Real Estate SEO

Archive for the ‘Local SEO’ Category

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.

What the new deal between Microsoft and Yahoo! means for Google.

It’s amazing what happens when a dynamic goes from three players to two. This is the crux of the result of what this deal will mean for Google and SEO.

First of all, SEOs everywhere will not need to work quite as hard. We used to have to worry about building pages that work with all 3 algorithms. Of course, Google has the most market share. So, most SEOs, whether they focus on real estate or not, are going to try to get you ranking in Google before worrying about the other search engines.

That said, Yahoo! always had about 25 percent of the market and Microsoft about 10 percent - these numbers fluctuate of course. So, when you’d done a lot in Google, you move on to Yahoo!, then MSN. Well, that’s going to change and the argument for splitting your time gets a little stronger. Google, with double the Yahoo searches was the obvious first choice, and Yahoo a distant second. Now, there’s an argument for splitting effort 2/3 to Google and 1/3 to the combined Yahoo!/Bing platform.

Of course, we won’t be changing our tactics just yet. Yahoo’s search technology isn’t integrated with Microsoft’s yet. It actually sounds, according to early news, like the Bing algorithms are going to replace Yahoo’s search formulas. So, when that’s put into place, SEOs will then change their techniques and their focus. You might see your rankings change at some point to look a lot like they do in the Bing results.

Alternatively, personalization of results is the new vogue. Ranking, while still important, means less and less. What really matters, as we’ve written about numerous times, are results. Search results for me might be different from search results for you.This might mean that results will still vary in MSN vs. Yahoo! depending on how well they know you and how much you use your Yahoo! account or your MSN account. In fact, I’d count on that.

OK, that’s about it for today. Rest assured, we’ll be talking about this more soon. Thanks.

Here’s a little something I bet most Googlers probably don’t know about.

Conduct a search in Google…say for “real estate seo” then select “show options”. That will open an entire panel of goodies.

Within that left hand column, towards the bottom, is an option to choose search via the infamous “wonder wheel”. Select that! Now watch…this is really cool. To the right of the wonder wheel are still your search results for “real estate seo” and then you can choose any of the options the wheel presents; realtor marketing, real estate search engine optimization etc.

With each new choice your search results will update and allow you to quickly drill down to something new, maybe even something you had not thought of before.

Quick tip: this fun little tool can come in handy when doing keyword research.

Check it out and let us know what you think.

As part of your real estate seo link building is an essential task. For the most part links will come naturally, but a portion of your links and traffic can come from sites/directories where you have submitted your blog. Submitting your blogs is critical to gaining exposure in the appropriate forums and with your appropriate niche that helps support increasing inbound links, traffic, reader engagement and ultimately your overall site or blog goals.

You do not want to have your real estate blog exist in a vacuum. Here are 10 sites to help you start to gain exposure:

1.    Google’s Blog Search
2.    Technorati
3.    Best of the web
4.    Blogged
5.    Blog Catalog
6.    Blogmarks
7.    Bloggapedia
8.    My Blog Log
9.    Zimbio
10. LinkedIn
11.  Search specific local niche sites where you can submit your blog and have it publish your posts automatically.

You will want to make sure to create an account on most of these site and remain active. Find a specific group, niche or topic that relates to your business and then watch the links and traffic come in from those sites.

Boston Logic is looking to bring on two additional members to our already strong team. As you may know, Boston Logic is a technology and marketing consultancy providing online marketing (including Real Estate SEO), web development, and IT consulting.We are a fast growing company with clients throughout the country. Our culture has a fun, energetic feel, but we are intensely busy and maintain a professional, dedicated working environment. Our employees embody an entrepreneurial, passionate nature and a work hard/play hard attitude.

A little bit more about the two positions we are looking to fill immediately:

Ruby Developer

Strong technical and coding skills are essential for this job. You should have experience interacting with clients and effectively communicating with several parties to achieve results. Knowledge of online marketing and how the web can be used to drive business is key. Demonstration of superior client interaction, communication, and time management capabilities are a important for success in this position.

We will also be looking for the following abilities and qualifications:
•Communicating with clients to understand their needs and mapping business requirements to technical specifications
•Working with a team to strategically design and implement solutions
•Plan and execute internal company projects and contribute to long term company direction
•Write software in Ruby, PHP, Javascript, HTML, and CSS. (.Net, a plus)
•Linux server administration
•Knowledge of the real estate industry is a plus.

Online Marketer

We are looking to expand our Online Marketing team with a self-motivated, talented, and driven individual to serve as our Online Marketing Associate. The position requires 2+ years of work experience, a fair understanding of Web 2.0, strong writing skills, a contagious enthusiasm and a willingness to learn and get involved in all levels of our marketing programs (experience in Real Estate SEO, SEM, PPC and email marketing preferred).

We will also be looking for the following abilities and qualifications:
•Excellent written and interpersonal communication skills
•A strong understanding of existing online marketing tactics and a demonstrated history of creative, out of the box thinking
•Proven ability to take on several projects simultaneously from different groups; ability to delegate and manage tasks accordingly
•Familiarity with Email Marketing Tools such as Constant Contact
•A strong grasp and understanding of company branding
•Understanding of the real estate market
•Ability to work in a fast paced, fun and entrepreneurial environment
•A self-starter mentality and ability to work independently, as well as within a small team

If you match either of these descriptions or know of someone who does then please refer to BostonLogic.com/jobs
for more details about the position and how to apply.