Realtor Website Design with Search Engines in Mind

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

Realtor website design and search engine optimization (SEO) go hand in hand. So if you're planning a new website soon, you should learn how to optimize it as well. You don't have to become an SEO expert or anything, but you should know enough to build the site properly.

Why is this important? Because if you ignore the fundamentals of SEO when creating your site, you could hamstring your future success. In this article, I'll talk about Realtor website design with search engines in mind. If you embrace these fundamentals early on, when designing the site, you'll attract more visitors later on down the road.

Let's start by defining what SEO is, and what it has to do with your marketing success.

Definition: Search engine optimization is the act of optimizing your website for better rankings in Google, Yahoo, Bing and other search engines. By ranking well for certain key phrases, you will also increase your web traffic. So the ultimate goal of SEO is to gain additional exposure online, in order to attract clients and grow your real estate business. I think we can agree that these are all good things.

The question is, how do you achieve this kind of success? Well, it all starts with Realtor website design and how you build your site. This is the first step to SEO success -- the fundamental building block. So let's talk about some of the things you should put in place to achieve maximum search engine visibility.

Realtor Web Design with SEO in Mind

So what does it mean to practice Realtor website design with SEO in mind? It means you develop the site with an eye toward your future search engine visibility. It means that you put certain things in place to achieve good rankings and visibility. Most importantly, it means you understand the importance of search engine optimization, in terms of bringing visitors to your site.

That answers the "why" of SEO-friendly web design. But what about the "how" side of things? How do you ensure the future visibility of your Realtor website with SEO techniques? What areas should you focus on to get the best results? That's what we will talk about next.

1. Create plenty of topic-specific web pages.

We all know what a web page is, and we know that content is the information that fills the page. But what is a "topic-specific" page? This means that every page on your site has a specific focus -- one that is built around a particular topic. More specifically, you should build each page around a key phrase that's relevant to your business.

When you take a topical, keyword-driven approach to Realtor website design, you will increase the specificity and relevance of every page on your site. This contributes to better search engine rankings for your key phrases.

How many pages should you have? Well, this depends on your business model, your area of operation, and your audience. You could have pages for different cities, different neighborhoods, the different real estate services you provide, etc. But generally speaking, the more pages the better.

The key to all this, from an SEO standpoint, is to keep your pages tightly focused around one or two topics / phrases. This will boost the search engine relevance of each individual page. On the contrary, if you take an "everything-but-the-kitchen-sink" approach to content development, you will decrease the specificity and relevance of your individual pages.

There is no limit to the number of topics you could integrate within your Realtor website design, and that's actually our next subject.

2. Design your website for future growth.

We just talked about the value of having plenty of content on your website. When you add more topics and pages to the site, you give people more ways to find you through search engines. Your website will appear for more searches, because you've incorporated so many key phrases. This will increase your web traffic, which is the first step to gaining new clients via the Web.

You need to account for this perpetual growth in the early stages of the Realtor website design process. Why? Because if you build a site that is hard to expand, or is rigid in some way, you will limit your growth. So when you're sketching out your organizational chart for the site, make sure it's flexible and expandable. This is a key requirement for Realtor web design and SEO success. You may think you only need five web pages right now. But as your business grows over time, you may end up with dozens of even hundreds of pages.

Adding new content to your website on a regular basis is one of the easiest and most effective ways to increase your traffic levels, month after month. Here are 21 content ideas to help you get started.

3. Build your site logically, with an organized structure.

Before you actually start building your website (or having one built for you), you should it mapped out on paper. Call it a site map if you like, or an organizational chart. Whatever you call it, you need to make sure your website is designed around a logical structure.

This helps you in two ways. It increases usability by helping people navigate their way through the site. And it improves your visibility by helping search engines find all of that content you've created. Both of these things will help you gain new clients via the Web.

If you have a large site with dozens or even hundreds of pages, you should also create an XML sitemap to help search engines find all of the pages. You can create a sitemap easily (and for free) by using an online tool such as this one.

It's also helpful to have at least one text-based menu on your site, since these are the easiest links for search engine "spiders" to crawl. If your main navigation menu is built using Flash, Javascript or some other fancy programming, put an alternate menu at the bottom of the site. Include plain-old text links (like this) to all of the key sections of your site.

4. Add a blog to your website for easy expansion.

This is the perfect solution to what we just talked about. A blog is an easy way to grow your website over time, because it's so easy to use. By using a blogging program, you can add new pages to your site just as fast as you can type.

I'm writing a blog post right now, and as soon as I click the "publish" button I will have a new page of content. This gives me a greater range of topics on the site (item #1 above) and helps me grow my website over time (item #2 above). Both of these things will lead to an increase in search engine traffic, which is the whole point of an SEO program.

In terms of search engine visibility, there are other benefits to all of this content development. If your Realtor website provides a lot of useful information, news and other resources, other webmasters will be more inclined to link to the site. This increases the link popularity of your website, which in turn will increase your search engine rankings for all of those key phrases. See how it all ties together? This is what I mean by Realtor website design and SEO going hand in hand.

5. Optimize images and photos for search engines.

Search engines are starting to show more images within their results pages. Searchers can do an image-only search to find pictures related to a specific phrase, but these pictures will also show up in the regular search queries from time to time. So if you optimize your images, you are giving people yet another way to find your website.

You can optimize the images on your website in two ways. You can save them with keyword-rich file names (such as "credit-score-chart.jpg"), and you can use relevant keywords within the alt tag for each image.

I hope you've enjoyed this guide to Realtor website design and SEO, and I wish you well in your online adventures.

SEO Strategy - How to Get Hundreds of Quality Real Estate Links

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

In this real estate SEO tutorial, I'll explain a proven strategy for link building success. Inbound links (from other websites to your website) will improve your search engine rankings, and thus your web traffic in general. Links from quality and relevant websites will get you the best results.

Anyone can buy their way into a link-building scheme and pick up a bunch of links. But these links will mostly come from low-quality websites that have nothing to do with your real estate niche. The key to SEO success is to attract links from strong sites that can pass authority along to your own site, and to do this naturally without buying your way in.

Quick story. I had a former client who, out of desperation, signed up with some link-building network. Within a month, he had thousands of new links ... but they were from some pretty sketchy websites. Before long, his Google rankings had plummeted. Why? Because Google has sophisticated algorithms that can spot this kind of thing.

My former client emailed me in a panic and asked what might have happened. It took me about three minutes of research (using Yahoo Site Explorer) to realize he was mixed up in a link-building scheme. He had links from some highly unusual websites, including a Pakistani "celebrity watch" blog. What does this have to do with Austin real estate? Absolutely nothing. It took me a couple of minutes to spot this trend, and it takes Google's search engine only a few seconds.

You can go this route if you want to, trying to buy your way to link-building success. But you've been warned. Sooner or later, it's going to hurt your search engine rankings. Oh sure, you'll coast along with some good results for a while. But then ... slam ... your rankings will crash overnight. It has happened so many times, to so many real estate agents, that it's not speculation at all. It's only a matter of time.

Professional Grade Link-Building Techniques

Unskilled, fly-by-night SEO companies will often use the kind of linking schemes mentioned above.

Reputable SEO firms, on the other hand, (and there aren't that many of them) use long-term strategies for link-building success. They use search engine optimization techniques that fall within these guidelines. The reputable firms do this, because they understand the value of consistently good rankings over the long term.

I'm no longer in the SEO business, because it reached the point where I no longer enjoyed the work. It's tedious, time consuming and repetitive, to say the least. But let's assume I still offered search engine optimization services. What would you get for the money if you hired me? In particular, what would I do to improve your link popularity, and thus your search engine rankings?

