As some of you may know, Real Estate Webmasters is hosting a Greatest Real Estate Agent in the World contest. It’s a contest to see what agent can dominate the search engines for that keyword. I was aware of the contest but hadn’t really been following it that much until about a week ago. I received a Google Alert that said Kevin Tomlinson and Brad Carroll were the greatest real estate agents in the world. What? It turns out that Blogging Queen ARDELL wrote a post on Rain City Guide declaring us as winners (thanks again!) The point of her post was twofold. One – to test to see how fresh content differs in search engine placement from older authority content; and two, to see show that a team approach is the best way to achieve good SEO.
You Can’t Have One without the Other
I couldn’t agree more about what ARDELL was saying (not just because she chose us as the winner). Most people want to take the easy way out of Search Engine Optimization. They want the “quick fix” or the “magic bullet”. But the reality is that you have to have a solid mix of great content, authority backlinks, and a well structured Web site. Leaving out any one of these key ingredients is a formula for having your real estate website perched on page 18 of the search results.
Authority Backlinks
Let’s face it. To some degree, the web is a big popularity contest. If your real estate website is in with the “in crowd” then you have a much better chance of ranking higher in the search engines. That’s because Google and other Search Engines use links (also called backlinks) to measure the validity of a website. Each backlink counts as a vote or an endorsement (some votes count more than others). The more votes, the more authority you have and thus higher rankings in the search results. So how do you get these precious votes? Write great content!
Great Content
The old saying holds true. Content is King. After all, all the backlinks in the world do you no good if your website doesn’t live up to those glowing endorsements. Additionally, having great content on your site is the quickest way to build links and ultimately search engine placement. Let me give you an example. When Dakno first started selling Real Estate Blog sites, we quickly realized that there were little resources available online for WordPress Training. We immediately saw a need that could be fulfilled. So we purchased a few WordPress training videos and placed them on our website. Next thing we knew, we had dozens of people linking to our videos and as a result, we now sit at position #3 in Google for the keyword WordPress Training.
A Well Structured Website
The third ingredient to SEO is having a well structured website. The reality is that good HTML code matters! Your real estate website should be designed to accommodate headlines with a set hierarchy, solid title tags and easily accessible content. After all, what good is all that great content if Website visitors and search engines can’t easily find and read it!
So ARDELL, thanks for the compliment but in my book, you’re the clear winner of the Greatest Real Estate Agent in the World contest!
I couldn’t believe it when I saw this post!!! We were just chatting with the Real Estate Tomato and talking about this thread. I had been searching high and low for a company to work with that I was proud to have my clients call their web hosting home. Brad Carroll & Dakno is without a doubt the best in the industry. This has been an incredible experience. Imagine my delight, I’m screaming as we speak!!! It’s the very company that I am trusting my custom designs with. Our first client, Dena Calivas, http://www.GreenUpJax.com is already a success and we are just starting. This site was just awarded Realty Times Site of the Day!
What makes this the company of choice for my business? First of all, the ego’s with these guys, just don’t exist. All the flexibility with our custom designs for the clients to add/move/delete pages in a snap.
They are forerunners in seo and even one of the top 3 to first go onboard with Google street maps.
There just isn’t enough room here to say how thrilled I am to build our custom designs with this company. Dakno knows that concierge service is #1 for us and I could not be more pleased to see that these nice guys that know there stuff is being talked about.
DAKNO IS THE BEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Can you guys fix my grammar? It’s late and I couldn’t help myself.