by Brandon Cornett | © 2011, All rights reserved.
About the author: Brandon Cornett is one of the most widely published authorities on real estate SEO and other Internet marketing topics. He has nearly a decade of experience with search engine optimization and Internet publishing. He also provides SEO services for real estate agents.
It’s a lot harder to earn top search-engine rankings today than in the past. Almost every real estate agent in the country has a blog or website. Some have more than one. And everyone now realizes the need for an effective real estate SEO program. Things have become hyper-competitive, to say the list. On top of all this, the search engines have become more selective in how they rank websites.
Want to get more out of your real estate SEO program? You better be prepared for some hard work. The days of easy search-engine rankings are over. The Google “Panda” update changed everything. If you want your real estate website to earn top rankings in Google and other search engines, you need to build a large volume of quality content. This is the key to real estate SEO success in the post-Panda landscape.
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Want to schedule a consultation call with Brandon, to learn even more about SEO? Send us an email to get started. Consultations are only $75 for a full hour of phone time.
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In this tutorial, you’ll learn what it takes to succeed with SEO in the modern Internet world. These are lessons I have learned firsthand, by managing a network of real estate websites over the last eight years. I call it real estate SEO 2.0 — rethinking search engine optimization.
Real Estate SEO Defined
Before we go any further, we need to address some terminology. You will hear the terms “SEO” and “Panda” a lot in this article. And no, I’m not talking about the black-and-white bamboo-munching bears from China. You’ll learn about the Google Panda update in a moment. But first, a quick definition of real estate SEO…
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the act of improving a blog or website for better visibility in the major search engines — namely Google, Yahoo and Bing. This leads to more website traffic and, ultimately, greater success online. Real estate SEO is search engine optimization performed on a real estate blog or website. Some agents take a do-it-yourself approach to SEO, while others hire Internet marketing firms and consultants to help them.
The key components of a real estate SEO program are keyword research, content development, on-site optimization and link building. We will discuss all of these components in more detail later. Here’s our next definition:
The Google Panda Update
In February 2011, Google made an adjustment to their ranking algorithm. That’s a bit of an understatement. They actually made the mother-of-all algorithm updates, one that sent shock waves through the Internet-publishing world. It also had a profound impact on the world of real estate SEO and content development.
Within the context of search engines, an “algorithm” is a computational model used to sort and rank websites. They use these algorithms to determine which websites get listed on the first page, and which ones get listed on pages 2, 3, 4 and so on. The inner workings of the search engines are closely guarded secrets. But there’s also a lot that we do know about them, and you can use this knowledge to improve your real estate SEO program. But back to the Panda…
Google has been updating their ranking algorithm ever since the company’s inception. The other search engine providers do the same thing. But the update they made in February 2011 was significant for several reasons. It made headlines like never before.
An example of those headlines:
- Google Revamps Its Search Engine (Wall Street Journal)
- Google’s War On Nonsense (New York Times)
The Panda update even has its own Wikipedia page, something that has never happened with previous updates. That’s how significant it was.
What does all of this have to do with real estate SEO and content development? It has everything to do with it! If you want to improve your search engine rankings and traffic levels, you need to understand how they evaluate websites. You also need to know how to avoid being labeled as a publisher of “low-quality content” — because that will kill your rankings like nothing else.
Here’s how it relates to your real estate SEO program. The latest version of Google’s algorithm will penalize an entire website if it has too much of what they consider low-quality content. In other words, if you have some short pages on your site that aren’t very helpful to readers, your entire website could be demoted in the Google rankings.
Developing Quality Website Content
If you want to achieve top rankings in the search engines (particularly in Google), you need to work hard on your website content. This is the backbone of your real estate SEO campaign. If you don’t have a strong base of quality content on your site, none of your other SEO efforts will make any difference. Here are some dos and don’t for generating content:
What to do:
- Make your website content a priority. Creating good content will require a certain investment of time, energy and (in some cases) money. You get out of it what you put into it.
- Consider hiring a professional writer, if you don’t have the time or inclination to write your own articles.
- Add new content to your blog or website on a regular basis. Search engines reward sites with plenty of fresh content.
- Use keyword-research tools to generate a broader base of content. You can learn more about these real estate SEO tools in this article.
What to avoid:
- Don’t use articles that appear on other websites (duplicate content). Only original content performs well in the search engines. Why would Google give you top rankings for an article that already exists online?
- Don’t use short “puff pieces” and other useless content. This is the kind of stuff that will get your entire site flagged for demotion in the post-Panda world. Publish in-depth articles and tutorials. Do your own original research and analysis. Longer generally performs better, from a real estate SEO perspective.
- Don’t follow the herd. If you write about what everyone else is already covering, you’ll get lost in the crowd. Think outside the box to come up with a unique publishing strategy.
- Don’t get discouraged. Internet publishing and search engine optimization are long-term strategies. There is no magic bullet for real estate SEO success. You need to create the kind of website that other publishers find “link worthy.” And this takes time.
Do you have questions about these topics? You might want to schedule a consultation call. It’s important to start off in the right direction, before you spend a lot of time and energy on your SEO program. Our consultation services will put you on the right path!
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Want to schedule a consultation call with Brandon, to learn even more about SEO? Send us an email to get started. Consultations are only $75 for a full hour of phone time.
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Getting Links Without Asking for Them
If you’ve been reading about real estate SEO for any length of time, you’ve probably come across the phrase “link building.” This is the act of acquiring links to your own website or blog, in the pursuit of better search-engine rankings. This is also known as link popularity. Google, Yahoo and Bing all use link popularity as part of their ranking algorithms.
The theory is simple: A website with a lot of links from other sites must be useful, so it should be ranked higher that similar websites with fewer links. It makes sense on paper. But savvy webmasters and SEO companies figured out how to game the system by purchasing links, using reciprocal-linking schemes, and other strategies designed to improve link popularity. Google is constantly coming up with ways to spot and demote websites that use these “artificial” link-building methods. It’s like a game of cat and mouse.
The best way to acquire links is by publishing content that other webmasters and bloggers find useful. And don’t be afraid to promote your own content, if it’s truly worth reading. This is what I refer to as organic link-building. It’s a critical part of any real estate SEO campaign. With this approach, you don’t have to worry about the constant cat-and-mouse game of artificial linking schemes. You don’t have to look over your virtual shoulder, afraid that you’ll be demoted or banned by Google. You’re doing what search engines and humans both want — you’re publishing quality information that serves a purpose. Your SEO efforts will be richly rewarded in the long run, if you follow this approach.
[Related: SEO, Link Building and Google's Evolution]
Let me give you a real-world example. On one of my real estate websites, I published a list of home-staging tips for sellers. It’s a lengthy, in-depth tutorial that offers hundreds of tips for every room in the house. Over the last couple of years, this article has attracted links from a lot of reputable websites (including one from TLC’s website). I could never have paid for this kind of “link love.” It happened organically, because the content was worth citing. When people find something useful, they naturally want to share it with others. This should be the focus of your real estate SEO program in the post-Panda world.