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Avoid Over Emphasis on Positioning

One of the main purposes of optimizing your website is to improve its position in the search engine rankings and thus on the search results page. While I encourage you to employ the various techniques to achieve this, it’s important not to over emphasize your website’s position.

It won’t help you to have your site returned at the top of the search engine pages if your site is not attractive to viewer’s, doesn’t provide the information they need or is difficult to navigate. It is important to drive traffic to your site, to be sure, but it’s only 10% of the battle. The biggest part of the battle is keeping them there, offering them the information they are looking for, and then encouraging them to communicate with you.

This is why before you start worrying about getting your site to the top of the search result page; you need to make sure its worthy of that position.

On-page Optimization vs. Off-page Optimization

On-page Optimization refers to the SEO techniques that you use on your web site. This includes updating keywords and phrases and removing those that are no longer viable.

Updating content such as articles, blogs and other important information. If your site details property values and tax assessments in various areas of your region, then regularly updating those values and tax information is a part of SEO.

Offpage Optimization refers to those techniques that are done outside of your web site and some forms of onsite maintenance. These include determining your page ranking in the search engines and checking out what your competitors are doing on their sites.

You will want to view their HTML codes, and determine if using them on your own site will be helpful to you. It would also include removing links to sites that are no longer active and replacing them with ones that are

Finding out how many inbound links they have is also important when sizing them up. Having a lot of quality inbound links can raise their visibility with the search engines and garner them a higher page ranking.

Both onpage optimization and offpage optimization are both important in a successful SEO campaign.

posted by Kim Hadley

Pay Per Click ads, or PPC, are those in which you pay an engine a fee to recognize your ad which is then placed under the sponsored listings section of search results page.

Each time a person clicks on the ad, you pay a fee to that engine. As previously discussed, popular key words are important in the search process.

Advertisers craft their ads using these key words and bid on how much they will pay to the search engine each time the ad is accessed by those searching the web.

Using Pay Per Click ads may seem a whole lot easier than learning and applying the other various SEO techniques. There are a lot of benefits to using PPC ads, including placement at a highly visual area on the search results page.

Another great benefit is that you can also exclude keywords and phrases. For example if your company does not handle apartment or house rentals, you can exclude the keyword “rental” when you submit your ad under “houses”. This will help to further target your specific audience.

On the same token, if your company does handle rentals, you can also use what’s known as broad matching that will allow renters to access your site as well as those looking to buy and sell homes.

While the benefits of PPC can’t be denied, this type of service may not be for you. A big reason for this is because some Internet users accidentally click on the ads.

That means you get to pay for their mistake. Another reason to not use it is because there is no guarantee that they will be converted to a client even if they purposefully click on your ad. Remember that Internet searches are looking to compare web sites.

They can click on your ad and then compare it to a competitor’s and decide to go with them. That means your competitor gets the business and you still get the bill.

If your company’s advertising budget is small, then PPC ads should be considered carefully prior to enlisting their use. It’s not much different than investing in the stock market.

If you can’t afford to lose the money then steer clear of it. There are other low cost SEO techniques that you can take advantage of that will not take a huge bite out of your small budget.

posted by Kim Hadley

You may be thinking to yourself that SEO is going to take a lot of effort to be effective and you are absolutely right. So, why should you even bother? After all, your sales are pretty good and your referrals are more than enough to keep your profits up so why fix what isn’t broken?

Think about it this way; as a real estate professional it’s important for you to keep up with the trends in your field.

This includes real estate laws, housing values, property taxes, popular neighborhoods and knowing the best school districts. All of this information is subject to change at any given time so it’s important for you to remain current. The same way that important factors change in the real estate industry, they are also changing in how society goes about seeking the services that they need.

Before, they may have pulled out the yellow pages but now they sit down at their PCs to search for what they want. Even if you don’t see the need to make sure that your web site is highly visible in search results, you can bet your competition does.

It’s great to have referrals that help you to gain new clients, but those clients still need to be converted. Prior to the internet when a client referred a friend to you, they may have asked for your phone number.

Now they want to know if you have a website and what the address is. We are now living in a tech society and today’s technology negates the need for clients to come and sit in your office for a face to face to discuss their real estate needs.

At some point they may have to but initially, they try to find out what they can on the Internet. They’re busy and want to be able to shop around from the comfort of their own homes. They are also savvier and will use the Internet to compare what you are offering to what your competitors are offering.

