So now you’ve brainstormed and come up keywords and phrases that you think will work well with your site. You have utilized the free keyword selector tools and come up with even more, paying close attention to their popularity.

You might think it will be in your best interest to use as many of these keywords as possible, all at once. That’s not the case at all.

There’s no set rule on how many keywords you can use but you don’t want to over do it. Don’t forget that you will be changing them on a regular basis so you will have the opportunity to use all of your favorite ones.

Ten keywords actually cover a lot of ground because you won’t be using them all in one section of content on your site. Let’s say that you’re going to write a newsletter to be used as content on your site and on your keywords list you have Kentucky Homes, Kentucky Listings and Kentucky Investment properties.

You wouldn’t write in your newsletter, “If you’re looking to buy a Kentucky home, then you should really consult our Kentucky listings and while you’re at it, you should take a look at the Kentucky investment properties that we have.”

It might sound ok to you but each type of content that you have on your site should focus around a particular keyword and then that keyword should be sprinkled throughout that particular section, be it for blogs, articles, newsletters and so on.

The reason that this is necessary is because keyword relevance to your site is something that the search engines use as a basis for determining if your site is what the searcher is looking for.

Having one article or blog that has a concentrated amount of one keyword or phrase will let the search engines know that the phrase that was searched under is relevant to your site.

By focusing on one keyword per content section and sprinkling it throughout the copy, then each section takes on a greater relevance to the search engines.

Since different people are looking for different things, this will broaden the amount of hits that you will get on your site. Including additional keywords dilutes that relevance and the search engine spiders may pass over you and return with another site to present to the user as opposed to yours.

In the world of search engines, the frequency of keywords will play a very important role. As we previously discussed in the last section, each segment of your site should focus on a different keyword so that a variety of people who are looking for different things will be able directed to your site.

Let’s say you decide to write a blog and that you chose the keyword phrase Kentucky Houses for Sale. In terms of logic, it might seem beneficial to use those keywords as often as you can in the blog. Your first paragraph might read:

There has been a huge increase in the amount of Kentucky houses for sale. Because of the increase in Kentucky houses for sale, the sales prices for Kentucky houses for sale have dropped dramatically.

If you have been looking to buy one of the Kentucky houses for sale, now would be an excellent time because Kentucky houses for sale have never been offered at such a low price.

You may then continue your blog in that same vein because, you feel that a person who initiated a search using that phrase would be directed to your site, thanks to the strong relevance using it so many times created.

The search engine spiders would recognize that relevance and direct the searching party to your site. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

That one paragraph contained 68 words and the keyphrase was used 5 times. That means in one paragraph, it made up 7% of the content. In the complicated world of search engines, a keyword or phrase should only make up 7% of the entire document.

There was a time it was considered expedient to use a keyword or phrase as many times as possible. Once people began to understand how search engines worked, recognizing the relevance factor, they began doing what’s known as “keyword stuffing”. They would insert the keyword phrase into their content multiple times, and the search engines would of course respond by putting their site high up on the search results page.

As time went on, the people who program the spiders got smarter and thus so did the spiders themselves. Now, if a site uses a keyword or phrase multiple times throughout the content, this technique will actually cause them to discount that page and ignore it, lowering it in the rankings.

The spiders recognize that you are trying to trick them and they make you pay for it by pretending you don’t exist. This is the last thing you want to happen since the whole point of SEO is to get your pages ranked higher, not relegated to the back of the line.

When you are crafting your content, be careful not to overuse the keyword or phrase. Keep the frequency down to 7% to make the search engines happy and boost your chances of bringing your site to the searcher’s attention.

Search engines are not only looking for relevance in key words and phrases. They are also looking for the popularity of the keywords. You might specialize in foreclosure properties and choose keywords that are relevant to that topic.

Earlier I showed you how to use keyword selector tools to find out what keywords were popular during the month before this one. Now that you have chosen your keywords that you find most relevant to your site, you have to narrow it down even further by using the keyword selector tool to figure out which of them are the most popular.

Another thing that you have to take into consideration is competition. Chances are your competitors are also going to be using the same keywords that you choose to use.

This makes your selection of keywords even trickier because you now have to find a way to choose words that combine relevance, popularity and competition. This isn’t really as hard as it may seem.

a) Don’t Just Choose the Most Popular

Your first thought might be to just use the most popular terms that people initiate searches under that a strong relevance to your site. This might seem like the prudent thing to do but don’t forget the example that I gave in section B.

