Every single thing you do regarding online marketing for your real estate business should have Search Engine Optimization at the forefront. No matter how pretty your page, how stellar your images, or how eloquent your content, your efforts will be moot if potential clients cannot find you online. If you do not have a thorough, deep, and rich understanding of SEO, then you cannot afford to miss this class on Search Engine Optimization.
Search Engine Optimization is a strategy used to bring visitors to your website through high-ranking search pages on major search engines such as Google. Organic rankings, or unpaid rankings, are a gift that keep on giving. When search engine optimization is done well, your web pages, blog posts, and websites can rank high in the search engines and bring in unpaid traffic every day. Seven out of eight clicks are not on paid results. They are on the organic results.
In order to make the most out of your online marketing, here are 7 SEO tips to dominate search engines:
1. Utilize Keywords
Keywords are CRUCIAL in online marketing. They are the key to what your customers and visitors want. When you do a search online, whatever you type in is either a solo keyword, or a series of keywords strung together. There are many tools available to help you find the right keywords to utilize in your marketing based on your goal:
Google Adwords Keyword Planner
This is a tool that allows you to search for specific keywords and find what people are searching for online. You do have to have an ad set up to utilize this too, but it is truly worth it. When you type in a phrase into the Adword search, it tells you how many people are searching for that keyword each month and the competition of that keyword.
When looking at that data, you want keywords with a high search number but Low competition. This means that not many other websites are using that keyword and since so many people are searching for it, you have more of an opportunity to dominate for that keyword.
Be careful when choosing your keywords. You don't want to choose a keyword that is too vague. This is where long-tail keywords come into play. If you are writing about Valentine's Day Events in Las Vegas, you don't want to just use Valentine's Day as your keyword, or even Valentine's Day Events.
Why Not?
Because if someone in New York searches Valentine's Day Events in New York and they find your website, they're going to bounce right off of it, which tells Google that your information wasn't valuable, and you move further down on the rankings.
You want to do something like, "Things to Do in Las Vegas: Places to Eat for Valentine's Day" or something to that effect. Keep your keywords relevant, specific, low in competition, and high in searches. This will help your website generate more traffic with visitors who find the information valuable, thus showing Google that your website is valuable.
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Clicky
Clicky is a tracking tool that shows you your website visitors, bounce rate, page activity, click-through rate, and more. It provides you a "unique search" option so you can see what people are searching that leads them to your website. This is a valuable tool, because if they are searching for something that you don't have a blog or a page about on your website and they landed on your site -- they probably bounced off of it and left.
This is your opportunity to take that topic and write a blog about it -- you will still want to use the Google Keyword Planner to double check the ranking on that keyword. Just because one person found you because of what they typed, doesn't mean it will help you generate more traffic. At that point, the topic is valuable, you just need to find another keyword to utilize to discuss the same topic.
2. Optimize Your Images
Yes, meta descriptions and tags are essential for optimizing your website with the keywords that you have chosen, but did you know you have to include the same focus to your images, as well?
If you are not using images in your marketing -- it's time to start. Images are eye-catching and break-up any content-packed pages. It gives the visitor's eyes a quick break and allows them to enjoy the visual appeal of the image you have chosen.
Here are some things that you need to keep in mind when optimizing images:
The Filename
When you upload an image to your website, make sure your image is named properly before uploading (if you cannot edit it on your website afterwards) or be sure to rename it directly after uploading it. The filename should be relevant to whatever the image is about. For example:
• If you have an image of a brainstorming session on your site, you might want to call it “Brainstorming-Session,” or similar.
• By the same token, if your photo is of a piggy bank with coins around it, you could call it “Piggy-bank-with-coins.”
• An image of a red leather jacket could be called “Red-leather-jacket”
Alternate Text
Alternate text is going to be an extension of the filename. So instead of "Red-leather-jacket" it could be "Red leather jacket with studs."
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Use Title Tags
This is similar to the above 2 options, except you could utilize the title of your blog or page that the image is going to be posted on as the Title Tag.
Use Unique Images
You want your photo to stand out on search engines and social media channels. Be sure you choose an image that is eye-catching and unique. The standard photo of someone smiling or the front of a house isn't going to do it.
It may take a little extra time to find that one eye-catching photo, but it will be worth it when it causes more people to click through to your site.
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3. Learning Backlinks
It cannot be said enough -- DO NOT buy quality backlinks.
