Real Estate Forums

itgl72 · 03-16-2007, 10:49 AM

I'm getting into the Google game, and other search engines as well. Right now I have a company website I purchased. I like its look and feel and many of the features for drip email marketing, MLS, etc. But, theres no use in doing anything with it for SEO. What I have done for traffic thus far is PPC. That will do for now while I wait the months ahead for any search engine traffic.

What I have done is purchased a new domain name with some keywords in it and will be hosting it on a server I have access to. I have taken my purchased website, which is a TABLES layout, and completely recoded the template, to be a CSS design which I understand may be more search engine friendly. Right now if I put both templates side by side in my browser they look identical in IE7 and FF2.

My goal is to have different content on the CSS website but have links, like to the MLS search and other functions, going to my TABLES designed company website. This way a web visitor will not think they went to a different site because the same look and feel of my web presence with me maintained. There will also be links from the company tables design website to my SEO CSS website to places like my real estate articles section.

Do you think linking to my website with the MLS functionality will hurt me in anyway with the search engines? I'm pretty much going to have to do it this way regardless because I'm not willing to part with the company website I have been using because of the features on it I use.

I have not put this new domain and website on the server yet but have been working on content for it for several weeks. I have about 20 real estate related articles I have written on various topics. I'm not really a writer but with time I can pump out some decent reading :-)

Before I put this site online and submit it to the search engines I want to have as much as possible done, and have my ducks in a row if you will atleast to a point where it will not hinder me.

I have been reading this forum, and quite honestly I am overwhelmed with the information so reading and learning will take me a while, however for right now I have some questions.

I plan on using INCLUDES within the page for sections like my footer, links, side bars on the content pages, etc. This way if I need to make an edit I just edit the INCLUDE html page and all pages with that INCLUDE file will be updated. Do search engines that crawl a website read whats in the INCLUDE sections? Will using INCLUDE sections hinder me with search engines crawling? I *THINK* spiders will crawl a page the way we humans VIEW the page when surfing but I'm not sure.

Would it be a problem if at the end of every real estate related article I had a section with promotional content that also listed several cities and county names I work in? I would use an INCLUDE for this as well. Would the search engines be upset with me if they saw that same content at the bottom of every page? Obviously you know why I would want the city names there, they are my keywords!

I have read a lot about links and backlinks. I'm not sure I understand how to do that yet, but I have to crawl before I walk and actually get a website online first. Any info or resources on this would be helpful. If I get a link to come to my sites main address www .MYDOMAIN .com does the search engine system count the links for the entire domain or JUST that one page? How do you folks do it? Do you actually have links to your pages that are within your website? Or just the front page? I guess I really need to get a grasp on the linking side of things, and how its relevant to the whole process! :-)

I have the free version of webceo loaded and will try to use that as something to get going.

I'm just looking for a pointer on some things so I go in the right direction.

Thanks for any help, tips, or resources you can provide!

SEOWolf · 03-17-2007, 09:34 AM

Man, what a post.

Sounds like you have your head on pretty straight so I will only address 2 topics you covered.

First, don’t submit your site to the Search Engines. Let them find you naturally with links. A good start would be to add links (with anchor text) in your signature here in this forum. The forum is set to change ALL signatures in EVERY post each time you edit your signature, so even if you are not ready to disclose your domain add some text to your signature and edit when you are ready.

When you are requesting links you want to alternate anchor text and pages. What you want is a higher percentage to the home page with higher percentages of those using your most sought after key word phrases.

Example:

Request Home Page Links 75% and Interior Page Links 25% of the time.

Home Page Links (prioritized):
YourDomain.com with anchor text Your City Real Estate 80%
YourDomain.com with anchor text Your City Homes 10%
YourDomain.com with anchor text Your City Condos 10%

Interior Page Links:
YourDomain.com/blog/ with anchor text Your City Real Estate Blog
YourDomain.com/mls/ with anchor text Your City MLS
YourDomain.com/condos.html with anchor text Your City Condos
YourDomain.com/homes.html with anchor text Your City Homes

And mix-up anchor text on links to your interior pages too.

As to the correct percentages, everyone has their own ideas. The key is to mix it up. You don’t want 100% Home page links with the same anchor text.

Link to themed sites and ONLY in good neighborhoods. Good links will help you. Bad links will hurt you. Bad links are worse than no links at all.

Always consider TrustRank when linking to a site.

Directories are usually a great source for good one-way links. DMOZ is one of the BEST if you can get it, but do not submit until your site is at 100%.

In a week or so we will be creating a “Private Forum” for linking strategies and Advanced SEO that will give additional info. It will be available only to Members. Once it is up I will post in “Announcements”.

~VegasMack

itgl72 · 03-24-2007, 08:48 PM

THANK YOU FOR THE INFORMATION!!

I think I just asked WAY TOO DEEP a set of question on this post. I thought there might have been more of a discussion by now.

I have been working on the website for the search engines. Its best to have it crawled from another link, but should I hold off until its closer to 100%? I'm probabaly at 50% now of what I plan on having on there but I can't do it all in one night.

I just dont know if getting it crawled NOW would help or hinder? But if I do start now maybe it will help with the age process?

I also have set rel="nofollow" to links that go back to my company site where the tools and mls search reside.

I WILL LOOK FOR YOUR UPDATE IN ANNOUNCEMENTS!

cykawti · 02-29-2008, 05:56 PM

That is one of the best ways I have ever seen this information presented. Thanks

Mert · 03-03-2008, 09:02 PM

If you have full pages, I think you should link to it as soon as possible. Sorry about the late response, I have been swamped doing SEO consulting. Google should recognize your website pages as early as possible for it to benefit the aging factors.

SEOWolf · 03-03-2008, 11:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cykawti

That is one of the best ways I have ever seen this information presented. Thanks

You are most welcome however this is a very old thread in terms of SEO. If you have any questions on this subject you may wish to start a new thread for more current information instead of adding to this one or it will get very confusing.

~Mack

Portland Real Estate Guy · 03-05-2008, 09:35 PM

Good stuff.

erobbins · 04-23-2008, 12:26 PM

Great posts and comments!

jay.robinson15 · 05-27-2008, 12:25 PM

You are off to a good start if you have 20 articles that could all serve as original content for your Website. That will help you as far as on-site SEO goes right there, but continue to read this forum and all of the search engine marketing advice that is constantly shared and you should do extremely well with the off-site stuff as well.