Real Estate Blogging

There are generally two trains of thought on how to compete with other websites on getting more search engine referrals...

1. Compete on search engine ranking


2. Compete on keyword variations

I typically put more emphasis into the latter than the former. If I could present my efforts into a ratio, it would be something like 75% of my effort goes into the latter, and 25% into the former.

Getting your pages to rank higher on the listings requires some effort that's beyond your control. You need other websites to link to you. That's not always a guarantee. But covering a wider spread of keyword variation is definitely within your control.

Keyword variation is simply all the different search term possibilities that might exist for the same subject. So, if you specialize in the San Diego real estate market, what are all of the words and phrases that people type into Google to find you or your competitors?

san diego homes
homes in san diego
san diego real estate
san diego realtors
san diego california homes
foreclosure homes in san diego
san diego foreclosed homes
san diego ca properties

It could go on and on.

The only way to make sure that your website shows up for any of these searches, is to publish lots of webpages, and or websites. If you create several websites, each on a different domain name, or subdomain, make sure to publish different content on each one. Don't republish the same content.

If you published an article on your site about buying a foreclosure home, it's ok to publish several more on the same subject. Just make sure they're different articles. That'll help cover the spread of keyword variation.

In terms of increasing your position on Google, there are some easy things you can do to help...

• Put your target keyword into the TITLE tag


• Repeat your target keywords several times throughout the page


• Use file names that contain your target keywords


• Use alt-text containing your target keywords on all images


• Make sure every page has navigational links that go to the homepage and other key pages

These five easy tips won't increase your PageRank, rather, they'll just give your pages a little bit higher sorting value on the search results.

Increasing your PageRank is a tougher matter, that largely rests on getting more websites to link to your site.

Here are some other things you can do to increase your search engine referrals...

• Write compelling titles - The contents of your TITLE tag is what people see when they review the results on Google. Treat titles as if they were lingerie. You want people to see just enough of what they want, but leave the rest to the imagination. That's what will compel them to click. If your TITLE tag gives away enough information to make a presumption, you've lost out on a click.



• Publish new pages frequently - Google's spiders will return to your website more often, if you publish new pages more often. Google likes new content, and gives preference to it. If Google had two pages that had nearly identical keywords, keyword volume, and PageRank, it'll rank the newer page higher.



• Always change your pages - If you can't seem to create new pages, you can also change your pages. By changing the text, adding more text, rearranging the images, etc, will also keep the Google spiders coming back. This is another reason why blogs work well, their homepages constantly feature new content.

I'll go more in depth on these tips as future articles. So, keep coming back!