Ron Wilczek, who markets Phoenix homes for sale was kind enough to pose a couple questions to be answered on this blog.  If you have a real estate marketing question, and you want a nice incoming link to your website, ask your question today; you can also remain anonymous if you’d like.  It’s a win-win situation because answering a question means that I don’t need to come up with a topic for a new post!

Is Buying Links a Good Idea?

It’s true that establishing incoming links to your real estate website is an important part of SEO.  The search engines consider quality incoming links, with good anchor text, to be a “vote” for your website.

But, you may have also heard that there is a problem with buying links.  And, in some situations, that’s true.

From my perspective, the only kind of paid link that will give you a good incoming link to your site come from online directories.  There are many online real estate directories where you can advertise your business by paying a fee for a listing in the directory.  And, there are many directories that will let the search engines follow that link to your website.

If a directory marks all their links as “nofollow” links, that means that the search engines will not follow the link and your website won’t get a “vote”.  It may still be a good idea to get listed, but only if paying for that listing results in increased traffic to your website.

The situation that the search engines frown upon is one in which you are paying for a link for the sole purpose of getting additional search engine votes.  For example, if you pay for a link on a website that isn’t clearly related to the topic of your website, you could get into trouble with the search engines.  Or, if you purchase a link from a site that is known for selling links, that’s not good either.  But, don’t ask me how the search engines can tell when a site is known for selling links; they just do.

Is Masking Domain Names a Good Idea?

In short, no.  Normally, you’d mask a domain name when you are forwarding a domain name to a website.  It’s not a good idea for two reasons:  forwarding a domain name isn’t a good idea to begin with, and masking the domain name just compounds the problem.

If you have more than one domain name pointing to your website, here’s how the names should be set up:

• Default Domain Name – ideally, the default domain name is the one that is the oldest because search engines put a fair amount of emphasis on the age of a domain name when ranking websites.  In addition, you’d use the default domain name in your SEO efforts.
• Secondary Domain Names – First, keep in mind that the search engines don’t like having lots of domain names pointing to one website.  They don’t tell us what they consider to be “lots”, so my advice is always to err on the side of using the fewest number feasible.  Any secondary domain name should be redirected to the website using a 301 redirect.

When you establish a 301 redirect, that tells the search engines that the redirect is permanent.  The search engines then won’t pay attention to the secondary names.  With a 301 redirect, when a person lands on your website, the name on the address bar in their browser shows the default domain name.

For example, the default domain name for our Point2 Agent website is BuildRealEstateWebsites.com.  There’s also a shorter name redirected to the site with a 301 redirect:  ByGIWI.com. 

If you type ByGIWI.com into the address bar of your browser, you’ll land on our Point2 site.  Once there, your browser’s address bar will show BuildRealEstateWebsites.com, because that is the default name.

If I had directed ByGIWI.com to the site with a 302 redirect and masking, I’d have a problem with the search engines.  A 302 redirect tells the search engines that the name is temporarily pointed to the site.  So, the search engines will actually see two domain names with what seems like completely duplicate content.  That’s bad.

In addition, the masking will ensure that only the redirected domain name appears in the address bar.  So, if I had set up the domains that way, every page on the site would be identified as ByGIWI.com.  That’s usually confusing to visitors and search engines alike.

I hope this is more clear than it seems to me in reading it over.

So, the moral of the story is this:  If your oldest domain name is the one you like least, don’t go to extraordinary lengths to cover it up.  It’s true that visitors will see the original and default domain name when they land on the site, but that will probably be a small price to pay in order to get the ranking your aged domain name will provide!

Here’s a question that came up today.  When is it OK to change your website’s domain name?

The short answer to that question is this:  Don’t change your domain name unless you absolutely can’t avoid it.

Keep these things in mind if you’re considering changing your domain name:

1.  Search engines put a lot of emphasis on old domain names.  They figure if a website has been on the Internet under one domain name for a long time, it must be a serious site.  It doesn’t matter if the domain name has been pointed to different sites, it’s the overall age of the name that’s important.

2.  Search engines don’t care about IP addresses.  If you have two domain names with one domain registrar, the search engines don’t care.  They will still favor the one that has been around longest, even if the IP address of both domain names is the same.

3.  You can have a “default” domain name and other names.  Let’s say you have a domain name that’s been around a long time.  Then, you purchase another domain name that you think will be better for advertising, and contains your keyword phrases, too.