If they pull a search and your competitor’s site comes up and yours doesn’t, this gives the appearance that your agency is not technologically up to date.

This may make them wonder how up to date you are in your knowledge of current trends in real estate and lead them to use your competitor instead of you.

Remember what you had to do to get your license? The classes required to learn all there was to know on an intellectual level and then the training that followed to teach you proper sales techniques. Real estate is an ever changing industry.

Between whether it’s a buyer’s market or a sellers market, changes in laws and taxes, you have to keep up with the trends. This is why many states require you to take continuing education classes, so that you will be well informed.

Consider learning about SEO as another needed form of education that will enhance all of your knowledge and help you to become even more of a success.

One of the first steps in SEO is to design your website to target a particular audience, in this case those who are interested in buying or selling real estate in your region. Search Engine Optimization employs three basic concepts, those being text, links and increasing the popularity of your web site, all of which will be discussed in much further detail other blog posts.

1) Text
 
When search engines look to retrieve information, their biggest consideration is the text on the web site. This includes text that is both visible and invisible.

Although your web site may be filled with text, if it is not properly instituted, the engines won’t recognize it so your 10,000 word web site, might as well be virtually blank.

Even if you have a visually stunning site that includes audio, videos and cool graphics, the engines won’t see all of your hard work and instead may skip your site and return with one of your competitor’s sites to display at the top of the search results page.

Text in this sense means more than the letters used when designing your copy. In order for the search engines to see your site, it needs to be in HTML coding.

HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language and this is what the search engine spiders see when they crawl around the net, indexing pages.

Using HTML means adding tags to the title and body of your website so that the engines can find it. For example, if the title of your page is Any Realtor in Any State, in HTML the search engines would see, <title>Any Realtor in Any State<title>.

Without those tags, the page title is invisible to the search engines. This is why it’s imperative that you include these tags so that the search engines will recognize the title of your page. The same holds true for the content.

You’re competitor’s site may seem plain compared to yours but if it has utilized the proper type of text, then in the virtual “eyes” of the search engines it is lit up in neon and chosen for the coveted first page of search results.     

2) Links

Links to your web site are another important aspect of SEO. Links increase your exposure to the search engines, leading to them to your web site and also giving them more information about the type of business your web site reflects.

Because of that the inbound links to your site need to be related to real estate. For example, property appraisers who you do business with can add a link to your site on their web page.

Both categories have to do with real estate values and real estate in general. This adds another layer of exposure to your site and more visibility that the search engines will notice.

3) Popularity
    
The popularity of a website is a key focus of SEO. Naturally you want your web site to be a popular tool for your clients. While this is important to please the people who view your web site, it’s more important to please the search engines that bring your site to the attention of the viewer.

Search engines use algorithms to rank pages. Those pages with the highest ranking appear at the top of the search result page, while those with the lowest end up at the back of the line.

The algorithms are based on a number of factors such as links, keywords, page titles and age of the website and its popularity, not necessarily in that order.

Each search engine has its own system of page rankings and the defining algorithms used are top secret. If you are not well versed in SEO, you are virtually just rolling the dice when it comes to getting exposure for your web site.

Taking the time to employ SEO can substantially increase your odds of better exposure, not just to your clients but to the search engines where it really counts.

posted by Kim Hadley

SEO works by driving targeted traffic to your business website. If you are an independent broker and are the company’s only employee, then you are mainly just competing with other companies in your area, which is a difficult task in itself.  If you are an agent working for a large firm, you are not just dealing with competition from other brokerages in your area. You are also competing with the other licensees at your company.

It’s more than likely that your particular firm already has a comprehensive web page that allows users to search for listings and look for an agent.

You have to find a way to stand out in the crowd so that people will specifically seek you out for assistance rather than your having to rely on the luck of the draw.

One such way for you to do that is to have your own web page that is linked to your firm’s site but also is searchable in the search engines. This means that when people are researching real estate in your area, your personal web page will come up and you get the opportunity to convert them to clients. You might work for a large firm that is so well known that you get what you feel is more than enough leads. The company’s web site might even have allotted a page for you, so you feel this is enough.

After all, why should you go through the time and expense for something that you already have and is working for you in a satisfactory manner? While this all may be true, consider this; what if you decide to go to another firm or open your own brokerage?

