In part III, I said that Google pays special attention to URLs and page titles. AR gives us some room to use this to our advantage. Your Blog Title (What you type in the title box) becomes part of the URL AND your page title.
Here is an example - A fellow inspector - I mean, Property Consultant (sorry Russel) - did a blog titled, "Need Help Paying your Mortgage?"
Before I show you how powerful titles can be, just think about how many businesses would like to ask people that exact question these days. Probably millions. Let's Google that phrase.
Just as I suspected - right near the top. (ok, you caught me - I looked before I decided to use that example)
Now, the actual blog post isn't about refinancing, loan or grant programs or anything of the sort but the power of his title got him to the top for that phrase.
I know some of you are thinking, "Who would actually do a search for that exact phrase?" Good question. The answer is probably no one. I used that as an example of the power of titles.
Here's another example:
I did a blog titled "Recalled Sony VAIO laptops". That may actually be a term someone searched for.
My blog entry comes up on page 3 for that phrase. Check it out.
I know, not such a good placement if I wanted to be the top dog for recalls. But, page three puts me in the top 30 or so of the thousands of web sites that were putting out that information. Think Sony, CPSC, Best Buy, Circuit City, Sam's Club, etc. All of them are much larger and dedicated to the tech industry in general. There are probably a ton of blogs about the recall too, but I beat 'em all (or most) simply because of my title.
So, now we know that a title is a very powerful thing. How can we use that to benefit our blog's SEO?
Simple, be sure your keywords are in your title.
Just to make it clear - Be sure your keywords are in your title.
AR is kind enough to start all of our blogs with "Real Estate Blog" as the first part of our blogs title. I do want to take a minute to make sure we're on the same page. I am referring now to individual blog posts, NOT your blog in general (which will have many posts). We should refer back to the list of keywords we made in part II. Since we have Real Estate in the title already (courtesy AR) we will want to add our other keywords (city/town anyone) along with Realtor or Real Estate Agent. Yes, put the words Real Estate in again, but not at the front of the title. Something like "Schaumburg Home for sale call your real estate agent today".
You also have to ask yourself an important question for each blog, "What is this blog supposed to do?"
Not all blogs should be designed to get to the top of Google. You can blog for a number of reasons; readership, points, fun, sharing experiences, asking questions, etc. Those blogs may also reach the first page of Google. If, however you want to design a blog to see it on page one of Google, you are dealing with a different animal that takes more work.
Keep your keywords in mind before you write your blog. You should include them early and often (kinda like voting in Chicago) in your post. There's a fine line between producing a good SEO blog and writing a blog that can actually be read. You don't want to end up with a post at the top of Google that simply says "Schaumburg Realtor" 298 times.
If you have a hard time deciding between using a keyword or not, I would generally go with what's easier to read.
I hope this helps, I'll have more ideas later - much work to do now!
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