Heath's Blog

Here's what I think you need to know about your own site before you answer the latest email you received from the "greatest seo guru".

First, are you in control of your code?  If you are using a template, you may not be able to change much of the seo coding.  If you have control over the code, how much?  Can you change the layout? Can you change the links? Colors? What?  It is not necessary to know how - just know what you can do with your site.  You have to know before you know what a programmer can fix.

Second, who are you trying to be found by?  How do they think?  What search engine are they using?  What are they typing into the search box?  Check your site logs to see how people are already finding you.  Know a little about how you think you will be found.

Third, google or leapfish or search some site for "SEO for real estate".  There are many who will say "I got this one guy, Umm, to like the top of the, like, search results in like three days, man".  What they don't say is that it was for the search term "tangerine ear rings."  Learn what some people are doing to seo for real estate so you can discuss that with a programmer.

Real Estate is one of the most (if not the most) competitive searches on the Net.  Think of all the agents in your own company who have their own site.  They are competing with you for the same results.  Then add all the other agents and brokers in your own little town.  Then add all the programmers that have sites so they can sell you leads.  Then add all the big dollar sites that can spend more on advertising in a day that you can in a year.  Now you see how hard it is to optimize for real estate.

But it can be done - and done without "black hat" or clandestine programming methods. 

Happy listing and selling!