TECHNOLOGY
TECHNOLOGY
Why SEO is so Important
Before the advent of the internet , when people were looking for a place to live or seeking to lease retail space , they ’ d peruse the Classifieds in the paper , call up realtors , or dial the numbers on billboards . These days , they go to the source of all online information – Google .
Google is an intensive resource when it comes to the search and delivery of information , however , what most people fail to realize is that Google requires assistance from sites to be able to successfully find the right information , crawl the site , and spit it out where and when it ’ s appropriate .
The means by which search engines accomplish this is known as search engine optimization , and it requires a lot of work , including the correct tags for a website to read , a submitted sitemap , and perhaps most importantly , keywords .
Performing Keyword Research for Your Property
Let ’ s say you have a problem , and you ’ ve taken to Google to solve it . What do you type in the search bar ? Odds are there are words related to your problem or question . If you ’ re moving to a brand new city that you ’ ve never even visited before , what might that search be ?
Maybe you want to know which neighborhoods in the city are safest , or you just want to know what the neighborhoods are period . Typing in “ Neighborhoods in Dallas ” might begin to give you relevant information . Searching “ Best Neighborhoods in Dallas to Live in ” or “ Safest Neighborhoods in Dallas to live in ” would likely give you even more relevant information .
Being able to pick what keywords or keyword phrases ( known as long-tail keywords ) a person might type to find your site is key to optimizing your site for SEO . If you know your buyer personas well , these may come easily , but sometimes it can be difficult to narrow in on what people will actually search vs . what you think they might search . In these cases , keyword research is important .
There are a number of ways to approach keyword research . The most simple is to type your intended keywords into the search bar and see what kind of sites appear . Another good option is to look at what your competitors are trying to rank for . This is as simple as looking at their site and looking at what words come up over again , especially if they appear for headers or titles .
A more complex but strategic method that ’ s worth doing , especially if you intend to delve deep into the world of SEO and keywords , is to use a free keyword planning tool .
Both Google and the SEO tool Moz provide these at no charge , and these tools allow you to type in your intended keywords to get a measure of how difficult it may be to rank for ( a low number being easier to rank for ) and what kind of search volume the keyword gets . They also can suggest or show related keywords . Once you have collected and gathered the keywords you believe to be most relevant , the next step is to implement them .
12 | TRENDS • JULY 2017 www . aamdhq . org