Here's what I would do, for starters:

1. Evaluate your website to make sure it's worth linking to in the first place. Does it offer plenty of useful and original content? Does it offer helpful tools and resources for local buyers? Is it unique in some way, or just another agent website? If a website is not worth linking to, then there's no point in launching a link-building campaign. Until you make the site "link worthy" in some way, you'll be restricted to the kinds of linking schemes mentioned earlier.
2. If your website lacked content, I would start with that. Writing website content is not as hard as you might think. But if you absolutely detest writing, you can hire a writer through a service like Elance. At a minimum, I would create some pages for every major subdivision in your area of operation, information about local builders, etc. Here are some more content ideas to get you started.
3. Here's a link building "secret" that SEO people have been using for years. Webmasters love to link to helpful lists. So if you can create such a list relevant to your city or town, you'll pick up some good links over time. For example, you could create a list of home builders in your area, with detailed information about each one. Or a list of neighborhoods. Or a list of good restaurants. Or ... you get the idea. The more work you put into it, the more links you'll pick up later on.
4. Steps 1 - 3 above will make your website more link worthy. Once that stage is complete, I would start an outward campaign to promote the new content. Here are some of the steps I would take...
5. I would send emails to every webmaster in your city who offers information to local residents -- the kinds of websites that would link to your new and helpful resources.
   
6. If there was something truly unique and useful on your site, I would send out a press release through PRWeb.com and several other distribution channels. I would send the same release to all of the local news channels in your city or town. Each press release would link back to your real estate website from the company profile.
   
7. I would start an article marketing campaign to pick up additional links over time. This would include two phases. The first phase would be to publish the articles through various distribution websites designed for that purpose (like EzineArticles.com). The second phase would include a few "handpicked" websites that allow guest articles. Each article would link back to your site, as the citation source.
8. If you weren't already blogging, I would set up a blog for you and help you devise a blogging strategy. Publishing new information on a regular basis is a solid link-building strategy, and blogs make it easy to do.
9. I would "rinse and repeat" by reiterating the strategies that worked best. If we had some good success with the neighborhood profiles, I would create more of those. If the lists turned out to be popular, I would double up on that front. You get the idea.
   
10. It's a never-ending strategy, but the results will compound over time. More links = better rankings and more web traffic. This gives you better exposure to your key audience. And, if you have some kind of lead-generation system in place, you'll get a lot more clients via the Internet.
    

The Problem With SEO Companies

The list above is only a snapshot of a proper link-building program. It takes time and effort over a sustained period. But it all revolves around two things -- quality content and proactive networking. This is where most real estate SEO firms fall on their faces, and it's why I recommend avoiding them altogether.

The work I've outlined above requires time and personal attention, and these are two things most SEO companies cannot provide. They take on too many clients, so they have to cut corners to save time. So instead of using the professional-grade link strategies listed above, they'll resort to linking schemes and other risky strategies.

At some point, you just have to ask yourself the tough questions: How much are search engine rankings worth to me? Do I have the patience and determination to do it right? How bad would it hurt my business if my search engine rankings plummeted one day, out of the clear blue sky? How much trust am I willing to place into the hands of a total stranger (SEO firm)?

How to Improve Your Google Rankings With Old Emails

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

I know what you're thinking. You probably think the title of this blog post is a clever bait-and-switch designed to lure you in. You probably think: "Sure, it sounds great. But there's really no way to use old emails to improve Google rankings ... is there?" I assure you there is. And I'm going to show you exactly how to do it in this blog post.

Two Things You Need to Know...

There are two concepts you need to understand, before we go any further. The first concept is something called link popularity. People who are familiar with search engine optimization (SEO) already know what this means. For everyone else, here's a definition. Link popularity refers to the number and quality of other websites that link to your website. Search engines like Google base their rankings on link popularity -- partly, at least. So if you can increase the number of quality websites that link to your site, you can improve your website's search engine rankings.

That was the first important concept. Here's the second one. Most professional web publishers are happy to accept articles from total strangers, as long as the article is well written. And most of the time, the publishers will include a link to your website within the author's note that goes along with the article. You can see where I'm going with this.

So, by publishing your articles on various real estate websites across the Internet, you can greatly improve your website's ranking in Google, Yahoo, etc.

Turning Emails Into Real Estate Articles

Think of all the information you send to clients by email, on a regular basis. You answer their questions. You give them advice. You share your professional expertise. It's part of the job. But most agents waste their old emails by deleting them. Start saving these emails, and you'll have an endless supply of article material. Now the title of this blog post is starting to make sense. Here's how the connection works...

If you gather a few of your old emails, you can easily shape them into a well-written real estate article for online distribution. You can find plenty of websites who welcome this kind of material, and you can get links to your own website when you publish the articles. Do this a few times a month from here on out, and you'll see your Google rankings start to climb steadily. I've used this technique plenty of times, and always with solid results. So I know you can do well with it.

It takes time and patience, and your real estate articles have to be written well (that's the key). But it will yield results in the long run. And search engine rankings are all about the long run.

Where to Submit Your Articles

I'm going to take this one step further and give you a list of places where you can publish real estate articles online. Most of these websites have guidelines of some kind, so be sure to read through them.

• www.realestateproarticles.com
• www.ezinearticles.com
• www.escapeartist.com/OREQ/article_submission.php
• www.thecreativeinvestor.com
• www.homebuyinginstitute.com/submit.php (my own website)
• www.realestatepropertyarticles.com
• Use Google to find more

With a little bit of homework, you can find dozens of additional websites. Maybe even hundreds. Use the Google query I've provided above and then look for quality websites that accept articles. And remember the equation for success:

• Old emails = material for real estate articles.
• Articles = publishing opportunities.
• Publishing = link popularity.
• Link popularity = better rankings in Google, Yahoo, etc.

So there you go. That's how you can use your old emails to improve your Google rankings and web traffic. Good luck!

9 Reasons to Avoid Real Estate SEO Firms Like the Plague

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

Want some "insider" advice from a former search engine optimization provider? Here it is. You should avoid real estate SEO firms like the swine flu. Here are nine good reasons for doing that.

For several years, I offered search engine optimization (SEO) services to real estate agents and folks in other industries. These days I just manage the Home Buying Institute, because it's more fulfilling than the tedium of real estate SEO work. But you can rest assured that everything I'm about to tell you comes from years of first-hand knowledge.

Several of my former clients have learned to handle their own search engine optimization, without the need to hire a real estate SEO firm for help. Some have learned the ins and outs of online networking, blogging, and other aspects of Internet marketing. One guy [hi Edward] has turned into a blogging machine, and he gets a lot of leads through his SEO and blogging efforts. And let me tell you something -- they are all better off for taking things into their own hands. Here's why...

Why You Should Avoid Real Estate SEO Companies

1. Many so-called SEO experts are actually web developers who simply read a few articles on the subject of search engine optimization. They learned how to toss buzzwords around, such as "link popularity," and they now claim to be gurus in the field of SEO. In truth, many of them only know enough to be dangerous.
2. I'm not petty enough to drop names, but I could easily create a list of 15 real estate SEO firms who have gotten their clients banned from Google and other search engines. I know about this firsthand, because many of their former clients came to me for help.
3. Search engine optimization is not rocket science. Most of it revolves around two things -- (1) writing website content and (2) networking in order to attract links. These are things you should be doing for yourself anyway, for general business purposes. So why outsource them to a real estate SEO firm that's just going to get in the way?
4. I've just stated that writing content for your website and/or blog is a big part of search engine optimization. The trouble is, most SEO people are terrible writers. They merely stuff sentences and paragraphs full of keywords in the desperate quest for good rankings. This kind of content usually comes off as if a six-year-old wrote it.
   
5. Reason #4 is how you end up with sentences like this: "Our Charlotte real estate services are designed to solve all of your Charlotte real estate needs in a professional manner while ensuring your ultimate Charlotte real estate success." Yes, that's from an actual website. I changed the city so as not to embarrass the publisher. Even if somebody did find the site through a search engine, how do you think they would react to this kind of drivel? It doesn't exactly inspire confidence.
   
