SEO Strategies You Must Implement

| SEO

SEO Strategies You Must Implement

 

When it comes to Google, there are a few options an estate agent has to enable their website to appear in the search results; first and most importantly is the organic search. This is the main body of links towards the middle of the search results. There are 10 positions per page, and it is free to appear here.

Another is the local search, which is accompanied by a map of the local area. Local search appears just above organic search within Google. This type of search will only appear if you are searching for a service in a specific area, e.g. ‘Estate agents in London’. Local search is limited to 3 ranking positions, so it can be very competitive.

And finally, the third option is paid advertising. This is the easiest way to get to the top of Google, as long as you have the budget for it. Paid advertising on Google works on a pay-per-click basis, the price per click depends on the competitiveness of the search phrase.

Of course, you’d think appearing right at the top of Google is the best place to be, however the average user tends to overlook the paid ads sections as they know they aren’t likely to be the best or most relevant websites.

Because of this, it is wise to focus most of your energy into achieve top rankings in the organic search, followed by local search and then as a last resort paid advertising.

If you want to achieve maximum exposure online, then all 3 options is something you will have to work on.

Yet today, we are focusing on help you achieve high rankings within the organic search section which requires some knowledge of search engine optimisation (SEO).

So what can you do to improve your rankings?

1) Know your competition

You know who your competition is, but it’s important to find out who your competition is online too. Type in a few of the keywords you want to rank for into Google and you will soon see who your main competition is.

Analyse your competitor’s websites, find out everything you can, such as how many backlinks they’ve got, how fast it is and what functionality they have.

Then analyse your website and see where you fall behind. This will help you to see what you have to achieve to outperform them in the search results.

2) Create content that your audience will enjoy

Internet users love content and Google wants to give internet users what they want.

Content doesn’t necessarily mean just text; it can also be imagery, infographics, videos and podcasts which the internet loves too.

And as you want to beat your competition, make sure you check out what sort of content they are creating so you can outdo them.

3) Focus on user-experience

A beautiful website isn’t enough these days, it also has to be easy to navigate and use. Ensure that your website is fully responsive, user-friendly on all devices especially mobile and is error free.

4) Reduce load speed

Speed matters, and can have a huge impact on your SEO. The longer a webpage takes to load, the higher your bounce rate will be.

5) Be mobile-friendly

Google has rolled out mobile-first indexing which means they will now crawl your website from a mobile device first. If your website isn’t user-friendly on a mobile device then Google will penalise you for it.

Ensure that every page on your website is accessible, easy to use and none of your content is hidden on a mobile device.

6) Increase click-throughs

Google monitors how many people click on search result queries, which means if you get more clicks then your competition you should rank higher.

However, link clicks do depend heavily on where you rank within Google, unless you have particularly compelling and unique titles and descriptions.

Ensure you really focus on creating titles and descriptions that will make users unable to resist the temptation of clicking, no matter where you rank.

Luke Stanley