When I did the Google search under “Kentucky Listings”, two brokers chose keywords that were not as popular among their competitors and managed to wipe out a huge amount of competition by doing so.

This particular phrase may not have gotten as many hits as other keywords, but you can guarantee that it did get some and there was no one but these two brokers returned in the search result pages.

This speaks volumes for the wisdom of choosing keywords that are less popular than those that will return pages and pages of brokers for you to compete with. By choosing these keywords they managed to find a successful balance between low popularity and high relevance.

b) Stay Away From Keywords That Have Lots of Competition

The next things you need to consider are competitive keywords and which ones you should choose. Choosing keywords that are highly competitive in the real estate industry can make it harder to rise up in the search engine rankings, since many of your competitors are using them as well.

Remember the second example in section B when I did another Google search under Kentucky Homes for Sale. This keyword phrase was obviously much more popular with the competition than was Kentucky Listing.

So much more so that it returned pages of brokers who used the same phrase. This does not mean you should not use words that are competitive. If you want to use such phrases then fine but make sure that ones you choose are highly relevant to your site.

In the best case scenario, the keywords and phrases that you choose will be high in relevance, be popular among real estate searchers and lower in competition with the other brokers that you are competing with.

This is why it’s essential to constantly change your keywords and phrases as well as the content that they relate to you. Make sure you keep track of your hits and conversions and keep a chart for each keyword and phrase that you use so you can note which ones were the most effective.

Defining your online goals is the next big step. Chances are your definition of this will consist of three words; to make money. Of course this is your primary objective but in order to reach that ultimate goal you need to increase your web site exposure.

Your goals need to be broken down in writing. If you were to plan a cross country road trip, you would probably make sure that you had a map handy to help you get there faster.

This is especially true if you are cruising through unknown territory. Mapping out your goals will help you stay focuses and guide you through the process.

Today’s tech savvy individual may forgo paper maps for the new electronic ones called GPS. Consider SEO as your GPS and follow the turn by turn directions to reach your goals faster.

Remember SEO takes time and effort and with all the other things you have going on in your personal and business life, it can be easy to get distracted. Writing out your goals and regularly reviewing them will help you to remain focused on them.

Real estate profits are based upon the commissions obtained through the sales of property. Your question now is how you can use your
website to help you garner more sales. Increasing sales by use of your website will consist of converting viewers into clients.

Figure out what your percentage of offline prospects, (walk-ins, or those responding to mailers and other offline advertisements), that are converted into clients.

Use this as a baseline for what you hope to expect from your online conversions. Naturally, the two will go hand and hand and the combination will increase conversions in both areas but for now use this percentage as a starting point to focus on.

If possible, post a phone number on the site that is different than the one that is used in the office, so that you will be better able to track and differentiate your online conversions vs. your offline ones.

If you have already had a website in place and it has been already been effective in conversions, figure out what that percentage is and determine how much you want to increase it.

You should also examine each section of the site and try to determine which section is most responsible for the site’s success and why that is.

Be realistic when setting your goals. Start small and work your way up. A very important step when detailing your goals is to recognize how much business you can effectively handle. You may be inclined to just shoot for the moon and employ all of the SEO techniques and bring in as many customers that you can.

Real estate is a service oriented business so ask yourself how many people you can service while maintaining your professionalism and providing quality customer service. This is especially true if you are a one man shop or an agent building your own page.

Reputation is a big part of your business and you’re only as good as your last deal. The last thing you want is to have too many clients to handle effectively which will negatively impact your reputation.

That means all of the work you put into your site was for nothing because instead of being looked at as an expert in your field, you will become known as the agent who can’t get the job done instead of the one who can.

You need to have a plan to handle the excess and you may want to consider partnering up with another agent and building a joint site or having a trusted associate that you can direct excess clients to. If you take this path, then make sure you have an agreed commission split worked out and do so in writing.

Another reason to start the ball rolling slowly is time management. Consider the life of a real estate agent. You work irregular hours based upon your client’s availability, spend time seeking listings that will hopefully match what they are looking for and spend time carting the clients too and from those listings.

Having a sudden influx of new clients can severely impact your usual schedule which is erratic at best. You will need to be able to ease into your sudden increase in potential clients so that you can take the time to convert them into actual ones.