6. Improving a website's search engine ranking is simple yet time-consuming. It requires patience and persistence. But most real estate SEO firms take on too many clients too quickly -- and those clients demand results. As a result, the SEO firm will cut corners, scale back on the work performed, and use black-hat techniques that end up getting their clients banned from search engines (see #2 above).
7. There's a good chance the SEO company you hire will end up damaging your reputation and pissing off a lot of people. Many of these companies use blog spamming to get links to their clients' websites. Any blogger will tell you that comment spam is a huge annoyance. The SEO firm will use your web address with this spam technique, which means you could start getting angry emails from other webmasters.
8. Search engine optimization is not a tangible product. So it's easy to get ripped off if you don't know how to measure the results. I once worked for a marketing firm that laughed about the "free money" their clients sent them each month -- for services that weren't fully rendered. Needless to say, I didn't work there long. I have heard story after story about real estate agents who were swindled by such companies. It goes something like this: "I had to pay for a year of services in advance, but my search engine rankings were about the same at the end of that year." Get in line with the other victims.
   
9. You can handle SEO for yourself -- and do it better -- just by downloading my e-book on the subject. Or you can pay hundreds or thousands of dollars to a real estate SEO firm who's probably going to do more harm than good. Your choice.

Spam, Link Exchanges, and Other Real Estate SEO Failures

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

Today, I received what must have been the 50th spam email from some company claiming to be a real estate SEO firm. Evidently, they rely heavily on link exchanges for their SEO clients, because all of the spam emails I've received from them have been the garden-variety link swap messages -- the kind of email that begins with the always awful phrase "Dear Webmaster."

Let me make offer some advice, based on nearly eight years of search engine optimization experience. If you pay money to a company that relies on this kind of tactic as the core of their real estate SEO program, you are missing the whole point of search engine optimization. You're putting your money in the wrong place at the same time.

Let me start with the "premise" of this blog post, and then I'll explain it in more detail:

If you rely on link exchanges to build your link popularity, your website will never live up to its full ranking potential.

High-ranking, quality websites (the kind you want to get links from) do not participate in link exchange programs, because such programs are the tools of the desperate. So when you spend all of your time and money on link exchanges, you are building up a link profile that puts you in a certain "neighborhood." Swapping links is a technique used by webmasters with inferior websites (and the lazy SEO companies that act on their behalf). Instead of building a quality website that naturally attracts links, the lazy webmaster tries to "game the system" by getting links through exchanges.

It's like saying: "Look, my website is not good enough to attract unsolicited links. And neither is yours. So let's commiserate by linking to each other."

One of my mortgage websites is fairly high ranking. It competes with LendingTree and the like for most mortgage-related key phrases. But I didn't achieve this by being lazy, or by wasting my time with link exchange programs. I achieved it by spending many hours, over many years, to develop a truly useful and unique website. As a result, other webmasters link to it without me asking them to.

This is the only way to get links from reputable, high-ranking websites. Why? Because such websites ignore link-exchange requests, for the same reasons I ignore them. When you rely too heavily on a link-exchange program for too long, you'll end up being "stuck," in terms of your search engine rankings. You will never be able to compete with the webmasters who know the "secret" to link building. And the secret is what I've just explained. Long-term SEO success comes from building a quality website with great content -- the kind of website that attracts links naturally.

Or, you can go the lazy route and hire a real estate SEO company to put you in a link-exchange program. They'll make huge promises, but they won't be able to deliver because you cannot earn top rankings for highly competitive phrases through link swapping. They'll say things like, "Well, we use a three-way triangle link swap, so the search engines can't tell they are reciprocal links." But this technique still misses the point. It ignores the fundamentals of SEO success that I've explained above, and it will forever keep you in league with other desperate webmasters. Good luck breaking out of that pool to reach the top of the search engines!

Professional Internet publishers (the people you want to get links from) ignore link-exchange emails. Why? Because they get tons of these requests, and just like me they are tired of them. I've gone so far as creating email filters to block all emails with the word "exchange" in the subject line, though some of them still get through. A link-exchange email request will only get the attention of mediocre websites, so it will result in a mediocre link profile.

When Google's ranking algorithm evaluates your website, it will check to see what kind of links your site has coming in. Does it get links from educational websites, journalistic websites, and high-ranking authority sites? If so, you'll be rewarded with good rankings.

Or does the site only have links from less-popular websites with little or no traffic of their own (the kind of webmasters who also rely on link-exchange programs)? If this is the case, Google's algorithm will put a lot of other websites above yours. Goodbye top rankings!

There's no reason to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars to a real estate SEO company that is going to trap you into mediocre rankings. The best person to manage your SEO campaign is you -- and I've given you the tools for success already.

Here's another reason you should be concerned with the quality of your website. Search engines are beginning to consider usage data when ranking websites. And they should, because this kind of data suggests how useful a website truly is -- so it should definitely be a ranking factor. I blogged about this back in 2007, and it has become even more important since then.

Here's what it boils down to. If the majority of people who land on your website (from a search engine) leave the site right away, then it will hurt your rankings. On the contrary, if most of your visitors stay on your website for a while, it will help your rankings. Search engines use web browser "cookies" to track people who use their sites. If somebody clicks on a link through a Google search engine result, Google can track their browser activity until they end their Internet session or clear out their cookie cache. They do this, partly, to gauge the true popularity and usefulness of the website. And they adjust the site's ranking accordingly. This is as it should be.

How do you get people to stay on your site? You create quality content. You make your website easy to navigate. You offer useful tools that help people accomplish a certain goal. You make your website unique and better than the websites of your competitors. You let people interact with the site in some way (chat, FAQ programs, blog comments, etc.).

I'll get off my soapbox now. I hope I've made my point, for what it's worth.

Real Estate Website Content With an SEO Focus

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

Website content is the building block of any search engine optimization campaign. A successful real estate SEO program starts with keyword-rich content built around certain key phrases. And in this new SEO video, I'll explain what that means and how to incorporate the concept into your real estate website content.



Adding new content to your website is one of the easier ways to increase your web traffic, with all other things being equal. I also find that many real estate agents have too narrow a focus with their web content, which can reduce your overall success with SEO and traffic generation. This video explains (A) the importance of website content development strategy and (B) how to achieve it on your own website.

If you find this video helpful, be sure to check out the new SEO videos section of our website. I'm currently in the process of filming additional training videos, so I should have some more online later this week or early next.

Here's what to take away from this video and blog post. If you just "shovel" real estate content onto your website without even considering the type of information your audience wants, you are limiting your SEO success. However, when you take a more strategic approach to real estate content development, you'll enjoy more web traffic and a more successful website in general.

Related articles:

• 21 Content Ideas for Your Real Estate Blog
• Web Content Writing Made Easy, Seriously
  

Top-Ranking Denver Real Estate Agent - A Hypothetical SEO Scenario

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

In this blog tutorial, I'll explain how a real estate agent in Denver could drive his or her website to the top of the search engines. Why Denver? Because I need a city for this hypothetical scenario, and Denver is just as good as any other. It's also a big real estate market with plenty of agent competition, so if this process works for a Denver agent it would work just about anywhere else.

Step 1 - Download a Copy of Top Ten Agent

My e-book offers nearly 100 pages of advice on the subject of real estate SEO. So any agent who is serious about website visibility should download a copy of this unique and helpful book.

Step 2 - Build Your Website

We are starting from scratch here! So let's assume that Jane Doe, our fictitious real estate agent in the Denver area, doesn't even have a website yet. Step 2 is to register a domain name and set up a website with quality content and useful tools for visitors (such as listing data, real estate news, virtual tours, maps, etc.).

