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Real Estate Search Engine Optimization: The Wagon Wheel Approach

BY: Brandon Cornett
Words: 716

Advanced Summary:
This article pertains to real estate search engine optimization (SEO). In this article's usage, real estate SEO is the act of improving a real estate agent's website for better search engine visibility.

Your website is the center of your SEO program. It's the hub of the wheel that keeps everything rolling along toward success. But a wheel without spokes won't make it very far. Here are 12 essential spokes that can increase your search engine visibility.

Key Phrases
Key phrases are the starting point for any SEO program. Researching words and phrases through a tool like WordTracker.com can reveal the search behavior of your target audience. Armed with this information, you can create the kind of content they’re after!

Site Structure
Site structure plays a big role in helping search engines find and index all the pages of your website. For instance, dynamic Javascript menus and Flash-driven menus can slow search engine crawlers down considerably. But an alternate text-based menu can help them along their way.

Tools & Resources
Web-based resources improve your website in three ways: (1) They give your visitors useful info, (2) they increase your website's "buzz" factor, and (3) they make your site easier to link to. An example might be a home buyer’s resource center, tailored for the city or town you live in.

Inbound Links
Inbound links (from other sites to yours) are a key part of search engine visibility - especially with Google. The goal of this wagon wheel is to make your site easier for people to link to, and to steadily increase the quality and quantity of links you receive over time.

Blogging
Blogs can play a major role in search engine optimization because they make web publishing quick and easy. Blogs are easy to use, making website owners more likely to create new content on a regular basis. Blogs can also attract inbound links, especially if you’re an authority.

Web Directories
Web directories can strengthen your link popularity and make you less susceptible to ranking fluctuations caused by search engine updates. I recommend to clients that they add their websites to one or two general directories (like Best of the Web) and as many niche directories as possible.

Niche Directories
Niche directories carry the same benefits of general web directories. But because they’re specific to your website’s topic, they can give your SEO program a lot of boost. An example of a niche directory for real estate agents would be the International Real Estate Directory (www.ired.com).

Competitor Analysis
Study competitors who already rank well in the search engines to find out what they’re doing right. You can learn a lot from a top-ranked website within your niche (if you know what to look for). In the Agent’s Guide to Search Engine Visibility, I show you some shortcuts to this process.

Quality Content
Quality content helps your SEO efforts in three ways: It makes your link-building efforts much easier. It tells search engines what your website is all about. And most importantly, it keeps visitors on your site longer (giving you a better chance of turning them into clients).

Press Releases
Press releases submitted online will often get picked up by respectable news websites, RSS feeds, blogs and more. If you hyerplink some of your key phrases, all of those blogs and websites will be pointing toward your website with key phrase hyperlinks!

Online articles
Online article publishing is one of my favorite ways to gain a lot of inbound links with only a little effort. Using websites like EzineArticles.com, you can tap into a large distribution network. You can also find dozens of niche websites who need quality content to publish.

Internal Linking
Internal links refer to the navigation elements within your website (menus, inline text links, etc.). A good internal linking structure will help search engines find all of your web pages. Putting key phrases in some of your text links also helps search engines understand your site’s theme.

The Interactive Wagon Wheel
If you'd like to see a live, interactive version of the wagon wheel approach to real estate SEO, visit the page listed below.

* Copyright 2006, Brandon Cornett. You may republish this article online provided you keep the byline, the author's note, and the active hyperlinks.