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| The Tao of SEO: Mastering Website Advertising |
RECBL - Real Estate News
Referrals are your best leads, but the next best way to get leads that convert is with a good SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategy. What is SEO? It’s simply the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website. SEO helps the people who are looking specifically for what you have to offer find you easily and quickly.
Albino Garcia, SEO expert and CEO of iIntercept Media and Director of Marketing for AZ Social Realty, has dozens of suggestions for helping REALTORS(R) get more attention online with his spotlight on Mastering Website Advertising. We’ve included just a few strategies to create more website leads.
As a REALTOR(R), you sell a lot of different types of homes, but to capture the attention of homebuyers who want to buy a specific kind of home, the more descriptors you can link to your site, the more buyers you’ll attract. If someone is looking for their dream cabin, castle, four-bedroom ranch, or tree-house, you want to let them know you have a listing that matches what they’re looking for.
SEO produces the highest-converting leads.
SEO helps people find you, but, more importantly, it helps people who are ready to buy, looking to buy, and eager to buy. That’s why it’s such a valuable tool-but unfortunately not one many REALTORS(R) use as effectively as they should. Garcia has three steps REALTORS(R) can implement immediately to start generating leads:
Step 1: Add your business to mobile and online maps.
Do this by claiming and optimizing your company on Google My Business, Bing Places profile, and other social media sites.
- Have a unique description that links back to your site.
- Select the right category for your business. Have as many photos as possible-the more, the better.
- Have a complete profile.
- Get as many reviews on your site as possible.
- Make sure your name, address, and phone number are the same across all your social media pages, including Google My Business, Yelp, your website, and any other social media sites (Facebook, etc.). Google looks for that when ranking sites.
- Get local reviews. Not every customer or client will leave a review, so make sure to ask your happy clients to leave a review. Most are happy to rave about you when you’ve done a great job.
Step 2: Optimize your website for Google and other search engines using SEO.
Make sure you optimize your title and your meta description tags on each page. If you’re not sure how to do that, there are online tutorials and articles to help you figure it out, or you can hire someone. Title tags need to have a unique description. In fact, Garcia said, "Every page on your website should have a title and a description relevant to the information on that page. It’s how Google ranks pages."
- Use an additional markup called "schema markup." Schema is a process that allows your web manager to mark up your web pages with additional coding that allows search engines to find your site easier.
- Optimize page content. Does your content relate to the title and heading? Is the information useful? Longer is better when it comes to content, and content is important when it comes to SEO.
- Images can also be optimized. Make sure your images have a keyword related to your title. Make sure there is an "alt-image" tag on all your images. It should also be keyword-related.
"Generate buzz around your business," Garcia said. There’s only so much buzz you can create at an open house, so take to the internet. Use link-building, guest-posting, and news or public relations stories on your website to help build the buzz. "Google is in the business of providing searchers the best results possible, so their algorithms are all about doing that. Your business should also follow that model. How can your website deliver the best results possible and be a resource for your searchers?" Garcia asked.
The best ways to help generate buzz and visitors to your site are:
Link-Building - Links that come back to your website from quality sources that people trust can help build your reputation with search engines. Make sure your business is found on legitimate sources across the web like Yelp, Google My Business, Bing Profile, Craigslist and Realtor.com, or sponsor a local sports team that will link back to your website. Follow influencers in your industry. Have a LinkedIn profile.
Guest-Posting - The objective is to create a blog which links to your website which someone else will post on their website. Find good writers in your niche and engage with them, follow them, retweet them and reach out to them and ask if you can write a guest post for their site that links back to yours. This creates links back to your website, increases traffic to your site, and legitimizes your ideas.
Press Releases - There are more newsworthy things happening around your business than you realize. By putting out a press release, you’ll get the attention of journalists and others who will want to know more. The more information, quality content, news, and updates you can get online, the better.
Garcia shared a variety of apps, tools, tips, and websites which can help REALTORS(R) learn more about SEO and apply it to their websites. If you would like to learn more, view the entire 5 part series, Mastering Website Advertising or pick up the free eBook, REI Marketing Solutions: How to Market Your Real Estate like the Professionals.
For more tips on how to increase your website traffic, please visit www.iinterceptmedia.com
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