How to Move your real estate website to TOP 10 in Google
Posted in Real Estate Website Reviews By Earnest Young, Tuesday, April 29, 2008.According to a recent report from Borrell Associates, the real estate industry spent more than $7 billion on Web site design and maintenance, an expenditure that is anticipated to grow to more than $11 billion in the next three years.
The web has revolutionized how Americans buy homes. The number of homebuyers using the Web has risen steadily, climbing to 84 percent of all buyers in 2007 (up from 80 percent in 2006), according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR); Supplemental studies reveal that nearly 75 percent of Internet homebuyers drive by a home based on their Web visit. Nearly one out of every three homebuyers first learned online about the home they eventually purchased.
It does not take a rocket scientist to realize that to do well in the real estate business may require that one has a satisfactory online presence - most preferable, their own website. However, having your own website is not enough because most web searchers only search through the first 10 listing in Google. This means that to get noticed your website must show up in Google for the frequently search real estate keywords in your area; for example, Huntsville Alabama real estate, if you live in Huntsville Alabama .
Here is a list of things you must do to be TOP 10 in GOOGLE:
Get all 7 pages of incredible real estate seo tips
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Submitted by Pasadena Real Estate Agent on April 29, 2008 - 7:45pm.
What A great article I think it will be very helpful for Realtors like me that are beginning to deal with SEO.
Regards,
The Manzo Team
RE/MAX Tri-City
626 296-2900
Pasadena Area Real Estate
http://www.pasadenatopagent.com
Los Angeles Are Real Estate
http://los-angeleshomes-forsale.com/
Submitted by Ken Horst on April 29, 2008 - 8:03pm.
Thanks for the great list of SEO tips. I think it's great information for both beginning and experienced SEO professionals alike.
My webmaster recently switched hosting companies and now he has me set up with multiple domains, up to 4, on one IP address. How concerned should I be about this? Your post has got me wondering.
Thanks
Submitted by Earnest Young on April 30, 2008 - 6:45am.
Sidney,
I am glad that the article was helpful to you. Use the tips in the article and you will see your ranking move up
Submitted by Earnest Young on April 30, 2008 - 6:48am.
Ken,
Ask your webmaster to look up the importance of IP addresses. However, you should not worry if your all of your websites on this IP is spam free, and is in accordance to all SEO rules
Submitted by Earnest Young on April 30, 2008 - 6:50am.
Guys, I have used those tips and in a short period my website - www.huntsvillepr.com is #4 for in Google for Huntsville Alabama Real estate.
Remember to use free real estate directories like www.realout.com etc
Submitted by Drew Laughlin on May 1, 2008 - 9:21am.
Does anyone have a good no nonsense guide to doing SEO? My understanding is it can be pretty basic, or difficult, but there is a lot to know. Any thoughts or helpful hints?
Submitted by Real Estate Marketing - Misty Lackie on May 1, 2008 - 11:50am.
Drew - yes - see http://www.classifiedflyerads.com/blog/Basic-Guide-On-SEO/3759/post_deta... for a basic guide.
Submitted by Pasadena Real Estate Agent on May 5, 2008 - 2:53pm.
Hello everyone I hope all are doing well I would like you guys to review my website http://los-angeleshomes-forsale.com/ and give your honest opinion.
Regards,
The Manzo Team
RE/MAX Tri-City
626 296-2900
Los Angeles Area Real Estate
http://los-angeleshomes-forsale.com/
Submitted by G Dewald | Union Street Media on May 5, 2008 - 3:26pm.
Hey Sidney,
I'd love to (in my previous line of work I had a reputation as being a particularly cruel site-reviewer so I'll try and be as nice as possible :) ). Here goes:
Technical Stuff:
1) There is no web site analytics installed on the site. Properly using web site analytics is like listening to your customers. It lets you know what brings them to your site, what they find interesting, whether they like you enough to continue coming back and also track whether/how/and from where they ask you to contact them. Google Analytics is free. There are other great tools as well. Super easy to configure, if your code provider can't do this for you get in touch with me and I'm sure I can help you out.