There are right and wrong backlinks for SEO and there are simple ways to do it without having to pay for them. Save your money and do backlinks the right way.
With links, your goal is to increase your PageRank. Your PageRank is made up of how many people link to your website and how important those people are.
It works like this:
If Joe Schmo links to your website, but his website has terrible ranking with Google, then Google is not going see your website as relevant, because you have associated yourself with Joe, who isn't relevant.
However, if you are receiving links from relevant, respected websites in Google's eyes, then Google is going to grow the same look on your website.
The more relevant and authoritative the websites are that link to you, the better.
4. Look at Your Behaviors
Your website is made up of multiple "behaviors" that will have an effect on your website in Google's eyes. In order to track these behaviors, you need a reliable tracking system to see these behaviors:
Google Analytics is a free tool to sign up for in order to track your website. You can track your visitors, bounce rate, unique searches, click-through rate, and more.
Clicky has the same options available, yet has a more user-friendly interface. Clicky is not a free tool, but is relatively cheap to sign up for.
So what are the behaviors that you need to look out for?
Actions
Actions represent user interaction. When someone clicks something on your site (a link, video, etc.). The fact that they are clicking means that they find value in the content that you are offering and want to learn more.
Time on Site
Time on site means that the visitor is interested in what you have to offer on your website. They are reading the content or spending a lot of time clicking around to see what else you have to offer.
Page Speed
You want your pages to load fast. If someone clicks over to your website and it takes a few seconds to load, the possibility of them backing out before it loads is greater.
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Bounce Rates
A Bounce Rate is determined when someone clicks over to your website, but they take no further action. They simply leave the site. Even if they were there for a long period of time, you never want them to leave without taking action on something.
Be sure to focus on all of these behaviors together. If one of these behaviors is low and the others are high or vice versa, you need to fix something in order to make them all higher. They work hand in hand. If you have someone come to your site, stay for 30 seconds and bounce off, add some more content. If you have another visitor that comes over and they stay for 5 minutes reading the content, and then bounce off, you need to add some links or a lead capture button to get them to click around.
Related: Capturing Leads Using Lead Pages
5. Build Trust and Authority
Building trust and authority with your visitors and Google is going to make a significant difference in your ranking and behaviors.
Look of Your Website
When visitors come to your website, what is the first thing that they are going to notice? They will be looking at your design, if there are any ads on the page, is there contact information and is the email professional looking, are there testimonials to look at, etc.
Make sure that you have a professional, simple to navigate design on your website. If the website looks cheap or complicated, the visitor is more likely to just leave. You want to make sure you do not crowd your website with ads. You will be sending users away from your website if the ad is for another company, and if the ad is not relevant to the blog or page the user is on, it serves no purpose to them.
You always want to provide contact information on your website. Do not leave out a phone number if you have one, same goes for emails. By leaving out one or the other, you are -- in a sense -- turning away people who don't use that form of communication. You also want to make sure that your email is professional. Using your domain name in your email address is recommended.
As stated in step 3, backlinks are a great way to build authority on your website. Utilize already authoritative websites such as ActiveRain, MerchantCircle, RealtyTimes, etc. to post your content on and include links back to your website throughout the content.
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6. Utilize Duplicate Content the Right Way
Duplicate content can be tricky, but it can also be beneficial when used the right way. If you post duplicate content on two different websites, Google will see it as a negative and will immediately punish one of the two sites.
Utilizing Blog Platforms
We have not found an issue with duplicate content being utilized on authoritative websites. For example: we will write a blog on our WordPress website and then post the same blog on ActiveRain. It is being utilized as more of a "blasting service" rather than a "host" for the blog itself.
Use a "Read Original Post Here" Link
If you are worried about duplicate content, you can also only post a blurb of your content on one site, including a link at the bottom to "Read More" or "Read Original Post." Those links will link back to the original post on your website.
7. Make Sure You Have a User-Friendly Website
Your website should be easy to navigate, pleasing to the eye, functional, and fast for the user to use. You want to be sure that your website has the following elements:
- Simple Navigation
- Logo
- Search Functionality
- Awareness (user knows where they are and how to get back or where to go next)
- Photos & Videos
- Highlights (to capture attention to where you want the attention to be focused)
- Contact Information
- Avoid Abbreviations and Acronyms
- Low Page Loading Time
- Mobile Responsive Layout
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