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You've been approached by an amazing search engine optimization team that promised they can give you top ten placement for "Your Seattle Real Estate," and you can't wait to sign up! But, you have a little nagging doubt in the back of your head... Would anyone really search for "Your Seattle Real Estate?" That's a really smart question! Absolutely, it's very important that if you try to get great ranking that it be for phrases that real people would use to find your services! And yes, beware anyone who promises to get you in the top ten or top five for ANY keyword phrase, because there are NO guarantees in search engines. Google is doing one of their algorithm updates this very minute and it's a mess for some sites and an amazing boon for others.
Recent statistics have shown that a large percentage of home buyers are starting their search online. When you're looking for something online, what do you do? Typically, you'd go to Google or Yahoo and type in a phrase that you think will help you find what you're looking for. Now, if you use several of the online tools to research the phrases that people have been using to find real estate, you can start to get an idea of which ones are good and which ones are poor and non-targeted. Some folks will even use a Pay Per Click account at Google or Yahoo and put in thousands of targeted keyword phrases, bid around $0.10 - $0.25 per click and see from the reports what kind of traffic those keywords generate to their site. They can then use that data to decide what keywords they should use to optimize the site for the natural (free, editorial) ranking at the search engines. So, say you get your site to the top ten at several search engines for some decent phrases...how does that help your business? Well, if you've been able to do that, it typically means that you've also taken time and care to add a lot of relevant and helpful content to your website that reflects those keywords. Also, I read somewhere recently that if you were Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com - what would make you happier? One million website visitors that had typed in 'books' at Google? Or ten thousand people that had typed in 'Harry Potter" or even better, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's stone?" So, you may get drastically less visits for a targeted phrase, but if you optimize for a wide range of targeted phrases - you'll get more targeted leads that are much easier to convert. An example, a one-page site with a couple of paragraphs and links out to a bunch of city sites, chamber sites, park sites but optimized for 'Seattle golf properties,' may do okay... but a 50 page website that has an individual page for each golf property in and around Seattle with tee times, photos, descriptions, maps, fees - and optimized for that phrase.... Which website owner is going to seem to you like they have a clue about golf properties in Seattle? Which one is going to seem like they take an avid interest in what you're interested in? That's the key - deliver real benefits, make it informative - optimize it - and before you know it, you'll have tons of visitors every day that will decide to work with you. You've established credibility and drawn their attention.
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