Many of our clients will regularly ask what they can do to improve the traffic they receive to their websites from search engines. My typical response is, “a ton of things”!
Gaining higher rankings in the search engine results is no secret, and by conducting minor changes and additions to your current website, you will eventually make this a reality. Here are some basic tips on how to get Google to notice you.
1. Create a company blog
A company blog is perhaps one of the best ways to stay connected with homebuyers. Consider this… Do you have a new community grand opening? Do you have a new incentive to offer buyers? Do you have a close-out special? If yes, write a blog post about it – spread the word!
How does a company blog help my search engine rankings?
Every time you write a blog post, you are adding a new page of content to your website. Let’s say you write a new blog post 3 times a week; over a year’s time, you will have added roughly 150 new pages of content to your website. Google will often favor websites that have a lot of content to offer visitors and websites that regularly add new content. We recommend that you blog daily for the most optimal results.
2. Page titles
The page title of your website can be seen at the very top of your browser’s window. For example, does the title of your homepage read: Acme Homes Homepage? Or, for example, does the title of your homepage read: New Homes for Sale in Phoenix, Arizona by Acme Homes?
Why does it matter?
Let’s take a look at NewHomesSection.com’s homepage title: New Homes for Sale, New Homes
We aim to attract website traffic via search engines for search queries, i.e. ‘new homes for sale’, and ‘new homes’.
For the search term: ‘new homes for sale’, NewHomesSection.com is ranked #4 on Google.
3. Exchange links
Contact your vendors and ask them to link from their websites to yours, and in return, provide your vendors with a link from your website to theirs. By exchanging links, you are not only providing an additional access point to your website, but also building a strong link portfolio for your website.
Why do I need a strong link portfolio?
Search engines will often favor websites with strong link portfolios. To see your current link portfolio (the amount of links to your website found on other websites) use the following command in the search query box:
Google – type: link:yourURL.com; e.g. link:acmehomes.com (all one word and without http:// or www)
Yahoo – type: linkdomain:yourURL.com; e.g. linkdomain:acmehomes.com (all one word and without http:// or www)
Home builders, contact New Homes Section to learn more about increasing your your web-presence – we will boost your traffic!
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Adding a blog is the easiest way to increase your traffic, that’s for sure. I know a lot of people frown on reciprocal links, but it still works, as long as you have other link building going on.
Charless last blog post..First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit
It’s true – blogging is becoming more & more important. Good advice on the page titles, too – it really does make a difference.
The most important is different page TITLE of every page in your website and you must do a very good keyword research work so you find the most popularly words people use. Take the 10 -15 most popularly words for your area, product, ect. and combination 4-6 words in the Title together with words fore what the specific page is about and you are going to get a very good ranking in the SERP and get more client’s.
I agree with Charles about the recip linking…it seems to still work but is frowned upon and has the potential to get your site penalized.
Good points everyone. Thank you for your thoughts and contributions.
Personally, I don’t believe that reciprical linking will cause a penalization so long as it is performed in a logical manner, and not a blatant attempt to build “spammy” links back to your site.
This is why I recommended link exchanges between vendors. A “Partners” page with a dozen or so businesses that are related to home building would be considered a valuable resource for the visitor. Or at least it is in my opinion.
Any thoughts?
-Rick NHS
Another way of staying above your competition – or rather, keeping your competition below you – is through the use of social media sites.
Creating profiles on various social media sites and free blogging platforms can ensure that you own more positions on the SERPs, and help keep your competitors languishing on the 2nd and 3rd pages.
Some great tips here – these three basic points would go a long way. Agree with the comments above about recip linking – it’s only penalised if its done excessively, eg automated link exchange programmes and if the majority of your links are reciprocal. My recommendation would be contact sites individually and build them slowly, and don’t talk about link exchange on your site.
Also I’d still recommend a budget for paid directory submissions (esp big ones like Yahoo, Business.com and BOTW) to get some good authoritative links in the early stages.
toms last blog post..Real time internet use
3 useful tips now comes out in the open. All we need to do is implement all these 3 tips. Thanks to you and more success to come.
boreds last blog post..Bill & Ted