Some open ended questions...

I  think that link exchanges have gone the route of link farms as far as google is concerned. One way links tend to rule the roost when it comes to usefulness.  I've experimented with "do follow " comments on high pr real estate blogs. I am concentrating on those and seem to be getting good results.

Amazing how much I've learned and never have seen so much detail in the comments - Thanks from a Newbie

This is so helpful!!!  I have a long way to go, but it's good to know where to focus my attention.  Thank you!

Looks like seo tips continue to change and I will continue coming back to this blog post and comments for the latest.

I agree that content is king but I feel like linkbacks/backlinks/inlinks are a close second.  The reason I say that is that linkbacks are measureable and quantifiable.  In fact, most SEs provide a means to see what your linkbacks are numerically and by source.  Why would they provide so much information if it were not very important?

I also support linkbacks on ActiveRain.  Unfortunately AR is somewhat behind the times on this.  My studies of SEO maximization indicates that linkbacks are critical to rankings by the SEs.  I support the concept of linkbacks not only in our comments but in our signature blocks.  In fact, I maintain that if we all put a linkback in our comments we could elevate the rankings of the entire AR community at all SEs by creating such a buzz of internet linkbacks the SEs would see AR as a clear leader in real estate communications.

Thank you,

Richard Acree 

HABITEC Home and Building Inspections, LLC (Nashville, TN)

Great stuff and cosistent with what I have heard before.......content is King!  Links have their place, but content is King.

I just have to outsource all this stuff to other people, cause I just don't have time to learn it all. I know enough to talk about it and do some of it, but I need to outsource most of it.

Great post.

Have a new real estate site www.ownmainerealestate.com and looking for related real estate links and who better than your buddies you talk to, share back and forth with on Active Rain every day. We can do an easy swap. SEO is a million little things, not a few home runs with everyone else pretty savvy and reading this same blog post. Honing their skills.

Excellent posts and great explanation of the various link types.

Thanks for posting -- I really appreciate AR's ability to facilitate discussion more than just share one poster's opinion and information.  Thanks to all for your contributions on links.  Very helpful.

Being relatively new to all of this, the discussion above has greatly added to my education. thanks to all.

I agree that links are valuable to your website. Web farms are frowned upon by google. I avoid them.
But reciprical links ,I only respond if it is a link that goes along with what I am all about.

The best way is still blogging and commenting on blogs. The subject and quality of the blogs is
always worth making time for. Content is still king.

Hey Rob,

Nice post, and clearly LOTS of opinion in the industry. Here are my 2 cents on this..

Google is VERY good at helping people to NOT know what they require, but there are some great indicators out there.. Remember, at the end of the day, if google makes it difficult for you to rank, they might be able to sell you ADWORDS!

Several "link exchange" and "blog links" netowks have been completely de-indexed by google..
Their webmaster tools states that any "purchasing" of links can get you penalized (or banned), and we have seen this happen to many in the industry.

One way links are SAFE and will benefit the most because the new algo's check for that, they go as far as to have built a db of IP addresses, of referring sites and cross reference them.. BOUGHT links can get you in trouble, and as google "discovers" those networks, they penalize the recips of those links to send their message to the sellers of them..

Content is always king! We are learning to intentionally make some SEO mistakes. This has helped us with alot of our SEO projects where we hit page 1 and just stopped moving. Bottom line, TOO GOOD is actually BAD!

Closing point here... I have a site that I intentionally broke several rules of seo on, and within 11 days of purchasing the domain, that site went to #6 out of 3.7 Billion sites in google.. I have 1 incoming link to the site (which is from one of my sites) the site has 3 words of content, and a single image (a smiley face) in the center of the page.. We did this as a test, and google very happily proved our theory correct by giving us immediate page 1 results..

Have a great day all!

Links are good, content is better

Content is king. I have clients tell me they find my site no matter what they are searching for in our area. By providing hyperlocal content, Google and the consumers will find you. Generally with a link exchange, you're going to focus on one or two anchor texts that you want your site to rank well in, but with content, you'll rank well in those terms and many, many more.

Great questions and comments! As an internet marketer who has been helping real estate companies online for over 10 years, I agree with the majority of comments that, yes, relevant content is still king, but more than great original content on the main website. It is just as important to have quality original content on variety of online resources including blogs, social media, Press Releases and video that integrate keyword backlinks to your website. 

I can't stress enough how important video is to SEO.  Dominating video search results for your local real estate market can not only drive additional traffic to your website, integrating video into your website helps with SEO on the website as well.

Here's an example of real estate video domination - YouTube (# 2 search engine)  "Ketchum real estate" 

Coldwell Banker Distinctive Properties has the top 20 search results including a marketing video at # 2 and the rest are their listing videos.  This is brand dominance on the # 2 search engine and they have the Top Video in Google search results on the second page! 

Ping me if you want to find out more about how to get your real estate videos to the top of YouTube and Google.

As far as backlinks go - very important as well, my opinion - one way inbound links are better and even better if originating from relevant original content on relevant websites, blog sites, article and press release distribution, video and social media.  It all works together.

Follow this link for more information on real estate video marketing.

Well I think you have to have two things.

1. Good on page content optimized with the right meta files (title and description) and on page optimization with the right amount of compelling content, H1 and H2 title tags, and keywords in the right density.

2. Links to your page from different sources like blogs, directories, articles, etc.

Then patience, then keep adding links.

All great information, content by far is the best.  Links to and from you are second.

I agree with Richard Acree in post 55 about linkbacks.

However all of this is based on how strong the Domain Authority and Page Authority is for each link you have tied to your website.  If I have an inbound link from zilliow or realtor.com or activerain (Yes activerain!) that has much importance (strong) and helps with your ranking.  I would consider that a strong partnership.  

Strong content indicates your site or page is getting a lot of traffic so that also impacts your rankings. It is considered "strong" based on the traffic not the actual content.   

Media streams, you need to have many broadcasting round the clock. But beyond healthy reception on the carrier waves, what you build, stack and rack on those one by one SEO rocket wired works should be passionate. Full of images, helpful copy, links, video embeds. So how the user taps into the signal is whatever way he likes best. Video for mobile is huge for this arena, segment of the audience. Consistency, frequency, reach and memorable so they come back for more. Make sure their is something for fresh tasty content in your marketing tent or they don't hang around. No reason to.