Shock and Awe Marketing Tutorials in Plain English

While Google's algorithm is complex and has over 100 separate criteria for ranking web pages, there are really only 8 things you need to be concerned with when helping your real estate blog to show up on page 1 of Google. So, the following is your To Do List if you want top billing on the most used search engine on earth.

1. Use keywords in link text. When you link to other internal pages on your site make sure you use keyword rich anchor text that describes the page to which are linking. You also want to make sure that when other sites link to your real estate blog, they are using descriptive anchor text and not just the name or your site or "click here."

EXAMPLE:

Anchor text is the textual content in a link. The more descriptive and keyword rich the anchor text, the more relevancy and value that backlink. For example, a link that reads: real estate blogs and real estate training to RSS Pieces is actually more valuable than a link that reads RSS Pieces or Click Here.

Read also: How to build quality backlinks to your real estate blog

2. Use keywords in your title tag

According to a panel of SEO experts assembled by SEOmoz a keyword rich title tag is the most important factor in search ranking factors. The panel agreed that keyword use in the title tag is of exceptional importance.

What kind of things do you want your title tag to have in it and what should you avoid?

Your title tag should have your farm area(s) and a term related to real estate like "home," condo," or "real estate." You should avoid your name, your company name, some cutesy blog title and even your domain name (unless it too is keyword rich). Why? Simple, you only have so much space available and you need to load whatever space you have with those keywords... don't waste a single character on a word you don't need.

Read also: Real Estate Blog SEO Tip: Keyword Use in Title Tag

3. Use keywords in your heading tags (H1, H2 and H3)

Heading tags are used to describe the structure on a page, simplify page navigation for readers and to ultimately do what it is supposed to do, allow search engines to crawl your site to find relevant keywords to be shown properly in search results. Heading tags range from <H1> to <H6>, when using an <H1> tag this "simplifies the highest level of hierarchy in a post", the lower the number, the less important it is to search engines. These tags should be used wisely and not be manipulated, they support the pages overall keyword theme. Using keywords is in your heading tags is an important factor to SEO. Google recognizes that text contained between heading tags represents something more important than text not contained within heading tags. So, placing keywords between heading tags will help Google to better index your pages for your prime keywords and can significantly help boost your positions in the search results.

Read also: How to research keywords

Read also: Heading tags and search engine optimization

Note: never use more than one H1 on each page of your web page

4. Monitor and work to increase your PageRank on both your homepage and internal pages.

PageRank is Google's way of assigning a value to your real estate blog or website based upon it's perceived authority. While Google calculates PageRank continuously based on complex algorithms, it only updates the Google PageRank toolbar (data centers) about every three to four months. By simply following the rest of the tips in this post, you should slowly increase your PageRank over time. In general, you should see a PageRank increase at every other PageRank Update until your hit a 4 or a 5. As a local real estate blog, you should not expect to hit anything over a 5, however if you do, consider yourself blessed. PageRank goes from 0-10, the only known 10 being Google itself! (FYI: MSN is an 8 and Yahoo is a 9).

Read also: What is PageRank and How Often Is It Updated?

Read also: Top 5 On-page Optimization Tips for Real Estate Blogs

5. Be sure that each page contains more than 200 words of relevant, indexable content.

Keep your content on point. Make sure that each post is about real estate or your community and no post is under 200 words long. It is better to post less on topic content than to post a bunch of short random musings on every topic from your chocolate addiction to a bad hair day.

According to SEO experts over at SEOmoz, Keyword Relevance to Body Text (the topical relevance of text on the page compared to targeted keywords) is highly important to search engines. They consider that factor greatly when trying to determine how well your real estate blog will show in their indexes for common search terms included in your meta tags.

Read also: Real Estate Blog SEO Tip: Keyword Relevance to Overall Body Text

Read also: Formula for a successful blog post

6. Update your real estate blog content at least 3-5 times per week.

Fresh content is what Google wants to see, so be sure to add new content or update old content at least 3-5 times per week. Each time you post to your real estate blog, it should automatically ping the various social networks, blog directories, Google and other search engines, notifying them that you have fresh content on your site and they should send out the bots to index these new pages.

Read also: Road Trip: SEO tips inspired by our trip to NAR

7. Actively seek new links to your site from other related websites but do not build backlinks too fast

Backlinks, links from other sites to your real estate blog, help to improve your credibility with search engines, online visibility, content reach and traffic. Therefore, building quality backlinks is just as important to the health and well being of your real estate blog as the content that you write. So, let's take a good hard look at not only why and how search engines value backlinks but now you go about building quality backlinks through an easy to follow link campaign.

Read also: Ultimate Guide to building backlinks

8. Wait until your domain name ages.

Basically, this one tip is just one you get to sit back, relax and wait for. The older your domain, the more Google trusts your content, so like fine wine, your domain name is better with age!

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