For all you real estate brokers and agents out there, I have created a report just for you entitled “The State of Online Search for Realtors.” It’s a 24 page report with stats, trends, and case studies on organic search engine optimization from a real estate perspective.

Access the report for free by clicking the link below:

http://the-seo-bible.com/products/real-estate-seo.pdf

Enjoy!

As always, please circle back to share your feedback.

This post has been out on the net for awhile, but it’s worth reviewing if you haven’t researched what all goes into improving a site’s ranking within the search engine universe for a given phrase.

Search Ranking Factors on SEOmoz.org

Enjoy!

(That’s a famous quote of former UofL coach Lee Corso)

The other day I posted an entry touting the rankings we’ve maintained for our corporate site (smbconsultinginc.com) for terms such as “business consulting” and “marketing consulting.” Here’s where the “not so fast” comes in, and it shows the volatile nature of organic search rankings.

At the time of that posting, we indeed ranked #8 for “marketing consulting” in Google, but we’ve taken a “hit” since that posting to where we’ve gone down to 26th as of this posting. The site is holding strong in Yahoo at #6 for the same term, but I wanted to share this with you as a real life demonstration that organic search rankings are not guaranteed and are not the only marketing vehicle a business should be focused on to increase awareness and generate leads.

So what gives? I made some changes to the site on several pages after posting the rankings entry the other day, but I’m not convinced that’s the only thing that pushed us down, but it is a pretty good indicator if you make a change one day and your rankings slip two days later. Does that mean we should panic and undo the changes? No! That would defeat the purpose of our “test” (an attempt to improve conversions which is ongoing).

Will we see less traffic from that search phrase as a result? Indeed.

Am I particularly worried? Not a bit. These things tend to work their way out over time, and my guess is this will be a temporary slip because the site has been steadily climbing for months. Many clients call me as soon as their ranking hits a certain point then suddenly drops as if we had some kind of magical pull on Google or something to control their rankings. It happens, and often times it is a result of minor changes here and there that may seem insignificant at the time of the change, or perhaps one of the sites that links to us got dinged for something which impacted our site’s search ranking (most likely). More often than not, based on our experience, the rankings return after a little dip so it’s nothing to panic about.

I would be doing you a disservice if I didn’t share the good with the bad even though this isn’t “bad” in the truest sense. As stated above, it happens and it’s not a cause for hysteria or knee jerk reactions.

Do you have any similar stories to share? If so, what did you do when your site’s rankings dipped? Did the rankings return? How long did it take?

No fluff here–just a quick list of SEO tips that hopefully stimulates further thought from you.  Add to the list anyway you see fit.     

1. Understand how search engines work
2. Have some form of web analytics
3. Goal conversion
4. Create conversational content that engages the audience
5. Check your site for keyword relevance
6. Modify your web content frequently
7. Remember keyword density
8. Build inbound links to your site
9. Directory submissions
10. Create a blog
11. Engage in online discussions
12. Focus on writing for humans
13. Include strong call to action
14. Don’t hard sell people to take action
15. Direct response literature
16. Speak to the reader and not yourself
17. Write content about current “hot” topics
18. Create one page for each of your keywords
19. Create a sitemap
20. Learn the art of link baiting
21. Start broad with buzzwords and slang
22. Utilize free tools to ascertain the most productive keywords
23. Longer tail searches often times equate to ready buyers
24. White hat only!
25. Focus on your copy
26. Sell your content before your products
27. Stick to your theme
28. Encourage repeat visitation
29. Strong title tags
30. Comment on popular industry related blogs

Hire an experienced professional who can market your website.  You wouldn’t hire a auto mechanic to perform heart surgery would you?  Treat your website like the valuable marketing vehicle it is by entrusting its promotion to someone who knows what to do and how to accomplish your goals. 

If you’re looking to perform SEO in-house, look for a firm that offers training or some sort of combination of doing the work while educating your personnel along the way so they can take over the repetitive nature tasks at some point.  Better firms will not have much of an issue with this approach.

Remember to run the other way if someone guarantees a top ranking in any of the search engines however.  As you have likely read numerous times, organic search engine rankings are dynamic and cannot be purchased.   

As with any service you’re considering an external resource to perform, do a little background research on the firms.  Reputable firms will have testimonials and case studies to review along with live customers you can chat with to find out how well they’ve performed and how easy they’ve been to work with.