Thank you for the tips Kay! I have been working hard to boost my rankings and there are a few tips here that will help me very much!

That's awesome, Nick. I'll be posting more information soon, so stay tuned!

Thanks for you great post.  I am a firm belever that SEO is all bout putting in time and effort. There is not short cut to having a sucessful site.  I like your approach to SEO through site design -very cool.  I look forward to further posts.

SEO Book is a great resource. There are a ton of great SEO blogs and forums (along with a ton of really bad ones too). One of my favorite resources lately has been Sphinn, which is Danny Sullivans social media site for SEO and SEM news. Lots of good discussion and links to some really good SEO blogs and articles.

Rob, you are right about time and effort. Site design plays a very important part in your on-site optimization for natural rankings. Mark, Sphinn is a great resource, but you do have to keep your thinking cap on - some of the articles are off-base. 

Haha, yeah you are right Kay but those that are wrong are generally shredded by the peanut gallery. Their is a solid group of SEO professionals active there so even the bad blogs end up providing useful information from the Sphinners.

Kay, thank you for this great post, it was very helpful as I am constantly trying to learn about the SEO world and seach engine rankings and how to get my websites www.luckystarrealestate.com and www.luckystarrealty.net to rank high in the search engines for my area of expertise.

Kay,

Thanks for the advice. I will use it and look at your other posts.

Mike Lewis

I'm glad my post is helpful...this may turn into a series. Some postings will be more basic than others.

Thavisak, be careful when you have more than one website. You don't want any duplicate content. It's advisable to have them hosted with different companies. A dedicated IP at the minimum, but with different companies the C block is different and the search engines are much less likely to put the two together. 

Hello, Kay,

Rob invited me into this SEO group today........ I am certain that he took great pity on me ... must have either seen my attempts at blogging or visited my website.

After reading your blog on what NOT to do........ well, let's just say I'll be making several changes to my website tonight!

Could you give me some guidance in terms of TAGS?  I clicked on your Tags (tag cloud) and there were lots of big words in pretty colors.... I clicked on TAGS on my blogs...... and found an almost totally blank page.  What am I doing wrong?  Not doing right?  I have no clue....... you know I need your help now, don't you?

Thanks from a brand new blogger.

Thank you.  For the last 2 weeks I have explored the SEO world.  I still have a lot to learn.  However, before today and reading your page, what I have learned (which is dangerous) my husband's website is more visible.  Just one year shy of sixty all of this is greek to me.  I really appreciate all of the info I get.  ( I can't even program my own DVD player, thank goodness for grandkids)  Thanks for being there.

Kay, thank you for the advice.  I have been paying my website company to do this for me, when I could have done it myself all along. 

@ Jan - I'm glad my blog is helping you! When you write a blog post, below the text box is an oblong box labeled "tags." Put your tags in there - words you think people might use to search for the information contained in your post. Soon you'll have a pretty tag cloud too!

@ Cindy - There is so much to learn. I'm not far behind you in years, but I've been involved in the Internet since 1996, and I'm still learning as fast as I can. Don't feel bad - I have issues with my TV remote.

@ Thavisak - The area of SEO is constantly changing, so it's important to keep up with it. That's why I suggest the SEO book - as a downloadable eBook Aaron can keep it updated. I read SEO related blogs for hours every day. 

Damion - thanks for your comments - you're right on target.

Thanks for the info.  I'm taking your advice and will get my website moving.

Kay, "muchas gracias" for sharing SEO info with us. I started 06/07 and there is so much to learn. have a good weekend.  

Thanks for a good post. There are some tips I could use. I will take your advice.

Good Info. It seems like working for better placement is a never ending job.

Sound advice.  The keyword suggestion tools are a goldmine since it gives you a peek at the consumer's mind.

Great post Kay.  It does seem that if you have googled the same thing over the years the same pages always show up on the 1st page.  Critical for any website.  It is almost like branding.

Kay here is question on the portion of your post on naming photos. Are you saying to use descriptive names of photos for SEO, not for example the name of the owner. More like the address or something? Don't name it Smith, but Decker Street Viroqua? 

Thank you all for your comments - I've fallen behind in responding, but I really appreciate them.

Mary - Think about how a buyer would search for a house, perhaps one they've driven by or in an area they want. They wouldn't search for "the John Smith house" but instead it would be more like "124 Decker Street in Viroqua" or "Sunny Hills subdivision homes for sale." You want to name your photos accordingly, for instance, master_bedroom_124_decker_street.jpg and sunny_hills_viroqua_view.jpg. 

Thanks that is very interesting, I would never have given this a thought, great advise.

Kay,

I'm new to Active Rain, and at the moment I'm feeling like I'm really old or ancient.  What is SEO?  I've seen it mentioned several times this evening, and if I read enough I might actually figure it out.  But, I figure, it might be easiet to just ask.   Thanks in advance. 

Hi Sondra. Welcome to Active Rain!

I'm going to quote Aaron Wall here, and suggest you visit his SEObook site glossary to learn more: 

I addition most people don't realize that they are not recognized by goggle for a 6 month period.  We did it all on our own and we are first page goggle, etc.  I think its a great post yet people need to know the number 1 rule when it comes to SEO.  Stress the fact that content is king.

Christina & Kevin -  Content is of course very important, but link building is also key. I can rank a site with poor content but good links faster than I can a site with great content but no links.

Kay I love reading your blogs because I always learn something new. I'm printing this one out!

Kay,

You are a must read for me. I have one question. Should I be concerned with a page rank of (2) for all three of my real estate sites? Two are older and one newer. I saw your diva site at (PR) 3. 

Pam - I'm glad I can help you!

Mike - PR2 for an old site isn't great, but of more concern is how it's ranking in the search results. That's all that really matters.  I've seen PR0 sites come up on the first page for great keywords.

One good point to know is that it is easy to come up in the search engines for the rarely used terms. They aren't as common, but you can show up on the first page of google in just a matter of days. The "heavy terms" like Real Estate and Homes for Sale, take lots of work and time. 

Alan - you're right - witness my 'Dirty Sexy SEO' lol.

Thanks for the heads up about the Keyword tool. I may have to re-think my strategy

As always thank you such much Kay for all the information about SEO

Hi

I was one of the 1st Realtors in my area to really be on the internet. I made my own pages through front page and studied how to get them at the top. At that time Yahoo was the biggie, google was not even heard of. Using relevant keywords to search I always came up # 1 or 2. Ofcourse back then there weren't so many sites. I have been out of real estate for almost 5 years and working for a title company and have just started back full time real estate. I was a realtor for 17 years prior. I am really having a hard time placing my sites now. What a difference! I have to learn all over again. Thank goodness I found activerain!

I am learning slowly but it is all starting to make more and more sense of what I should be doing.

Great post this is an area that I definately have to work in to get up there with SEO. Thanks a Million!

Thanks for the education Kay! I am trying to optimize my bogs and website.... I have all the tools just need to learn what will grow my business, I am bookmarking your blogs, look forward to reading them.