More real estate investors are starting to use online marketing methods to help capture leads, build their brand, and set themselves apart from their competition. One of the most important online marketing methods for your business is Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO is the process of maximizing the number of visitors to your website/landing page by ensuring your site appears high on the list of results returned by a search engine. This is important for your business because it will help improve your website/landing page's overall search ability and visibility. To add SEO to your website follow the instructions below.
- After logging into your REI BlackBook account you will need to access the landing page you want to add SEO to. There are two ways you can do this. From your account's Dashboard, click on View Websites. The other option is to click on Web Tools, and select Websites from the drop down menu.
- Once you are on the Websites page, you will need to select the website you want to add SEO to. To access the SEO settings of the website you will click on the Pages icon of that website. Note: If you have blog posts on your website you can add SEO to the blog posts as well. To access the SEO settings of the blogs click on the Blog icon of the website that contains the blog you want to add SEO to.
- After choosing which website you want to add SEO to, select the page/blog you want to setup SEO on by clicking on its SEO link. Note: To ensure your website is fully optimized for searchability it's recommended you add SEO to every page/blog post on the website.
- After clicking on the SEO link for the page of the Website you want to add SEO to, a new page will open where you can edit the SEO for that page. There are 3 specific tabs to pay attention to; General, Page Analysis, and Social.
- On the General tab you can edit the following.
- Long-Tail Keyword Phrase - A more specific phrase that your target audience may use to search and find your page. Long-tail keywords are typically 3-4 word phrases aimed to capture search traffic from a search query. The phrase should be specific to the product(s)/service(s) you are offering.
- SEO Friendly Title - Enter a title for your page that includes your Long-Tail Keyword Phrase. Titles with Keyword phrases placed in the beginning of the title usually rank higher.
- Meta Description - This is the description that will be used by search engines, and will show up in the search results . Be sure to use your long-tail keyword phrase here. You should try to get as close to 156 characters as possible without going over. A great target is 155 characters.
- Search Engine Snippet Preview - After filling out the information for the Long-Tail Keyword Phrase, SEO Friendly title, and the Meta Description this preview will show you what the search result for your page will look like in the list of results of search engines.
- Long-Tail Keyword Phrase Usage - This lets you know what places your Long-Tail Keyword Phrase shows up. The more places the phrase is used the better your page will rank.
- Page Analysis Tab - Think of the Page Analysis as a report card that shows you how well the page you're adding SEO to is optimizing for the Long-Tail keyword you selected. The Page Analysis will provide feedback about your page using colors, and notes letting you know what was done well, and what needs work. Anything in Green is done well, and anything in Orange or Red either needs work, or doesn't exist on your page. The goal of SEO is to make sure your page is properly optimized for what someone is searching for (The keyword you select should be what someone is searching for), so take notes from the Page Analysis and go back and fix what you can on your page to ensure you are optimizing the page to the fullest capability to increase your searchability. Note: In order for the Page Analysis notes to appear you must enter information in the General Tab fields, and hit the Update button. This will then generate the Page Analysis notes, so you can review them.
- Social Tab - The purpose of this tab is to generate the preview people will see when you post your website link on Facebook. Typically when you post a link in Facebook, a preview of the link automatically generates in the post you're making, so this is where you can control what that preview looks like. If you want the preview to be different than what shows up in search engine search results, you will need to update the Title, the Description, and the Image here.
- On the General tab you can edit the following.
- Once all the changes or updates have been made for the SEO on the page, click on the Update button to publish the changes for that page.
While this article shows you the process of actually adding SEO to a page on your Website there is some strategy required to ensure you're optimizing your Website to the fullest capable. For a high level strategy overview of SEO check out the SEO chapter of our Guide to Generating Motivated Seller Leads. If you have any questions or concerns about the information above please contact us at support@reiblackbook.com.