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Are You Using Your Keywords For SEO and More?

What are your keywords? Do You Know? Did you figure them out yourself or did a webmaster do it for you? Read my post about researching your keywords. The biggest mistake I see people make is that they are not doing their keyword research before they choose their keywords. Just because you might live in Walla Walla Washington and you think that is the greatest place on earth to live does not mean that everyone else does. Keywords strategies for blogging

In fact there are only ZERO Google searches for Walla Walla Washington Real Estate each month, while Walla Walla Real Estate fetches 102 searches. Do you see the difference? But even 102 searches for your keyword is not enough to keep your phone ringing.

What is meant by doing your keyword research is finding out what people are searching for? What are the words they are typing into the Google search bar? Keyword research is NOT you putting your keywords in the Google search bar and then seeing where you are on the first page of Google. Of course you want to put your keywords and check on where you stand but that is not the subject of this keyword post.

In getting the best and most organic traffic to your blog or your website you must understand who is looking and what are they looking for. If there are no searches for your Little Town, USA, then you will need to expand into a broader keyword until you find the ones that people will be typing. Once you know what those keywords are, those keywords become your main keywords. I use specific software that even brainstorms for me on selecting good keywords. You can never spend too much time researching what people are looking for.

Of course you will want to still write about your Little Town USA and use proper keyword strategies because it only takes that one phone call to be your next best listing. But these smaller keyword phrases should not be your main keywords. I get comments often from members wondering why they are not showing up on Google searches. Follow proper SEO rules and you will be found.

As I travel around Active Rain reading many Localism posts and Real Estate related posts I see the following very common errors that are very simple and easy to fix:

No keywords in your titles. Every post that you want Google to find and dish out to a consumer needs to have the keywords you want to be found for in that title. No fancy copywriting here! This is contrary to all marketing and copywriting rules. We know that it is all about the headline. But in online writing you must use the keywords as your title for maximum Google juice.

Placing commas in your keywords. STOP! Don't place commas in your keywords. A comma to bots means that is the end of your keyword. Example: Wellington, Florida - do you see where I put the comma? This separates my keyword. My keyword is Wellington Florida Luxury Homes. If I put the comma in there, I am splitting the keyword into 2 keywords instead of one. You can use a hyphen- in between different parts of the title to break it up. Go back to your posts and take off your commas in your posts. This is the most common mistake I see on posts.

Not using your keywords in the body of your post. Your keywords need to be in the first sentence of your post even if you have to repeat the title over again. Think of creative ways to incorporate the keywords in your text throughout your post. If your post is 5 paragraphs long your keywords should be in the text two to three times.

You are not ending the post with your keywords. The easiest way to end your post with your keywords is to put your copyright at the bottom of your post with the title of the post. You can scroll to the bottom of each of my posts and see how I do that.

These are very simple steps you can take and apply to your posts right now. This will improve your online presence. If you apply these steps and do your keyword research first, you will see results. If you are revamping your old Localism posts to get them ready to for the new Localism, apply these steps now and see the results for yourself.

Make sure that you ask each person who contacts you exactly what they typed into the search bar so that you can keep track of the keywords people are using to find you. Also, make sure you sign up for mybloglog's paid tracking version. For $25 a year you can see the exact words people type in to find you on all the major search engines. Click here to learn more about mybloglog's tracking tool.

For more Active Rain blogging and website SEO tutorials and tips read the following posts:

Keyword Research- Do It Right The First Time.

Longtail Keywords for Blogging- Fishing With The Right Bait on Your Active Rain Blog

Blogging For Business- Keyword Rich Blogging

Update to Longtail Keyword Blogging

Katerina Gasset Real estate coaching

Katerina Gasset, CIPS, Realtor ®, Business and Life Coach, Speaker and Author. Reach Katerina at: 561-753-0135

Disclaimer:The information provided herein is supplied by several sources and is subject to change without notice. Wellington Homes Blog does not guarantee or is any way responsible for its accuracy, and provides said information without warranties of any kind, either express or implied. Entries on Wellington Homes Blog represent the opinions and ideas of the author(s). Wellington Homes Blog does not express the views of International Properties and Investments, Inc or those of the broker.

