One of the reason for the "mystery" is that Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc. does not reveal what their algorithm is... SEO is an art, actually - it's a balancing act. There are the obvious techniques (keyword rich content, meta tags, alt tags, etc.) but there are also many "behind the scenes" things that can be done in the programming of the website.

One has to be extremely careful to make their site "content rich" without "search engine spamming" - You know, Google has a "blacklist" - and if you push the limit, they will omit you from Google for "overdoing" the search engine optimization (SPAMMING!).

So, it actually is a little mystical... Google has THREE servers that spider the web every 10-14 days or so... They alternate between the three of them every time they spider. It is called the "Google Dance" (look it up, it's kinda cool) - since each of the servers have different criteria for what it considers to be a "top ten ranking" site, it is a matter of seeing the rhythm of Google and what it wants to see in a website.

I know that was lengthily (and nerdy) but my degree is in web development, and I have a company (on the side) that specializes in Search Engine Optimization. I plan to blog about it soon and share some of the "trade secrets" :-)

IDrk - It's a mystery to most of us because it's new and different. Most realtors don't even have a blog, why would you expect them to know how google wants it to look.

That's one of the reasons I'm here, so I can learn from people like you who make a living making websites better for people like me.

Elizabeth,

You are right. SEO was a skill set that was not even on the radar ten years ago. We are all on the learning curve somewhere. The time to start is now.

I've seen too many agents waste too much money on shoddy SEO advice. That happens because agents do not know what to ask and what to demand from an SEO advisor. Some corners of the industry prefer to make this all appear to be magical. That allows them to get away with high fees and poor work product.

I have no problem at all with SEO consultants that charge a fair price and that cover the basics well. We work with several.

I have worked with hundreds of sites, over ten years. To me, local real estate SEO is very straightforward, understandable, and not at all complicated. In fact, it is almost "cookbook", if you will. Cover the basics well, and you will likley rank well.

Elizabeth, I do understand the challenge. There is a lot of very bad or inaccurate SEO advice that is bandied about. Some of it shows up here in ActiveRain. Everyone wants to be seen as an SEO expert. Very few people really are. Most people who discuss this subject have a very limited scope of experience, with just one or two sites.

They arrive at their positions by reading and believeing others, and not from actual, hands on experience, in tough markets. That usually leads to bad advice. See Why SEO "theory" is usually worthless

Trying to learn about SEO from random posts is not the way to go about it. Get a solid foundation first, with an overal scope of understanding.

Which is why we wrote our basics guide, Search Engine Optimization Basics For Real Estate-Related Websites:
http://www.domaindrivers.com/seobasics-realestate-main.htm

Justin,

We look forward to reading your trade secrets.

Dirk,

I have found SEO confusing as it is brand new to me in a lot of ways.  Liek when I work with a first time buyer and start working through the process and the terminolofy we use.  At first it can be confusing and scary but after you work on it, it starts to make more since

Thanks for an easy to understand explanation.  I know I have to work my the first page of my website--it just isn't quite right.

Diane:

Your homepage is not really displaying any textual content. That can be corrected, by placing some below the fold. Yo get the same "look", but also text.

thx

I found your primer on your website to be very well written and easy to understand. I will pass this along to my broker and others who are stuck in 1995.

Diane - My site is far from perfect, but it does show a good example of hiding text below the fold.

Leavenworth Real Estate

Holy SEO Tools Batman!!

Your Page Gumbo looks like an awesome tool. I need to spend some time taking it for a test drive but I can see the value there.

Geordie,

Thanks. Let me know if I can help. "Stuck in 1995" is a good analogy. It brings up this subject, as well, Do you need a Mentor Evaluation?

Glad to see that you "get" the multiple purpose design of using the landing page tool. When applied properly to your site, it builds great pages for both search and real visitors.

For everyone else, Geordie is referring to these SEO resources:

Here's a multi-page document that was specifically written for real estate professionals, using real estate examples:
Search Engine Optimization Basics For Real Estate-Related Websites
http://www.domaindrivers.com/seobasics-realestate-main.htm

I hope it helps.
Also, you can create your own optimized pages easily with our new landing page tool, here:
http://www.domaindrivers.com/pagegumbo/pagegumbo-test.asp
http://www.domaindrivers.com/pagegumbo/pagegumbo.asp

The first link is an "example" page, and the second is a live tool that you can use at anytime. The tool forces agents to put more of the secondary real-estate related keywords on their pages.