Step 3 - Keyword Research

In most cases, this step is merely a validation of what you already know. You will make a list of the key phrases people are typing into search engines when they research real estate in your area. For this process, you can start with the obvious phrases and build from there. For example, Jane Doe would take a phrase like Denver real estate and put it into a keyword tool. You can learn more about keyword-research tools from the Top Ten Agent SEO book, mentioned above.

After some thorough research, Jane creates a list of 10 - 12 phrases she wants to rank well for in the search engines. They include Denver real estate agent, Denver Realtor, homes for sale in Denver ... you get the idea. Jane might even want to include a list of home builders in the area, because it's another way to pull traffic via the search engines.

Step 4 - Develop Plenty of Keyword-Rich Content

We touched on this under step 2 above, but it's worth revisiting now that we have done our keyword research. In this step, Jane will make sure she has at least one page of keyword-specific content for each of the Denver real estate phrases she has on her list. She can always expand her web content later on, as much as she needs to. But for starters, she needs to write one page per keyword. These pages are the fundamental building blocks that will help Jane's website rank well for Denver real estate agent and other key phrases.

Step 5 - Gather Links from Other Websites

This is an ongoing process that never really ends. Link popularity is one of the criteria search engines use to rank websites in a certain order. This concept confuses a lot of agents but it's really not that complicated. When other websites link to your site, they are contributing to your link popularity. This in turn will boost your search engine rankings.

When those other websites are well established, with a lot of link popularity of their own, they provide even more value through their links. Relevancy is also important. So Jane, the Denver agent in this scenario, should seek links from well-established websites that are related to (A) the Denver metropolitan area, (B) real estate or (C) a combination of these two topics.

This is where quality content comes into the picture again. It's much easier to get other webmasters to link to your site if it offers a wealth of useful information. If it's "just another agent site," it's not going to impress anyone. But if it's truly a resource for Denver home buyers, then other webmasters will be inclined to link to the site.

Step 6 - Repeat Steps 4 and 5 Indefinitely

This kind of process requires time, persistence and patience. So Jane must realize that the agents who rank well for Denver real estate phrases probably began the process long ago. At the same time, however, there's really no mystery to the process. If Jane repeats the steps I've outlined above (particularly the convent development and the link building), she will eventually be one of the top-ranking websites in her market. As a result -- and most importantly -- she will enjoy a steady stream of website visitors who need a Denver real estate agent just like her!

Real Estate Prospecting Tips - The Unprospecting Method

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

I have to goals for this blog post. The first is to create a disturbing image of an "old school" prospector panning for people. Mission accomplished! My second goal is to offer some real estate prospecting tips that will help you save time and energy down the road. Specifically, I want to explain how you can use the Internet to make your prospecting efforts much easier.



For those of you who are new to this jargon, real estate prospecting is the process of generating leads and inquiries from potential clients in your geographical area. For example, if you send letters or postcards to certain neighborhoods in your area, then you are prospecting for clients in that area. It's also commonly referred to as real estate farming.

Like the old-timer shown above, you are dipping your metaphorical pan into the "waters" and hoping to come up with something of value -- new clients.

Common Prospecting Techniques

I've already mentioned one of the most common prospecting tools used by real estate agents, and that's direct mail. Many agents send letters and postcards to residents in a certain area as a way of generating leads. The concept behind these prospecting letters is simple. That logic is that, if you send out enough direct mail pieces, you're bound to get some phone calls eventually.

Easy enough. But if you go about this the wrong way, you can end up wasting a lot of time and energy. That's why I'm offering you these tips for a smarter real estate prospecting system. There's a better way to go about it!

Before we get into this any further, let me admit that it's a long-term strategy. I would plan on getting real results from this prospecting system about a year out. So you might have to stick with your current methods while developing the one I'm proposing.

Real Estate "Unprospecting"

When you get down to it, real estate prospecting is an in-your-face approach to marketing. You are thrusting yourself in front of strangers in the hope that they contact you. But what if you had a steady stream of emails and phone calls from people who found you personally? That would be worth the effort, wouldn't it?

There's really no secret to all of this. What I'm talking about here is Internet visibility. Or more specifically, search engine visibility. I will say this from experience -- if you can earn maximum visibility for your real estate website, you'll never have to use traditional prospecting methods again.

I have former clients who operate under this kind of business model. Through my SEO consultation services, I've helped them achieve top search engine rankings within their respective cities. And now they focus most of their effort on sustaining (and even improving) what I helped them build.

In the past, they had to exhaust themselves with the usual real estate prospecting methods. But now the process works in reverse. Instead of thrusting themselves in front of potential clients, they let the prospects come to them. When people visit Google or Yahoo and type city-specific "homes" and "real estate" phrases, they often find my clients' websites right up top. One of my clients here in the Austin area gets 85% of his new leads in this way.

This is why I refer to this as "unprospecting" -- it reverses the dynamic. And it saves you a lot of time and energy in the process. You are still real estate prospecting in the sense that you are dipping your pan into the stream. But in this case, the pan is your website and the stream is the Internet. Big difference.

Yes, it takes a lot of work to reach this point. Boosting a website's rankings in the major search engines takes a lot of work, especially in a big city with a lot of real estate competition. I know, because I do it for a living. It's not rocket science ... it just takes a lot of time and persistence.

Here's a checklist of what you'll need to achieve real estate prospecting success via the Internet:

1. A website, obviously. It helps to have a professional, nice-looking website as well. In other words, spend the money to do it right. Don't have your neighbor's sister's niece design it to save money. This is the centerpiece of your online prospecting system.
2. Plenty of great content. This is the building block for your future search engine visibility. The more keyword-rich content you have on your website, the better!
3. A link-building program. By this, I mean you should consistently seek new links to your website (from other websites). This will help to increase your website's ranking in search engines, especially in Google. Publish articles online. Submit your website to real estate directories. Do whatever it takes to gain links from relevant, quality websites. Just avoid reciprocal linking schemes.
4. Lead generation tools. The goal of this web-based approach to real estate prospecting is to generate inquires through your website. Traffic alone is not enough. You have to convert those visitors into leads you can follow up with. Here's some help with this one.

There you have them ... the four primary components of your new-and-improved prospecting system. Build a great website and fill it with keyword-specific content. Add some useful tools while you're at it, such as property listings, local market news, etc. Improve your search engine rankings by adding new content often, and by conducting a link-building campaign. And set up some lead generation channels to convert your visitors into leads.

I began this article with two goals -- to create a funny image and to offer some solid advice. Hopefully, at this point, I've got a check in both boxes. If you have questions about this article, or about real estate prospecting in general, type it into the Q&A box at the top of the blog.

Real Estate SEO Services - 2 Monthly Plans

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

Though we've been providing real estate SEO services for several years now (and with great results), we recently introduced some monthly service plans to simplify the process for you.

If you're serious about your long-term search engine visibility and website traffic, this service is for you. Our monthly SEO plans include everything needed for long-term SEO success ... website content, link building, consultations and more.

Basically, these SEO services plans represent what I've been doing for my own websites, for over six years now. The monthly plans are just a new way "package" the work in a way that makes them affordable yet effective. Best of all, we do most of the "heavy lifting" for you.

Learn more here: Monthly SEO Service Plans

Real Estate Search Engine Marketing - Lower Expectations

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

Yesterday I saw something that I found appalling. It was a promotional page describing the real estate search engine marketing services provided by a certain company ... a certain "Homes" company that shall remain anonymous.

Basically, it was a pitch page for a search marketing "service" that real estate agents could sign up for ... at an obvious cost. But what shocked me were the sales points made by the company. One of their claims was that your website is guaranteed to be indexed [definition] by Google within 60 days.

