Earlier this year, Google made some not so subtle changes to the way it ranks pages and calculates where you are going to be found on the first page. Some of the basic, initial reports back confirmed that Google was looking for Consistently Interesting, Unique and Relevant Content… and for the Real Estate Industry that meant that if you have been “getting by” on those sites where every page is already written for you… well you dropped a few pages in the Search. “Canned” Websites are not known to be full of Unique Content written just for you.
With the latest Panda release in August, other, more subtle changes that influence your Google Rankings / SEO are apparent. Those include:
- 30% of Space, Or More, In Advertisements above the Fold: Why would the amount of Advertising adversely affect your position? Because ads are DUPLICATE content!
- Too Many Pages with Essentially The SAME Info: Overlapping and redundant information is not interesting, unique, or relevant. f someone looks at your site and the first 8 posts under San Antonio Homes are ALL the exact same worded market report for San Antonio, different month, different numbers, but essentially the same – it’s going to look like duplicate content. I think Market Reports are HUGELY important – but that can’t be the ONLY thing you update – or maybe you could change them up a bit?
- Auto Generated Content or Affiliate Generated Content: Do you rely on Inman News, NAR, or some other “agency” to provide you with content from a “news agency” type format on your site? Again, this is NOT interesting, unique and relevant as far as Google is concerned. They want to see the HYPER LOCAL agent information!
- High Bounce Rate: If you have an ugly site, that is pretty much all old scripted HTML, then you are going to be penalized. If people click on your site, and they stay on it, look at other pages – you will be rewarded. BUT, if they are so dismayed that they immediately hit their back button, suddenly popping back onto Google’s radar… you are going to drop like a ROCK!
- Empty Pages, and Pages in More than ONE Category: If the pages shows up in 4 categories on your site… that looks a lot like duplicate content. I know many agents who are guilty of this… additionally, if the page only has an image of the front of a subdivision, and there are not at least 200 words relating to that subdivision – the page is going to look spam-my.
Here’s the thing to think about with all of this… The “New” Google is looking for three things: Good Content, Links Pointing to that Content and Social Proof (interaction). Why is that? Because the new Google “Rhythm” is starting off with human quality raters who look at hundreds of websites. Computers, using the computer learning magic, are then brought in to mimic the human raters. Once the Computer “learns” to rate sites the same way the humans do – then that mathematical algorithm becomes the way sites are ranked.
It’s also important to remember, that this new ranking system is for the whole SITE. It’s not a PAGE penalty – it’s a SITE penalty. So if a certain percentage of your pages fall below the new Google quality algorithm, EVERYTHING will be pulled lower.
And then there's always the debate about Search Versus Social - which seems valid tight now!
If you have questions about your creating leads from your real estate blog, or how to get your Listing seen by more eyeballs – call Josh Harley, Fathom Realty, 214-228-0301. I”d love to help you, and learn more about what’s working in your market! Are you onFacebook and Twitter? Let’s Connect!
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