Already August, and another month to talk about another important feature of the Enterprise Platform, Search Engine Optimization. A successful online marketing strategy requires more than just an outstanding website; it also needs an aggressive SEO plan. Today 87% of all buyers use the internet in their home search- but are they using your website? This is an important question and also why an SEO plan is necessary. Still questioning how this relates? SEO more simply put:

SEO= traffic= qualified leads= sales

There are many ways to employ SEO and it takes more than just picking your keywords. Active Website specializes in SEO and analysis in-house. Maintaining SEO is not a one-time occurrence, it is a continual process, yearly-monthly-weekly, that evolves with the changes in search engine technology. With multiple areas of a website that contribute to SEO it is a full-time requirement. But for starters I am going to cut it down to the most important areas you must focus on.

5 SEO Must Do’s:

1. Choose your keywords wisely:  Choosing keywords can be tough, and is often highly competitive. Make sure to choose some less specific keywords to win as well. Big City Real Estate is sure to be a highly competitive keyword, but with people localizing thier searches, it might benefit you more to target Suburb Real Estate. At least you’ll be at the top of the list for all those people who know exactly where they are looking for real estate.

2. Content: focus on content that will contribute to your SEO. This means the keywords that you picked out need to be used in the text of your website. Don’t think a real estate website has much room for SEO focused content? Think again- community profiles are one of the easiest and most successful areas to put SEO targeted content. Knowing what we do about localized content the most obvious place to use those keywords is on the community pages of your website.

3. Blog…blog….blog: That’s right- Blogs are a great SEO tool. Make sure that it is directly tied in with your website. Search Engines like these dynamic blogs because the content is continually refreshed. New content keeps them, and hopefully your customers coming back.But don’t let your blog content suffer just because you are trying to keep the search engines happy- talk truthfully about your great area that you serve and you will have no problem keeping both your customers and the search engines happy.

4. Link It: An important tool for SEO is links and back-links. Ever blogging about an article on CNN? Linking to the original article is a boost to your website. You are linking to a well recognized outlet. You also want the links back- which may not be so easy from CNN. But, what about local businesses that you work with a lot, regional non-profits,  and especially local colleges and universities? Anyone that you have a partnership or relationship with already can easily be transposed online as well! Post one for them if they will post one for you. 

5. Synidcate to multiple outlets:Well besides getting your listings out there to more people, syndication also allows for lots of link-backs to your website. If they find it on Trulia, and click to go to the original posting or on your companies website link, that is one more lead for you. The Enterprise Network syndicates nightly to nearly 20 outlets for all the members. This puts their listings and their name in more places, expanding their digital footprint.