6 MOST IMPORTANT SEO RANKING FACTORS FOR REAL ESTATE WEBSITES

Search engine optimization (SEO) isn’t only about content with relevant keywords. Although this aspect of SEO carries a lot of weight, more goes into a strong SEO strategy for real estate websites. When you want results, you must look deeper into the website at components like the URL, social media utilization, organic backlinks, and the overall structure of the website. It doesn’t even stop there, which is why it’s important to know the following list of important ranking factors for real estate websites.

On-Page SEO for Real Estate

On-page SEO is where you will utilize your keywords. You need to have keywords in the content but also in the title tag and meta description. You can also use keywords in the alt tags of images. This is called “image optimization,” and it’s important because search engines can’t see images. Search engines rely on alt tags to properly index an image.

Search engine algorithms also prefer fresh content. This can be achieved by updating content as needed and posting regular blog posts to the website. As you refresh content and post new content, it is good to make sure you link internally to other pages on the website. This creates a hierarchy that visitors and search engines can follow.

The Website’s URL

It is good to have a keyword in the URL. This is an on-page SEO strategy that’s important. To do that, make sure the “slug” after the .com in the URL is the page title. If the page title contains the keyword, you’re in business. This sends a positive signal to Google.

Outbound Links

Another important element of on-page SEO is the outbound links. Find an authoritative source and link to it. It’s a way to send a user to another site to learn more about a subject. Why do you want to do this? It’s because it’s a Google trust factor. Make sure these links are used in moderation because too many can hurt your own PageRank. Diminished PageRank hurts your real estate website’s search visibility.

Off-Page SEO for Real Estate

Off-page SEO involves tactics that are carried out outside of the website. Obtaining inbound links is a good strategy because they show that other websites have trust in your website. However, you want to make sure that these links are acquired organically. Registering with business directories can hurt you more than help you. This has made the directory an obsolete link-building tactic. Think about quality over quantity when it comes to links. As a real estate website, many of your links will happen naturally because people will share property listings from your website. Most of these shares occur over social media.

Social Media

When using social media to give your real estate business an online boost, don’t rely on just Facebook. Make sure you have a Google My Business page, engage on Twitter, use Instagram, and make an impact in the world of social media so people will share your content. Shared content means more traffic. More traffic translates into a better ranking.

Real Estate Website Structure

Of course, the website coding needs to be clean. A good web designer will ensure there isn’t a lot of “junk” in the code that can bog down the website. A good web designer will also make sure you have a sitemap that helps search engines index all website pages. There are also some trust factors that must be included. Some of those factors include:

• A thorough “About Us” page
• Social media accounts that are active
• A domain name that is at least two years old (this comes with time)
• Whois info (website registration) that matches your contact info
• Check incoming links occasionally to make sure they are trustworthy so you can eliminate those that aren’t
• Not too many outbound links throughout the site
• A mobile-optimized website so it can be viewed on any device
• A domestic server
• Google Search Console integration (verification counts)

These aren’t all the trust factors, but they are very relevant to real estate websites and should be taken into consideration.

SEO Checklist

If you really want to dive deep into SEO for your real estate website, you can look at an SEO checklist. The list has approximately 200 items that include everything from domain length to duplicate content on the same website. If you can hit as many of those points as possible on your website, with those described in this article being those you want to target first, then you can greatly improve your website’s ranking.

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5 SEO TIPS TO MAKE YOUR BLOG A MASSIVE SUCCESS

Blogging is a key component of any digital marketing strategy. A blog can be an extremely powerful way to promote your business’s website, or it can be a business venture all on its own.

Blogging is a powerful way to deliver quality content and establish yourself, your company, or both as a thought leader in your field. Blogs have helped countless online personalities and businesses to garner much success and notoriety.

Here are just a few things you can focus on to give your blog an edge with SEO.

Get Your Own Quality Hosting

Step one in creating your massively popular blog is getting your very own domain name and hosting. If you do a quick search for blog hosting, you’ll come across countless links that promote free hosting. Ignore these.

Free hosting is great for someone looking for an outlet to write about a hobby or post pictures of family outings. However, if you’re serious about using your blog as a marketing tool or even as a business venture of its own, avoid these free hosts.

Imagine you’re reading a blog that is full of decent content but is covered in ads and logos from the free site it’s hosted on. It’s likely you won’t perceive this blog or its writer as an expert in the field it’s discussing.

You’re not alone. Most searchers view these blogs hosted on free domains as lower in quality and authority. Surely, someone that is an expert on a given topic would have his or her own domain. If searchers don’t take your blog on a free domain seriously, you can trust Google will avoid directing traffic your way.

Purchase a branded domain name and secure hosting. You’ll legitimize your blog as a trustworthy source on your topic.

Always Focus on Valuable Content

If you’ve done any amount of reading on SEO, you know that content plays a vital role in gaining site authority. Keep in mind that Google’s main mission on the web is to direct its millions of users toward the most valuable and relevant content.