Those of you who are familiar with real estate search engine marketing are probably wrinkling your noses at this already, because you realize this is no major accomplishment to write home about. If you are not familiar with the process of search engine optimization, then let me explain why this is a "selling point" only for people with lower expectations...

If you put a new real estate website online and do absolutely nothing with it (no link building, no promotion, no nothing), the search engines will find it on their own through their routine web-crawling process. And they will probably find it in less than 60 days. Search engine spiders are always looking for new websites ... you don't need a special service to tell them your website is online.

Now, if you put a new website online and point a few links toward it from other websites (perhaps by publishing an article online or submitting the website to a web directory), the search engines will probably find it within a couple of weeks. Google, being the fastest and most aggressive of the major search engines, will probably find your new website within a matter of days.

You see what I'm getting at.

This company is taking something that will happen automatically (search engines finding / indexing a new website) and they are passing it off as a selling point for their real estate search engine marketing service. So from where I'm standing, this service is being marketed to real estate agents with lower expectations of what an SEO service should do.

Putting keywords on your website and waiting for search engines to find the site is the very first baby step in a long journey to meaningful rankings.

Let me give you a scenario to illustrate what I'm talking about. Let's say I am a San Diego real estate agent (where there are thousands of other real estate agents inside the county limits). I put up a new website, and I sign up for a real estate search engine marketing service that guarantees to get my website found and indexed by Google and other search engines.

So I pay some of my hard-earned money and wait for the amazing results. Sure enough, the search engines find my website within a month or so ... but they rank me somewhere in the "basement" below page 10 for important phrases like "San Diego real estate." Nobody will ever find me way down there!

So, in frustration I contact the company providing the real estate search marketing service, and I say: "Hey, what gives? My website doesn't come up at all when I search for San Diego real estate, or any variation of that phrase? What am I paying for here?"

To which the company might respond by saying they have fulfilled their end of the guarantee ... they got your website indexed within Google's database (and other search engines). So if you do a Google search for your actual website address, you will find your website. Success, right?

Wrong. In this scenario, nobody will ever find your website unless they are specifically searching for your name, your company name, or your website domain name.

In other words, they won't find you online unless they already know you. So instead of putting yourself in front of the hundreds of people researching San Diego real estate topics online every day, you're only getting in front of a couple of folks who already know you.

Like I said, to me this seems to be real estate search engine marketing for agents with lower expectations, or with looser definitions of "success."

Greater Expectations With Search Engine Marketing

But what if you expect more for your dollar? Well, if you do, I salute you. It's important to expect something worthwhile in exchange for they money you pay.

In fact, that's why we don't even mention the search engine indexing thing when explaining our real estate SEO services. We know that kind of thing happens automatically, so it feels sleazy to pass it off as some kind of selling point for our service.

Our mission sets the bar higher for real estate SEO companies, so I'd like to share it with you now. That way, you'll know what a search engine marketing service should be providing:

Our goal is to get our clients' websites on the first page of all major search engines for the phrases that are most important to their business -- or as close as humanly possible to the first page. As a result, this increases the traffic levels to those clients' websites steadily over time. It also ensures quality visitors will find the site, because we optimize / rank the websites for phrases that are directly related to the audience and service.

So instead of saying, "Hooray, the search engines know your website exists" ... we strive to say, "Hooray, your target audience knows you exist because you're on Page 1 of the search engines!"

There's a world of difference between these two objectives to search engine optimization. Which type of service you choose simply depends on the level of your expectations.

Trading Real Estate Links - Waste of Time at Best

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

Article Summary: You need links to your website in order to rank well in the major search engines. This much is true. But trading real estate links with networks of other webmasters is not the best way to go about it. In fact, it can be a dangerous SEO tactic that does more harm than good.

About once a week, I do some keyword research to see what kinds of Internet marketing topics real estate professionals are researching online. When I entered "real estate link" as a starting phrase, my keyword tool came up with a lot of search queries related to trading real estate links (presumably for SEO purposes).

So it seems a lot of real estate agents are still interested in link exchanges as a way to boost search engine visibility. But trading real estate links is a waste of time at best, and could be downright harmful to your rankings.

[By the way, if you’re not sure why anyone would trade real estate links in the first place, your might want to start with this article on real estate link building for SEO purposes.]

So I have published this article and intentionally optimized it for the phrase trading real estate links so that agents researching the subject will find this article ... and hopefully heed my warning.

Here's the bottom line. Trading real estate links is not an effective way to boost your search engine ranking. It may work in the short term, but there's a good chance your website will be penalized for "artificially" inflating your rankings through link swaps. If you've had your ear to the ground in recent months, you'll know that thousands of real estate websites suffered severe Google penalties for this very thing. [more]

So what's a real estate webmaster to do? How do you go about link building in such a way that produces good results while avoiding Google penalties at the same time?

3 Alternatives to Trading Real Estate Links

1. Create high-value web content -- A better alternative to trading real estate links is to obtain links without the need for trading. You can do this by creating website content that is valuable, unique and useful. Why do you think I spend so much time blogging and create free e-books and articles? People link to these things!
2. Publish articles online -- I've been using this technique for nearly five years now, and I certainly wouldn't spend that much time on it if it didn’t produce results. By publishing articles online (and on a regular basis), you can steadily increase the number of websites that link to your real estate website -- thus improving your search engine visibility.
3. Hire us for our SEO services -- One way we provide value to our real estate SEO clients is by leveraging our network of real estate websites and small-business websites. I use these sites to increase the link popularity of my clients' websites, which in turn helps to boost their search engine ranking. And they don't have to waste their time trading real estate links to achieve results. Learn more here

Real Estate SEO - New Developments

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

Is search engine optimization / SEO on your to-do list for 2008? If so, you may be interested in our new real estate SEO website.

Actually, I've been providing SEO services to real estate agents for several years now, but I've recently overhauled that section of the website to make it (A) easier to use, (B) more informative, and (C) more nutritious.

Okay, so it's not nutritious. But it's definitely cleaner, easier to use, and more informative. So click on over to the real estate SEO section of the site and check it out.



Another development on this front -- I have an account manager / customer service representative starting next week. It was inevitable, I suppose. It's not that I don't like talking to people on the phone and answering emails (I do). But the best way I can serve my real estate SEO clients is by actively managing their SEO programs ... not by fielding phone calls all day. So I have somebody coming in who will be the primary point of contact for most matters.

If you are serious about real estate SEO in 2008, but you want somebody else to handle all the tedious work for you, ours might be the kind of SEO service you're looking for!

Realtor SEO - Advice for Realtors

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

"The market is slowing down, so I need some Realtor SEO to help me get more leads from the Internet."

About once a week, I get a phone call about my Realtor SEO services from a person who says something along these lines.

That's not an exaggeration ... about once per week. Some people are just kicking the tires, so to speak. Some are not exactly sure what they need, but they think it might be this thing called Realtor SEO. Only a few are serious about (and informed about) Realtor SEO -- and these are the ones who often become clients. I would say it's about 1 in 10.

The other 9 are just scrambling for a solution -- any solution -- to the slowing real estate market.

In truth, the quote that I opened this article with is usually a red flag of some deeper misunderstanding about what Realtor SEO can do, and what it cannot do. So here's my effort to shed a little light on this thing we call SEO for Realtors, and how it can best be used.

5 Truths About Realtor SEO

1. Search engine optimization (SEO) cannot change a slowing real estate market. If people are not buying or selling homes, they are simply not buying or selling homes. No amount of marketing -- be it Realtor SEO or anything else -- can change that.
2. SEO is not a quick-fix solution by any means. Realtor SEO is a long-term strategy, so it should not be used in "spurts" when business slows down. This is one of the biggest misunderstandings people have regarding search engine optimization. You plant the seeds today ... you reap the rewards months from now.
3. Realtor SEO is not a lead-generation tool. Search engine optimization generates visibility, search engine rankings, and web traffic. But it does not produce leads. SEO can help you produce more leads, simply by giving you more web traffic to work with. But it does not produce leads by itself.
   
