If you have a website the term “SEO” has probably pinged your radar. SEO is an important component of your web presence. Whether you have funneled money into SEO advice, have attempted to boost your site rank yourself or you think the whole concept is unquantifiable “voodoo,” it’s something that sounds “difficult” yet is relatively simple to master.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization- essentially, it is the process of making your business visible to prospective buyers on the internet. In the highly localized real estate market, SEO is a huge factor to enable clients to find you using common tools like Google.

SEO Consultants make a lot of money providing advice to clients on how to best enhance their visibility in search engine results. Expert advice is often a great investment, but the truth is, there are many steps you can take on your own to make your site more visible, more trafficked, and ultimately, more profitable for your real estate business.

What will SEO really do for your website?

At its very core, search engine optimization is about driving traffic. What you are seeking is to drive the most lucrative traffic to your site. For instance, if your main business is condo sales in lower Manhattan, , attracting traffic from retirees seeking over 55 communities in Florida won’t do much to boost your bottom line.

Your site may be informative to the incidental visitors, but it won’t convert to sales. In order to convert, you need to dig in and discover the magical keywords to attract these highly desirable visitors.

Finding your keywords and putting them to work for you

The first step is identifying the best keywords and incorporating them into your site’s copy. Google offers a free tool [https://www.google.com/sktool/] to start finding these key terms and if you are registered with AdWords, will provide additional resources in making this determination.

In essence, keywords need to:

1. Relate to your site: Once you’ve identified these words, make sure the text on your site is relevant to the terms;
2. Have a high-search volume: Think like a buyer, and select the terms your target market are likely to use to gather information;
3. Have low search competition: Ranking highly for “California home sales” would be a difficult task out of the gate. However, gaining traction for something more specific like “Santa Monica beach homes” would be much easier.

Content is king…

This oft-repeated mantra refers to the information on your site. Search engines index your site based on what content it offers. Videos, images and galleries are great for actual human readers, but it’s important to fill your site with relevant information for search engines to “find” you.

Writing solely for the search engines to index is a fundamentally flawed strategy, however, it generally fails to convert your target market. Drowning a site in content isn’t good either, as visitors will quickly glaze over in an attempt to find the information relevant to their needs.

Content includes:

• Titles: Catchy, attention grabbing phrases that sum up your body content in a condensed way;
• Body: The copy that makes up the bulk of your site’s content;
• Keywords: The carefully selected terms around which your content is centered;
• Links: Links encourage reciprocity and further assist search engines in indexing your site;
• Dynamic content: An ongoing part of your site’s content- this aspect will ensure that your site remains fresh. A blog or even an incorporated Twitter feed can keep your content dynamic.

…but don’t overlook Metadata

Metadata is the part of your site that readers generally can’t see but is visible to search engines. Metadata includes:

• Domain Name: Keywords in your domain name will be helpful to drive traffic, but high competition for certain related words could diminish this effect.
• Title Tags: These surround your title and affect how that title is presented, such as <title>Real Estate Sales Training, Social Media, Technology <title>
• Meta Tags: Meta tags relate to the way your site is described, such as <meta name=”description” content=”Neil Schwartz will provide you with powerful real estate sales training and social media advice to take your business to the next level.” />
• Alt Tags: The descriptions that, for instance, display when text or video does not. An example being: <img src=”https://yoursite.com/images/1680broadway.jpg” alt=“flatiron pre-war co-op” />
• Headings: Denoted by the tags H1, H2, and so on, these dictate the importance of content on your site.
• Sitemaps: These are a list of pages on your site that search engines can “crawl.”
• URL/Site Structure: The way URLs on your site are arranged. These structures can indicate when content was added, what type of content it is, and determines how intuitive it is to navigate your site. Avoid special characters, and use dashes instead of underscores when creating URLs.

Links and SEO strategy

Links are one of the most essential- if not the most essential- basis on which search engine credibility is built for a website. If more sites link to your content, search engines will hold it in higher esteem and it will earn higher rankings. When many sites link to yours, it tells search engines your content is trusted and sought out.

Building this rapport can take time, but there are a three key ways to actively boost the number of sites that link to you.

• Social Media: Digg, Reddit, Twitter, Facebook… the list is endless. If you take a bit of time to interact meaningfully, these sites can be a good way to encourage linking to your site.
• Directories and listings: Relevant directories in your industry are a good avenue to get your site noticed and indexed.
• Forums and message-boards: Niche discussion forums often allow for links in signatures, which can build the number of instances in which your site is linked.
• Competitors: Competitive analysis is very easy on the web, contacting a site’s administrator to get listed alongside your competition can result in more links.

Implementing the above strategies for your real estate site can make a massive difference in SEO success. Have you found certain SEO strategies particularly effective for your site?