When it comes to real estate lead generation strategies, many agents seem to have a love/hate relationship with search engine optimization (SEO). At times it can feel like you’re chasing an elusive dream. “What does Google want?” What we do know is, we all want to reap the reward of having qualified leads delivered via organic search, and when our tried-and-true efforts stop producing, our instinct is to jump ship and seek out the next promising opportunity. However, that's where most real estate professionals get it wrong. Experienced SEO wranglers have learned that it takes patience and dedication.

Think about it like this: investing in SEO is like buying a home vs. renting. You’re building equity on a previous investment instead of paying a fixed rent for a place to live, with nothing to show for it when you leave. The key is knowing which methods to apply -- and which to abandon -- to improve your results. Here are some SEO best practices to consider when implementing your next online marketing campaign.

Use Google's Support Articles to Help Improve SEO

Getting your website in as many directories as possible will gradually help improve your search engine rankings. You can find real estate directories to submit your website to through sources like Trulia, Zillow, Redfin, and Homes.com who have directories specifically for realtors.

These days, content is king on search engines and SEO results. Websites with blogs get 60% more traffic. It's recommended to publish frequent, quality articles about home renovations, local real estate market conditions, and community spotlights that would be of interest to potential home buyers and sellers in your area. The content should be unique and optimized with target keywords.

For more information on blogging in BoldTrail click here.

SEO Area Pages allow you to add your own unique content to the different area pages on your BoldTrail website.

The area pages show at the bottom of your site in the footer:

Clicking on any of these areas displays a statistical page full of relevant information. With this feature, you can fill in even more information to make the page more unique and relevant depending on your goals and improve SEO.

To learn more about SEO Area Pages click here.

There are many resources available to assist you further through this process. Here are a few favorites regarding SEO!

Please Note: Inside Real Estate has no affiliation with the 3rd party links provided and cannot assist further with SEO-related inquiries.

Consider that you'll be competing with massive-scale vendors that make the SEO approach daunting. Google is in the business of forcing companies to pay to advertise and, therefore, make it nearly impossible for the typical Agent to put a dent in SEO placement. To attempt effective "SEO", would cost hundreds of dollars per keyword without any guarantee it will be beneficial.

For example, it's commonly thought that your URL plays a role in how well your site ranks organically. Therefore, people have come up with long URL's full of keywords, that haven't been proven to make a difference. Keep that in mind the next time someone tries to sell you SEO magic.

Ultimately, you may spend money trying to rank your own custom website, with no promise of immediate return. If you consider that Google and Facebook are placing ads in the contextual sense, relative to the keywords you are marketing towards, it doesn't make sense to forge your own path. Some websites get hundreds of millions of hits and are constantly updating, can you realistically compete with that?

Ultimately, no. However, there is SEM. SEM stands for search engine marketing, and BoldTrail empowers you to dominate it.

The supply of constantly updated and free information is what will consistently rank well with Google. That's why you often see blogs nearer the top of search results for many topics.

All of the tools in BoldTrail allow you to master SEM in a way to rapidly grow your sphere. Consider that the amount of damage you can do to your wallet chasing SEO would be immense. However, if you invest the money you would into SEM instead, you could generate contacts and leads via Facebook or Google advertising.

Have more questions? Please reach out to Customer Support via the blue chat bubble to the right or by emailing support@insiderealestate.com!