8 Tips for Basic Do-It-Yourself SEO
Posted in Real Estate Bloggers By Jason LaVanture, Wednesday, May 13, 2009.•1. Meta Title
Create your title using keywords and your farming area. Do NOT use ‘Home Page', ‘Index Page', or just your name in the title of your webpage. Use different titles on different pages to increase your exposure in the search engines for different search phrases. Keep this UNDER 70 characters in length.
•2. Meta Keywords
Use your key words in your web page title, in the description and throughout the content of the page. Do NOT use the same keywords for every single page on your site. Target each page to different keywords to maximize internet exposure. Keep your keywords UNDER 10 per page to better target your message.
•3. Meta Description
Use your description to tell humans and robots what your webpage is about. Search engines normally use your Meta description under the title of your site in search engine results. Like keywords and titles, your description should be different for each page on your website. Limit your description to 150 characters or less.
•4. Content
Your content should closely describe the title, keywords and description. Stay on topic and don't overuse your keywords. Search engines now use what is called semantic indexing, so you do not have to repeat yourself over and over to get indexed properly for your intended topic.
•5. Anchor text linking
Whether you are linking to internal pages on your site or pages outside of your site, be sure to use anchor text to let search engines know what the linked page is about.
•6. Internal Linking
Make sure that you are opening internal links in the same browser using anchor text. Opening a new window for every page on your website just annoys viewers and detracts from a professional image on your website. Also, limit your use of images as links and try to use anchor text navigation as much as possible on your site.
•7. Website Organization
Organize your website into specific topics and dedicate one page per topic. Don't try to explain several topics on one page. Your home page should describe a little about you and your business and act as a ‘link portal' to information on other pages of your site. Do not overwhelm viewers with EVERYTHING about you, your business and your website on the home page.
•8. Website Navigation
Website navigation should be simple and easy on the eyes. If you have a lot of pages on your website then group them into categories and provide one heading for every 4-5 page links in your left navigation. This helps viewers quickly understand the content available on your site. If you list too many links in one list, viewer's eyes will strain, people will feel overwhelmed and you will lose visitors.
Also check out:
How to Create an AWESOME Email Signature
How to Get Indexed Properly in Google
-Cheryl
Cheryl Waller
National Marketing Manager
RTV, Inc.
(866) 947-8687
http://www.realtourvision.com
PS - if you like the tips... sign up for our RTV eNews or connect to me on your favorite social network. My username is cherylwaller (all one word) on all of my networks.
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Submitted by Florence Foote on June 8, 2009 - 9:05pm.
Here's another tip: install Google toolbar. It has a handy tool that shows the pagerank of your competitor's sites, and the same tool reveals "backward links" i.e., the links that feed "juice" (which means Google pagerank power in web parlance) to those sites -- the reason that they are beating you in pagerank, and display above you on Google. This tip allows you to reverse-engineer their success. Just look to see how they got other sites to link to them, and get those sites to link to your. By the way, you don't need to restrict yourself to checking out the local competitors -- look how the top RE websites are doing it in tech-savvy markets (silicon valley, Austin, etc.) They know what they are doing.
Submitted by Florence Foote on June 8, 2009 - 9:05pm.
Here's another tip: install Google toolbar. It has a handy tool that shows the pagerank of your competitor's sites, and the same tool reveals "backward links" i.e., the links that feed "juice" (which means Google pagerank power in web parlance) to those sites -- the reason that they are beating you in pagerank, and display above you on Google. This tip allows you to reverse-engineer their success. Just look to see how they got other sites to link to them, and get those sites to link to your. By the way, you don't need to restrict yourself to checking out the local competitors -- look how the top RE websites are doing it in tech-savvy markets (silicon valley, Austin, etc.) They know what they are doing.
Submitted by Marilyn Wilson on June 9, 2009 - 7:06am.
Here's another tip. Buy a bunch of localized domain names like Buffalorealestate, orchardparkrealestate, westsenecarealestate, lancasterrealestate and point them all toward your main website. This has been a proven tool to increase traffic and relevance in search engines. Check out the free white paper we wrote on the topic at http://waves.wavgroup.com/localism