Real Estate SEO

Archive for the ‘Leads’ Category

Thank you to everyone who came to our latest LogicClassroom session on Maximizing Lead Conversion!

We learned about the importance of the consistency of the user experience from when they begin their online search to when then land on your website, and various ways to KEEP them on your site.  We also talked about  lead capture and management as well as how to leverage social media, email, and other marketing techniques to help convert your leads into clients.

Don’t worry if you missed this LogicClassroom session, you can view the slides below at your convenience. Enjoy!

Yes, it’s a process.

If you want to SEO your real estate website, then you need to follow a process.

Here’s how our process works:

Stage 1
In the first stage of a real estate seo campaign, we don’t touch a website. We start with strategy. We pick keywords that the site ought to rank for in order to be successful. We take a look at competitors and their websites. We create a social media strategy and a linking strategy. We benchmark lead generation, traffic, and ranking for bell-weather terms. We also create a project management plan which includes a plan for the first 3 months of the campaign.

With all of this prep work done and approved by the client, we start the implementation.

Stage 2
This is the ongoing part of the campaign. We implement the tasks in the project management plan and report on their effects. Each month, we provide a report to our client on how the seo campaign is performing. We also show them what we’ve done and what we’re planning on doing next. If the client has input or wishes us to change priorities, we can alter our plan.

SEO elements

Now, this plan isn’t the same for every site. For some sites, we start by implementing a blog and then we start populating the blog with content. Other sites might have lots of content on them, but the technology isn’t allowing search engine bots to find and spider the content. So, we might first make these upgrades.

Often sites have pages of content that have value, but the content hasn’t been optimized. They could be missing title tags and description tags. The content might need to be more keyword rich or the site might need better internal linking structures. Augmenting, modifying, and optimizing content is usually a per of the plan.

Also, we implement off-site SEO including a linking strategy and a social media strategy. Monthly reports include inbound link counts and social media measures as well.

This stage can go on for as long as the client wishes to increase their traffic. After a year or more, or once we’ve reached top ranking for our bell-weather terms, we start focusing on new terms.

Why the SEO process is important
Following this adaptive, iterative process we consistently see results over time. The fact is that you can’t just make a plan, implement it and then walk away. If someone tries to sell you seo and then have a set procedure, even before they’ve looked at your website, then it’s unlikely you’ll see results at all. Good SEO must start with strategic planning and then include an evolutionary process. Planning, then implementation followed by reporting, analysis, and a revised plan, followed by more implementation. This is the only sure path to success in Real Estate SEO.

Thank you to everyone who attended our LogicClassroom presentation last night. We discussed how and why to leverage different social media platforms for your business. Don’t worry if you missed this session – the slides are below for you to view!

Please join us for our next LogicClassroom session 2/9/10 on Search Engine Optimization 101. Please email Katrina to attend.

Follow these steps and see more organic traffic in 100 days.

Folks, I’m going to give you a simple formula to achieve more search engine traffic in just 100 days. The formula isn’t hard to write down. You will need to dedicate an hour or two each week in order to execute this plan.

You will also need to have a few things in order to follow these steps. They are:

1. A decent real estate website
2. A blog as part of your website ideally in the structure xyz.com/blog (if you have a boston logic website with a blog, you’re all set)
3. A site with a dynamic site map that updates when you publish a new blog post.
4. The pages of your site (not just the blog pages) should be somewhat optimized already. H1s, Title and description tags, sufficient paragraph text and a good internal linking structure all help.

Now, this is by no means all you can do before launching the following steps, but it should give you a nice starting point.

So, we’re going to increase your site traffic by producing good blog content. Each week you’re going to blog 2 or 3 times so that you are posting 10 times each month. We’re going to use the following post types:

• Listing posts – You take on a new listing. Someone in your office takes on a new listing. Or you simply go on a showing. Write a blog post about the home. Here’s an example listing post.
• Market reports – Write about a present market trend. Prices going up, down, or remaining the same, for example.
• Guest blogs – Have a friend or co-worker write a post for you.
• Answering a common question – every day, practically, you answer questions from buyers, sellers, and renters. If you do this by email, which you probably do all the time, you can anonymize and re-use the content. Others have the same questions and this content is fantastic blog fodder.
• Real Estate news – If there’s an auction announced, a big closing  in the market, a national news story pertaining to real estate, or anything newsworthy, write about it. State some facts and give your thoughts. Here’s some real estate news.

Step 1 – Create 10 to 20 categories in your blog. Give the categories the same names as your keywords. If you’re trying to figure out what keywords to use, search this blog some and you’ll find posts on how to do that.

Step 2 – Set a schedule, put the time into your calendar. Write a check list. Do whatever it takes to make sure you’re going to do the posts.

Here’s what this can look like:

1. Week 1
   1. Real Estate listing post
   2. Local Market report
   3. Answering a question
2. Week 2
   1. House listing post
   2. News item
3. Week 3
   1. Answer a seller’s question
   2. New Listing post
   3. Guest post
4. Week 4
   1. Home Listing post
   2. Answer a question
5. Week 5
   1. Real Estate Market report
   2. Realty News item
   3. listing post
6. Week 6
   1. Answer a home buying question
   2. new listing post
   3. Guest post

I think you get the gist…

When you create a post, make sure it is listed in every category that is even remotely applicable. Tag your posts too, using keywords in the posts that are close to or the same as your category names.

Step 3 – track your progress. Make sure you’re posting 2 – 3 times each week. In the first 100 days, you should post over 30 times. Yes, more than 30 posts. If you want to see an even greater impact on your ranking and traffic, post 3 or 4 times each week. In short, produce content regularly and post it properly.

You will see results.

We had a great turnout for this LogicClassroom session on effective blogging both in the office and on the phone. We explored the benefits of blogging for your business, including how to optimize your posts for SEO and how to turn a blog into a traffic and lead generation tool for your company.

I want to thank everyone who was able to attend. Don’t worry if you missed this LogicClassroom session, you can view the slides below at your convenience. Enjoy!

Our next LogicClassroom will be on 1/12/10. Learn how agents and brokers can leverage free social media to generate leads and a loyal client following. Please email Katrina if you would like to attend.