Real Estate SEO tips

I got an email from a realtor that I exchanged links with the other day and answered it. It was a pretty good Q & A, so I thought I might post it here.

From: A Realtor
To: Jan
Sent: Monday, October 10, 2005 8:14 AM
Subject: RE: My Realtor® agent site links to your site

First off I sincerely appreciate the fact that you have taken the time to share your knowledge with a total stranger. I would be more than happy to exchange home page links with you.
If I could quickly ask you a few more questions you may be able to steer me in the right direction.

Here is a list of things I am trying now to promote my site. Please tell me if they are a waste of time.

1.Generating XML sitemaps and submitting them to google weekly
Excellent, except you don't need to "submit" them. That's what RSS and XML do automatically.

2. Using web position4 to optimize my site for certain keywords and to track my performance
Would not use any kind of software at all. It's against the TOS of all search engines.

3. Just starting to use RSS Feeds to display my listings for newsreaders.
Excellent

4. Thinking about writing real estate blogs or using a real estate message board on my site.
The very best thing you can do is a real estate blog. See mine...
www.myrtlebeachwebdesign.com/blog/real-estate-web-blog.html

5. Reciprocal linking with every large directory I can find like Reals.com and Realestateabc.com etc...
Not every one. Be sure the links are straight html anchor text and not redirected or javascript. Most are.

6. Linking to a handful of top 100 lists
I've not seen any that helped or were very good PR. Only good if they are permanent.

7. Paying a few local web directories for animated gif links www.directory.com www.another-directory.com I doubt if any graphic link does you much good. Maybe a little if you be sure to use Alt text with keywords. Probably a waste unless it's for advertising and not SEO.

8. Paying realtor.com to be able to "enhance" our listings (add more photos and text)
Again, be sure it's not a redirected link. Check the PR of the page your link is on. That said, Realtor.com is a very highly popular website, so for advertising potential, it might be worth alot. I don't advise my customers to do it, but many do. I don't advise against it if the links are done right. I think REALS.com and most of its affiliate sites are the best directory links, and they are free. There are some other excellent free real estate directories out there, too.

9. Submitting to every free search engine I can find.
Directory maybe...search engine, I wouldn't. See above.

Is google still using PR links? Where can you find out your PR Rating.
Download the Google Toolbar from Google site and you can see the PR of every site in your browser. Yes, links are just as important as ever with Google, if that's what your question is.

I've been using Alexa to get a general feel for how well my competitors are doing. Are there any other methods you would recommend for tracking both your progress and that of your competitors?
I don't use Alexa nor track progress. When it shows, it shows...and I cheer...:-)

Thank you for the suggestions. It is difficult learning all of this from scratch, never knowing if the things I read on the web from various sources will actually help promote my site or are a waste of time. One last question, how much should I expect to pay a good real estate SEO and how often will they have to update the site?

I have been paid as much as $10,000 on one site that wanted me bad enough. Thank God I was able to do the job! It was a scary few weeks. I wouldn't take full payment until it was done, either. A good average might be about $1000-5000, depending on whether they do the site from scratch or just go over yours for you or your webmaster to make the changes.

There are not very many (if any) good real estate SEO companies per se. There are a several outstanding SEO companies that don't necessarily specialize in real estate. They can do an excellent job, but some still use interior link pages and charge an ongoing fee to obtain hundreds of links. Getting a company to optimize your text is a good idea. Getting an SEO copywriter is even a better idea. The links you should either do yourself or even better, do press releases, post on forums, write articles, and other ways of getting your links out there. Be sure to get on Google and Yahoo LOCAL listings.

I do not recommend interior links pages for real estate site optimization any more. That's just my personal opinion, as I see pages full of links being downgraded by Google every day. Yahoo despises large numbers of links, too. You can check the PR of the page your site would be on, but it's just as likely to be dropped to near nothing in the next update. The best thing to do other than what I mentioned above is to contact fellow realtors and create a referral network.

That way it serves you both ways. Most web-savvy realtors are now doing this.
It doesn't hurt to have SOME interior page links, but I wouldn't waste my time and money having an SEO company to do them. I don't even create links pages on my new sites. Haven't for over a year.

Make sure your titles use the correct keyphrases, research WHICH keyphrases to use for your city/area, and make sure each individual page has it's own metatags.
Newsflash for Newbies: Google does NOT count Metatags except for the title and possibly the description tag. Yahoo is the only one that does, as far as I know.

Hope this is good information for those who might ask the same questions....:-)
Most of my stuff is about Myrtle Beach Condos. Pay attention to the links in this blog. That's why blogs are so good!