With over 80% of home buyers using the Internet for their initial home search, where you land on the search engine pages can mean business success or failure. It is crucial to be at least on the first page of the major search engines like Google, Yahoo! or MSN. And ideally you should be at one of the top three positions (excluding the paid rankings). Beyond this and you’ll lose most searchers.  Here are some ideas to help you achieve this.

So what is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

Wikipedia.org succinctly describes SEO as “marketing by appealing to machine algorithms to increase search engine relevance and ultimately web traffic.” Search engines display results with Pay-Per-Click advertising and organic searches. Wikipedia goes on to say that “SEOs widely agree that the most influential factors of page ranking include:

1. keywords in the Title tag

2. keywords in links pointing to a page

3. keywords appearing in the visible text and,

4. link popularity of the page (i.e., PageRank for Google).”

So how do you get on the top of the search engines?

How you attain the top rankings for the most desirable keywords is not as elusive as you might think. Sure, it takes some work to come up with the right keywords but the fruits of your efforts will be worth it. It is also advisable to hire a specialist who has a good idea what the major search engines are currently looking for because the rules are changing all the time. Here’s what a few SEO specialists had to say about maximizing your results.

Tawnya Sutherland with Mediamage says this, “Choosing the right keywords for your web page boils down to this: If you don’t have your keywords chosen well and incorporated throughout the page of your website through various SEO techniques, you won’t be found in the search engines when it comes time to promote your services. So you must spend time and research in finding out what people will type into a search engine to find your site. It will be how people will find you so please don’t shrug it off lightly.

I’ll explain choosing keywords by giving you a real time example. Let’s say a real estate professional is located in Langley, British Columbia. As a general rule of thumb, when choosing keywords, it is easier to optimize for phrases instead of individual words like ‘realtor.’ Examples of basic keyword phrases include:

• Real estate

• Top Realtor

• Homes for sale

What is wrong with these keywords, however is that someone from Asia could type in ‘homes for sale’ looking for a house in Asia. And, here’s the problem, we don’t have any homes for sale in Asia only in Langley. Which brings us to an important strategy in choosing your keywords … localization.

Keywords localized for this real estate agent could be:

• Langley Real Estate

• Langley Homes for Sale

• BC Real Estate

• BC Top Realtor

However, you may still find a ton of competitive websites all striving for these localized keywords if you lived in a huge metropolis like Toronto. So you must start thinking of why a user is coming to your website and what second tier service (they’re looking for). For example, a more defined keyword term might be ‘relocation to Langley’ or ‘Langley condos.’ One word of advice, when choosing keywords, don’t use phrases people won’t look for like “blonde Langley realtor.”

You may want to determine the KEI (Keyword Effectiveness Index) of your targeted keywords at Wordtracker.com. This website will compare how many times a search is done for a particular keyword phrase and it will also show you the amount of competition you have for that keyword phrase on a specific search engine. This website is limited, however, unless you pay but it does give you a good start.

Another avenue to try is the Google Sandbox where you can type in one of your keyword phrases and get lots of other suggestions. Once you get the suggestions from Google, you may want to check out the competition on these keywords by going to Overture’s suggestion toolbox.”

Mindy Newman of REMSVirtual says, “Having custom written content is one very important aspect (for increasing SEO). And within this content it’s important to add keywords involving the names of towns or communities you work within. If you are listing several communities, you cannot have more than two; the search engines see this as a list and they will bypass it. To get around this, a small paragraph should be written next to each community named.

What’s more, part of the content should include a page designated to each community you work in. These pages can include information such as the history of the town, what’s it’s known for, its population, the types of homes located there, etc.

Additionally, testimonials are a great way to have other people write content for you. Just make sure they include the name of the community.”

Mindy also advises having quality reciprocal links. She suggests using DMOZ.org where you can list your website for free.

By directing people to your site through hyperlinks via your blog, online newsletter, press release, articles and memberships in organizations, you will get outside relevant links to your site thus increasing your SEO.

Ann Brown with Virtual Admins Plus recommends the following to increase your SEO. “The Title tag is the most important part of your SEO and it should appeal to both the reader and the search engine. A Title tag creates words that appear in the top bar of your Web browser. Your Title tags should contain specific keyword phrases. For instance, if you are a realtor in Dallas, you would want your website to appear in the search engine results for searches on phrases such as ‘Dallas real estate’ or ‘Dallas homes.’ So your Title tag code might look something like this: <TITLE>Jane Smith, Realtor - Dallas Real Estate – Dallas Homes<TITLE>. Placing ‘Dallas’ twice in the Title tag is both effective and allowed, but do not use one word more than two times. Search engines might frown upon that and ignore that particular search word altogether. Be sure that your Title tag is placed right after the <HEAD> tag in your website’s code.”