Copyright © 2008 By Katerina Gasset, All Rights Reserved.. *Are You Using Your Keywords For SEO and More?* Contact Katerina Gasset for Customized Business and Personal Coaching.

Posted by Nestor & Katerina Gasset Realtors® Wellington Florida Luxury Homes on 07/26/2008 08:40 PM

Comments (61)

keyword research, blogging for business, active rain community support, keywords, keyword tools, keyword rich posts

Originally posted at: South Florida Real Estate and...: Are You Using Your Keywords For SEO and More?

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61 Comments on Are You Using Your Keywords For SEO and More?

JUL

2008

This makes total sense to me. I am still learning about keywords and I thank you for your knowledge. I look forward to putting this into play. Thanks!

I did not now about the comma messing up the key words..how bout that..I read everything on SEO....thanks for the information...this is very useful

Katerina, what a great post!! I had no idea that the commas did that. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us.

Leslie- Easy steps to follow, great results to gain:)

Hi Katerina, it's late and I barely have one eye open but you have given me a few more things I can do with my keywords. Thanks for all the help. I will have to go back and take a look at these tomorrow when I come back alive. Zzzzz

Katerina, Your post has some critical parameters that I never knew. You are a wealth of information that I truly appreciate.

Katerina- I've used Wordtracker and Google Adword search, but no matter how many combinations of real estate and local area phrases, I use, there doesn't seem to be a lot of people searching my market.

My website is #3 or 4, on the first page of Google for "Westport Real Estate." According to Google Adwords, Approx Avg Search Volume is 14,800 and competition is high, for that phrase. I avg. around 400 unique visitors, each month, to my site.

I still have a few pages, I can add to my site, using some semi-promising keyword phrases. My new strategy, however, is just to start blogging to a wider audience in hopes that eventually, someone will want to buy or sell real estate.

Any suggestions?

Katerina, I got the comma part right at least! Only because you told me before though,LOL. Great points to take in and use, thanks!

JUL

2008

Your posts are the great and full of so much information. I wish I had the knowledge and time to put together posts like you two.

Keep up the good work!

Robert

Your posts are the great and full of so much information. I wish I had the knowledge and time to put together posts like you two.

Keep up the good work!

Robert

Katerina it has been a while since I stopped by and I am glad I did today. I've been slacking on SEO and now it is time to start freshing things up! Thanks for the post!

Katerina,

Thank you for sharing this information. I am probably the biggest offender and that is why I am loosing out on SEO.

Don R.

Wow, didn't know that about the commas. Damn the commas!! I'll go back and take them out right now.

I learn something every time I read your posts Katerina and I think it's great that you offer your knowledge to all who wish to absorb it. Thanks for inspiring me to do more with my blog.

My last two posts were on the first page of Google for about 3 days then they dropped out of site. Not sure what I could do to keep them there but I'm assuming you can't keep them up there forever. I'm such a perfectionist it takes me forever to write a post because I keep changing it. I've subsribed to the clip art sites you recommended and they are great for adding pics to your post to make them more interesting.

My next big project is the home page of my website. Now that I know a little more about keywords (thanks to you) I think I can get more traffic by rewriting the copy.

Steve R

Katerina, Very clear information. My market is so specific that most of my key words don't even show up in the analytic programs!!! The advantage of that of course is that when folks do find me.... what they need is very specific to what I do. I would imagine your market is the same.

I have thought about widening my net but not sure I want to dilute my leads. Does that make sense?

