Baby Step Your Way to Better Search Engine Optimization

If you have read any of my previous Active Rain post, you are ready know I’m a bit of a movie buff. One of the Carroll family all-time cult favorites is the movie “What About Bob” starring Bill Murray and Richard Dreyfuss. In the comedy, Murray plays Bob Wiley, a multi-phobic psychiatric patient who becomes “OCD” over Dreyfuss’s character, Dr. Leo Marvin who is an egotistical maniac psychiatrist. Take heart, I will not attempt Dr. Marvin’s “SEO” death therapy. I’ll stick with the 10 baby steps to better search engine optimization. :>)

Dr. Leo Marvin’s “Baby Steps” to Better SEO

The first baby step to better SEO is offering unique, keyword-rich content. It is a critical component to helping you obtain stronger search results and acquiring that much sought after traffic. I suggest you examine your site’s keyword density and also evaluate your relational keywords. Logical keywords included in any real estate website should be:

• (area name) homes for sale
• (area name) condos for sale
• (area name) listings
• (your name) real estate broker
• (area name) property
• (area name) home buyers
• (area name) home sellers
• homes for sale in (area name)
• (area name) real estate agents
• (area name) real estate market
• (area name) mortgages
• (area name) lending
• (area name) real estate contracts
• (area name) offer to purchase
• (your name) REALTOR®

Well, you get the picture. If you don’t, take a test-drive on Google and watch for the “auto complete” functionality for a list of related keywords for your market. Now you’re practicing a discipline I use everyday. When I was a Dakno copy writer, I would determine the latent semantic indexed (LSI) keywords for my clients. These semantic keywords would be used when writing unique keyword-rich content for our Dakno client websites and blogs. Also be sure to include other typical related keywords for your “target” market.

Other important tools I use for copy writing include Word Tracker and Google Adwords.

Other Baby Steps to Better Search Results

2. Avoid selecting too many geo-targeted keywords for your site. Avoid the temptation to target a “whole slew of geographic or demographic search terms” as it will dilute the “central theme” of your site not only in the eyes of the search engines but it may well confound your site visitors as well. Now you understand why the saying “Content is King” is said over and over again.

3. An old crusty domain name. If you have one of those late 1990’s domain names you’re in luck! A superior, aged domain name is another key element in the SEO game. Also remember the domain rules…make it short, memorable and free of ambiguity.

4. A website free of coding errors. This means your website should comply with WC3 standards. If your web developer doesn’t understand this element…run find another vendor. A website coded to WC3 compliance will aid when Googlebot comes a calling to index or spider your website.

5. A user-friendly website admin editor for meta data edits. Making easy edits to your website is a must. If the only way you can rewrite your title tags or make an edit to your webpage content is to “ask your webmaster” to do it for you, that is totally unacceptable with today’s technology. Having the ability to edit/update your title tags and meta descriptions is a must (plus your web content). Unfortunately, many real estate agent websites have the same title tag for every page of the site. That’s a missed opportunity! Just in case you’re not sure what title tag is, simply look in the blue bar of your Internet browser. If the same keyword phrase is being used for every page on your website, you’re missing a golden opportunity for better search results.

Ask yourself this question, “does every page of my website contain the same content?” Probably not, so why not change these title tags to identify the content to work better for you. If your goal is to only optimize for a particular keyword search term like “Duck, NC real estate“, congratulations, you could achieve some reasonable search results and traffic give the lower search results.

6. A website developed to allow you to include heading tags in your sub headlines. Use of heading tags is a must. Plus, sub headlines help site visitors as well. Sub headlines allow you to “tease each paragraph” by letting the reader know what information lies beyond in the paragraph. Remember, offering search engines and site visitors a “hierarchy of information” is the best way to connect with each.

7. Superior back links from authority websites are a must. Be sure you create robust profiles and posts at sites like Google+, Slideshare.net, LinkedIn, List.ly, Avelist.com, and at local sites like Patch.com. These sites also provide the added benefit of site traffic to.

8. Be the neighborhood expert – offer hyperlocal content! Neighborhood pages and condo building pages enhances your position as the local area expert and also helps support your website with better SEO.

9. Are you offering high-value resources and tools? Providing your website guest user-friendly property search tools, maps, sold data, neighborhood pages and buyer and seller articles to keep your visitors coming back to your site time and again? How does this relate to better SEO? Deep, mature websites experience higher traffic counts and generally rank better in the search engines. In the eyes of Google, does your website increase the value of the World Wide Web? If the answer is yes, search engines typically reward your website for its contribution to the Internet.

10. Measure your site’s performance – The last baby step for better SEO recommended by Dr. Leo Marvin is to always measure your site’s traffic with an analytics stats package. Check your website traffic in Google analytics. Another resourceful tool you can use is the Crazy Egg heat map. Crazy Egg records each click so you see which links/graphics work and which ones need to be changed for better connectivity with your site guest. All of these tools help you manage your site more effectively.

So there you have it. These SEO tips by Dr. Marvin will help your website take baby steps to better SEO. Be sure to leave your comments and recommend other tools and strategies you use to enhance your site’s search engine results.

Until next time,

Bobby