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Mastering Search Engine Optimization

By
Services for Real Estate Pros with R & D Art

Over the last month I have discussed mastering search engine optimization with many of our members of this online real estate network as well as clients of R & D Art. In those conversations, it always seems to end with me telling them that to master SEO it is not all about the meta keywords that are in your site. Actually, that might be the weakest link to mastering SEO and getting the search engines to recognize you. With that said, I think the biggest problem is that people think they need to master Google and forget about Alexa, Yahoo, and Bing. Regardless what my personal feelings are on the search engines, I still have to pay homage to them.

If you notice, I have linked to several keywords in my first paragraph. However, only one of those keywords is something that I really key on for our real estate based site to show up in. That is: real estate network. Over and over, when we blog, we want to make sure that we are keying on this phrase. With that said, it is not certain that phrase that will drive readers to our site. We make sure that our articles are packed with keyword enriched content. I have said it many times before and I will say it again; CONTENT IS KING. No matter where you go on the net, anyone that knows anything about SEO will tell you this. Great content will win every time.

One of the things that I see that people do is have a very short post on their site or even worse, a recipe, and they hope that it pushes them up because they wrote a blog. Unfortunately, writing a recipe on a real estate site really is not going to carry much weight with the search engines. People might think you are more down to earth and come looking for more recipes, but frankly, the search engines won't. It is the same with many topics that do not pertain to your main topic. The great thing about the main blog for PREP is that we can discuss SEO, SERP, blogs, social media, social media marketing, financing, the housing industry, and a world of other topics and still be point on. The great thing with a Realtor® is that they can discuss local events, neighborhoods, dining, schools, shopping, and much more and still be right on target. However, if your blog is about USDA or FHA, home staging, or home inspections, appraisals or home repair, then most readers are going to want the articles to be about that. They do not want to sort through all the fluff to get to the meat.

Here is one thing that I also see that people have a tendency to do; they write on a level that not many can understand. So many times I have had to tell bloggers to "dumb it down". For those that do not understand that, it just means that you are probably writing on a college or doctoral level. I do not really know many people that understand that. The key element in this is to write on a secondary or grade school level. It means leave the 6 syllable words at home. With that said, don't sacrifice your article for the sake of this procedure.

I would have to say the next thing that I see in bloggers that ask me why their sites are not showing up at the top of search engines has to be the lack of consistency. In the last month I have talk to two different bloggers in reference to this fact. One had 8 articles published and the other had 6. Both wondered why they could not be found on the first 3 pages in the search engines. Well, frankly, if I were only writing 8 articles over a 6 month period, I would not be found either. Blogging is not something that you can do just when you feel like it and magically appear. You have to work at it. And by working at it, I am not referring to 20 hours a week. However, being able to sit down and post 5 or 7 post during your downtime and have them automatically publish is a great feature. Not many platforms can supply that fact. But, even if you do not have that opportunity, 2 to 5 hours a week can still net you the front page of keyword searches where as neglect cannot.

Another thing that I notice that people have a knack for forgetting about has to be linking. Rich wrote an article about linking the other day and in it he talked about linking to some of your older articles. If you have not read that post, I recommend that you do. I have caught myself forgetting to use links in post, so it happens and I can understand that. However, if we want to get pushed up in the search engines, we need to link like crazy and I am not just talking about in our articles on this site. We do it to all of our sites. Use links to your other sites through your signature and then you can make sure that you have it covered all the time.

Now, this is where most people stop when it comes to SEO. PREP does not. This is where the power of Wordpress extends to help push your SEO even further. This real estate network has a feature that allows for you to send trackbacks to other links that you have used in your post. This is a great way to get internal links built for your site, or maybe external links built using another site you own. Regardless, it takes linking to another level.

The last thing that I will talk about is the added feature of the All In One SEO Pack. For those of you that do not understand what this provides, let me state it like this. The All In One SEO pack gives you the added ability to optimize pages, post, and your site individually. Here are some features:

  • Advanced Canonical URLs

  • Fine tune Page Navigational Links

  • Built-in API so other plugins/themes can access and extend functionality

  • ONLY plugin to provide SEO Integration for WP e-Commerce sites

  • Nonce Security

  • Support for CMS-style Wordpress installations

  • Automatically optimizes your titles for search engines

  • Generates META tags automatically

  • Avoids the typical duplicate content found on Wordpress blogs

  • For beginners, you don't even have to look at the options, it works out-of-the-box. Just install.

  • For advanced users, you can fine-tune everything

  • You can override any title and set any META description and any META keywords you want.

  • Backward-Compatibility with many other plugins, like Auto Meta, Ultimate Tag Warrior and others.

In closing, mastering SEO is not something that will happen over night. I have seen Black hat tricks and grey hat tricks in SEO and I have seen both cost site owners their place in search engines when they are caught. In the long run, it is so much better to just do it the right way.

Positive Real Estate Professionals (PREP) can help you achieve the recognition you and your business deserve through our highly versatile and search engine optimized member websites, lead capture, and visitor friendly layout. If you are a professional who works in the real estate industry or one of the related fields that service the needs of the real estate industry then this real estate network can be just what you need to take your business to the next level. If you have questions or would like to join CLICK HERE.