4. Most real estate agents have more than enough web traffic to support their business goals. But they are not capitalizing on that traffic by converting website visitors into clients. So before spending money on Realtor SEO to increase web traffic, it's critical that you put things in place to maximize your website conversion rates (turning visitors into leads, and ultimately clients).
5. Most of the techniques I use for my SEO clients can be handled by the Realtors themselves. So I say, why not take advantage of a slower real estate market to work on your website's visibility, search engine rankings, etc? In fact, I've written a book to help you do exactly that.
   

I don't say all of this to discourage you or dissuade you from pursuing Realtor SEO as a marketing tool. It's worth the effort, to be sure. But you need to understand how SEO works, what it can do for you, and what it cannot do for you.

Good luck with your web marketing!

-Brandon

Over 300 Pages of SEO Advice - In One Resource

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

I've just finished reading the SEO Book by Aaron Wall, and I am happy to recommend the book to you without hesitation. It's full of up-to-date SEO advice and resources, but that's only the beginning.

If you want to skip past me raving about the book and download it for yourself, you can do so at Aaron's website here.

I've been working with Internet marketing and search engine optimization for several years now, and I like to think I'm pretty well read on the subject. I try to read at least one article per day, on subjects such as blogging, Internet marketing, web development, SEO advice and more. Just when I think I've "seen and heard it all," I download and read Aaron's SEO book.

SEO Advice - Plus a Lot More

The book provides over 300 pages of SEO advice from somebody who truly lives and breathes all things web-related. Aaron is knowledgeable on SEO topics (obviously), but more than that he helps you see the bigger picture of online success in general.

I would have liked a bit more organization within the book, as far as the progression of topics and SEO advice. But the topics are "modular" in nature, so you can really just jump in anywhere. It's not something you have to read cover to cover. For example, if you want to brush up on your knowledge of social networking as it pertains to SEO advice ... you can dive right into that chapter.

Aaron also keeps the book current by updating it once in a while, so you know you're always getting the most current SEO advice available. And in the fast-moving, ever-changing world of Internet marketing and search engine optimization, current SEO advice is the only kind that's worth reading.

I truly hope you download this vast collection of SEO advice today, and I hope it benefits you as much as it has me.

Check out Aaron's book here

An Excerpt from the Real Estate SEO Book

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

I'd like to offer a brief excerpt from my book on real estate search engine optimiztion (SEO). The book, Top Ten Agent, is available for download in e-book / PDF format from www.TopTenAgent.com.

I wanted to share this with you because I get a lot of questions about the book's content. It seems a lot of people have been burned purchasing books and "systems" in the past ... books with big promises and weak delivery.

Here's where my real estate SEO book is different (and I hope this brief excerpt backs me up here). My book on search engine success for agents is basically a road map for success. It's not a theory or loosely collected "system" of fluff ... it is the actual and exact process I use to drive real estate websites up the search engine ranks, time and time again.

The book is arranged as a series of steps. You simply read through the book, follow the steps prescribed, and watch as your website -- over time -- systematically moves up through the search engine rankings.

===================
Excerpt follows. Download guide at www.TopTenAgent.com
===================

Step 10. Submit Your Website to Directories (Round 2)

Summary: In this step, you will submit your website to additional web directories. This will further increase your website's link popularity and, in time, your search engine ranking.

Back in Step 4 of this book, you learned the value of web directories as a source of inbound links to your website. In this step, we will continue the ongoing process of link building by conducting another round of directory submissions.

If you followed my recommendation in Step 4, you submitted your website to a package of directories through RealEstateAdvertise.com, and also to Octopedia.com and ElegantDirectory.com. Here are a few more directories I use often, due to their quality, value, age, ranking and general professionalism.

EarthLook (http://www.earthlook.com)
I like this web directory for several reasons. First of all, it's a well-established website with good search engine ranking. So a link from this directory will help you out with your own ranking. Secondly, the directory lets you add multiple links in addition to your home page. So you could list your website's home page, your blog's home page, and a few other pages (such as those you created in Step 3).

This directory also lets you submit your blog's RSS feed. So it will keep a record of your most recent posts with links back to your blog. Lastly, this directory lets you put keywords in the five additional links they grant you. At the time of this writing, a submission costs $20 (one-time fee).

GoGuides (http://www.goguides.org)
According to their website, "We use Google Sitemaps to inform Google's crawler about all your pages and to help people discover more of your web pages." At the time of this writing, GoGuides charged a one-time fee of $69 for website submission / review.

Best of the Web (http://botw.org)
This is one of the oldest directories online today. As a result, it is extremely high-ranking and trusted by all the major search engines. You'll certainly pay for the privilege to be listed here (submission fees range from $69 to $199), but it's worth the cost in my professional opinion.

Starting Point (http://www.stpt.com/directory/)
This is another well-established and high-ranking directory that will contribute quite a bit to your overall link popularity and search engine ranking. At $99 per year, the price is a bit steep. But if you can afford it, I recommend submitting your website.

Skaffe (http://www.skaffe.com)
Skaffe is another quality directory at a reasonable price. At the time of this writing, they were charging a one-time fee of $44 for submissions / listings.

Always Read the Guidelines
Before submitting your website to a directory—especially a paid directory—be sure to read their guidelines. Most directories have similar guidelines, like the ones I mentioned back in Step 4. But to make sure your website gets listed, read all guidelines and follow all instructions when submitting. If you have a quality website with nothing weird going on (like redirects, pop-ups, or other shady tactics), your website will likely be accepted 100% of the time.

Recap: In this step, you submitted your website to additional web directories in order to increase your link popularity (more inbound links), which will further support your search engine rankings. When you have completed this step by submitting your website to at least four of the five directories listed above, you can proceed to Step 11.

===================
Download the full guide at www.TopTenAgent.com
===================

You can also learn more about this topic by reading this blog post on web directory submissions.

How Do Search Engines Rank Websites

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

Search engine ranking involves a combination of proprietary secrets and public knowledge.

For instance, search engine marketing specialists know that each search engine company has its own algorithm. These algorithms are basically a way to automatically evaluate and rank websites based on a set of pre-defined criteria.

What are these pre-defined criteria, you ask?

Well, now we're getting into the proprietary part of all this. Obviously, search engines companies do not want their competitors to know how they develop their algorithms. Nor do they want SEO companies to know these secrets.

But with all that said, there's plenty of public knowledge about how to make a website more visible and better ranked. Let me caution you on something though. Don't ever do anything just for the search engines. That's a bad habit to develop.

Always put people before search engines. Make website improvements for your readers and customers first, and for the search engines second. Now with that disclaimer out of the way, here are some of the basic criteria that can improve search engine rankings.

1. Keyword usage / relevance - Let's say there are two websites about San Diego real estate. They are equal in all regards except one. Website 'A' uses the phrases "San Diego real estate" throughout key locations on the site. But website 'B' hardly uses the full phrase at all, often dropping the city name and mentioning plain old "real estate" instead. Because of this fundamental difference in key phrase usage, website 'A' will outrank website 'B' for San Diego real estate phrases.

2. Age of domain - How old a website is also plays a role in how well it ranks. This is especially true with Google, since the number-one search engine tends to favor older, well-established sites (too much, in my opinion). So let's assume that our two San Diego real estate websites websites are the same size and have similar, keyword-rich content. But this time, website 'A' is 8 years old and website 'B' is 14 months old. Chances are, website 'A' will outrank the younger website.

3. Size of website - In this scenario, our two real estate websites are the exact same age, have similar keyword-rich content, and are similar in most other regards. But this time, website 'A' has 45 pages of content, and website 'B' only has five pages of content. Website 'A' will likely outrank the smaller website 'B' in the search engines. More importantly, it will be able to appear in more searches for a broader range of search phrases, since it has all that content to work with.