Should you change your site’s name to the one that uses your keywords and is easier to remember than your old one?  Not really.  You can leave your original name as the “default” domain name.  And, you can direct your new name to the same website.

In your advertising, you can use the new domain name.  When a visitor arrives at your site, if they look at the address bar on your site, they’ll see your default domain name.  But, I don’t belive that your site visitors will spend any time looking at their address bar, and if they do, they’ll spend even less time wondering why the name is different than the one they used to reach the site.

4.  You should do your real estate website’s SEO using your default domain name.  If you are building links to your site, for example, use your site’s default domain name for the links.

5.  Don’t go overboard with directing domain names at your website.  The search engines vaguely state that you shouldn’t have “too many” domain names pointed at one site.  So, don’t buy 15 different names and direct them all to the same place. 

6.  Use only those domain names that get you something.  If you have a domain name you will use in advertising, or if you have YOUR-NAME.com for those prospects who can only remember your name, then direct them at your website.  But, unless you have a specific purpose for a domain name, just leave it alone.

7.  Direct domain names properly.  Your default domain name is the one that directs to your site as its original designation.  Any other domain names should be directed to the site using a 301 redirect.  A 301 redirect tells the search engines that the domain is permanently directed at your website.  Any other type of a redirect will just confuse the search engines and reduce your chances at getting ranked.

Any other questions about domain names?  Leave a comment and I’ll answer questions in an upcoming post!

If you’ve wanted to find a way to get your website to climb in the search engine rankings, but you don’t have the budget to hire a full-service SEO firm, our new SEO Coaching service could be your answer!

I think it’s true that the fastest way to get your website ranked in the search engines is to hire a full-service SEO firm.  And, if you want to go that route, we can provide referrals.  But, if you have a more modest Internet marketing budget, there are things you can do yourself.

The Problem with Pure Do It Yourself SEO

The biggest problem you’ll face if you want to do your own SEO is figuring out how.  The learning curve can be extensive.  There’s a lot of information about how to do SEO everywhere – on the Internet and in the book stores.

What my clients tell me is that just reading about what you’re supposed to do still leaves a lot to be desired in terms of actually getting it done.

SEO Coaching Takes the “Self” out of Do It Yourself SEO

I’ve been threatening to put together a coaching program that would provide a guided tour through the world of SEO, and I’ve finally completed a 25-page workbook that can be used as the basis for a real estate SEO coaching program.

At the end of the program, you’ll understand SEO basics and you’ll have a roadmap customized for your business that includes effective keyword phrases, a site map for the content you’ll need to support your SEO efforts, custom page titles and meta tag templates for your web pages, action items for building incoming links and a plan for monitoring your progress.

If you’re interested in learning more about the service and fees, feel free to call us at 888-716-2418 or send an email.

The question of outbound links on real estate websites comes up from time to time.  So, what’s the verdict. . .  do they help or hurt?  There are a few issues to be considered.  As usual with SEO, there’s never a simple answer.

Will Outbound Links Drain Authority?

It is true that if you display live links to other websites, you will be passing along a bit of your website’s authority to each of the sites you link to.  And, I think it’s important to be aware of that fact.

Linking to other authority sites isn’t always bad for SEO, though.  The search engines do like it when they see relevant outbound links to authority websites.  How much that practice contributes to getting ranked – I’m not sure.  But, it isn’t a bad practice in and of itself.

My advice is always to look at your own situation.  If you are just adding some information-rich community pages to your website, now isn’t the time to pepper that page with lots of links – even if they are to relevant authority websites like the city site, the chamber site, etc.

Your first goal should be to get your new page noticed by the search engines.  A outbound link or two won’t hurt, but don’t go overboard.

Will People Ever Return to My Site?

If you are providing good information, outbound links shouldn’t take people off your site never to return.  But, I think it’s something to consider.  For one thing, you’d want to open links to other websites in a new window to make it easy for your visitors to return to your website.

And, I would often prefer to see a page called “Local Resources”, or something similar, that contains links to attractions, schools, cities, chambers, etc.  I think your main pages should be focused on moving the visitor toward a desired outcome.  For example, providing information, then adding a call to action for a special offer relating to that information.  On those types of pages, I don’t think outbound links are useful.

Those main pages should be landing pages that have a specific purpose.  You don’t want to interrupt someone in the middle of starting to decide that they should contact you for more information, and shoot them over to another website.

So, my bottom line is this:  outbound links do help put your site in context in the search engines, and used wisely, they help both your site and your visitors.