres Show to see how Apartments.com is lending a helping hand to a local Thousand Oaks, CA family in need.

In this heartwarming segment, the Munoz family shares their story of a personal, family tragedy, which has left them struggling to make ends meet. The family said it is their dream to get back on their feet and have a place of their own. Honored to have this opportunity to help make their dreams come true, Apartments.com gifted the Munoz family with $15,000 toward free rent for a year. Read More

This post was originally written by Ken Shafer, past SEO Manager for Apartments.com.

If you haven’t already heard about this site, let me introduce you to Quora. What’s it all about? Well, I’ll let their “about us” page do the talking:

“…One way you can think of it is as a cache for the research that people do looking things up on the web and asking other people. Eventually, when you see a link to a question page on Quora, your feeling should be: “Oh, great! That’s going to have all the information I want about that.” It’s also a place where new stuff–that no one has written about yet–can get pulled onto the web.” Read More

This post was originally written by Ken Shafer, past SEO Manager for Apartments.com.

So you’re considering adding a blog to your website. That’s great! But hold on a second. Where you put that blog can have an impact on search engines and how they view all that great, new content you’re providing them. When you or your developers are building the blog, more often than not, this question comes up:

“Should we put the blog on www.companyname.com/blog or blog.companyname.com?” Read More

This post was originally written by Ken Shafer, past SEO Manager for Apartments.com.

DigitalSurgeons.com, an online marketing agency, put together a very interesting graphical representation of Twitter and Facebook users. Take a look at the image below, or by checking out this link: http://www.digitalsurgeons.com/facebook-vs-twitter-infographic/

I think it is interesting to consider that more people follow brands on Facebook than on Twitter. We should potentially keep this in mind when considering managing our expectations for interactions. If you’re short on resources, perhaps focus your intra-community communications on Facebook, rather than Twitter. What jumps out at you from this graphic? Read More

If you haven’t heard already, a lot of buzz has been generated around our What Renters Want survey results revealing how renters are using social media during their apartment search.  Check out some of the conversations happening online and let us know your thoughts on the survey results. 

Is your community using social media to attract prospects and retain residents?  If so, tell us what’s working and what you’ve learned. Read More

The November issue of the Apartments.com Multifamily Minutes newsletter in now available.  Check out this issue for stories on chat etiquette, tips for making ads pop using short and descriptive text, survey results on how renters are using social media during their apartment search, customer testimonials on the MyMedia Craigslist Ad Builder and much more!

The October issue of the Apartments.com Multifamily Minutes newsletter is now available.  Check out this month’s issue for exciting news on the launch of Apartments.com Live Chat and Call Recording, national and local market apartment data from the quarterly STaR Report and PR coverage from our Biggest Moving Day of the Year satellite media tour—more than 300 television outlets broadcasted our story!

This post was originally written by Ken Shafer, past SEO Manager for Apartments.com.

Everyone’s heard of finding a keyword and trying to rank for it. Next thing someone does is put that keyword in their Title Tag, Description Tag and throughout the copy someplace like their homepage.  As far as on-page keyword optimization, what else can you do? Turns out, there’s more you can do on the page to let the search engines know that your page is about a specific keyword or phrase.

Allow me introduce you to latent semantics. Latent semantics is just the technical term for using surrounding words to gain or provide meaning and context.  Placing relevant and related words and phrases in close proximity to the keyword you are targeting can actually be a stronger signal to search engines than simply repeating the targeted keyword over and over again. Let’s take a look at an example of how to research and implement latent semantics. Read More