The second piece of advice Ann gives is “Use a Meta Description tag on all pages of your website. Also include your site’s keywords and limit the type to no more than 150 characters. A Meta Description tag is a small piece of code that belongs inside the <head> </head> section of your web page. Usually, it is placed after the Title tag, but before the Meta Keyword tag. The Meta Description tag is an exciting sentence or two that incorporates your main keyword phrases. Some search engines use your Meta Description tag as a summary of your website, so make sure that this particular tag is enticing to the reader. An example would look like this: <meta name = “description” content = “Jane Smith is a realtor in Dallas and specializes in homes for sale and real estate in Dallas and surrounding areas.”>

Ann’s final advice involves Search Engine Submission: “On any major search engine, you will see tons of ads for search engine submission, companies who promise to submit your website to hundreds of thousands of search engines. Sounds great, doesn’t it? In theory, it is. In reality, it is not. Eighty-three percent of all searches today are done on only three search engines: Google (35%), Yahoo! (32%) and MSN (16%). If you’re going to spend your hard-earned money on SEO, spend it on getting ranked on these three main search engines. Don’t waste your money submitting to search engines that only 10% of the population uses.”

Tom Lamm of Osage recommends that you ensure your site is HTML and CSS code compliant with the W3C standard. This organization sets the world standard for HTML code. “The search engine spiders balk when they find faulty HTML code. When they find non-compliant HTML, many spiders simply move on. This is not the fault of the site designer; most browsers support faulty HTML and therefore, most tools used to create sites create non-compliant code. Use the HTML and CSS Validator at the W3C site. They have both HTML Validation and CSS Validation.”

The latest in SEO

Kurt Andreassen of Pro Step Marketing said this about the latest SEO techniques, “Link bait is the hottest buzzword right now. Link bait is the ability to write compelling information or an article that people will want to link to. This produces more links pointing to your site naturally without using link exchanges. Link exchanges are (in) the past and do not provide as much weight as one-way links do. Some of the more popular link bait ideas that agents can create are ‘How To’ articles or ‘Top Ten’ lists.”

Use effective keywords and increase your SEO

When writing web copy for my clients at Brochures By Design, I always ensure that the copy is laden with the most effective keywords possible. It’s not going to help being number one for a term no one would use to find you. You need to figure out which terms viewers are actually using to find people that perform your services in your area. For example, a real estate professional in Portland that specializes in working with sellers might find the terms, “Portland home sales,” “Portland real estate sales”, “Selling real estate in Portland” or something similar. Your copywriter should be able to help you find the most effective keywords and then use them strategically throughout the copy – especially on the home page.

So how do I know which keywords to use?

There are several venues in which to find effective keywords. You could start by asking people which terms they would use to search for your services. Or use keyword suggestion tools found on Google, Yahoo! or other search engines. You could also query web analytics (such as that found on Google Analytics) to determine the best keywords for your business. Google Analytics is a free service which helps you find out how your keywords are performing.

Remember, your keywords need to be relevant to your content. You can’t trick the search engines into placing you higher on the rankings by adding a keyword here and there that isn’t relevant to the rest of the content.

Since it can become a full-time job keeping up with the ever-changing SEO strategies, it is advisable to use a SEO specialist. Let them do the leg work while you sit back and reap the rewards. It’ll be money well spent.

EDITORS NOTE: if you do decide to hire a SEO specialist make sure that is primarily what they do for a living.  SEO is a complex field that changes almost daily and is not a place for amateurs.  Also, make sure that they will not take on any more than one other real estate agent in your market area (ideally, no others).  Otherwise it is unclear as to whom they really serve.

Evy Williams is our VA QUICK TIPS columnist. She specializes in designing marketing materials to sell homes through her company, BrochuresByDesign.com. She holds a Master’s degree in Administration and is a certified Master Virtual Assistant, Military Spouse Virtual Assistant, Professional Real Estate Virtual Assistant, Real Estate Support Specialist and is EthicsChecked. Contact her at Evy@BrochuresByDesign.com.

(NOTE: Mr. Internet®, his company and staff receive no compensation whatsoever from any third party vendors or service providers. Also any virtual assistant or consultant mentioned in this publication is not to be construed as an endorsement of their services by Mr. Internet or his company. Always remember to do a thorough due-diligence before hiring any kind of assistant.)