Good SEO Services?

Question

Hi BP, I am looking for a good and reputable SEO company to promote my website. I was wondering could someone recommend one or refer me to someone.

Dennis Romano · Answer

I have been in eCommerce and doing SEO since 1999 and I can tell you that the search engines have solve almost anyway people try to scam/spam them.  If you are look for viewers for local then you are better off.

My suggestion is do not waste your money on SEO firms.  Sit down and write down terms you want people to find your website for and then create a page targeted to EACH of those terms.  Try to use words in the text that are similar but not the same as the targeted terms so the theme of the page is obvious to the search engine bots.

Bruce Selin · Answer

There are a lot of charlatans selling SEO who don’t know their ass from a warm rock. But that said, SEO is NOT a scam, and IF you follow the guidelines and understand the Google patent/algorithm, you can actually win the battle for leads.

Here is the #1 obstacle you MUST overcome when doing SEO to generate targeted leads and find people actively looking to buy a home. How do you compete with the big boys, Zillow, Yelp, Trulia, realtor.com & homes.com? These guys virtually dominate Page 1 for any real estate search term people use. Next come the big brands, Remax, C-21, etc.

Are you tired of these big players stealing your leads and selling them back to you? So how do you turn the tables and screw them before they screw you? How do you compete?

Here's some good news folks. Most buyers, after maybe doing an initial search, scroll past the aggregators- Zillow, etc., and look for local agents or offices. They want to deal with a person, not some faceless machine that requires an email and a pint of blood to get any information.

So where do you start? First, you need to really niche down, go for very local markets. Remember the age old advice- work a farm area! You will never be able to penetrate broad searches like Dallas real estate. Instead think neighborhoods, developments or market areas. If you are associated with a major agency, you have a real advantage if they give you your own page, or subdomain. Why? Because you can leverage the Domain Authority of your agency much easier than if you build your own brand new website. (Sorry, if you’re with a small agency, things are going to be MUCH tougher.)

Next, you need to build Page Authority for your subdomain. This takes some time, BUT you can do it systematically by building citations, social profiles and Web 2.0 properties. These need to all link back to your subdomain. Google uses over 200 pieces of data in their algorithm, but backlinks always have been, and always will be, one of the most important ranking factors. Find real estate blogs like Active Rain, Inman and BiggerPockets that let you include a link back to your website/subdomain. These 3 are high Domain Authority sites that give your site link juice, or quality and trustworthiness. Build lots of links!!! Create a Google My Business page and make sure you have previous clients give reviews. Google gives a lot of respect, and better ranking, to sites that have reviews.

Create LOTS of short 2-3 minute videos, every time you preview a house, and upload them to your YouTube channel. Include local keywords like “Poughkeepsie homes for sale” and a link back to your site.

There are a few other things you can do, which I explain in this video, but what I’ve outlined here will put you light years ahead of other agents trying to rank in your local market. Go get ‘em guys!

Dennis Romano · Answer

I meant a new sub page off the home page for each search terms.  I would not use a blog.  Think of your websites like a tree where the top of the tree is the home page and the first set of branches of the top (home page) are landing pages (target for certain keywords) and pages off the landing pages maybe locations such as citys.

The more text the better

Bruce Selin · Answer

There are a lot of charlatans selling SEO who don’t know their ass from a warm rock. But that said, SEO is NOT a scam, and IF you follow the guidelines and understand the Google patent/algorithm, you can actually win the battle for leads.

Here is the #1 obstacle you MUST overcome when doing SEO to generate targeted leads and find people actively looking to buy a home. How do you compete with the big boys, Zillow, Yelp, Trulia, realtor.com & homes.com? These guys virtually dominate Page 1 for any real estate search term people use. Next come the big brands, Remax, C-21, etc.

Are you tired of these big players stealing your leads and selling them back to you? So how do you turn the tables and screw them before they screw you? How do you compete?

Here's some good news folks. Most buyers, after maybe doing an initial search, scroll past the aggregators- Zillow, etc., and look for local agents or offices. They want to deal with a person, not some faceless machine that requires an email and a pint of blood to get any information.

So where do you start? First, you need to really niche down, go for very local markets. Remember the age old advice- work a farm area! You will never be able to penetrate broad searches like Dallas real estate. Instead think neighborhoods, developments or market areas. If you are associated with a major agency, you have a real advantage if they give you your own page, or subdomain. Why? Because you can leverage the Domain Authority of your agency much easier than if you build your own brand new website. (Sorry, if you’re with a small agency, things are going to be MUCH tougher.)

Next, you need to build Page Authority for your subdomain. This takes some time, BUT you can do it systematically by building citations, social profiles and Web 2.0 properties. These need to all link back to your subdomain. Google uses over 200 pieces of data in their algorithm, but backlinks always have been, and always will be, one of the most important ranking factors. Find real estate blogs like Active Rain, Inman and BiggerPockets that let you include a link back to your website/subdomain. These 3 are high Domain Authority sites that give your site link juice, or quality and trustworthiness. Build lots of links!!! Create a Google My Business page and make sure you have previous clients give reviews. Google gives a lot of respect, and better ranking, to sites that have reviews.

Create LOTS of short 2-3 minute videos, every time you preview a house, and upload them to your YouTube channel. Include local keywords like “Poughkeepsie homes for sale” and a link back to your site.

There are a few other things you can do, which I explain in this video, but what I’ve outlined here will put you light years ahead of other agents trying to rank in your local market. Go get ‘em guys!

Dan Wheeler · Answer

Hi Wayne,

I agree with Dennis that search engines do a pretty good job at catching up with webmasters who try to spam/scam search rankings, but you can still benefit from optimization.

I suggest looking for someone who is able to help with on site optimization, content strategy, and paid marketing in addition to just optimizing your site for organic search.

I've helped a few real estate investors with their online marketing.  LinkedIn has been one of the best ways to get in touch with investors.

Wayne Woodson · Answer

Thanks for sharing that info Dennis. Do you mean create a separate Homepage or a Page (like a blog) specifically for a search term?

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