Real Estate Agents Search Engine Optimization Tips - Basic SEO

Are you a Real Estate Agent and confused about, and/or frustrated with Search Engine Optimization? Have you spent countless hours of research, only to become overwhelmed and unsure of what information you should trust and apply? Have you been approached by a guru who “sort of” promises they can rank you in the top five in a matter of weeks? Do you feel like a deer caught in Google’s glaring headlights? Well, you're not alone! These days, it’s very easy to become lost in all the SEO noise. In reality, proper “basic” SEO applications aren’t terribly complicated, but it does require some basic knowledge.

Based on experience, below are my thoughts and suggestions for any real estate agent considering a new or redesigned website. PLEASE NOTE... this is a review of some “basics.” This is not intended to be a complete study.

1.) WEBSITE DESIGN - A visually compelling website is a great thing! But, you should never sacrifice a well thought-out website SEO structure in an effort to create a great-looking site. I firmly believe that SEO should come first. You can spend thousands of dollars on a great-looking website, but it won’t matter one iota if no one can find it! I have seen COUNTLESS real estate agent websites which look brilliant design-wise, yet have a positively abysmal SEO structure - or none at all. Thus, unless the real estate agent has plastered their website’s address all over town, or they have a wide referral base and they're a household name, virtually no one is going to find their amazing, and costly home on the web. If your designer knows nothing about the basics of SEO, and they have no reliable resources for you, you definitely need to move on. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself paying to redesign the website with SEO in mind in the future - thus delaying and reducing your return on investment.

2.) BASIC SEO STRUCTURE - At minimum, you should apply a basic SEO structure to the website - the most important of which are the Navigation Structure and Page Titles. In case you weren’t aware, real estate websites in general are not the “cream of the crop” when it comes to search engine optimization. So, with consideration given to basic optimization techniques, your website may easily increase in the search engine rankings over the competition, assuming your market isn’t already crowded with real estate SEO aficionados. At a minimum, the navigation structure should make sense and be user friendly. Where practical, the navigation link “anchor text” should make use of your very “top level” keywords (single, or two/three-word phrases), and link to pages which exclusively contain content based on that keyword/phrase.

Secondly, carefully chosen page titles are vital! Each title should include one to three keywords or "keyword phrases" (containing 2-3 words each); each word or phrase is usually separated by a comma. And, your page titles should NOT contain more than 9-12 words in total. I see it frequently where page titles contain 25+ words - this is usually because the site description or keywords have also been placed in the title tag. If this is describes your site, fix this TODAY! Finally, the page titles and phrases should NOT repeat throughout the site - they should be unique, and be based upon the (hopefully) unique content on each page. Duplicate or extremely similar title tags is known as keyword “cannibalization,” which is a very real hazard with both page titles and keywords, as it confuses the search engines - they cannot determine which page is the best to rank. As a result, they often rank both (or more) pages lower.

3.) CONTENT - This is something I see frequently - a compelling website design, with nary a word (much-less any keyword) on the home page at all. ARRGHH! To quote Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, this is a “BIG Mistake - HUGE!” Do NOT, under any circumstances let your designer construct your website with a focus on graphics! Search engines crawl websites looking for text - an I mean “real” text, not text contained in graphical elements. Therefore, it is CRITICAL that each page on your site contain well-written content for search engine consumption - and obviously, be suitable for your readers and potential clients as well. Remember all those seemingly pointless lessons in high school English, and all those essays and theses? Well, the structure of website page content is similar - the main idea, an introductory paragraph, and supporting paragraphs with “sub-headers,” preferably with beginning H1 or H2 tags - but that’s beyond the basics. Each page should contain 400-700 words, but this is not an absolute. The content on each page should be consistent with the title and keywords of the page.

4.) LINKS - In my opinion, the subject of links is one of the most misunderstood - and to a degree, “over-rated” - and I’ll likely whipped for saying that. While “yes,” links are indeed an important aspect of search engine rankings, the basic SEO structure and content of a site comes first! If your site has no logical structure, and contains very little, or poorly written content - or the content hasn’t been updated since 2005, all those links will be of little value. I have owned more than one website which had relatively few incoming links, yet had a great navigation structure, well-written content, and a carefully chosen, yet robust “internal link” structure. Those sites ranked in the top 5 across all search engines, despite being somewhat isolated and having relatively few incoming links - and I’ll add, despite the competition’s enormous SEO and marketing budgets (I’m talking six-figure annual SEO budgets).

Also, links should be built “naturally” and over time - not haphazard and in a burst by a paid link consultant. In fact, such activities could get your site punished. Rather, just like most friendships, be aware of who you link to, and carefully select the sites you personally choose to link from. In other words, if your site/page is about Seattle Real Estate, you don’t want to waste your time by purposefully placing a link on a web page titled “Home Remedies for Athlete's Foot.” Thus, keep your links focused, and apply them over time naturally. And by the way... “link exchanges” are passe, and some old-school link practices are downright dangerous. Again, keep it natural! Link exchanges are quite transparent to the search engines. It’s okay in moderation with those you trust, but don’t focus on it.

In summary, if you are a Real Estate Agent and have a website which contains any of the SEO problems mentioned above, please take the time to add valuable content to your site, and fix those page titles! Just doing these two things, may have a huge impact on your rankings. I welcome comments and questions - which I’ll reply to as time permits.

Have a great day!