In writing blogs, posting online, having a website and all of the other marketing we do in this great online medium, there is one difference from real-world advertising which can have an enormous impact on the results you receive from this marketing.That major difference is that the internet can reach people from all over the province, all over the country, all over the continent and all over the world. However, your target audience is not the entire world, it's people searching in the local market.
Here are some tips to help ensure your blogging and other online advertising is best optimized for local results:
1. Post to Localism
This is a pretty obvious one, and you should be doing it already. Write blog posts about your local community, making sure to include the area in which you live about 5 times per hundred words. This way, whenever Google's bots come scan the blog, they'll see the city name five times, increasing your chances to have higher search results when people are searching for "[city] real estate".
2. Make Sure Your Website is Local
Too often have I come across agent websites who have very little, if any content about the area in which they live. Make sure to include your full work address on the homepage of the website. If you're worried about privacy, there's a 99% chance that your office has the address listed on their own webpage, so it's not difficult to find your work address through the internet anyways. Google loves addresses for local postings, as it proves that there is a physical connection to the area rather than simply the name of a city typed into a webpage.
You should also have an "about the area" page. This should include links to the local city hall, official city website, school district website, local real estate board and any other relevant local links.
3. Post on Local (and non-local) Listing Sites
If you've read some of my other blog posts, you will be well aware that I am a huge fan of posting on as many listing websites as possible. As such, I can only promote this idea in this blog as well. Post on all of your local listing sites, as well as national ones such as CanadianaProperty.ca. Every time you do so, that's one more Google link pointing to your site. Every single listing you post online is just one more link to your name associated with the local area. If you post 10 listings on 10 sites, that's 100 links pointing to you as being a local area Realtor.
4. Post to Local Directories
Most cities have local directories of businesses, services, etc. Have yourself listed on as many of these as possible, as they're just one more link to you showing you to be local. Furthermore, you never know who will visit those websites looking for an agent!
By doing this, you're not only giving yourself more links in general, but you're getting important local ones. So when people search for "[yourcity] realtor", there's a much better chance that they will stumble upon your website if you've done optimization for the local area. It would be irresponsible NOT to do so!
Hannah McIntyre is the founder of CanadianaProperty.ca, a modernized and feature-rich real estate listing website designed to give prospective home owners a comprehensive and easy to use home searching tool. If you're a Canadian agent, register today for free!
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