SEO: How to Get Your Website On The Front Page of Google

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BuilderRadio interviews Meredith Oliver, Meredith Communications, Inc.

60% of Internet searchers never look further than the first page of search results.  So, if you’re hoping that your buyers can type in a search term like ‘new homes’ and find you among the 73,000,000 results (not exaggerating here,) well, good luck.

Actually, luck has little to do with getting found by your buyers. It has much more to do with planning, strategizing, and optimizing your website so that those prospects most likely to buy from you, that is, you target audience, will be able to quickly find you.  More specifically, it’s about learning how those buyers search so that you can be where they look.  This is the art and science of search engine optimization, or SEO – a topic that Meredith Oliver understands and speaks about with enthusiasm.

“Think about Google like the Yellow Pages, where you can look for things by categories,” suggests Oliver.  “Search engines go through your website looking for clues as to what categories to list your site in their ‘phone book.’   The biggest mistake people make is assuming that their site is telling Google in the right way what category they belong in.  Your site has to shout loud and clear if you want Google to know where to place you, and to place you high enough for people to find you. ”

10 Keys to Making It to the Front Page of Google

1.  Content/Copy is still King.
“You should have copy on every page or your site – every page.  And, make sure that, where appropriate, you’re working in those key word phrases that tell Google, ‘Hey, this belongs under ‘New Homes’, and more specifically, under ‘New Homes in Alabama’ or New Homes n Sacramento.’   That tells them even more specifically where to place you.  Only focus on two or three phrases per page.  You can optimize different pages for different phrases, but keep each page focused on a specific topic or phrase.”

2.  Find the Right Words
Make sure that the key word phrases you optimize for are the ones your customers are using in their searches.  For example, ‘active adult’ is a term that we, the industry, made up.  It is not a phrase people think of or search for.  Instead, they are more likely to search for ‘retirement communities’ in a particular area, ‘Retirement Communities in Phoenix’, for example.

3.   Go for the Niche
“Find the words that both get a lot of traffic and that aren’t too, too competitive,’ recommends Oliver.  If you go for the really hot terms that everyone is competing for, it’s going to be tough.  We’re talking bigger bucks.  So, get as niched as possible.  You’re competing against fewer websites, you’ll move up quicker, and you’ll be more targeted.  The people that find you will have had to type in that specific phrase, so they’ll be a better lead for you, which makes the cost and effort worth while.”

Be careful not to go too narrow, though, says Oliver.  If you target a phrase that few people search for, you’ve not gained anything.  “You’re looking for a balance.  You want phrases that have enough searches per month that it’s worth chasing, but not to many other websites are chasing it.  That makes it easier to get a page 1 or page 2 result.”

4.  Track, Measure & Adjust
“So, you come up with your strategy and your key words and phrases, then you track your results for 30 – 60 days to make sure you’re on target with the phrases you’ve optimized for.  Are you getting enough traffic with those phrases, or do you need to broaden out?  Or, do you need to narrow down because you’re getting a lot of traffic, but not a lot of registrations or phone calls?

5.  Offsite Optimization
“This is where you go out and build links back to your website from other sites, especially high quality, relevant links – sites that are related to you and are in the industry.  Links back from your HBA and other industry directories are great, high quality inbound links.

6.  The Social Media Supercharge
“Other high-quality links are from social media – Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube.  Social media is an incredible communication tool to reach people interested in your business.  It allows you to deliver a message that might not get through by email.

Second, it’s fantastic for SEO.  If you were to set up a blog on WordPress, for example, about New Homes in Dallas, and linked that blog back to your website, within 48 hours that blog could be in the #1 position on the first page on Google for that search phrase.  If someone can get to that blog, they can get to your site.  And over time, the popularity and traffic to that blog can bring your website up to page one.  Using social media is like having more than one entrance to a master-planned community.  It just makes sense.

For example, I have a client that whose website has been doing well, hover at the bottom of page one or top of page two for years.  Then, we started posting a series of short, 1-minute videos on YouTube.  Now, they are consistently at the top of page one, something we’ve been chasing for years.  That’s the power of social media for SEO.”

7.  Take a Long-Term Approach
“SEO is a long term process.  It’s not something you do for one or two months, and then you’re done.  Googles comes around every couple of weeks, looks at your site, and if they see something new that tells them where you belong in their phone book, you might bump up a couple of spots.  Every time they come around you bump up again until you hit a plateau.  So, then you have to publish some new content – publish a new blog post or add content to a web page.  It’s something that you have to be committed to over time for it to work.

Also understand that there is some risk involved.  One month what you do may not work and you lose a couple of spots, so you go back and fix it.   Then, when you get your page one position, you can back off some.  But, you still have to constantly manage your site to keep your momentum.”

8.  Work with a Specialist
“SEO is not do-it-yourself friendly, so you’ll probably want to hire someone to do take care of that for you.  If so, choose wisely.  You want someone who specializes in SEO; it is it’s own discipline.

SEO is very labor-intensive.  Somebody has to constantly be writing new copy, monitoring the performance, building the links and tweaking the code.  These are all highly technical skills.  So, when you hire this done, you’re basically buying the time it takes to do this, and the amount of time you pay for per month will determine your results.

So, ignore those emails you get promising that promise to put you #1 in Google for $249 or whatever.  That’s ludicrous.  There’s no way that you’ll anyone can do that for the phrases that you want.  It takes lots of hours put in over a long period of time to get the results you want.”

9.  Avoid Bad SEO Practices
“There are certain practices that can harm you and even get your site blacklisted by Google, and it’s hard to get off that list once you’re on it.  One thing is having too many domain names pointing to the same website.  Google doesn’t like that.  I know of one company that had to buy a new domain name and start over with all new content.

Other actions that can get you ousted from Google search results include:

• Hidden text – text that blend in with the background that search engines see but is invisible to your visitors.
• Key Word Stuffing – Repeating your targeted phrases over and over on a web page.  A good ‘density’ for a targeted phrase is to use that phrase two or three times in the copy.
• Hidden Links – Links coming in from websites that are not relevant to your business, such as online gambling sites, etc.

10.  Pay Per Click
“If you can’t afford to hire someone to do your SEO, a good alternative is pay per click (PPC) advertising,” says Oliver.  PPC allows you to set a budget and buy front page placement on Google for the search phrases you want.  Different phrases have different costs, depending on the popularity of the phrase and the competition for it.  But, you can set whatever dollar limit you want; when that limit is reached, your ad is removed.

PPC is also a great way to test the effectiveness of new ads or offers.  It’s inexpensive and the results can be seen and measured instantly.

Write for Buyers First
SEO might be critical to getting your buyers to your website, but once they are there they had better find what they’re looking for.  The rule is still:  Write your copy for your buyers first and the search engines second.

By writing good, relevant copy, pinpointing and using the key words that your buyers are using to search for you, and using social media and link-building, you can might just be able to get your site to the front page of Google.  But remember, Google doesn’t buy homes;  people do.  So, write for the search engines, but always keep your buyers first in your mind.

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Contact Meredith Oliver at www.CreatingWow.com.

Additional Free Tips from Meredith Oliver – 5 Tips on Selecting an SEO Firm

BuilderRadio Webinar Series will continue on October 7 with Tom Stephani presenting the topic How to Conduct Custom Building Seminars for Consumers.  Registration will open soon for this series that will also include presentations by Melinda Brody, Jane Meagher, Meredith Oliver, Jerry Rouleau and Scott Stroud, so watch your inbox or check back at www.BuilderRadio.com for details.