I didn't know that a comma could be my worst enemy! So much for proper grammer on blogs! Thanks for sharing. Sandi

Bryant- And that is the dilema! Wellington florida homes for sale is a search that gets over 6,000 searches a month and it is a highly competitive word. Agents and real estate companies as far south as Miami and north as Orlando use Wellington as a keyword. I don't understand their thought process unless they are referring the leads out. Wellington Florida Luxury homes is another keyword we dominate.

I have a good search amount. I do not want to expand to Florida real estate because then like you said you will just dilute the leads. Right now, my leads are gold. They are ready to list right now and they are in my market. I am sure it is the same with you. And you still get the calls. Many agents tell me they get no calls from their AR blog. If you are not getting calls then you need to broaden or figure out the terms that people are searching for.

According to Wordtracker and other keyword search tools, Poincianna does not even show up. The thing is people don't know Poincianna exists until you tell them so they don't know to search it. Now this is for getting buyers.

For listings by all means keep using your Poinciana keywords because sellers are going to look that up. They are going to search for agents in poinciana etc, if the results are less than 100 per month they won't show up in keyword tools. But with no competition you need only a few of those to call you and you are dominating online.

But when you get a buyers agent you will want to broaden a bit, to Orlando area homes for sale, and words that are being searched for and just refine them a tad so you are not too diluted. But then again, if you get a listing call for Winterpark you can refer it and get a referral fee. Multiple souces of income streams)

So Poinciana Real Estate is considered in internet marketing as a long tail keyword even though it is only 3 words because the search is so small. But you need your sellers to only know you are number one in Poinciana, they won't understand all this internet lingo and it is working well for you.

I think that you could find some great refined short tail keywords that will bring people to your market.

Don't fix what ain't broke.

On the other hand, expansion is always good for business.

HI KAT!

Great post, but I want to know what if everyone else is using the same keywords as you? How do you squeeze in?

Thanks & have a great week!

I know!!!! Poinciana florida actually gets about 14,000 a month. Poinciana Real estate gets about 1,300. Kissimmee real estate gets about 40,000! Since Poinciana is a part of Kissimmee that would be the next logical seach to shoot for BUT I just don't like getting all the calls from Buyers who don't have a chance in heck of buying a home!!! Like you mentioned it's better, for me anyway, to just get a few calls a week from folks that have truly zeroed in on Poinciana. I don't want leads, I want customers. I guess I should change my thinking though if I intend to bring on agents.

Hey at least we know where to mail our expired letters :)

Bryant- But Poiciana Florida is not a real estate related search, Those searches are going to be people looking for directions and a bunch of stuff unrelated. Poinciana real estate at 1,300 is a great niche. Kissimmee is going to get a bunch of tire kickers too. I know what you are saying.

I don't want to be calling 50 or 100 leads a day in order to find that one magic customer! I want to have them call us! That is what we do, they call us. Of course it is not 50 a day. We only 1 or 2 a day to keep extremely busy.

Now that we have a very serious buyer agent; well, I have to rethink it all too. Now we have to blog for buyers:( Not exactly up my alley.

Those who claim they get all these tons of leads,I like to ask, what is your ROI and how many sales are coming out of those leads versus the time you spend chasing them down?

YOU freaking rock! Thanks so much for directing me here - this answers quite a bit of what I was looking for! Thanks so much!

Hi Katerina - I can always use more lessons in being better at using my keywords. I'll take a look at the keyword research post you linked to - no doubt some great and helpful info in there that I can use.

Ann

Leesa- I was thinking as I was reading your post today, that this may just help you. You are very welcome!

Ann- I can too! I love learning more and more about SEO. It is so exciting to see your work be rewarded by google:)

Katerina, I wa so thankful when you mentioned about not putting comma's in on one of my posts...I had no idea you shouldn't do that. I'm always grateful from all I learn from you, thanks so much for your help.

Yvette- You have to blog better than they do, be more active than they are. Spy on them. Look at their source code and see what you can discover and then beat them at the game:)

Carole- You are very welcome! Sometimes it is the small things...

