Real Estate SEO

Archive for the ‘Local SEO’ Category

We are all pretty much on the same page when we say that SEO is organic and that you want to naturally receive traffic from search engines. But how do we get those inbound links? When do they start flowing in? Do I get them myself? Where do I get them? Do I pay for them? Help….

Don’t fret. Here are a few tips that will hopefully put your mind at ease:

1. Links will and should come naturally. Organic links  are when someone likes your content enough to link to it.
2. Quality content naturally draws quality links. The more quality content the more those links will come in. Keep writing.
3. Create viral content (aka. link bait), often this will be free or offered without having to sign up for it… something helpful to your readers.
4. Don’t always be too serious, offer something fun or cool (as relevant to your business).
5. Have a tool on your site or a widget of sorts that will inspire others to share that information.
6. Have your partners, supporters or other networks link to you (not necessarily always in exchange but because they want to help promote you).
7. Create quality profiles. Don’t just create accounts that never get used, but set up profiles where you will actually be and remain active in a community.
8. Add yourself to quality directories like the Yahoo! Directory and DMOZ.org (a few times when it will be okay to have paid links)
9. …which reminds me, don’t pay someone to get you a ton of links and don’t add your site to link farms.
10. Actively share your content and that of others, links will flow naturally from there as well.

What do Real Estate SEO and Wayne Gretzky have in common? May seem like nothing at first glance, however he once was quoted for saying the following:

You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. ~ Wayne Gretzky

That is precisely like SEO.

I actually got the inspiration for this (*grin*) by watching an episode of the Office. The quote was actually written on the wall in their office and as the camera slowly zoomed in on the quote…it got me thinking…what an accurate statement.

SEO is typically thought of as a “lottery” where the same holds true. If you don’t participate there’s no chance of you making it. I am not going to go into the odds of playing the lottery, but I am saying that not participating = not having a shot. Or per Gretzky, “not taking the shot” = “missing 100%” of the time…that indeed is a fact!

The same can be said for your web presence. Let’s see how: First of all, if you have no site you have no online presence. Second, if you do have a great site but don’t market it, you are missing out tremendously. A site without visitors is like a billboard in the middle of the woods. Why even build one there in the first place?

So take the cue from one of Hockey’s finest…you don’t want to miss out. Optimize your online presence with an online marketing campaign – Real Estate SEO. Read more of our blog or contact us directly if you have questions about marketing your website or creating an effective online presence.

Thinking about a new look for your blog? Or maybe you are just starting out and are looking for some tips on how to get started. Well, here are some steps to keep in mind, from a marketing perspective, as you undergo your blog redesign.

First, I hope you are using your blog because you want to reach a broader audience and want to make a greater impact, establishing or reinforcing your online presence (depending on whether this is your first go at it or you’ve been around the block a couple of times). Your blog, like your website, is about marketing yourself or your business, ultimately, a means by which to grow your business (aka. lead generation). It should be easy to navigate, consistent with your line of business or area of expertise, and informative. With that in mind, you should not be redesigning your blog because you feel that your design just isn’t quite as fun or fancy as some others out there. Second, you want to make sure that while your design looks clean and professional, your content and layout are what will get you the most bang for your buck.

However, before you even get started you want to organize the following; (1) establish clear, definitive goals and determine what desired actions convert visitors into leads (Do you plan on using your blog to capture leads? etc.), (2) make sure to keep the HTML coding clean (if you are not familiar with these practices I advise that you consult a professional, (3) don’t forget your users and site usability, (4) remember that a blog redesign is a project and should be managed as such, (5) set up a realistic schedule and manage expectations (Rome wasn’t built in a day, and your WordPress blog won’t be either).

Once you get into the nitty-gritty of things you will want to make sure that you don’t lose what you have during your design process.  There are pieces of your website that exist now and are good for SEO, and those should be protected. I can’t stress enough – don’t lose what you have. With SEO less is not more – the content you have the better off you are. With a proper plan and layout you can keep track of what you have and what you can do without.

…which brings me to my next point…

Any site redesign is a great time to assess what you have. What is worth keeping? It’s everyone’s favorite “A” word (no, not that) – Audit. Assess what may need to be updated, was it 5 or maybe 8 years ago that some of that content was created?…right…follow what I’m saying.

Most likely you already have great content – whole-lot-a posts. On and off page SEO are crucial as part of your blog’s SEO. As a refresher, on page SEO includes your post URLs which you can easily manipulate with plug-ins like the WordPress “all in one SEO pack” or any “permalink” plug-in for that matter. Next are the page title (or Meta Title), page headers (your H1s, 2s and 3s) and of course your content, all of which should incorporate the use of your keywords. Now, depending on the kind of plug-in that you are using you may be able to update post and page descriptions as well, which we know is equally important. Off page SEO, which is huge, includes inbound links and to some extent internal linking. Make sure this is all working properly, and none of these steps get sacrificed. Typically when working with platforms like WordPress these transitions run more smoothly.

And, finally…don’t forget to test. Testing is an important part of any redesign and a crucial step that is often overlooked. Try testing in different environments to make sure that styling and functionality is consistent.

As always if you have any questions please let us know.

Happy blogging!

PS: How do you like our new look?

Many people out there may have a hard time thinking of SEO as anything other than being the business of ranking. For years that was the measure by which you assessed the strength of your online marketing presence. Well, at this point you’ve probably heard it before…ranking is not the be-all and end-all it once was.

