Major Internet studies have shown that placement of your site within the first three pages of returned search results is the real key to huge traffic. In a study released by ActivMedia Research in September1999, Search Engine Positioning was ranked as the #1 website promotional method used by eCommerce sites.

Below are the results of another study that appeared in the April 2000 issue of Target Marketing Magazine:

These and other studies confirm the power of good search engine ranking. However, just submitting your site to search engines is not enough to insure you a good ranking. In this regard, keep in mind, that most site designers are not proficient at search engine keyword placement.

Unlike a yellow pages listing, search engine rankings are not alphabetical. Many ranking criteria are taken into consideration by the various engines and the criteria is constantly changing.

The key to achieving good search engine ranking is content! Yes, content is king! By good content, I’m referring to valuable, informative information your web visitors can really use. Examples of good content would be: current local area real estate trends, updated interest rates, new loan programs, and a good cross-section (with pictures) of available properties.

Next, is overall site design. The two main cirtia here are a professional appearance and ease of navigation.

The final factor one must consider is to make the site search-engine friendly. Here, the proper use of Meta tags, keyword tags, description tags, page title and keyword density can have a dramatic affect on your search-engine keyword rankings.. This is perhaps the most complicated area of site design to contend with. My suggestion here, besides reading current opinions, if you want to win the search engine placement/traffic race, you should consider hiring a firm that specializes in search engine placement. Only consider a firm that guarantees top placement for the keywords that you specify.

Current opinion on real estate sites indicates that it takes thousands of web site hits to translate into an actual sale. Top search engine placement equates to high site traffic. Every site owner hopes to be on page one of the search engine keyword results; if you want to excel here, a professional site placement firm is mandatory.

Published: January 31, 2001

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Bob Schwartz is a Certified Residential Specialist, San Diego real estate broker & co-owner of an Internet search engine optimization firm, specializing in domain name registration and Internet domain website hosting. Bob received his BBA majoring in real estate & computer programming. Bob is an expert witness for major San Diego law firms, has served on the Consumer Affairs Community of the San Diego Association of Realtors, is past president of a local HOA and co-owner of a condominium management Co., and directs a multi-state high traffic network of legal directory sites. Visit Bob's San Diego real estate blog.