Back to basics for estate agents, Search engine optimisation (SEO): Part 2

Before you can stun a customer with visual imagery and functions that will enhance their online property search, estate agents must have a website that performs well in search engines so that there is a healthy stream of users looking for property. Without a healthy stream of online property searchers, the website is useless.

There are a wide variety of things a web designer can do to help or hinder a website's SEO. Below are the top ways estate agents can make sure that the SEO on their website is on the right path.

1). Content is King

This rule is generally undisputed. If you have original and desirable content, your estate agent website will be indexed higher. Estate agents who have websites that have more content on their website, such as staff profiles, local area information and services provided, will have better SEO than estate agent websites that have a homepage and a property listings page. The news section on your estate agent website is a perfect way of increasing your SEO as search engines are looking for websites that have relevant, updating content.

2). Keywords

There have to be certain keywords within the content that show search engines what your estate agent website contains. Having major keywords for estate agents such as 'property in..' or 'estate agent in..' and the local area. When considering keywords, estate agents have to think of the words or phrases that users will type into search engines. Over using keywords for SEO can flag your estate agent website as spam.

Resource Techniques will personally advice every new customer the types of keywords that they should be thinking about.

3). Meta Tags

Meta Tags are invisible to anyone viewing the website. They are within the code or html within the website. Again, just like keywords, the keywords in the Meta tags can be overused and this will count against the SEO of your website. The two main Meta tags are the description and keywords. The role of Meta tags in SEO is low but does count towards your website's overall SEO.

4). Links

Links that point to a website help towards SEO. It shows search engines that your website has content that people not only want to see, but also point or 'link' to. Estate agents have to be wary of sites claiming 'link building services' as Google sees that these sites are directories and therefore lower the importance of the links going out.

5). Site Map

Search engines love estate agent website organisation. By providing a sitemap, estate agents will help search engines index their site quicker, which will help your estate agent website SEO. Resource Techniques provides a sitemap for every estate agent website we design which helps their SEO.

For the part 1 of our SEO back to basics, click here.

Resource Techniques provides SEO services for estate agents, website design for estate agents, domain name hosting, and many other services for property professionals. To hear the full range of services, visit our contact us page or call us on 0208 457 4777.