The Battle over TheSarasotaMLS.com

By: Kevin Koitz Click author's name for more of his/her articles

The realty business has undergone an impressive transformation over the last ten years, as the popularity of the Internet has grown. Savvy agents know that the majority of home buyers start their search for homes online, so they build user friendly websites that give users access to the listings they want to see. These agents also understand that how well their websites rank on the search engines has a direct effect on the number of leads they get.

Back in 2003, a Sarasota REALTOR® named Marc Rasmussen purchased TheSarasotaMLS as his domain name. At the time it was felt in SEO communities that including important keywords in your domain name increased your site's search engine rankings. One popular contributor to REALTOR® Magazine even mentioned in a 2002 article that there are certain "'power domain names' that will drive additional business to your site." Examples included "(location)listings.com" and "(location)mls.com."

Rasmussen put a lot of time and effort into creating a dynamic and informative real estate sit, and it paid off, as his site ranked #1 in Google for a number of popular keyword terms in the Sarasota market.

Recently however, there has been a significant bump in the road for Marc. The Sarasota Association of REALTORS® (or SAR, for short) hit Rasmussen with an ethics violation, claiming that the domain name he chose back in 2003 misleads the public. While Rasmussen is unable to comment on the results of that hearing, based on the fact that the domain name remained in his possession, it appears that he won the case.

The next step for SAR was to file a complaint with ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), making the same claim. This time Marc lost, and the domain name was ordered to be handed over to SAR.

In the meantime, Rasmussen has been building a new website with a new domain name. Using 301 redirects from his old site to his new site, Rasmussen has been able to maintain his high search engine rankings, but this is only temporary.

Marc has filed a suit in federal court accusing SAR of "reverse domain name hijacking."

If Rasmussen cannot reclaim his former domain name, then ideally he'd be able to continue using 301 redirects, and his old domain name would simply go to Domain Name Heaven. Allowing him to keep these redirects would enable Marc to maintain his hard earned rankings in Google, without in any way hurting SAR, or "misleading" the public.

If Rasmussen loses his case, he will lose his domain name, as well as the thousands of links associated with it. His site garnered approximately 700 visitors each day—each one a potential lead. If he is forced to start anew, he will essentially become invisible on the search engines, thus losing hundreds of potential clients each day.

Supporters of Marc's position believe that envy is at the root of SAR's campaign for Marc's URL, and that an organization that's supposed to support its members has actually turned on one of its own. Opponents believe that Rasmussen should've known better than to include the term "MLS" in his domain name, even though at the time the domain name was registered, there were no policies in place with either SAR or NAR that prohibited the use of the term.

Adding insult to injury , only members of the National Association of REALTORS® are restricted from using "MLS" in their domains, while non-member real estate agents are free to use the term as they please.

Article Source: ABC Article Directory

About The Author: The Koitz Group offers elite real estate services in the greater Bethesda/Chevy Chase and Washington DC area (and they have a website that covers it all!). Visit the Koitz Group's Chevy Chase real estate guide or Georgetown Washington DC real estate guide, packed full of information, search tools, and links to other fine neighborhoods in the DC Metro area