Well, I started working more diligently on my website (www.stefanwest.com) over the last four months.  My goal was to learn SEO a bit and start investing more time in my website, thereby reducing my dependance on PPC (Pay per click) keyword marketing.

I started this process because I saw my PPC getting more expensive per click every month but less clicks coming in.  I was literally paying more and getting less which was very frustrating.  I expanded my keywords, researched long-tail (cool concept btw) and started to work on my page.  If I could get traffic for free, even if it cost me money in short term, money I was spending on PPC.

So, I tracked my traffic to my site at around 10 people a day.  Which isn't much but I am in Real Estate not affliate sales :). On a good month, I was getting about 300 visitors to my site a month. Anyway, I also reduced all my keywords down in Pay per click and spent some money on software to start tracking and learning with.

I then researched the heck out of all my keywords and started building a focus list (perhaps a future blog here).  This was a massive help.  I had done this before BUT with PPC you can focus on anything while with organic your website has to drive the placement.  Thus, keyword identification is very important, especially if you use a template website like I do.  I eventually worked out a few main keyword phrases to target as my 1st tier and expanded a 2nd tier of keywords which were valueable variations of the main ones.  This created quite a list to work with which was fantastic in helping me re-organize my site. I did this by researching search traffic patterns using the old Overture keyword traffic tool.

Meanwhile, I was reading up and learning about SEO and every source of information kept pounding me about getting links.  I understand that SEO is about links but I wanted to set a foundation.  So I worked on website optimization so I could learn it and really set the ground for good search engine results.  I used the phrases I identified and worked them into text, pages, etc.  I didn't do anything too spammy because it wasn't needed.  The keyword phrase research had given me a great place to draw from that wasn't over the top redundant. In fact, it helped me so much in placement in less common areas.

Anyway, once I optimized my site I felt good about learning how to do it, understanding most of it, and of course really putting some time in to learn how to affect these changes on my template site.  It wasn't hard, I just never really bothered before and doing this was invaluable since now I am snugg as a bug working on my site.  What is even better is the way I chose to do it was more time intensive than a lot of the SEO experts suggest but ideal for Real Estate. 

BTW, I am sick of hearing people call me up and offer to get me top 3 spot placement for some good sounding real estate phrase that in reality is not targeted by people and easy to obtain.  The other day, some SEO company called to say they could get me the top 1-2 spot for a keyword phrase for $800 and then $30 a month to maintence it.  The phrase got maybe 70-90 searches a month and was a 3rd tier keyword on my list.  With my new understerdaning I realized I could do it myself probably in a couple days of work but honestly didn't value the phrase - so I never bothered. (Fast forward to now - I just checked it and I am #2 and #7 on Google, #1 and #2 on MSN, and lost in the shuffle on Yahoo at #15. This is for a phrase I don't even track.  I am going to add it right now to my great keyword tracking software lol - Done!)  I got this result from good optimization and keyword targeting!

The minute the search engines saw my site after optimization I saw a bump in activity.  The visits had gone down but within a week, I was getting around 3-5 new organic (search engine-non paid) visits a day.  That meant my efforts, completely free of charge were bringing in an at least a extra couple of people a day.  While pay per click was going through the roof at over $2+ a click! That is when I realized that I really needed better tracking of placement, visits, etc.  The statcounter package provide by my website company was great, but I needed a better.

Guess what?  Google Analytics (http://www.google.com/analytics/) is free and wonderful.  Also Google Webmaster tools is great and free as well.  You can even link Analytics to your Adword account.  I also used http://www.hittail.com/ to start tracking long tail keywords just for an additional reference point.  I am just letting hittail build information for me so I can use it in the future for now.  My initial work was pretty solid and hittail has confirmed that.  I have also added Google to the majority of my webpages so I can see traffic patterns. This was so easy to do and yet yields invaluable information.  It is a great feeling to wake up each morning to a new lead or at least see a result from your work! I use my keyword tracking software everyday just to keep current and doesn't interfere at all in my daily workings.  But it sures gives me a boost when I move up!

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I have a lot to put on the blog but will need to do it in parts.  I apoligize, but I would rather share as much as possible that others may find usuable than cut it short.  I will post more in a couple days.