2007 NAR Code of Ethics Prohibits Deceptive Meta Tags

Published by Joseph Ferrara November 19th, 2006 in Brokers & Professionals, Ethics, Hot News, Legal, NAR and Residential Real Estate.

NAR’s Code of Ethics has new changes effective 1/1/07. Here is one to Article 12 we found interesting:.

So, if Zillow was a NAR member it would have to remove this meta tag:

For more Code changes visit Monika McGillicuddy Presents…Real World Real Estate. (link here)

For those who think meta tags are SEO bunk read Revenge of the Meta-Tag! at SEOmoz.org (11/17).

15 Responses to “2007 NAR Code of Ethics Prohibits Deceptive Meta Tags”

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1 Christian Real Estate Network Nov 19th, 2006 at 5:53 pm

Personally, I think that is a silly regulation by the NAR, and is about 6 years outdated. Even if you did have some kind of unrelated meta data in your keywords, it wouldn’t help you from an SEO standpoint, so what’s use of pointing it out??
2 sellsius° Nov 19th, 2006 at 6:05 pm

I wonder why they did it. The Code has not been amended since 2005 so it is surprising. I am not an SEO expert and haven’t a clue how pros use meta tags and other coding devices to get higher search engine rankings. Clearly, it’s not illegal but NAR evidently sees it as a question is ethics. If a FSBO investor inserted broker metagtags and was ranked higher than a licensed broker for a particular market, would that be a problem for brokers in that area? Maybe not.
3 Monika Nov 19th, 2006 at 7:45 pm

NAR was mainly concerned with deceptive practice and the consumer being unaware of what can happen. Also a lot of discussion at the committee level about agent’s websites not having the names of the brokerage firm they work for…sometimes the brokerage name doesn’t appear till several pages into the site. I missed going to New Orleans so I don’t have a gage on how much discussion went on before it all got voted in.
BTW thanks for the reference to my site.
Monika
4 kevin boer Nov 19th, 2006 at 9:56 pm

One common at least mildly deceptive practice is using 20 year old agent pictures. Does the new code address that?
5 Real Estate Blogger Nov 20th, 2006 at 2:22 pm

Meta tags are all but worthless. The description tag will matter at times depending on the engine and circumstance. The engine might use your description in the engine listing (SERPS). That could be misleading.
Also the title tag is used in a huge way by Google. And that is what shows up inthe SERPS.

Kevin re:One common at least mildly deceptive practice is using 20 year old agent pictures.

Amen. I will sign a petition onthat one!
6 sellsius° Nov 20th, 2006 at 4:32 pm

real estate blogger - thanks for the feedback. whether meta tags are relevant for higher search engine rankings is not the issue. what the NAR may be addressing is the site/ blog authors “intent” with adding a specific keyword as a meta tag if it is not really related to their expertise or the sites purpose.

re: old pictures = agreed - they should be kept fresh and up to date.
7 Monika Nov 20th, 2006 at 6:50 pm

LOL…love the old picture comment. I agree it is all about the “intent” and “deceptive” practice.
8 Athol Kay Nov 21st, 2006 at 9:33 am

omg the picture comment is so true. Try being a new agent in an office and studying the agent photos to learn everyones names.

It doesn’t help much at all.
9 sellsius° Nov 21st, 2006 at 12:07 pm

And the picture is what makes everyone call, right? This must be stopped immediately if not sooner
10 Monika Nov 22nd, 2006 at 8:16 pm

If a picture makes them call it must be time to remove mine…LOL!

I’ve posted the rest of the NAR code changes but I’m sooo new at this I can’t figure out how to link this to it for you…
I need a blogging 101 class!!
Happy Thanksgiving