Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing for Real Estate

Search engines rank your real estate website at the top when:

• it has extensive, informative and well-written content;
• it is constructed so that search engines can easily read and index this content;
• it has a strong network of incoming links from other relevant web sites.

The strategy for achieving search engine prominence can be summed up in 4 words: “Good Content is King!”

1) Comprehensive web content about your local area:

We help you create informative content about real estate in your market area, which is what search engines read to rank your site.

You are the expert in real estate in your market; we are experts in writing web content for search engines. With USM’s “Content Coaching” package, we combine forces with you. You collaborate one-on-one with an Internet Marketing expert who helps you gather information and write content that makes your web site thorough and informative.

2) Search Engine “Friendly” real estate web design:

Using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), USM builds your real estate site in a way that allows search engines to read the content on your site.

We build your website exactly as the search engines tell us to build them. That is what makes a site “search engine friendly.”

Building a search engine friendly real estate website does not happen by “tricking” search engines with secret formulas. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. A search engine friendly web site is built using clean and transparent code that makes it as easy as possible for search engines to read your real estate web content.

3) MLS-driven Real Estate Search Tools:

We harness the thousands of property listings in your MLS database to create extensive content for search engines.

Not all MLS real estate searches are created equal. USM web sites import the MLS right onto your web site rather than framing the MLS within your site. This means that every MLS property listing can represent another content page to Google (framed solutions do not offer this benefit). How does USM use the MLS data to build content pages on your real estate website?

1. Using dynamic page titling, we take the town, state and MLS number from each property listing and place it in the title tag, meta description and meta keywords for the page showing that listing. This helps search engines understand the content of each listing page.
2. Using the One-Click Search tool, we help you create one-click property searches for your chosen terms (example: “Boston, MA loft apartments”. When a search engine travels through that link to the list of loft apartments, it indexes each listing as a separate page of content for these terms. (See our blog for more information on how Union Street Media's One-Click Search tool can help you with real estate SEO and online marketing)
3. The Property Browser automatically creates content for search engines by creating links to specific properties when they come on the market and displaying these links on your web site. For example, USM can help you show up if a buyer “googles” a certain condo complex in your market by dynamically creating web pages of available listings in that development.

4) Real Estate Blogging:

We help you create even more search engine friendly content through your own real estate blog.

Why does a blog help your search engine placement?

A blog is a great way to constantly add new and valuable content to your real estate site. As long as this information is valuable to your audience and uses your chosen terms, it creates more content for search engines to read. Your blog can be updated with anecdotes, opinions, news updates, and other peripheral information--in a conversational style.

Your audience can then comment on your blog posts. When they do so, they create even more content. Even better, others are more likely to link to a good blog post than your main site, which means more incoming links to your web site.

USM can set up your blog and provide one-on-one training sessions to show you how to use your blog and how to write real estate blog entries to help your site perform for your chosen terms in search engines.

5) Building Your Online Referral Network:

We help you identify valuable incoming links and create a robust incoming links network.

To place well in search engines, your site must have a large network of genuine incoming links. Each link can be considered a referral. These referrals work the same online as they do in your day-to-day business: a referral from a trusted source is very valuable. A referral from an anonymous source carries little value. A referral from a bogus source will damage your reputation.

Search engines do not want to be tricked by irrelevant incoming links to your web site any more than they want to be tricked about the content on your web site. Building your incoming links network means:

• Identifying web sites that are relevant to real estate in your market area and verifying that search engines trust these sites as referrers.
• Helping you build your own online referral network from the web sites of other businesses you work with on a regular basis, such as attorneys, home inspectors, appraisers, banks, inns, restaurants and more.
• Contacting the webmasters of these sites to encourage them to link to you in the preferred way.

Through an incoming links building program, Union Street Media helps you build your incoming links network.