First, what is a sitemap?  A sitemap is a way to let search engines like Google and Yahoo know the pages that are on your website. Now, you might say, I thought Google was supposed to send GoogleBot out to find out about all of the pages on my site, why do I need this sitemap?  Well, GoogleBot will still visit your website but it may miss pages.  Creating a sitemap can allow Google to quickly and easily add more of your web pages to their index.  And the more pages we have in the index, the greater... 

As you are working on your overall search engine marketingefforts, it is nice to see how Google is tracking your progress. :)  A wonderful free resource is the Google Webmaster Tools.  This allows you to track keep track of your websites with Google and stay on top of things like your Sitemaps and the most recent keywords people are finding your website on. If you haven’t yet signed up for the Google Webmaster Tools(it is FREE ), here are a couple of ways you can check to see what Google... 

Ok so I have to confess I am what they call a domain attic. I still own over 100 domain names for different real estate websites that I promised my family I would create or do something with. The real problem isn’t that I own over 100 domain names but I am not using them. Some of them don’t follow my rules and while some would say rules are meant to be broken in the case of spending money on real estate domain names I would have to disagree. So I thought it would be best if I told others... 

What is standing in the way of most real estate professionals and success in the search engines is something that is not technical at all.  The reality is that most real estate professionals don’t understand the simple benefits of keywords and the content on their website.  Here are some tips to break down the fears of content creation so you can start succeeding with your real estate SEO efforts. Develop a list of keywords that relate to your website’s focus.  You can do this by... 

As the new year is fresh and many real estate professionals rush to enhance or start their web presence we wanted to share some of the differences between a web developer vs. a web marketer so everyone knows what they are getting into.  Some companies exist to put up websites for individuals in real estate without much concern if that website actually produces leads.  Here are some items to consider: Web Developer Creates web pages with an understanding of what a good user experience would be Does... 

Looking at just the home page of your website to ensure a user gets to the “most important” areas of your website can be a big mistake. I have seen some groups state that you MUST put a tool to search the MLS and a tool for CMA’s prominent on your home page because that’s what a internet buyer is looking for. While I think they are often looking for that type of information, only making tools like that easy to get to on your home page can lead to losing the visitors who enter... 

One of the best ways to kick start your website in the search engines is to let them know that you exist! Here are 4 places that you must submit your website to, in order to be found. Google - www.Google.com/addurl Dmoz.org - This open directory project is a must have! - www.Dmoz.org MSN - They are quickly growing their search engine and you will definitely want to be a part of the growth. - http://search.msn.com/docs/submit.aspx Yahoo - The number #2 Search Engine can’t be ignored. They have... 

4 Key Factors to determine search engine relevance. There was a great post on SEOMoz that I wanted to make sure I could share. It really helps break down the sometimes complex theories of the algorithms of the search engines into 4 simple rules. This post was done by Randfish and I definitely encourage everyone to take some time to review the post. Here is a breakdown of his 4 key factors: Keyword Usage and Content Relevance - He breaks this rule down from the obsolete idea of keyword stuffing to... 

Patience helps you see how your real estate SEO efforts are progressing. Often we make changes like updating content, adding new links to pages and then immediately check Google to see what happened Unfortunately it’s not an instant world at this point so we have to wait a bit to see what the effects are of what we are doing. If you use some of the tools provided at http://www.seomoz.org/ you will be able to track your progress. Here are some of the results we have encountered on one our websites... 

As you are adding to your web presence, it is important that when you do add content that it is viewed by as many people as possible. Here are 5 tips to increase your page visibility: Focused Content - Don’t try to accomplish too much in 1 page. When you write a page concentrate on a particular topic (like california first time buyers, or condos in Long Beach) so the meaning of your page will be clear to visitors and to the search engines. PPC Ad - Create a PPC ad on Google and Yahoo and direct...