Search engine algorithms are (the formula by which search engines like Google, MSN and Yahoo! qualify and display relevant search results – by the way algorithms vary from search engine to search engine – it’s like grandma’s secret sauce!) ever changing. While at one point it may have been enough to only add and occasionally update “meta data”, there are many more factors that take the stage these days. Some are more obvious than others, and then again some are debatable. (Little secret: if you are not already, you should be following Google Guru, now Head of Webspam, Matt Cutts.)

A few key items that come into play: page meta title and description, SERP friendly URLs, H1 and H2 tags, quality/relevant content, keyword usage and variation (on and off page), a good internal linking structure, proper HTML coding, your domain age (strength lies in older domains), number of quality inbound links, user data (number of visits, time spent on page etc), and overall good housekeeping aka. keeping the site alive and current (or “fresh” as I like to call it).

SEO involves ongoing work, tweaking, and sharing, and once you’ve done that – you do it again. All of this time and work, though I’m not saying it’s guess work just because search algorithms are not publicly shared, will play out and make your site and its content highly relevant for both search engines and searchers, which means more traffic.

Measuring success…

It’s not to say that successful search marketing doesn’t help a site gain top positioning for relevant words and phrases. It does. We know that. However, rankings alone do not equal traffic. While a search engine presence is essential in order to generate user traffic, a successful SEO campaign is measured by the increase in search engine traffic and the rate at which that traffic performs the desired actions on your site (i.e. sales leads, purchases, sign-ups etc). My advice to you (whether you are a do-it-yourselfer or a SEO professional) measure and track your site’s increase in traffic over time, follow where traffic is coming from and where its going, and make sure you track conversions/leads. That’s the goal!

When it comes to managing and optimizing your blog there are some key factors that can help improve the performance of your blog tremendously. As you know by now, Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of making a site and its content highly relevant for both search engines and searchers. SEO includes technical tasks to make it easier for search engines to find and index a site for the appropriate keywords, as well as making a site more appealing to visitors. Successful search marketing helps a site gain top positioning for relevant words and phrases. When a website appears near the top of the search results for relevant search queries, traffic to that website increases dramatically. As a real estate business, Real Estate SEO can help you can acquire a great deal of leads by appearing high on the search results pages. Blogs in particular allow you to add new content on a regular basis and establish territory for your particular niche or market.

How do I SEO my blog?

Keywords: Do your research (search-trends and keyword competition/difficulty analysis) and use your keywords throughout your blog. We suggest, when appropriate, using some form of your keywords in your URL, title, content, links and tags for your post. An important thing to keep in mind is to make the incorporation of your keywords reader friendly. Don’t just cram the words in there, but use them in a way that will still make reading enjoyable.

URL: You know, that funny text that appears in your browser window, Http://www.such-and-such.com … Well most blog platforms like WordPress and Typepad actually let your edit what the URL structure or Permalink (as it’s sometime called) will be. URL naming is important because that is one of the pieces that search engines query as they gather relevant information based on a user’s search.

Basically it is much more powerful to have a URL be http://www.domain.com/blog/fascinating-topic or http://www.domainname.com/fascinating-topic (if your blog is in a separate domain from your website) rather than http://www.domain.blogspot.com/querystring…

There is also a whole issue of canonical URLs – setting a primary URL structure – that I won’t go into now.

Eye Catching Title: The old adage that you only have a few seconds to grab someones attention with what you have to say still counts. Express what you are offering in your post to your reader upfront. Key things to remember, keep it brief, and keep it relevant and if appropriate use keywords. I’d suggest forgetting about being clever, we all know you can channel Johnny Carson, and instead focus on giving your readers something they are looking for (especially given market trends) like the “Top 10 mistakes home buyers make”, or “How to buy a house and close within x Days” …

Keep in mind also that most blogging platforms take your title and use that as a base for your URL, so unless you have the ability to edit your URL directly, you are stuck with your title as part of your URL.

Content: Foremost you want quality and relevant things to write about. Write about neighborhood news, celebrity sightings (trust, this brings in lots of traffic), housing market updates, featured properties etc.

Finding something to write about isn’t always easy. Be prepared for those days that you are too busy or honestly may just not feel like it. On those days that you do have time and inspiration and could write an entire anthology, write down extra ideas or thoughts for that rainy day. And look for inspiration where ever you can find it.

Last but not least, remember to review all content prior to making it public. It’s important to communicate your subject matter with authority, and nothing says authority like well thought out and grammatically correct posts.

Links: For usability and SEO purposes you want to link your article to other posts within your blog and also to other sites. As a rule of thumb, if you write about a site that is less familiar to the general public you should, as courtesy, provide a link to that site.

Gathering inbound links is equally important. You should have a plan in place for your blogs linking and submission. One place that I highly suggest you submit your blog to is Google’s Blog Search.

Social Media/Community: There is a saying in SEO that “content is king”, well … content is only a lonely King if there are no people to follow. Have some kind of “share this” or “add this” function available for a each post. If you are already part of the social networking community you can share your posts online and have others who follow you do the same. I recommend that each post you write you distribute it to other social media venues. Statistics show that about 1 in 20 posts that you publicize will actually go viral.

While blogging may seem like a lot, it is truly worth the investment. If you cannot or do not want to invest the time yourself, then invest in a service like our Real Estate SEO. The long term results are worth every penny…but I don’t need to tell you that just give it a try and see for yourself.