The information you provide on your real estate website and how you present it has a big impact on your ranking in the search engines, and the potential for converting Internet visitors into leads.

The Content category on this blog was created to organize information about website and blog content in one place.  In addition to the individual posts, this is part one of a multi-post series about mistakes you should avoid making with the content of your website.  Use this link to see all the posts in this series:  Real Estate Website Content Mistakes.

You might want to blame your website for your mistakes, but it won’t help.

1. Creating Your Website, THEN Addressing SEO
Remember that there are two basic parts of SEO (Search Engine Optimization):  on-page and off-page.  The on-page planning and work needs to be done before you start creating content, writing ALT Tags for images, or planning the structure of your site (see Mistakes 2 and 4 below).

I know site owners who proudly introduced a new website, only to find that it would be impossible for the site to rank in the search engines.  And, if you select the keyword phrases you want to be ranked for after the site is completed, what do you think the odds are that the content pages will be written and optimized properly?  Right.

2. Flash Introduction Pages
Lots of people want flash introductions on their websites.  You know – the ones that have all the pretty graphics flying around the screen.  However, I’ve never talked to anyone who actually sat at their computer and watched the entire show before entering the site.

But, let’s do a little research.  There is a poll at the bottom of the left column of the blog.  PLEASE VOTE!  Maybe I’ll be proven wrong!!

Not only are flash introduction pages annoying to many of your visitors, but they are death in terms of SEO.  Search engines can’t read a flash file, and even if they could, the engines want content.  They are trying to determine what the site is about.  You need to help them accomplish that!

3. Avoiding Flash Altogether
Very often, the idea of not using flash introduction pages is brought home so forcefully, people end up thinking all flash is bad.  That’s not true. 

You can use flash in a header, or in the body of a page to tell a story.  Many people use images of their market area in a header flash module.  It can be a very effective way to attract your visitors’ attention, get them to envision your market area, and to subliminally reinforce your role as a local expert!

4. Using Framed Content Pages
Some web designers use frames for content pages.  Search engines can’t easily read content in a frame.  If you want a content page to count for you in terms of SEO, make sure the pages are not set out in frames.

How can you tell if a content page is set up in a frame?  If part of the page scrolls while part of it stays static, it’s probably using frames.  Also, unless your web designer is very clever, be careful of situations where the URL in the Address bar of your browser doesn’t change.  If the address shown is always http://www.MyDomain.com, no matter which page of the site you are on, something fishy is probably happening behind the scenes.

5. Framing Other Websites into Your Site
If it isn’t illegal, you can certainly frame another site into one of your pages (see this post about framing pages).  And, it makes sense for things like your IDX MLS search. 

But, just keep in mind that the search engines consider the content from a framed website to belong to the framed site.  So, don’t expect to get credit from the search engines, or your visitors, for framing in another web page.

Stay tuned – there will be more website content mistakes to avoid in coming posts!