There are over 30 different elements to optimizing your real estate web site to win high rankings within the search engines. For the purposes of this article, we will only be focusing on the most important factors of website optimization.
Below are the five most critical search engine components you will need to implement in the optimization of your real estate Website to make your search engine real estate marketing a success.
- Optimized Web page titles
Most search engines give strong relevancy to your Web page title as long as it is consistent with the body of content in your real estate web site. Many search engines and directories display your Web site title as the main subject line (the headline) in their search engine results. This is the first thing a Web searcher will see when your listing appears. This is why it is important to have both keyword density and a powerful attention grabbing title for your Web page. Being ranked on the first page of search engine results is only half the battle. The full battle is only won when the real estate consumer clicks on your listing versus your competitor’s listing.
Your title must grab the reader’s attention and compel them to click on your listing. Keep in mind the average Internet consumer demographic is not at a tabloid level. Do not use tabloid-style writing on the Internet. The educational approach is still the most effective marketing style on the Net. People are looking for an informative description of what they will find on your site. “Pitchy” language will likely turn people away.
Each page of your Web site needs to have a unique title that properly integrates that page's target search engine real estate marketing key phrase. The search engine real estate marketing title must be a compelling statement with high keyword density. In direct response marketing, 80 percent of an advertisement’s effectiveness depends on the headline.
The example below from San Diego vacation rentals illustrates an effective page title:
“San Diego vacation rentals compare all rentals with all San Diego hotels”
This title actually covers two very prominent key phrases: "San Diego vacation rentals" and "San Diego hotels." Each of these phrases comprise 33 percent or less of the total title, which is ideal. It’s still written in such a way that it is still readable, descriptive of the web site and is very appealing to the search engines for those particular search phrases.
- Optimized Web page description tags
The description tag plays an important role in your online real estate marketing. Most search engines use your web site description in their relevancy scoring methods. Like the page title, this tag is invisible to the main browser view window, but displayed in the search results under the title. Your description must also contain a high keyword density to contribute to your overall search engine real estate marketing effectiveness.
The description tag should be no longer than 250 characters and convey a compelling reason for consumers to choose your real estate Web site over your competitor's site. Your keyword density here should not be any higher than 15 percent in this section.
To illustrate how to write an effective page description, take a look at the Web site description for San Diego vacation rentals:
<meta name="Description" content="san diego vacation rentals works to compare vacation rental homes in San Diego with all rooms in san diego hotels">
- Optimized Web page keyword meta tags
A few small search engines still reference the old keyword Meta tag. Because many webmasters used this tag to Spam the search engines, it holds very little relevancy anymore in building a successful online marketing program.
For the few that still spider the keyword meta tags, we suggest only adding your key phrase words as shown in the example below:
<meta name="Keywords" content="san diego vacation rentals, vacation homes, san diego hotels, rentals, san diego vacation homes">
(The key phrases must be entered as shown, separated by commas. You should only enter keywords that actually show up in the body text of the page.)
- Optimized Web page robot meta tags
The robot tags are important to your search engine marketing. There are two main methods in setting up your robot tags; the robot.txt document and the Robot meta tag method. Without getting into the complicated technical details of how this works, the robot tag is designed to instruct the various search engine index spiders (a.k.a. robots) on what to do when first entering your URL. The fact is the very first thing a spider looks for on your real estate web site is this tag. The simplest method of accommodating the robots is to add the following robot meta tag in the header <HEAD> area of your real estate web site.
This meta tag tells the visiting robots to index all of your real estate web site content and follow any links it finds. The robot.txt tag is a little more complicated, but can be used by professional Search Engine Optimizers to enhance your search engine marketing with the use of special instructions:
<meta name="robots" content="index,all,follow">
- Optimized Web page image alternative (ALT) tags
The image ALT tags offer an additional booster shot of optimization to your real estate web site. It is an opportunity to improve your key phrase density, while at the same time, complying with accessibility guidelines of the Internet.
Below is an example of using the image ALT tags that will improve your search engine marketing:
<img src="images/layout_illustration.gif" alt="San Diego vacation rentals are fun for the family" width="550" height="320">
Applying these 5 basic search engine real estate marketing optimization methods to your real estate web site will dramatically boost your search engine placement.
