Real Estate Agents: What You Don’t Know About SEO Can Hurt You!

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Search engine optimization, or SEO, “is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via ‘natural’ (‘organic’ or ‘algorithmic’) search results.” That’s Google speak for increasing traffic to your website. When you optimize your site (including through the appropriate use of titles, tags, and keywords) buyers and sellers searching the Internet for real estate agents will be more likely to find you.

Typically, the earlier your real estate website appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, and industry-specific vertical search engines. This gives your website web presence.

When it comes to search engines, Google is the supreme ruler. Google also is incredibly forthcoming with free resources and tools to help you better manage your website. One of them, a free Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide offers an in-depth discussion of SEO practices. It is “How to court the King’s favor” written by the King himself. It offers a number of useful tips for effective SEO. . .

SEO DO’S

• Create unique, accurate page titles

• Make use of the ‘description’ meta tag

• Improve the structure of your URLs

• Make your site easier to navigate

• Offer quality content

• Write better anchor text

• Use heading tags appropriately

• Optimize your use of images

SEO DON’TS

Don’t cheat. Says one SEO expert: “Cheating is bad, and search engines do not like playing with cheaters.” Forms of cheating that could get your site demoted, or even banned, include:

• Hiding links and text

• Duplicating pages

• Creating a doorway page that is nothing more than a jumble of keywords, and is never meant for human visitors to see (“landing pages” are not the same – they’re entrance pages with real content, targeted to real human beings)

• Accepting inbound or outbound links from link farms

In general, develop your website for human visitors. Paying attention to what search engines like – as you design and write for human visitors – is perfectly acceptable. Trying to game the system – by doing things human visitors are never meant to know about – is not.

Search engine optimization isn’t rocket science, but it’s not simple either. We help real estate agents design, develop, and manage search engine optimized websites every day. We can help you, too. (To find out how, contact us here or call 480-987-7958.)

Also check out the following real estate website resources:

•Chapter 9 in the E-book How to Win: Marketing Strategies for Successful – and Aspiring – Real Estate Agents