Don’t assume that your clients will remember your phone number or email address. Even if you send out an announcement, people may have moved or changed their email address. Although you may have done a memorable job for them, if they call the real estate office that you formerly worked for and you are no longer there, they will be redirected to another agent at that firm.

If they remember your name and try to search for you on the Internet and can’t locate you, then they will have no choice but to use another realtor. Having your own searchable web site will enable those clients that you have lost contact with to find you easily. Even if you already have a web site and you carefully included your name in your URL, just because someone types your name into a search engine doesn’t mean your page will come up.

This is especially true if you have a common name such as John Smith. Many clients aren’t big on patience and will not be willing to sift through multiple sites just to find you. It’s up to you to make sure that you are easily accessible if you want to keep your client base in tact.

Utilizing Search Engine Optimization will ensure that your old clients can find you and new clients will be able to view your site and ask for your help. This makes it worth the effort to take the time to create and optimize your web site so that you will be accessible to those who wish to do business with you.

posted by Kim Hadley

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is exactly what the term sounds like. It’s a series of techniques designed to help move your web site off the 50th search result page to the top of the first page where it belongs. You’ve heard the term, “first come, first served”.

If your web site is at the top of the search result page, you can change that to, “first result, first opportunity to gain a new client”.

The way SEO achieves this is by increasing the flow of traffic to your web site. Just about every business has a web site these days. The reason that they developed them was not only with the hopes of getting more business, but because it was felt that in today’s high tech society, you simply had to have one.

While it’s true that you have to keep up with modern trends, many felt that as long as their web site was in place, then certainly they would be listed in the search engines and people would be able to easily access it. Alas, this is not the case at all.

If your site was posted on the web without the proper coding and content, then the search engines may not even know that it exists. Even if your web site might be listed in the search engines, it probably does not come up on the first result page of a search, which is essential to the site’s success.

It’s not enough to have a website; it has to be a searchable one. This is because unless your web site was designed in such a way that the search engines give it a high ranking, it’s likely that it does not come to the attention of those who are searching for just what you are offering.

This is particularly true for real estate professionals. Much of real estate is based on referrals, but technology has introduced even more ways to get new clients, not just locally but on a national level as well.

People in other states who are planning to relocate to yours will need a qualified realtor to help them find a new place to live. These people go on the Internet to look at properties and query the real estate professionals in the area that they are interested in.  When they begin their search for real estate in your area, if your web site comes up on the first page, you have an excellent chance of converting them into clients.

I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that competition in the real estate industry is fierce and while the Internet enables a realtor to get more business, it has also caused the competition to multiply. This is why utilizing Search Engine Optimization is imperative to getting a substantial amount of business from the Internet.

It might seem virtually impossible to achieve this, since there is so much competition out there, but by employing techniques used for SEO, you will find yourself at the top much sooner than you think.

I don’t mean to make it sound as if this will be an easy task. Your success depends on how much effort you put into this.

The good news is that unlike previous generations who rolled the dice with mailing lists and cold calling, your odds for gaining new clients this way will be much greater.

Over the next few months I will post articles that will help you understand how to play the SEO game.

posted by Kim Hadley

Once upon a time, long before the advent of the Internet, a person just like you had a great idea for a service to sell.

It didn’t matter that others had the same idea and had already begun to capitalize on it. This person just knew that he could do a much better job at it and success was in the bag.  The fledgling entrepreneur spent the requisite time to learn about the real estate industry and get the required licenses to begin.

A location for an office was chosen, a lease was signed and a shingle proclaiming the business for the world to see was proudly hung outside the office. All that was needed now was an advertising campaign designed to lure in prospective clients.

The entrepreneur drew on his savings and invested a lot of money in fancy brochures and mailing lists, to say nothing of the stationery imprinted with the company name.

Stamps were purchased, envelopes were stuffed, sealed and taken to the post office. Unfortunately, many of the addresses were wrong or the recipients pegged them as junk mail and didn’t bother to open them. This meant that the return was minimal.

The entrepreneur also tried cold calling, playing the odds that at least a small percentage of those that were phoned could be converted to clients. This brought some rewards, but was hard work and rejection was the usual result. Eventually, with perseverance and a lot of investment in time and money, the gamble paid off and finally success was achieved.

Today’s entrepreneur’s have it much easier than those of the pre-Internet generation. The Internet puts literally millions of prospective clients at your feet and all you really need to know is how to work the system.

