So, someone has talked to you about Search Engine Optimization or SEO and the pivotal role it plays in getting your real estate website “found” online. You may have gone to a class or talked to a “Guru” but one thing is fairly certain, somewhere inside the conversation the topic of real estate content and real estate back links came up. So you went to the internet and asked a search engine a question and you ended up here. Welcome. So, What is real estate content? What is a real estate back link? Which one do you need? Which one is better? Or do you need – Both? OK let’s talk about 2 of the most important factors for getting your real estate website ranked well in search engines – Real Estate Content and Real Estate Back Links.
Your efforts as an online marketer will not even get off the ground if you don’t have enough targeted traffic to your website. Some real estate agents buy traffic and some pay for advertisements on national real estate websites like Zillow, Realtor.com, Trulia and Active Rain. One great way of getting enough targeted traffic to your real estate website is by ranking well in search engine results. Besides the fact that you will get more traffic to your website, this traffic source is also FREE, you don’t need to pay anyone for it. How do you do this? Create great Real Estate Content.
What Is Real Estate Content?
First lets talk about what real estate content is. Real Estate Content is anything on your website for the benefit of humans. Blog posts, pictures, videos, pod casts, PDF’s, images, e-books about real estate. Content as they say is King. The content on your real estate website is everything from the graphics and look of your website design to the text on the website itself. All of the real estate content on your website comes together to create a user experience that [if done well] converts home buyers and sellers from “just looking” into a phone call, email or submitted form. The most effective real estate website content can be used to help you get found in the search engines. The best real estate content should be unique, dynamic, engaging and ultimately valuable to your ideal client. Real estate Content is what consumers are asking search engines for. “Short Sale vs Foreclosure”, “Ahwatukee homes for sale” “Real Estate Content and Real Estate Back Links”. Content helps with your SEO.
What is SEO?
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the act of optimizing your website so that it ranks higher in the SERP’s or search engine results. The result of good, well optimized content is a stream of targeted website visitors. Good optimized content needs to appeal to humans as well as search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing and YouTube. The content on your website, should have keywords and related keyword phrases like “Phoenix Homes For Sale” or “4 bedroom 2 bath homes for sale Laveen” etc. Great content, people like to consume will naturally help to build links – organically, which is another major consideration of search engine optimization.
What Is A Back Link?
Now that you know what content is let’s talk about building links – AKA link building AKA back links. What are real estate back links? The name back link is a little misleading to people. Why it is called a back link is beyond me, it should be called a forward link because it is a link from another website to yours with anchor text. Anchor text is the text that is linked in an outbound link to another website. It looks like this:
Real Estate professionals are learning to shift their marketing from outbound to inbound marketing for real estate to help real estate consumers find them online when they have a need for their products or services
In the example above inbound marketing for real estate is a real estate back link from this website MyTitleGuy.com to FoundWithProfound.com with the anchor rext being inbound marketing for real estate
The link text should be a keyword or phrase that is relevant to the page on your website it is pointed to. Which should also be relevant to the page it is found on. Search engines like Google count real estate back links as a vote for your website. The more RELEVANT real estate back links pointing to your website the better your website should rank if it is properly optimized.
What Is Optimization?
Of course all of this assumes that your website is properly optimized. Most real estate website are simply not. You can have the best content in the world and a ton of back links and without your real estate website being properly optimized it could be all for not. By properly optimized I mean:
- Page titles in the 1st few sentences of your page content
- Proper use of headline tags for paragraphs
- text markup
- keyword density
- images properly labeled
- internal linking
- external linking
- usable and readable content written by someone who has command of the English language and is writing to US based readers.
Remember this: Real Estate Content is for humans and back links are for search engines. Both content and back links are important in getting your real estate website found online. In my opinion the best way to create real estate content consumers want to read is to draw from your own personal experiences and knowledge as a real estate agent or REALTOR to educate your audience and the best way to do that is to tell a story. Want to learn more about creating great real estate content or relevant back links for your real estate website? Please fill out the form below.