Konnie- Yes, the commas, those little villains:)

Katerina: Another wonderful and informative post about SEO. Thank you for all you have done to help many of us understand SEO.

Michelle- You are very welcome! Glad to be here:)

Barbara- And now you know:) Something so small and yet with huge consequences.

Sandi- Proper grammar and great headlines are not google friendly all the time! It is a contradiction but we must make the spiders want to eat our food we set out for them.

JUL

2008

Hi Katerina- Simple but yet very effective advice :) It is amazing the titles you see in the rain that could be written so much better.

Bill- That is what spurred this post. The localism titles are not even search engine friendly, even the localism featured ones, most of them are not. It is also a simple thing to fix. Thanks for your comment. Thanks for helping me with the RSS feed for my lens the other day:)

Lizette- thanks for stopping by!

LeoLinda- Thank you. I am glad you think so and that you can use this info to help your business.

Great stuff. I have implemented so many of your tips into my blogging and changing some things on my personal website. Thanks again! pippa

Thanks for the great info. I have been doing this ALL wrong. Why, oh why, do I never read first? :) Well, it's never too late to start doing it right! Thank you for sharing this great information!

Pippa-Great, keep it up and you will see results. Thanks for reading. :)

Elizabeth- That is fine. The Internet is very forgiving. You can always go back and fix your posts. Repost them. If it is any conselation- most everyone does it wrong at first. Especially agents:)

Marylin- Westport Real Estate is a short tail keyword and it is getting plenty of searches. Anything over 6000 searches is great. The more you drill down the longer tail the keywords get but it even if you drill down to a keyword with only 300 searches a month, but very little competition, those are the words you want to zero in on. All you need is some people to call you to list, not all. You will never know how people will connect with you. Read my posts on blogging for business and active rain community support to give you ideas on what content you need to be writing.

Denise- You are a good student! :) The comma thing is SO tiny, but SO big in results.

Thanks for another great post and more valuable info.

JUL

2008

Michael- You are welcome!

Robert- Well, I would not have the time without all of Nestor's help keeping down the fort while I am blogging:) He is a great partner.

Katerina & Nestor- You are the "go to" team for inspirational, solid knowledge and sharing. Thank you for the constant, excellent ideas!

Wendy- Thank you! I am glad you like our ideas and I hope that you are getting good results from implementing them.

Thanks for the help. I'm just starting an online presence and don't have a clue. I feel as though I'm doing everything wrong when trying to promote my website and increase my presence. Reading your post actually confirms it. Thanks again for the jump towards the right direction.

JUL

2008

Amazingly helpful Katarina! YOu're a wellspring of information..................quick smart usuable and easily appliable tools! Thank you!

I was on vacation, and when I came home I said I need a Katarina fix and then there you were. With respect to the copyright, how do you go about doing this... Thanks so much

Good tips, good reminders. We all need to recheck our research on Keywords, cause they change month to month...

Trunda- Just go back and do it right. That is the great thing about the life and business, if you made a wrong turn you can always get back on track.

AUG

2008

Katerina I had no idea about the commas, I use them ALL the time!! Thanks for all the insight, you're such a wealth of info and always eager to share with all of us!

Sandy- You are very welcome! Thank you for reading.

SEP

2008

Katerina - what great suggestions on keywords for SEO! I haven't been using the keywords at the end of the post and I thought commas were ignored rather than stops

I guess I have some home work to do...Thanks for the tips.

I appreciate the blog topics you have posted. They are really helpful for me. I am fairly new at blogging so I want to learn everything that I can. I signed up for the bloglog but I am not sure where I am supposed to copy and paste the code into my blog. I tried it once but the code showed up in the middle of my published blog. Can you explain to me how to do this? Thanks,

Deanna- look under my tags for MYBLOGLOG, I think there are 3 posts that are about this and one of them is the beginner tutorial. Hope that helps. Try that first and then email me if that does not work.