In the olden days when a person was looking for a product or service, they turned to the yellow pages. Now, most go online where they can easily search and compare prospective companies.

When you initiate a search on the Internet, typically multiple pages will turn up, listing millions of web sites designed around your particular keywords. The majority of those searching will rarely go past the first page of results.

This is why it’s important to make sure that your website is on that first page and hopefully at the top of the list so that you can gain their attention and secure their business. That’s where search engine optimization comes in.

By utilizing Search Engine Optimization, you will be able garner clients from those Internet users that are searching for the service that you are offering, in this case real estate. With so many people using the Internet to find what they need, this could equate to big profits for both you and your company.

We will explore SEO for websites, and in particular SEO for real estate agent sites in future blog posts, so add us to your RRS feed, and enjoy!

posted by Kim Hadley

Your website is a great marketing tool, but it’s not just about how it looks, it must be made available for potential customers to view.

So marketing your website through what is called; “search engine optimization” (SEO) is just as important as the way your website looks and functions. Your website is a great marketing tool, but it must be made available for potential customers to view.  If people can’t see it, well we don’t have to tell you what happens then.

SEO is the process of achieving top rankings in the search engines for a website’s most relevant search terms or what is often referred to as “keywords”. The most relevant search terms or key words are the phrases that people are most likely to type into a search engine when looking for what the website has to offer. You want your website to be recognized by the search engines for the keywords most associated with your business.

Why are we so focused on search engines, because they are one of the primary ways that internet users find web sites. That’s why a web site with good search engine listings may see a dramatic increase in traffic. SEO is a way of ensuring that your web pages are accessible to search engines. So page titles, body copy and other elements all play a role.

Page Titles

Make your page titles simple, yet descriptive and relevant. This will make it easier for search engines to know what each page is about, and people scanning through search results can quickly determine whether your document contains what they are looking for. The page title is also what is used to link to your site from search result listings. Because of this, the title element is one of the most important elements on a page.

A good example is as follows: Document title | Section name | Site or company name

Body copy – writing good content – it’s all about people returning to your site – Get Linked to

This is one of the most important things you need to do if you want to be found on the web. Even if your site is technically perfect for search engines, it won’t do you any good unless you also fill it with good content.

Amongst other things, good content brings return visitors. Return visitors who like your content will eventually link to your site, and having lots of inbound links is great for search engine rankings, especially if those links are from highly ranked sites. Incoming links are very, very important for SEO, so we’ll say it one more time; get linked to!

OTHER ELEMENTS

Use real headings

Use the h1 – h6 elements for headings. Using graphics for headings may look pretty but search engines aren’t looking for pretty so they won’t pay much attention. Even if you (as is required) use the alt attribute to specify alternate text for heading images, that text will not be anywhere near as important as real text in a heading element

Flash

Flash and JavaScript are fine, as long as they aren’t required to navigate your site and to access vital information. Don’t hide your content inside Flash files or behind funky JavaScript navigation.

Frame Smame (no offence)

Avoid using frames, while it is possible to provide workarounds that allow search engines to crawl frame based sites, frames will still cause problems for the people who find your site through search engines.

When somebody follows the link from a search result listing to a frame based site, they will land on an orphaned document, outside of its parent frameset. This is very likely to cause confusion, since in many cases vital parts of the site, like navigational links, will be absent.

Behind the Scenes – A bit more technical – The Tags

The title tag, make sure that the page’s search term is contained in this tag.

The Description Tag <meta name=”description” content=”a nice description”>
Write an appealing description for the page and incorporate the page’s search term into it at least once and, preferably, twice.

The Keywords Tag <meta name=”keywords” content=”some keywords”>
Put plenty of relevant keywords into the tag and include the search term once at the front, and a second time further along the line. There is no need to seperate keywords and keyphrases with commas, as is often done, since the engines ignore commas.

Bold Text
Bold text is given more weight than ordinary text but not as much as H tags. As much as is reasonable, enclose the search term in bold tags when it appears on the page.

Text
Use the search term as often as you can on the page whilst not detracting from the page’s readability. Make sure that you use the term once or twice very early in the page’s body text and as often as possible throughout. Reword small parts, and even add sentences, to make sure that the search term is well represented in the text.

So there you have the basics about Search Engine Optimization. Please contact us if you have any questions or want to discuss what we can do to get your site in amongst the high rankers and easily accessible for all those folks out there looking for you.

posted by Kim Hadley