Most Common SEO Mistake for Realtors | Real Estate and Rental ...

When I take on a real estate agent as a client for my SEO services, there are three things I fix before I even think about social media or any other strategy.

I realize that some posts may be too advanced if you don?t have SEO basics down on your own real estate related website, but here are some places to start.

1. Page titles tend to be too long, and often include a Realtor?s name.

I?m not picking on Realtors in particular, but it seems that they are the most guilty of having long titles, and I know why. They want to capture many different areas. But that?s what your inner-pages are for! Your front page title should be short and focused. I recommend a state-wide approach, even if you live in a large state and only service a small area. That will really bring more attention to your inner pages about a particular city.

This week, I took a look at Ginny Gorman?s site, a real estate agent from Rhode Island. This is my quick ten-minute consultation of her WordPress site.

Ginny?s title is currently about 15 characters too long. It?s currently reads:

Rhode Island Real Estate ? Waterfront Homes in RI, Oceanfront Homes in Rhode Island

It?s too long for Google and for people too. In the search engine results, it is cut off at the word ?Oceanfront.?

In addition, I found that people don?t really search for ?oceanfront homes? often enough to be a front page term. (We will still capture people who search for oceanfront homes, but we?ll do it from an inner-page that is very focused on that topic.)

The homepage needs to be generalized. I recommend that Ginny changes her title to something like this:

Rhode Island Real Estate Agent | Licensed Realtor in Rhode Island

That?s actually perfect. Google will read the whole thing and it?s not particularly keyword stuffed. It?s also 65 characters, which is also perfect.

Please notice that I did not list every city in Rhode Island, the Realtor?s name, or a telephone number.

2. Descriptions that are way too long, not at all a sentence, or sometimes missing altogether.

Your description should be 155 characters, or as close as you can get without going over. There is absolutely no point in having a very long page description. Google isn?t indexing your super-long description anyway, so you might as well pack it in tight.

This would be a good description for a real estate agent in Rhode Island- or any Realtor for that matter, just change the state name! This is what I recommend for Ginny:

Rhode Island real estate agent and licensed RI Realtor, Ginny Gorman, helps with home listings and waterfront property in Rhode Island. Call XXX-XXX-XXXX.

We make sure Google knows that she is a real estate agent and Realtor in the state of Rhode Island. We make it very clear. I also threw in the word ?waterfront? since that is her specialty. I included her telephone number, because I do know that some people will dial right from the Google results. The description is crystal clear and at only 154 characters, it is just about perfect.

3. Improper use of heading tags on the home page.

A perfectly optimized website uses heading tags. Not only does it help organize the content for humans, but it helps search engines to understand what your page is about in a common sense fashion.

Make sure you only have one <h1> tag on your website. Make sure it?s at the top of the page, and make sure it?s an overview of what you do. For Ginny, a good heading tag would look something like this:

Rhode Island Real Estate Agent Specializing In Waterfront Property

?

Beneath that you can have <h2> tags to focus in on particular areas, or types of homes. But make sure they are used in a common sense fashion and that they are nested like an outline.

<h1>Main Topic and the Only H1 Tag on the Page</h1>

Add about three hundred characters here, discussing your main topic (real estate in your state) and then drill down from here.

<h2>City Name</h2>

<h3>Schools</h3>

<h3>Things to Do</h3>

<h2>Another City Name</h2>

<h3>Schools</h3>

?and so on and so on.

Get it? The heading tags should be used like an outline, nested. Google loves this.

I highly recommend you look at your front page right now to check if you have more than one <h1> tag or if you have an <h1> tag at all. At minimum, your page should have one <h1> tag.

If you want to go full deluxe, you?ll use the headings in a detailed outline-style manner, as I did above- but you will still only have one <h1> tag.

Take a look at your website and be sure to avoid these common SEO mistakes.

Thanks to Ginny Gorman for participating!

Source: http://www.zillow.com/blog/pro/2012-11-30/most-common-seo-mistake-for-realtors/

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