This is the second in the series on content mistakes you can avoid so that you don’t end up annoyed with your website like our friend here.  Use this link to see all the posts in this series:  Real Estate Website Content Mistakes.

6.  Selecting Keyword Phrases for SEO Using Common Sense
Usually, applying common sense to tasks is a good thing.  However, when it comes to choosing keyword phrases, common sense isn’t good enough.

The keyword phrases you choose will determine what content you need to have on your website to support your SEO strategy.  The goal, when you select keyword phrases that you want to be ranked for in the search engines, is this:  You want to select phrases that are used a lot, but that have the fewest number of sites competing for the phrase.  Unfortunately, you can’t figure that out using common sense.

For example, let’s say your target market is USATown, Idaho.  Common sense might tell  you that most people looking for homes or REALTORS® in your area would search for USATown Real Estate.  But, some research into keywords will probably show you things you never thought of.

You might discover that the term USATown Real Estate has the highest usage rate, but it also has the most competition.  You might also discover that USATown ID Real Estate (using the two-letter state abbreviation) is used 90% as often, but has 50% less competition.  Now that you have that information, common sense will tell  you which keyword phrase you should target.

There are many keyword research tools available on the Internet.  Two of the most popular are WordTracker and KeywordDiscovery.  You will have to make an investment to use these types of tools.  But, consider that it could make a significant difference in how quickly

• You start getting Internet traffic coming to your site
• You start getting leads from your website
• You start converting leads to clients
• You start seeing your site paying for itself

7.  Focusing Only on Big City Keyword Phrases
It’s natural to want to rank for the main keyword phrases in your area.  But, keep in mind that Internet buyers and sellers also search for real estate in suburbs, and major neighborhoods.

If your goal is to start getting leads as quickly as possible, be sure to evaluate a range of keywords.  A quick way to get a feel for competition is to do a search on Google, for example.  I just did a search on Google for Atlanta Real Estate.  At the top right of the search results page, I was informed that Google was displaying Results 1-10 of about 25,600,000 results for that term.

Then, I searched for an Atlanta suburb, Roswell Real Estate.  That results page indicated Results 1-10 of about 1,820,000. 

I still don’t know how many people use the term Roswell Real Estate, or what the traffic is for Roswell GA Real Estate, but if the usage numbers are good, then I would certainly get quicker results using the suburb search term.

The overall idea is that if you choose your keyword phrases without the information you need to make an informed choice, you’re not giving your website its best chance to work hard for you as a lead-generating resource.