Tips of the Marketing Trade: How to Get Your Website in the Top Spots of the Search Engines

Being in the real estate industry means that you need to be persistent in your marketing efforts, specifically online. The era of door to door marketing is diminishing as more potential home buyers are starting their search online. It is estimated that nearly 70 percent of active lookers start through online search attempts. This statistics reiterates the importance of search engine optimization in relation to a real estate agents website. So how does one make their website rank high in the searches? There are numerous ways to aid in SEO but here are just a few to get you started:

• Pay attention to keyword details. Years ago the trick was to saturate your website with an abundance of keywords for search engines to pull from but now this can actually harm your website's rankings as the search engine's algorithms have become more advanced and detect repetitive keywords. Choose a list of 5-10 keywords that really speak to your target market, whether they are geographical, product/service orientated, or niche related. Then embed these keywords in numerous, yet appropriate places on your website. To add to this, if you have numerous websites or social media platforms, use these keywords as your anchor text for links between the sites.
• Social Media and Blogging is IMPORTANT. Social media and blogging are not always understood by industries across the board but when you are thinking about increasing your online marketing efforts, they are essential for success. Many of the social media platforms have contracts with corresponding search engines which means their sites are crawled through for active posts, customer engagement and number of external links. This also means that just having a page is not enough. The pages need to be consistently updated, every day if possible, in order to get the return you desire from the search engines.
• Incorporate reviews, comments and social sharing on your website. Getting people to be interactive and comment is the best thing you can have when providing a service to clients. This will enhance your brand recognition and create a following from potential clients. The more people you can get to say great things about your services, the more you can get them to share with their friends, and so on and so forth. Internet marketing is all about making something viral.

Stay tuned for Part 2 later this week on how to get your website in the top spots of search engines.