4. Link popularity - This refers to the quantity and quality of inbound links (hyperlinks from other websites leading to your website). There's a lot to "link building," as it's known. But for this introduction, suffice it to say that inbound links build link popularity, and link popularity increases search engine ranking. So if our two real estate websites are equal in most regards, but website 'A' has three times as many links coming in as website 'B' ... website 'A' will once again ranking higher than website 'B.'

Learn More
If you would like a more exact plan for better search engine ranking, check out my latest book, Top Ten Agent.

Usage Data and Search Engine Ranking

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

Lately, there has been much conversation (argument?) in SEO circles about a website's usage data, and how that data affects the website's search engine ranking. Here's my take on the matter. Sure, it's important to understand usage data for search engine optimization purposes. But it's more important to realize that usage data is a tool for measuring your website's overall usefulness -- which in turn will determine your website's success.

So what is usage data, and what does it have to do with your website and search engine ranking? I've just added a new tutorial to the SEO Learning Center at my Austin SEO website, explaining usage data as it pertains to website success (in general) and search engine success (in particular).

Read the article:
How Usage Data Affects Your Search Engine Rankings

Caution: You may not want to read this article while operating heavy machinery. It's somewhat technical.

~Brandon

Real Estate SEO Book - Now Available

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

In my last post, I offered the introduction to my new book on real estate search engine optimization (SEO), called Top Ten Agent. I'm excited to let you know that the SEO book is now available for purchase and download.

As usual, the new e-book is in PDF format, which means you can download it today and begin applying the lessons tomorrow. What kind of lessons?

• How to improve search engine ranking the right way
• How to avoid search engine penalties (that are so common these days)
• How to get better results with less effort
• How to apply proven techniques and avoid time-wasting techniques
• And more ... 100 pages more

This book is being sold exclusively through this website:
www.TopTenAgent.com

There's plenty of information about the book available on the website above. But if you have a questions that's not answered on the book's website, please let me know.

~Brandon

Just Finished the New SEO Book

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

I just did the final edit on my new book, which is a road map to success with search engine optimization (SEO). I'm very excited, because this will be the most helpful book on real estate SEO ever to be published.

Am I biased? Of course I am. But I've taken measures to ensure this book lives up to its promise (to help you significantly improve your search engine rankings). To learn more about what makes this book different, I've copied and pasted the book's introduction below:

Introduction to New Book, Top Ten Agent

Why I wrote this book:

There are a lot of books out there on the subject of search engine optimization (SEO). In fact, I've even written an "Agent's Guide to Search Engine Visibility" that provides an excellent overview of how search engines work, how you can increase your rankings, etc. So I won't repeat what's already been written.

This book will be different.

You see, I believe that too much information can actually be a bad thing -- at least when it comes to technical guidance and instructions. This is especially true when the bits and pieces of information you read contradict one another, as is the case with books and articles about SEO (and real estate SEO in particular). I refer to this condition as "analysis paralysis." An over-abundance of conflicting information requires so much analysis that it leads to operational paralysis. In other words, it's a scenario where people spend more time and energy figuring out what to do than actually doing anything.

That's where this book comes into the picture.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is not really difficult. It's time-consuming, sure. But it's not rocket science. Or, as my shop teacher used to say back in high school, "It ain't rocket surgery." Once you understand the basics of key phrase research, quality content, networking and things like that, you understand 90% of real estate SEO.

But then something like this happens:

You hear about a technique that John is using to improve his website traffic, and you prepare to emulate his success. Then Sally tells you about a content strategy that has helped her increase her search engine ranking, and you prepare to emulate her success. Before long, you've done plenty of preparing but not much doing. In short, you've become yet another victim of analysis paralysis.

I'm here to free you from that trap, and I'll begin by telling you this. There are hundreds of ways to improve your search engine ranking, online visibility and website traffic. The real problem is choosing a strategy and moving forward with it. So to help you get out of the starting blocks, I'm going to share my own personal strategy for real estate SEO success.

The techniques contained in this book represent one of many possible strategies for website growth and search engine optimization. This is just how I've done things in the past. And let me tell you, it has certainly worked for me. I have nearly a dozen websites that top the search engines for hundreds of high-traffic phrases. For example, my main website (ArmingYourFarming.com) is almost always in the top three Google results for dozens of competitive phrases, such as "real estate marketing."

So here's the bottom line. You can spend all your time comparing one real estate SEO strategy to another, which won't produce any results. Or you can choose a proven strategy and run with it, which will produce great results. Here's the strategy I've been running with for more than five years.

This book will be actually be sold through a new website I am developing. But as a reader of this blog, you'll be the first to hear about it. I will blog about the new book / website when they are ready for you!

~Brandon

=======================
More info on real estate SEO
=======================

Why I Don't Do SEO on Advanced Access Websites

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

About once a month, I get a request for real estate SEO services from a real estate agent who owns an Advanced Access website. My response is always the same: "Sorry, I can't help you."

Why, you ask? Because if you've read any of my SEO training guides or articles, you'll know that I like to practice straightforward, no-B.S. search engine optimization based on quality content and proper networking and publishing techniques. Why do I practice this type of SEO? Because in six years of promoting websites and driving them up the search engine ranks, I have never incurred a single penalty / demotion from Google for over-aggressive tactics.

I have long suspected Advanced Access of using techniques that limit SEO success (such as the excessive use of frames), as well as certain over-aggressive SEO techniques (such as the ridiculous level of reciprocal linking on agent websites). Up until now, I have kept my personal opinions to myself. While I avoid such tactics, I don't usually make it a point to call out those who do.

But as you can see by this search query, there's a lot of buzz right now about the SEO techniques employed by Advanced Access. So I might as well step up and tell my readers how to avoid such penalties:

1. Serve Readers Not Search Engines
Don't ever do anything just for the search engines. If you take part in a reciprocal linking scheme with agents all over the country, you are doing it for the search engines, not for your web visitors. Why would a home buyer in Austin, Texas want links to agent websites in 49 other states across the country? This is a massive reciprocal linking scheme intended to artificially inflate a website's link popularity and search engine ranking. Google has been able to spot this kind of thing for about three years now.

2. Don't Become Search Engine Dependent
Don't rely too heavily on search engine optimization. Many agents seem to have forgotten that there are other forms of marketing than just SEO. Many agents get what I like to call SEO tunnel vision by focusing on their rankings to the point of obsessiveness. If you rely too heavily on SEO, you will be tempted to take shortcuts by using black hat SEO techniques, which often leads to websites being penalized / demoted or even banned entirely from Google. So instead of checking your search engine rankings twice a day, try broadening your marketing mix with other forms of online and offline marketing.

This has been a public service announcement from a guy who does real estate SEO the right way. If you're interested in such services, please let me know.

More information on avoiding Google penalties.

Have a great weekend.

~Brandon

Real Estate SEO - By the Numbers

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

Just a quick note to let you know that I'm hard at work on a new training guide. This one will be focused on real estate search engine optimization (SEO). It will be a step-by-step guide to increasing your real estate website's ranking in search engines like Google.

And here's the best part ... this real estate SEO guide will come with a money-back guarantee. In other words, if you follow the steps outlined in the guide but do NOT see an improvement in your search engine rankings, I will refund your purchase with no questions asked.

I have another search engine guide that's ideal for real estate SEO beginners. The new guide will target the "intermediate" level webmasters out there -- those of you who have a basic understanding of how search engine optimization works and are ready to get started.

I hope to finish it within the next month. As always, you'll hear about it first through this blog!

Until then,

~Brandon

Real Estate SEO - 10 Steps to Online Visibility

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

I was going through the article archive lately and stumbled across a real gem. This one never got promoted through the blog like most new articles, so I thought I would share it with you now.