Sharon Alters
Coldwell Banker Vanguard Realty - 904-673-2308 - Fleming Island, FL
Realtor - Homes for Sale Fleming Island FL

Danny, I was with you until the last paragraph - Nonce Security, Advanced Canonical URLs - now who's writing on a college/doctoral level? lol Just kidding, this is a very good summary of SEO. My posts take awhile to write because I do link back to older posts and to our site. Expanding to WordPress is a goal for this year. Now I'm off to Google those WordPress terms.

Mar 01, 2010 01:14 AM
Kat DeLong
Realty ONE Group Mountain Desert - Prescott, AZ
REALTOR

Danny; excellent post!!!! You've taught me so much in the past few months and I appreciate it...and it has HELPED me with my SEO like nobodies biz! 

One thing I will re-enterate: You HAVE to BLOG consistantly IF you want to be found!

Mar 01, 2010 01:14 AM
Danny Thornton
R & D Art - Knoxville, TN
WordPress Guru

Sharon, expanding your presence on the Internet does not always mean that you have to expand your sites. We can show you how to expand that very presence and limit the amount of work you have to do.

Kat, I agree 100%. Blogging great content will immensely help with your SEO.

Mar 01, 2010 02:29 AM
Gerry Michaels
Glasswork Media Arts - Gettysburg, PA
GettysburgGerry Social Meida

Danny, super information, thanks, this will take alot more looking at to fully get it. Something else to be aware of and work on...

Mar 01, 2010 03:04 AM
Danny Thornton
R & D Art - Knoxville, TN
WordPress Guru

Gerry, bookmark it and visit it often.

Mar 01, 2010 03:56 AM
Laura Cerrano
Feng Shui Manhattan Long Island - Locust Valley, NY
Certified Feng Shui Expert, Speaker & Researcher

Danny, Always one of the challanges of my life and trying to keep up with all the new tech and SEO ways to come up.

I never link...and thank you for the reminder.  I'm bookmarking this post and thank you for the information.

Mar 01, 2010 08:59 AM
Danny Thornton
R & D Art - Knoxville, TN
WordPress Guru

Carole, that is what we are here for. Glad that I could help.

Mar 01, 2010 09:01 AM
Gene Allen
Fathom Realty - Cary, NC
Realty Consultant for Cary Real Estate

Lots of information and the more I read on it the more confuzed I get.

Mar 01, 2010 11:50 AM
Danny Thornton
R & D Art - Knoxville, TN
WordPress Guru

Gene, if I can help to clear up some of that confusion, feel free to contact me.

Mar 01, 2010 12:16 PM
Troy Pappas
Safe House Property Inspections - Virginia Beach, VA
Virginia Beach Home Inspector

Danny,

A lot of great information here. I am glad I came across your blog tonight, although now I have a lot more reading to do, thanks.

Mar 01, 2010 01:18 PM
Danny Thornton
R & D Art - Knoxville, TN
WordPress Guru

Troy, it is a lot to take in.

Mar 01, 2010 06:38 PM
Barbara Kornegay
REMAX Essential - Wilmington, NC
Wilmington NC Real Estate, Homes

Really Great informatation... I am really trying to go back and fine tune some of my blogs and repost them to see if they fair better with what I have learned here....  I will continue to strive to do better thanks to all of you - If you have the time, please visit my website to see if you have any othe recomendations... - http://www.edhomeseller.com

Mar 02, 2010 09:26 PM
Danny Thornton
R & D Art - Knoxville, TN
WordPress Guru

Barbara, while I know many bloggers that go back and try to fine tune their older post, I am not completely sold that it will help. I have always been a "moving foward" type of guy when it comes to correcting some issues.

I have reviewed your site and do actually have some pointers if you would like to contact my office. The number is 865-951-0522 and you can call anytime from now until midnight.

Mar 02, 2010 10:28 PM
Troy Erickson AZ Realtor (602) 295-6807
HomeSmart - Chandler, AZ
Your Chandler, Ahwatukee, and East Valley Realtor

So Danny, what you are saying is it takes work to get to the top of page rankings.  Not only that, but you have to know what you are doing.  I will bookmark this for now, and be prepared to utilize the information as I develop my online presence.

Mar 03, 2010 02:42 PM
Danny Thornton
R & D Art - Knoxville, TN
WordPress Guru

Troy, either that or you can pay someone that knows what they are doing. The problem with that is when you are quit paying them, it never fails that your ranking in the SEOs always start to go down.

Mar 03, 2010 10:36 PM
San Antonio Texas New Homes for Sale
www.sanantoniotexasnewhomesforsale.com - San Antonio, TX
Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Hill Country

Hi Danny,

Wow ...Some great information...Now I need to really digest all this information  

 

Thank You

Mar 09, 2010 01:41 AM
Danny Thornton
R & D Art - Knoxville, TN
WordPress Guru

Robert, if I can help you, let me know.

Mar 09, 2010 02:16 AM