Search Engine Optimization for Eagentc Websites

Search Engine Optimization for eAgentC Websites

Information I’m about to share with you is based on our research and planning for KW.com with a focus on keywords, increasing popularity and saturation.

To understand optimization, we need to know how search engines work

Search engines use automated software programs known as spiders or bots to survey the Web and build their databases.

Web pages are retrieved by these programs and analyzed.

Data collected from each web page are then added to the search engine’s own index.

When you enter keywords at a search engine site, your input is checked against the search engine's index of all the web pages it has analyzed.

The best URLs are then returned to you as hits, ranked in order with the best results at the top.

It’s a known fact that most users will probably only click on the first three pages of hits, before they change the search criteria or give up.

There are quite a few sites competing for this positioning, which is why it’s very important that the items we are about to cover are not overlooked.

Not every page is indexed by the search engines

Search engine bots may look at a number of different factors when crawling a site and a lot of pages are too difficult or thrown out of consideration for various reasons.

• Just because your home page is the doesn’t mean it’s going to be popular. Flash graphics make for fun home page, but it doesn’t impress search-engine crawlers, because they can't recognize Flash. Be careful how much flashiness you insert into those WYSIWYGs

• Distance of pages from the root directory of a site may also be a factor in whether or not pages get crawled – not controllable with the eAgentC sites, but we did a pretty good job of keeping pages proximate

• Crawlers aren't good at recognizing frames, dynamic URLs, hyphens and URLs with too many parameters (the long ones) – EX: MSN Web Search does not support hyphens in linkdomain searches... a link popularity check will turn up no results

• Bad links – ensure there are no bad links or anything that could create that 404 error.

How can we increase our chances of being indexed?

Think of it like this.. Building a website and posting it for the first time, is like being a brand new kid in school. No one knows you, you aren’t popular and everything that comes out of your mouth is the wrong thing.

How do you learn how to say the right things and fit in? You’ve got to look around see what the other kids are doing try to fit in a little. If you want them to start noticing you, you’re going to need to increase your associations/friendships, spread yourself out and become accepted. You need to find your way into their niche.

Keyword Verification

Keyword is the term used for words included in a web page that would match words used by web queries in finding that web page

Make sure the keywords you use on your site are something you want to be found for. How do you know if you are using the right keywords?

It involves doing a keyword market analysis.

Below are a couple free tools you can use to get suggestions on keywords or similar searches people have performed on the major search engines in the last month

Also included are some sample keywords that are being used in the KW.com optimization project. These can be used and/or changed for your area and used as keywords on your Buyer-Seller directed pages, Recruiting pages, additional pages and the Homepage

If the keyword is highly relevant and you want to be found for it but you aren't, make sure you are also using that keyword in the content of your website.

Content Relevance and Keywords.

Search engines usually read and index the first 500 words from each page they successfully crawl.

Your keywords should be sprinkled throughout your content, included in any link text and as part of your metatags.

We don't need to see keywords repeated over and over on the site--it's the information about that word that you're interested in, not the exact word.

Content is the actual words that you use to describe your businesses, services and your value proposition.

What’s on a realtor’s homepage?

1. Use content that reinforces your domain name, business name, and responses for marketing promotions
2. Dedicate most of the page to accessing the eAgentC IDX and options for viewing your listings.
3. Include quick access to everything else you offer online.
4. Text links with keywords within.

What’s on additional pages?
Decide what you want to put on your site, what additional content will your audience wants to see.

1. Create pages specific to each topic you want to have

1. Target 200-300 word segments for each piece of content.

1. Sprinkle key words in the beginning, middle and end of your paragraphs.

Link Popularity

Refers to the number of other pages that contain a link to your domain.

Assuming you are linked to from quality sites, this will greatly will help your ranking with search engines –

1. Register with online directories.
2. DMOZ - dmoz.org – aka - The ODP - The Open Directory Projecis the most comprehensive human edited directory of the Web, compiled by volunteer editors. Powers core directory services for some the most popular portals and search engines on the Web, including AOL Search, Netscape Search, Google, Lycos, DirectHit, and HotBot, and hundreds of others.
3. Yahoo real estate directory –

1. Business.com’s real estate directory –

1. JoeAnt.com - directory and blog host

1. Best of the Web -

1. Gimpsy.com – verb based web directory (you search based on what you want to do)

1. ISEdb.com – Internet search engine database

1. Work with your local marketing or news groups. Get mentioned in the text of whatever online publishing they offer. (News, PR Release) and ensure text with your business name or keyword is used with the appropriate backlink (your URL) – It’s common that a picture is used with the URL. Text works better than pictures for optimization.

1. Ensure approved vendors or other core services you do business with have text links to your site (mortgage brokers, title companies, etc)

1. Add videos to the major video hosting sites. Include a link back to your site.

Microsoft -

Google –

Youtube –

Vidilife -

…and many others.. do a search for them.

1. Blogs!! – Setup a blog template and backlink to your site

1. Wikipedia - Post and hyperlink in articles back to appropriate pages,

1. Anchor text links from all listing partners sites

1. Myspace profile!

Saturation!

Saturation represents the number of pages - from a domain name - that have been indexed by the search engines.

A high index count means that you have more pages available for the engines to consider when building result pages for consumers

Most of the search engines return results with confidence or relevancy rankings.In other words, they list the hits according to how closely they think the results match whatever the user typed into the Search engine.

If your keywords and content represent the a subject that people need information about, your saturation will be greater meaning your website has greater availability

NOTE – a quick query before this call shows that 75 agents have more than 30 additional pages tied to their name. One of our agents has 214.

Let’s go back to our example

If we walk into school that first day and play our cards right:

Meaning…

1. If we make strong associations with other popular people in school, we increase our own popularity.
2. If we maintain our appearance and upkeep, we won’t be looked over.
3. If we spread ourselves out, If we say things other people like to hear - offer large quantities of good information (with value) - we increase our relevance, we increase our saturation.

These factors are not all necessarily tied together, but all can help achieve the common goal of coming out on top of the search engine results. They unique ways to understand your availability and popularity online.

Last ditch effort for search engine placement……

If you have a hard time making friends in school, what’s the sure fire way of making sure you are noticed – are popular? Sad but true….

Paid Placement
This is another alternative.. especially for big urban areas. You can pay a company that is already in co-hoots with the bigger search engines to put you at the top.

Companies like Citysearch have heavy influence on search engine results. The more money you pay, the higher and longer you stay at the top.
Budget how much you spend on any paid placement - don't go in without a budget (some systems don't force you to cap it so you could end up spending more than you intended)

Summary

There is no perfect way to ensure that you'll receive a high ranking. Even if you do get a great ranking, there's no assurance that you'll keep it for long.

No one is popular the moment they walk through the front door of their new school.

It takes time, indexing is a very long process sometime. Crawling and indexing the entire internet is not something that happens overnight. Many search engines and directories can take at least 2-8 weeks to update theirindex

Start now!!! continuously work at it – use your opportunities - and get a little creative, it’s not that hard to maintain good positioning.

How do I rank?

How popular am I?

How saturated is the average search engine with my pages.