7 Ways to Boost Your Online Visibility

As the title suggests, this article is about real estate search engine optimization (SEO). It provides a ten-part list of things you can do to boost your website's search engine visibility and ranking -- the primary goals of any real estate SEO program.

So if you've been scratching your head over the whole search engine game lately ... scratch no more. For this article offers practical nuts-and-bolts advice on boosting your website's search engine visibility. In fact, these are the same techniques I start on with my real estate SEO clients.

I hope you find the article informative and helpful.

~Brandon

Real Estate SEO - A Harsh Reality

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

I've been writing about real estate search engine optimization for years now, and providing SEO services for nearly as long. During that time, I have frequently encountered a common misconception about real estate search engine optimization. It's the notion that SEO is a magic cure that can overcome other deficiencies with a real estate website.

Here's the reality of the situation. Search engine optimization can certainly increase the amount of people who find and visit your website. That's the primary purpose of real estate SEO -- to increase the amount of qualified traffic to a website. But SEO cannot motivate people to take any sort of action once they find your website.

Real estate SEO is a traffic generator. It is not, however, a brand builder, lead generator, or motivator. If you think of the Web as a highway, with websites being stores along that highway, then SEO would be the equivalent of road signs. Those signs will help people find stores, but they won't persuade that person to purchase anything from the store. That's where product positioning, store arrangement and other factors come into play.

Now transfer this back to real estate websites. Search engine optimization can help the right people find the right kinds of websites, but it won't persuade them to stay on the site, contact the owner, fill out a form or download something. That's where lead generation, positioning, content quality and website usability come into play.

Why do I revisit this lecture on real estate SEO so often. Because about once a week, I get a phone call from somebody who says, "I need SEO because my website is not generating any leads."

Search engine optimization can do a lot for your website. But don't put unreasonable expectations on it. Don't expect it to be a lead generator. It delivers the traffic ... it's up to you to capitalize on that traffic.

=======================
More tips on real estate SEO
=======================

Now Accepting Real Estate SEO Clients

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

Is your real estate website a big part of your marketing program? Do you wish your website ranked higher in the major search engines (like Google and Yahoo)?

If so, stop wishing and contact me today. I can now take on a handful of new clients for my real estate SEO services.

What does this service entail? Well, basically, I'll manage all aspects of your search engine optimization / search engine visibility. I will add you to my daily work schedule and make it my personal mission to increase your website's search engine ranking, visibility and traffic levels.

I Do the Work ... You Enjoy the Benefits
From a client's perspective, I think the best thing about my SEO service is that clients don't have to worry about it. They can enjoy the comfort of knowing that I'm working on their search engine visibility every week. This means they can focus on other things, like client relations.

So if you're serious about search engine visibility and online success, contact me today so we can talk about a custom real estate SEO program.

To ensure quality service, I will only take on a handful of new clients. So if you're interested, email me today, or call (512) 300-5410.

Hope to hear from you soon!

Brandon Cornett
Real Estate SEO Credentials

SearchWarp Removes SEO Benefits of Their Service

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

If you've been reading my blog, articles or books for any length of time, you've probably heard me talk about article marketing. For me, article marketing is a classic example of a win-win-win situation...

• The reader gets a helpful article (ideally).


• The writer gets online exposure and SEO benefits.


• The publishing website gets content that they can build a business model on.

That's why I've always recommended publishing articles through websites like EzineArticles.com, GoArticles, and (up until today) SearchWarp.com. It's a great addition to your real estate search engine optimization program.

But here's a recent development you should be aware of. When you publish an article at SearchWarp.com, there is no longer any SEO value in the text links from their site to yours.

Why?

Because Search Warp has begun to use the "nofollow" tag on their outbound links. If you know anything about this tag, you know that it prevents search engines from passing along any trust to the website on the other end of that link. In other words, it removes any and all SEO value from the text link.

Here's a snippet about the "nofollow" tag from Search Engine Watch:

What Nofollow Means
Below I'll cover what Google says it does, if it
sees a link with the nofollow attributed associated with it. Yahoo and MSN are
likely to react in a similar fashion, though I haven't yet spoken with them to
get exact details since news of their support only just emerged.

If Google sees nofollow as part of a link, it will:

1. NOT follow through to that page.
2. NOT count the link in calculating PageRank link popularity scores.
3. NOT count the anchor text in determining what terms the page being
linked to is relevant for.

So sure, your article may still get republished onto other websites. And those websites may keep your link intact. But here's the kicker. If the person republishing your article copies it from SearchWarp and pastes it into a content management system (like a blog), they have brought the "nofollow" tag along with it. So you wouldn't get any SEO value out of the republication.

If you ask me, this is selfish on the part of SearchWarp.com. In fact, I told them this a few months ago when they first started talking about using the "nofollow" tag, and again recently when they actually made the move.

I told them their authors give them a business model, allowing them to make money from Google ads and the like. In the past, SearchWarp reciprocated this by allowing standard hyperlinks on all articles. This gave their authors SEO benefits in exchange for the articles they submitted.

But now, SearchWarp.com still takes as much as they always have ... they just give less back in return.

Just thought you might want to know.

~Brandon

Real Estate SEO Tip - Free Keyword Tool Available

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

Keyword research is an important part of real estate search engine optimization. And now, thanks to Wordtracker, there's a new keyword research tool you can use ... for free!

Read their blog announcement

If, like me, you've used Yahoo's / Overture's keyword research tool, you know that its performance has declined steadily in recent months. Yahoo's tool does not seem to be maintained anymore, and I've heard it is going bye-bye. I would certainly remove it if I were Yahoo ... that kind of broken tool hurts a company's reputation.

So this new release of the free Wordtracker tool comes partly in response to the slow, agonizing death of the Yahoo tool.

Here's what Mike Mindel from Wordtracker has to say about their new tool:

"Everyone should have access to a reliable, basic working keyword tool (database of intentions) that they can use for their pitches, proposals and good ole search engine optimization, AdWord campaigns etc. One that we pledge to support and continually make sure is reliable, fast and useful."

Here's the free keyword tool

~Brandon

Real Estate SEO Support Center - Now Open!

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

Dum dee dee dum da-dum!

(That was a trumpet fanfare)

The Real Estate SEO Support Center is now open for public consumption. I've been working on this for quite some time now, and I hope you'll find it useful in your quest for online success.

What's inside, you ask? Excellent question.

Virtual SEO Training
Get expert training on a variety of search engine optimization topics, from the convenience of your home or office computer.

A Variety of SEO Services
Copywriting, link building, online press release distribution, competitor analysis and more.

An SEO Glossary
If you're not familiar with the concepts of search engine optimization / visibility, this glossary is an excellent place to start. It's packed with detailed explanations of SEO concepts.

If you have questions about anything contained in the Support Center, please feel free to contact me.

Happy holidays,

Brandon

Real Estate SEO & Older Websites

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

I recently published a new SEO article through ISEDB.com. You might find it useful, especially if you happen to own a website that's been around for a while.

The article is basically a short case study on my experiences doing search engine optimization on older websites. Particularly, it explains how sometimes the smallest changes can have the biggest impact.

Hope you like it:

Case Study: How Title Adjustments Doubled Search Traffic
Much has been written about the importance of the title element for search engine visibility. But I'm going to revisit the topic, because there's one point I don't feel has been given sufficient coverage.

Until next time,

-Brandon

Good Article on Search Engine Ranking

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

If you've ever wondered how search engines rank websites but were afraid to ask, you can find the answers in one concise, easy-to-understand article:

How Do Search Engines Rank Websites

This article does a good job at explaining search engine ranking factors by comparing two hypothetical websites about bee keeping. Just plug "real estate" in for "bee keeping" and it's an informative and relevant read!

Until next time,

-Brandon