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Top 10 Most Common SEO Mistakes

By
Services for Real Estate Pros with Christian Real Estate Network & SpeakMyLanguage

These are some of the biggest mistakes I have seen people make when trying to optimize their websites to rank well in the search engines…

1. Bad titles. Titles are literally the first thing that search engine spiders see when they look at your website, and often your customers too. They are a great way to tell a search engine what your page is all about, and they play a significant role in ranking if used properly. Place your keywords in the title, but don’t go overboard. Here is an example of a good title for a page optimizing for Phoenix real estate: “Phoenix Real Estate, Phoenix Homes For Sale - John Smith Realty”. Also, don’t forget to change your titles. Each page on your site should have a different title optimizing for that particular page.

2. Bad Content or No Content. Do you have one of those cookie cutter real estate websites that comes with pre-written “how to” articles on real estate? Dump ‘em. They look good on a new site, but they are worthless because there are 1,000 other agents that have the same content. Learn how to write. Start a blog. The key to good ranking, and a sticky website is content. Make it useful, make it readable, and make it fun.

 

Read 8 more SEO mistakes that people make...

 

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Show All Comments
Brad Andersohn
Retired Executive Director of Education at eXp - Boulder Creek, CA
ActiveBrad - 707.646.1876
Nice post, great info, a ton more to think about and implement! Thanks Justin! I'll bookmark and use again!
Apr 05, 2007 08:56 AM
Flemington, NJ
Thanks, I need help with my SEO.
Apr 05, 2007 09:31 AM
Jessica Horton Jessica Horton Realty
Jessica Horton - Jessica Horton & Associates - Griffin, GA
Jessica Horton: I'm not #1... You Are!
So, how much of an investment do I need to make to let somebody handle this for me? 
Apr 05, 2007 09:32 AM
Jessica Horton Jessica Horton Realty
Jessica Horton - Jessica Horton & Associates - Griffin, GA
Jessica Horton: I'm not #1... You Are!
Justin:

Could you drop a few names of some of these larger firms?
Apr 05, 2007 09:47 AM
Cynthia Sloop
Community Association Manager - Indianapolis, IN
Thanks for helping me understand some of the mistakes I've been making.  It sure is challenging to get all this SEO stuff done.  I appreciate the heads up.
Apr 05, 2007 10:13 AM
Karen Rice Keller Williams Real Est
Keller Williams Real Estate - Hawley, PA
Northeast PA & Lake Wallenpaupack Home Sales

Well, I TOTALLY disagree that you need to go with a big expensive firm.  If you invest the time and do some research you CAN do it yourself (Karen George on Active Rain has quite a bit to say about SEO).

I spent a fair amount of time optimizing our office website from the inside out - AFTER my broker paid big $$ to a so called "SEO EXPERT" to optimize it.  It did NOTHING.  

Currently, and for quite some time, our website has CONSISTENTLY ranked on PAGE ONE of Google, Yahoo, MSN, and AOL for nearly every relevant and specific search term for our area.  Sometimes more than one of our pages shows up on page one, ALONG with our sponsored results.  We show up both organically and sponsored.  Our website gets anywhere from 1,800 (when it's slow) to 3500 different visitors per week. 

I would suggest spending just a little bit of time getting familiar with HTML (it's not hard at all! It just LOOKS intimidating!) and CSS (a bit more of a challenge but not much).  Then spend some time on web design forums...it's time consuming..yes! But it is worth saving $5,000 or more!  And it's better than spending less on some dope who is just a sheister with impressive words...

Apr 05, 2007 12:08 PM
Val Allocco
Staged 2 Sell New York & Long Island - Northport, NY
HSE; ASHSR - Home Stager, for Manhattan, Brooklyn & Long Island
Justin - thank you for the great advice!  I never thought about carrying my profession, area and then the page topic onto each of the additional web pages.  I'm definitely going to rethink this!  Thank you!
Apr 05, 2007 01:32 PM
Irina Netchaev
Pasadena Views Real Estate Team, Inc. - Pasadena, CA
Pasadena CA Real Estate
Justin, excellent advice... thanks for posting!
Apr 05, 2007 02:09 PM
JudyAnn Lorenz
Bar JD Communications - Mansfield, MO
Virtual Marketing Consultant

I used to be an editor for the Open Directory Project.  We were supposed to be sure there even was a title and description and remove hyperbole. (those guys were no fun).   I thought how could someone not write these things.