Your blog’s content should aim to answer questions on your topic and deliver insight relevant to the problems of your target audience. Although blog content is typically a written post, you can also leverage various content types, like:

• Original Videos or Vlogs
• Audio Recordings and Podcasts
• Pictures

As always, original content is key here. Get into the mind of your ideal reader. What questions does he or she have? Use this thought process to develop valuable, original content that the search engines can point users toward.

Produce Regularly

One of the best ways to build a solid blog following is producing quality content consistently and regularly. Posting regularly lets your readers know when they can expect additional content and tells Google that your site is active. Google crawls a site with much less frequency when it believes it to be inactive.

In addition to conditioning your readers to look for your content and letting Google know your site is active, producing regularly is also a fast way to build a library of valuable content. The more quality posts you produce on your blog, the higher your authority in your field will rise.

Use Internal Linking

As you begin to produce high-quality content more often and build up a solid collection of content, you can give context to new posts by linking to previous blog articles. Not only does this add content to your newer posts, it also directs readers to older posts they may have missed but would be interested in reading. These internal links also help build up your authority and boost the SEO of your previous articles.

Utilize SEO Plugins

There are multiple SEO plugins you can leverage to create more optimized blogs posts. These plugins perform an analysis and aid with selecting keywords that you can base your posts on. Most of these plugins will also help ensure that you put keywords in optimal places, write optimized meta descriptions, and proper keyword density and focus.

Optimize Your Headings

Including optimized headings on your blog posts help readers easily navigate your content and gives you an SEO boost. These headings make it easier for search engine bots to understand the major points and topics of your post. This is especially true for longer blog posts.

Blogs can be powerful tools for SEO and digital marketing. Whether you’re blogging to improve the authority of your business’s website or you hope to make the blog itself your new business venture, if you keep these above tips in mind, you’ll be well on your way to a successful blog.

Need help with your blog? We have several blog posting packages available that include everything from writing to posting.

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THE BEST WEBSITE OPTIMIZATION AND LEAD GENERATION TECHNIQUES FOR RENOVATION COMPANIES

The renovation business is highly competitive. One way you can get an edge over the competition is through a strong online presence that can effectively capture leads so you can grow your business. To create a web presence, you must first build a strong website and fully utilize your social media accounts so you can attract the audience that can potentially become your leads.

If you don’t have a website, now is the time to get one and integrate clean code, image optimization, keyword optimized title tags, page titles that contain keywords, and meta descriptions that have the relevant search terms. You want a clean design that can be easily followed by visitors. You also want a compelling blog that is updated regularly so you can keep your content fresh and utilize more relevant keywords. Blog posts also give you more shareable content, which is important for engaging and growing your audience.

Key Components of Renovation Website Optimization

Properly optimizing your website also involves experimentation. You will optimize, check the analytics, and make the appropriate changes so the website performs. You will keep measuring results until the changes you make start to make the numbers settle where you want them to be. For instance, your bounce rate may be too high. This indicates that you need to make your homepage more engaging. Perhaps it is too cluttered with videos, pictures, and even text. Too much text on a homepage can cause a person to run away in a heartbeat. Get to the point quickly without sacrificing the SEO, and your chances of having a winning homepage increase.

With a tool like Google Analytics, you can look at individual pages that visitors aren’t clicking through. You can change those pages to alter the results and see what works the best. Compare poorly performing pages with those that perform well, and note the differences so you can integrate the positive differences into the poorly performing pages.

Many times, the changes have to do with the keywords that are being used, content that is too long, or content that isn’t answering the questions that people have when they arrive at the website.

Make sure you have social share buttons on your pages and blog posts so visitors can easily share. This is especially useful for people visiting via their mobile devices because it’s not easy for a mobile user to copy a URL and then go to the desired social media site and paste the link in a status update. That’s a lot of work. A social media share button makes sharing a lot easier, which is going to help you get the leads that you want.

Capturing Leads

Once the site is optimized, particularly in the content department, a person may be more likely to provide their contact information. You can gather leads for your renovation company by putting up a subscribe form so you can capture their email addresses. With that email address, you can send out a newsletter, email updates, tips, and more. The more valuable the content, the more you will be trusted. That trust starts with whatever is on the page that makes them want to give you their information. What you are doing is generating an organic interest in what you are offering. If someone is thinking about renovating their kitchen but they aren’t sure that’s what they want to do, you want to put content on your site that can convince them to inquire with you or join your email list.

There is a formula that can help you, and it goes like this:

1. Attract the audience through your keyword optimized content, engaging blog posts, and social media posts.
2. Convert the audience to prospects with engaging landing pages that contain forms and calls to action that encourage the visitors to take the desired step.
3. Close the lead transaction with an email thanking them for joining your list or contacting you.
4. Delight the prospect with great content, surveys, and other engaging elements that build trust.

From there, you can offer coupons and other items that will make your leads want to do business with you. Offers are wonderful tools for getting that person who is thinking about a renovation to take that step. Perhaps money is the issue. If you have a payment plan or financing that they can apply for, letting them know may give them exactly what they’re looking for to finally go through with the renovation of their dreams.

Do It Right and Win

If you correctly optimize your website and create engaging content that will turn visitors into leads, you can have that edge over the competition that you’ve been seeking. As you build your list of leads, you will notice that your customer list will grow as well.

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