Search Engine Optimization - Content Building

Your new Real Web Solutions website includes a terrific library of stock content so your website can be not only attractive, but informative and useful to your visitors.  But stock content does not by itself win you traffic from the search engines.  After all, if hundreds or even thousands of websites have exactly the same content, how is the search engine going to determine to which website they should send the traffic?

Search engines look for unique content; something that seems relevant to the word or words being searched.  For this reason, you need to work on your unique content, building upon specific words or phrases that are at the foundation of your business.  Real Estate?  Sure, that is the basis of your business, but it is far too broad.  Real estate where?  What kind of real estate?  Residential?  Commercial?  Investment?  What might set you apart from the thousands of other real estate professionals in your serving area?  This is what will get you the kind of traffic you want. 

5 Important Things to Remember

• Pick a phrase that is between two and four words long, which is the most common search term length. This is not to say that you cannot use a longer search term, it just means that they are less likely to be entered as a query.
• Pick a maximum of two keyword phrases per page or section; if your neighbourhood profile is compiled of 3 pages, all 3 of those pages should use the same keyword phrase(s).
• Think about common phrases that John Doe would use when performing a search for real estate in your area, like “Downtown Toronto Condos”, or “Buy a Home in Leaside” for example.  This is the type of wording that is most commonly used when searching, and is the type of search term you should focus on.
• Repeat the keyword phrase frequently in your content WITHOUT seeming redundant. Consider different ways to use your phrase in the body of the page, such as adding it as the page’s heading or sub-heading, or using it in the ALT Text tags for photos.  (See more on this topic here.)

The most important thing to remember is that each section of your website should be dedicated to a particular topic and should have its own unique keyword phrase(s). The phrase(s) you use should directly correlate to the information provided on the webpage. Whatever your focus may be, the keyword phrase should be a reflection of that focus, and the choice of wording should mirror that of what the general public would enter for their search.

Then you add content, images and maps related to this area or these keywords or phrases, and reference this content in your page title, page description and search engine friendly page name (the part of the web address after the / slash).  Click here to see other blog posts to help you with this.

When you have all of this done and your site is complete and optimized for search engines, your job is not done.  You need to monitor your content and keep it up to date.  If there is an important new development in the area in question, make note of it in your content or, conversely, if something is no longer relevant, remove it.  Remember, however, that you may need to adjust the meta information as well so it remains consistent with the content of the page or section.

Following these basic steps, you will greatly improve your chances of being ranked highly by search engines.

Authored By: Bryan Coughlin, Client Relations