2) Your MLS search is "iframed" in. That means the data resides somewhere else and will not help you with your SEO and you will may have minimal opportunities to style the look of the search.
3) The code is not standard and written according practices that were current around 1999 (aka table-based layout). This means that the page takes longer to download and Google won't like it as much as a current-practice (aka CSS/XHTML or "semantic") site.
4) There is a bug of some sort on your MLS search page that makes the page significantly longer than the content requires.
Usability Stuff:
1) There's a lot of text on that homepage. Once you have your analytics installed you will be able to see how long people spend on your home page. I will go out on a limb and predict that it will be significantly shorter than the time it takes to read the page. I also predict that if you focus the text your bounce rate (the number of people who see that page hit the back button immediately) will be lower on the home page if you focus the text. You should install analytics so you can measure these results: I could be wrong (but I bet I'm not). Also, that text might help you for SEO and you may feel the tradeoff is worth it. Compare the number of people who stay on your site (i.e. people who don't bounce) with focused copy vs with the copy you have to determine if the SEO value is worth it.
2) There is a lack of clear headline structure (a simple way of doing this is main headline quite big, secondary headings big, tertiary headings maybe just bold) to guide the visitor (the person who didn't just turn around and walk away from your). In fact, it's kind of a mish-mash of bolds, all caps and italics and practically no use of size.
3) The main nav is not very distinct from the rest of the site, again making it difficult to figure out what to do.
4) Good job on the big buttons for MLS search and all that. That's probably what you want them to do anyway. I bet people click on those buttons in droves (if only to escape the wall of text on the home page).
SEO text stuff (my specialty is on-site optimization but I know a few tricks... hopefully you'll get more good SEO advice from other community members):
1) The phrase "los angeles" is 6.6% of your home page. This above what many SEO pros consider to be good (i.e. you may be running the risk of convincing search engines that you are spammy).
2) Your meta description is stuffed with keywords. The meta description is what Google and other search engines use to make the text that appears below your main link on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). There is little/no value for improving your SERP rank based on the meta description, but it is a great place to put a convincing 160 characters to entice people to click on your link instead of one of the other 9 on the page. See how your meta-description looks and then determine if that is the right message.
Congrats on launching a site! It can be a hard slog to get even that far.
And it's neat that you have links to the auto-translate tools (I didn't take time to test them, I could've only helped with three of them anyway).
Well, that's my 15 minutes, I hope it's helpful for you.
G. Dewald | Union Street Media | USM Blog
Submitted by Pasadena Real Estate Agent on May 5, 2008 - 4:03pm.
Thanks "G" very Much your time and comments, it is greatly appreciated.
Regards,
The Manzo Team
RE/MAX Tri-City
626 296-2900
Pasadena Area Real Estate
http://www.pasadenatopagent.com
Los Angeles Are Real Estate
http://los-angeleshomes-forsale.com/
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Submitted by Joe Manausa on May 5, 2008 - 4:46pm.
Sidney,
I like the look. Very professional and very crisp. I have very large monitors and can take much in, but it seems like the font is a bit small (it might just be my own settings).
I looked at your site map, looks very thorough as well.
Nice work and I hope it pays off for you.
Submitted by Fergie Crill on May 8, 2008 - 3:07pm.
Hey,guys please review my websites of
fergiecrill.com, fergie-crill.com and fergiecrill.net. I need your honest opinions.
Fergie
fergie@fergiecrill.com
Re/Max Legacy Realty
Oxford, Ms.
662-202-2652
Submitted by G Dewald | Union Street Media on May 9, 2008 - 5:49am.
Sorry I answered the previous similar request too quickly. There's a group specifically for this type of question. If you ask there I'll do my 15 minutes for you as well.
G. Dewald | Union Street Media | USM Blog