Then, I put together some web pages, kind of bumbling along on my own.  Published and looked at the pages.  Good GRIEF; there was no title or description.   They are easy to add along with a few key words, but it takes remembering, one more reach with the mouse shoulder to open a box and just DO it.  Even getting your name into the htm title part is good to do. 

Something else to remember -- avoid punctuation, caps and spaces in the htm (url) page name. Some browsers will kick at that.  These elements are what result in those 20% notes in your url page name.

 

Apr 05, 2007 03:42 PM
Jeff Dowler, CRS
eXp Realty of California, Inc. - Carlsbad, CA
The Southern California Relocation Dude

Fantastic stuff, Justin, and bookmarked for reading again and again.

Jeff

Apr 05, 2007 04:53 PM
1SG (Ret.) David Kucic
Hawaii Military Realty, Inc. - Ewa Beach, HI
President and Owner
Justin-I am currently working on getting a blog tied in to my website but I dont know where to start.  I will search active rain and Im sure I will find the info right there.  Aloha!
Apr 05, 2007 08:55 PM
Fran Gatti
RE/MAX Integrity - Medford, OR
Managing Principal Broker - RE/MAX Integrity

Justin,

I read the entire post and it was great.  Now I'm going to stay up late making sure my pages are titled, etc.

Fran

 

Apr 06, 2007 05:31 PM
Minnesota Home Staging Firm, Minnesota
Minnesota Home Staging Network~ MN's Top Home Staging Firm - Inver Grove Heights, MN

Wow - can't wait to implement all of the SEO info I've learned tonight.

Thanks Justin!!!

Apr 07, 2007 02:53 PM
Michelle Rosser
Maximum One Realty - Union City, GA
Atlanta Real Estate-South Fulton & Fayette
Yes, I have made a lot of mistakes but with the help of the AR community I will begin to soar.
Apr 07, 2007 06:15 PM
Phillip Cross
TBD - In transition... - Seal Beach, CA
ePRO Realtor - Relocation Spec
Justin - Great advice - I too have added it my favorites to remember and check and recheck my site. My area as with many markets is very competitive. The best way to stay on top is to stay on top of what you can control. Thanks for the info.
Apr 08, 2007 02:01 PM
Joey Khan
Re/Max Realty Specialists - Mississauga, ON
Nice post. I have a custom site but some of my titles can use a tweaking. 
Apr 10, 2007 11:16 AM
Brian Wentz
Keller Williams Greater Des Moines - Des Moines, IA
Realtor - Des Moines Iowa Real Estate
Justin ~ Missed this the first time around. Great post! Thanks to Brad for making it one of his Fav's! Off to fix a few things...
Dec 31, 2007 07:08 AM
Robert Krames
Smart Media Creative Solutions - Gainesville, FL
You need to add reciprocal links, re-writing your web site in XHTML and resubmitting your website to search engines to this list, I run into those all the time and they help you 0% in search rankings. I did a blog post about it. Another funny thing I read was someone said they read that META tags aren't used by search engines to determine page rank anymore so they removed them! I was like, "WHAT ARE YO DOING!?!?" they may not help the rank but search engines still need them to help determine what your web page is about.
Jan 02, 2008 12:38 AM
Tina M. Atilho
William Raveis Real Estate - Milford, CT
Freat tips!  Newbees take notes
Feb 18, 2008 05:53 AM
Winter Baserva
Seasons Realty Group of Atlanta Communities - Atlanta, GA
Realtor -Homes For Sale, Atlanta, GA

 

Thanks for the great tips. They are much appreciated!

Oct 11, 2008 01:05 PM
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