RealTown's RealTalk

For those of you that like to check out the assertions made by your website provider that they have optimized your website for SEO, this can be done very easily. Or, if you would just like to know if your website is SEO congruent (harmonious), take a look at these simple steps:

1. From Google, type in the search "cache:www.yourdomain.com" (without the quotes and putting your domain name in for "yourdomain.com".

2. You should see a large rectangular box above your website with the statement of when this "snapshot" of your website was taken. Note: If this page looks completely different, your webmaster has probably created a "cloaking" page that diverts human searches from Google's. This is considered "black-hat" SEO, and if caught will heavily penalize your rankings.

3. Now look to the far right of the large grey box above your website and you should see the words "Text-only version". This is a link. Click on it.

4. What you are now looking at is what Google is able to index for your Home page. This alone will tell you if you have the right kind of text that will draw in visitors. But if you want to know if your website has been optimized properly, continue on.

5. Now take a look at your Title. It is always found above the address bar just before you go off the monitor. This text represents your Title, and is the most important text that the search engines index for your keyword phrases. Let's say that yours is halfway decent, and is "Denver Luxury Homes" for example.

6. Holding down the CTRL key, briefly touch the F key (for Find), and type in "Denver luxury homes" (capitalization doesn't matter). How many times did you find this phrase in your text/content? If you are like most agents the answer is embarrassing.

If your website was truly congruent (optimized for the major search engines), you would see several occasions of this phrase in your content. If not, then I'm sorry, but your website content is not congruent with the Title of your website. This is a major reason why most agents are not found high on the search engines (along with many other reasons of course).

To fix this, you simply need to:

1. Add a few keyword phrases into your Title (not exceeding 66 characters and spaces).

2. Now add these keyword phrases into the content below, maybe 4 to 5 times per keyword phrase depending upon the amount of text that you have. Don't be too aggressive. The most you should do is put the keyword phrase into a paragraph header and then once in that paragraph (but only once per paragraph).

Just these simple steps could make all the difference in the world for those of you who like to get your hands dirty and play with SEO yourself.

All My Best,
Randy Eagar, CRS
WebsTarget SEO
www.WebsTarget.com

Good info! SEO folks are usually so hush-hush about how it's all done.

Actually, it is not good SEO people who are 'hush hush', it is bad ones. If somebody really knows what to to, and can get a client to understand what is involved, it is to their advantage to explain. Do not believe the 'hush hush' guys, really. This article is wonderful, and I suspect it is going to reap havock on a bunch of not so good 'hush hush' web design companies!

Hi Randy,

Thanks for the great info! Can you tell me where/how to add keyword phrases into my title? (I do have those words already in the content of the listings). I went to edit my homepage but didn't see where that could be done. I called the website host (VLS homes) and they said that was nothing they could help with, that I need to use a SEO company. (BTW I'm switching to Point 2 as soon as I finish the ePro class!) Thanks for any suggestions.

Rebecca Bailey - Town & Country Properties, Inc.

@Randy,

That text-only version is not an accurate representation of what the spiders see. It is applying styles and some of the css menus hide items and then show them when the rest of the menu loads.

You need to google for one of the spider simulators.

Malcolm Waring, Realtor, e-PRO
Pocono Real Estate

I am sure he could show you that, and perhaps you would like to show me how to list and sell my own house!

Rebecca Bailey wrote: Can you tell me where/how to add keyword phrases
into my title? (I do have those words already in the content of the
listings). I went to edit my homepage but didn't see where that could be
done. I called the website host (VLS homes) and they said that was
nothing they could help with, that I need to use a SEO company. (BTW I'm
switching to Point 2 as soon as I finish the ePro class!)
_________________

Rebecca, I don't know anything about your current site, but you'll find
it very easy to edit your title tags on your Point2 site. When you're in
'edit pages' mode, there will be a grey rectangle near the top center of
each page. Click the "Page Name and Search Engine Information" link.

To make your Point2 site work well, you'll need to replace much of its
"canned" content with original content that you've written (or had
written) about your area. This can be time-consuming. Plus, it can take
quite awhile to get good placement in the search engines. Consider going
ahead and starting on your Point2 site now. When you set up your
account, you'll be given a temporary subdomain such as
"rebeccabaily.point2agent.com". You can use that as your address until
you're ready to transfer your domain to your new site.

Suzanne

--
Suzanne Hathcock Stephens
Point2Agent Qualified Web Site Designer
http://www.SuzStephens.com
360-666-0881

@Rebecca,

Your home page is your search page and the title is "Search Property Listings" which is a bit too generic.

I think there may be a misunderstanding with your hosting company because it should be simple to change the title.

I'm sending you an email.

Malcolm Waring, Realtor, e-PRO
Pocono Real Estate

Rebecca said:

". . . they said that was nothing they could help with, that I need to use a SEO company. (BTW I'm switching to Point 2 as soon as I finish the ePro class!) Thanks for any suggestions. "

Rebecca - You should have a website that you can change the basic areas such as:

Title, Content (that the viewer reads) and your MLS listings. There are many other things that you should be able to modify yourself without having to go back to your webmaster, but these are the basics.

Point 2 is a good webmaster that will allow you to do these things (Very good if you are considering upgrading to their paid version), but they nor do any of the other major website vendors do SEO . . . real SEO. Don't buy into the "all in one" solution.

Randy Eagar, CRS
WebsTarget SEO
www.WebsTarget.com

Hi, Rebecca;

Point 2 is the right choice for you as to a personal website.

We have several hundred Point2 members as clients and we provide REAL SEO for agents and brokers all over North America. I will send you a great booklet that will help you understand what goes on in SEO.

One thing I have noticed, however; it is sometimes fashionable to try to impress the unknowing with fancy phrases and high tech talk. The entire principle about SEO is that when you hire it done right, you don't need to fiddle around with anything but handling leads and selling homes.

Here's an actual email sent by one of our clients to an inquirer yesterday. If you would like to deal with leads instead of educators, give us a call!