It's a tough job ranking well on the search engines when you have a relatively new real estate web site. There are a lot of existing sites that have been there for years and just won't budge off the first page of Google. Even in my job as a search engine optimization strategy specialist, real estate sites can be difficult.
The first thing you need to do is get your own domain name and web site. The dynamic made-for-real-estate sites are terrific for all the back end goodies you get, but they are hard to rank because those dynamic pages are just that, dynamic, and also pretty much identical. You can have the best of both worlds by placing links on your new site to the back end pages on your dynamic site.
Now take that new web site and make it a place prospective home buyers will want to visit. Tell them about the area, the schools, the local housing market, the houses you have for sale. Write the content your own words, in the conversational tone that you'd use with a friend. At this point don't worry about keywords, just make it natural. Your warmth and friendliness will go a long way in encouraging them to contact you.
Next take trip over to Google's Keyword Tool and do some research. Different areas of the country use different terminology. You may discover that everyone or no one uses the word "realtor" in a search for your geographic area. In some locales "real estate" is first, in other places "homes for sale" is the top search term. Make sure your content reflects local usage.
Add photos of the homes you have for sale and area attractions, placing them near matching content. Name the photos using two or three keywords you'd like to have show up in search engine results, such as Colorado-vacation-home.jpg. Don't cram it full of keywords.
Make a bullet point list on your home page of all the areas in which you sell real estate. You should have a separate page for every location, in which you focus your content on that area alone. Link the bullet point listings to the corresponding pages within your site. This will help lead the search engine spiders to them.
Make sure your phone number is in large text at the top right of the page. This is the natural place for people to look for it. All your other text and photos should not be overly large. Look at sites that you find comfortable to read and emulate them.
More tips to follow. In the meantime, visit my SEO Diva blog for more SEO information. If you really want to study the subject, I highly recommend the SEO Book by Aaron Wall.
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