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SEO value from posting your listings to AR & Localism

I just commented on Shane Taylor's "Why place listings in your blog?" acknowledging his statement that this is "relatively poor advertising". The real value of posting your listings on AR is the less tangible SEO value.

Presuming that you're posting listings from around your core market area ... you probably couldn't buy better back-links to your site. When search engines follow a link from your listing on AR/Localism to your site it will be judged extremely relevant. Over time, this will influence your site's ranking in search engines.

Posted by Larry Wright on 08/26/2007 06:46 PM

Comments (31)

seo, real estate, marketing, technology

31 Comments on SEO value from posting your listings to AR & Localism

AUG

2007

You have a good point. Many agents however can expand on the listing to make the listing more interesting. This works even better.

SEO is what all blogs are great for.. just remember to maximize your tags and such.. helps the search engines spot you!

Eric, I would agree with your comments. The SEO for your local listings from Localism will give great benefit to you. Thanks for the tip on Shane's post.

What is SEO?

Teresa - SEO is search engine optimization - the art form of creating search engine friendly content - there is a group here in ActiveRain dedicated to it - enjoy if you are just experiencing it for the first time.

My question is to Daniel, what are you referring to specifically when you say"maximize your tags and such"?

Now Have a Blessed Day,

John Occhi, Hemet CA REALTOR®
Mission Grove Realty

I post all listings at our customers request. It ties in with our print advertising.

AUG

2007

Teresa - like John shared ... SEO is an acronym for "Search Engine Optimization". It is the process of preparing websites and presenting them to search engines in the most favorable manor so that the best possible search engine rankings are achieved.

AUG

2007

Larry,

I very much agree with you. Posting a listing on your blog, along with the relevant tags, helps not only the ranking of your main website where your blogged listing will be directing the home shopper; and, your AR blog will benefit as well.

What I also try to do is have a basic template Listing Ad in HTML that can be posted to Craigslist. I'll then add other links and features to that basic ad and post it to AR. I can also use it for an e-mail flyer.

Thanks!

John

Great Info..thanks!

SEP

2007

Thanks for your comments.

SEP

2007

wow, I have been learning something new every time I log onto AR... chalk up one more helpful tip -- thanks!

Active Rain and Localism are extremely powerful SEO tools - good advise.

Interesting observation. I'm afraid I don't completely understand it. I'm not sure exactly how the "back link" concept works. But thanks for raising the issue.

Thanks Dan and Kate ...

Don, the way Google and Yahoo considers "Back Links" is more easily understood as "votes" for the popularity of your site from another site.

SEP

2007

Larry, you need to post a blog entry and explain SEO stuff in easy to understand terms.

John

"What I also try to do is have a basic template Listing Ad in HTML that can be posted to Craigslist."

Where do you get the html for that?

Thanks

Debbie and Rick,

My version of MS Office also included MS FrontPage, which is Microsoft's HTML webpage editor. With the help of FrontPage, along with some basic code clean-up, I've built my own templates. These may not be quite as flashy as vFlyer or Postlets but, they've also got more links in them which are both helpful to my viewers and help with the SEO as well.

John

A couple of SEO questions.

1) Does it make any sense to put one's website in the tags list?

2) I don't understand the need to "clean up" tags. Maybe that is because I typically use the same few over and over. where does the confusion come in for Search Engines?

3) How are "back links" voted on from other sites? I thought back links were just links to other sites. Shows how much I know.

I've been using Postlets, posting them to AR and I was surprised to learn that people actually view those local listings. I like the MS FrontPage idea as well.

Thanks everyone!

SEP

2007

Debbie & Rick: MS Office mail merge utilities can probably mass generate html pages for you from an Excel spreadsheet with your listing info. You may be able to download this from your MLS.

Diane: 1) I don't think so but depending on your objective it may be useful 2) cleaning up your tags helps focus your site's topic for search engines 3) "back links" are links from other sites to yours. Calling them "votes" is a simplified explanation of how search engines attribute value to them.

Christopher: Postlets and all other tools do yield traffic for you. But it's easy to get overwhelmed managing informaiton.

SEP

2007

The back link to my site sounds like a HUGE benefit for my main site. This is something I had not considered but I can see the value for sure. I am wondering if within the listing blog on AR if it is smart to have a link within the blog listing also?

Sam ... I do try and link to our sites at least once in every blog entry. It will take 3 - 6 months to realize the benefits. So be consistent and hang in there patiently.

SEP

2007

Larry - Great advice...could not have explained it better myself. The post itself will also show up if anyone googles the address. This will save some money for those that spend money on the www.address sites.

Thanks Bill ... I'm gathering info for another post related to this one.

OCT

2007

Help! This is gret information, gets me thinking. I have done a number of blogs for localism, most about my farm neighborhood, and blogs for my listings in that neighborhood. But, what do you mean by "back linking" to my website?

How does Google know my blog about my listings on localism are connected to my website? Do I need to have all of my active rain blogs on my website? Sorry, I am new and I am lost, and thanks to your info, I think I am missing a vital step.

Any help would be appreciated!

OCT

2007

Michelle ... you don't need to duplicate your blog entries on your own website. Just make sure to place a text hyperlink within each blog to your web site.

NOV

2007

I just came across this group and I'm glad I stumbled across it! One of the things I wanted to accomplish by blogging was to give some link love to my website. I have posted my listings to localism and there is another group that is just for posting listings using the address in the title line. I'm going to post there as well. Thanks for your insight.

Thanks Pam ... consistent blogging should accomplish your objective of boosting link strength.

You can publish your articles on my site http://getprequalified.com for additional back links as well. For more information please email me at dmmason@getprequalified.com. It's very simple.

Cool, I wioll back link into the future.

Take care!

RJH

JAN

2008

It does help for SEO, but you need to diversify as much as possible. Don't put all you eggs in one basket. You need to have as many different inbound links as possible, coming from web sites about the same subject as yours, or at least close to it. And they should appear as natural links. See my blog post on what a natural link is.

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