If someone asks ‘what do you do?’ do you tell them to ‘Google it’?

When you are in in an industry where clients start their search online, you should make sure that when they hit the search button, you turn up. This is the gateway to your online business card. This is where SEO comes in. This is where we come in with SEO optimisation, Website Hosting and more.

Any Real Estate Agent can understand that it’s similar to looking for an address while walking down a street lined with houses.

Which one will catch your eye? Where is the one you are looking for?

A house clearly numbered, well maintained, with a walkway to a front door and most importantly, standing out from the crowd is the house that catches your eye and it’s the first one you are going to check. SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is just like a search for an address on a house lined street. You need to make sure YOU are numbered clearly, are well maintained and stand out from the crowd. Now, what do i mean when i say this?

Below are first steps to make your ‘House’ on Google and other Search Engines, turn up

Stand out from the crowd

Have you heard of Keywords? Keywords are words and combinations of words that form phrases such as “homes for sale” or “rent in sydney” that clients use in searches.

Now wouldn’t you love to turn up first when someone googles ‘Sydney Real Estate Agent”? We all would but this is notoriously difficult to obtain.

To have priority with keywords you need to bid on them, you can hire a service to do this for you but keep in mind that the broader the word and the more popular it is, the more people are bidding on it and just like a very intense auction, the price can be very high! This isn’t to say you should avoid keywords but do some research and find what works best for you.

When you ask someone to google you, what do you think they would type in? This is your first step.

Make sure your House is clearly numbered

What this means is to keep your URL’s clean. Once you have your keywords sorted you can utilise these in your URL’s and it’s good to make sure all your URLS work for your business with a good structure. You want people to be able to see and read the numbers on your house, right?

Trying to sell homes in Sydney?

A bad URL would look like this:

/sydney-homes

A good URL would look like this:

/sydney-homes-for-sale

Using a service that launches your website saves you most of this trouble as they will do this research for you. They can make sure that your website has a clear URL structure and uses relevant keywords and you have more chance of turning up when people search for Real Estate.

Have a walkway to your front door

Maintain natural link structures in your website. What does this mean? You need to make sure your website is easy to navigate. If I want to enter a house I walk down the path, open the door and walk in. This is the way your website has to function too. When people walk into your website do they see the right doors? If I want to see Rentals, is there a tab clearly at the top? Again, this planning isn’t Real Estate, it is making a website, so there are services that can fix this up for you.

Make sure your House is well maintained

Of course, make sure that you use quality and fast loading images, that all links are working and your pages on your site are working as well. Avoid using irrelevant imagery and content and focus on YOUR brand and YOUR image.

These are some of the few first steps needed to start improving your image online and making sure that when you tell your clients ‘Google me’, you turn up. Services such as Agentpoint’s Web hosting and SEO optimisation can better improve your SEO and the benefit is that you don’t have to handle it all yourself