SEARCH ENGINES: A Critical Component Of Your Online Marketing Toolkit
Over half of today's real estate consumers start their buy or sell transactions on the Internet, more often than not by logging on to their favorite search engine and typing in key words like "real estate and [city name]." In fact, Google expects to launch over half a billion realty-related search results next year. Where will your website fall in these results?
Making sure that your website comes up at or near the top of search engine results requires a process called search engine optimization and registration, and its value has soared as the number of websites has climbed into the billions. Standing out in the crowd is critical. A high ranking in the right search engines is one marketing tool that can increase traffic on your website as much as 90 percent, according to BrandWeek Online Magazine. The more traffic a website gets, the more sales that result, improving the return on investment for money spent on Internet marketing.
What is search engine optimization?
Choose the right keywords.
Use meta tags.
Check out your competition.
Improve relevancy with links.
Deceptive practices are death.
Is optimization enough?
Search engine vendors.
Beware the guarantees!
What
is search engine optimization?
Search engine optimization
is the process of configuring your website to
be attractive to search engines. Search engine optimization
is not the
process of deciding what you personally might
think is attractive or even what you think your prospects
will
find attractive. It's the process of choosing
and improving criteria that the search engines think is
important, and
the process is part art and part science. The
engines seek relevancy and their relevancy algorithms are
a closely
guarded secret. An experienced search engine
expert can be invaluable in helping you maximize your search
engine
optimization efforts.
Choose
the right keywords
Think
about the words that will come to your prospects'
minds when they think about
your business. These are the terms that you want
to maximize on your site. If, for example, you
represent buyers or
sellers in Los Angeles, you will have thousands,
if not hundreds of thousands, of competing sites
that list "Los
Angeles real estate." You, therefore, will want
to also add more specific phrases such as "Los
Angeles beach properties"
or "Bel Air real estate."
Use
meta tags
Websites are written in html code and
use meta tags to identify various parts of a
page. Each page has a different "meta tag title"
of 50 to 80 characters,
which is arguably the most significant component
of search engine optimization. Your best keywords
should be in the
titles of each page.
Each page also has a meta description tag, which most search engines will display in their search engine results to tell the viewer what the page contains. Think about what a compelling call to action for your prospects would be and make sure this is what will appear in the search engine results. Sellers' agents, for example, might want to use "free comparative analysis for your home on my website." Buyers' agents might want to use "search the MLS on my website."
Each page also has a meta keyword tag that should include a string of all terms and phrases relevant to your business. Limit this tag to 250 characters and include common misspellings for words to match misspelled search requests. Absolutely do not use words that are popular, but unrelated to the content of your site, in a bid to attract the search engines. Engines that discover such words when they "crawl" your site will blacklist your site.
Check
out your competition.
Visit your competitors'
websites to see what key words they are using.
This step will help you refine your own keywords by identifying
ideas you didn't think of.
Improve
relevancy with links
Increasingly, search engines
are factoring into their rankings the number
of other websites that provide a hyperlink to your site.
When other
sites on the Internet point to your site, search
engines attach a higher importance to your site and your
ranking
goes up accordingly. It is important, however,
that you link only with sites related to your business.
Excessive
links to irrelevant sites are read as "spam"
by the search engines and will adversely affect your
ranking.
Deceptive
practices are death
If search engines believe
a website is using deceptive practices to boost its ranking,
they will blacklist the site and it will not turn up in
search results at all.
Is
optimization enough?
In a word, "no." With their
increasing popularity with web surfers, search
engines have become big business. While a search engine
might
eventually "crawl" to your site and discover
you, you need to "motivate" the engine to find and recognize
you
sooner with paid registration. Once you register,
your work is still not done. Each search engine will
randomly assign you a position after registration and
it is up
to you to analyze the position and strategize
ways to improve it, if indicated. It is important to
keep in mind
that search engine rankings are extremely fluid.
You must vigilantly monitor your ranking and take frequent
steps
to protect and improve it.
Search
engine vendors
An experienced search engine registration
vendor is worth its weight in gold. Such a vendor
can economically bulk register your site with all the important
search engines and analyze the resulting positioning
and
recommend valuable strategies, both free and
paid, for improving your position(s). And don't forget,
rankings
are fluid. A good vendor will help you monitor
and protect your rankings.
Beware
the guarantees!
Do not believe the search engine
optimization and registration vendor who guarantees
you the top slot or two in the search engines. Only one
result
and be number one and rankings change constantly.
Don't pay extra for a guarantee and be particularly wary
of
any vendor who makes such a guarantee.
Is Your Website Growing Your Business?
Is your website doing all it can
to support and grow your real estate business? Let one of our Online Marketing
Experts evaluate your website for its e-marketing strengths and weaknesses.
Your personalized, no-obligation analysis will include a review for lead
capturing, functionality, efficiency, key words, meta-tags, search engine
optimization and more. Click
here to request a personal, no obligation consultation.
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an order
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