Inbound Links: The REAL Story and 10 Ways to get them for your site
Posted by pete quinlan on Sep 13, 2007
Today’s Real Estate Agent has to be extremely competitive in all aspects of marketing including search engine marketing. Search engine marketing like the rest of the technology moves at a very rapid pace. To stay on top of it would mean either your sales are slipping or you are not sleeping . So I am going to make it easy for you, if you want your agent page or real estate website to rank for competitive search engine terms…..you need inbound links.
I will say it again, …you need inbound links!
Inbound links are links TO YOUR WEBPAGE or WEBSITE, from other websites. These links tell search engines that your website is worth going to as well as provide that door for the occasional visitor. The text contained in the actual link (anchor text) is equally important. For example, “Oregon Real Estate” with a link to your website or page is a well executed inbound link, because it describes the link. On the other hand, “click here” or “view this link” tells the search engines nothing about where the link is taking them. Be sure to provide good anchor text with your inbound links.
Search engines, especially Google, rank your sites with a very complex algorithm that puts a great deal of emphasis on your sites popularity. The stronger the website that executes your link, the more powerful the link. A link from realtor.com is much more valuable than a link from your Aunts website, www.fluffythewondercat.biz. Basically, it’s like a popularity contest, the more relevant the vote cast in your favor, the better the outcome. The cooler the kids rooting for you, the more famous you are. Being king of the nerds doesn’t do too much.
There are a lot of companies out there that sell ‘link building’ services. Be wary of these as some of them make use of so-called “Link Farms”. These are sites that allow anyone to add a link and are viewed as spam by search engines. A truly effective link building campaign involves much time, research, know-how, know-where and Okay, now the hard part, how do you get links?
1. Forum, Community and Social Sites. Get involved with online communities and social sites. www.activerain.com is an excellent example of a site that will allow you to create a profile and link to your website, as is www.Linkedin.com. I would steer clear of www.myspace.com for professional reasons.
2. Write Good Content. Just like it sounds, write something that people think is interesting and you might get some links. This works best if you have a blog. Add information to your site at least once every 2 weeks. Make sure the information is relevant. Remember that the popular kid is the interesting one.
3. News Feeds and Blogs. Create a blog, write good content, become an authority on your neighborhood, link to other blogs. Provide information and articles that your audience can identify with, such as local real estate trends, or best local burger.
4. Partnerships. Form business partnerships as well as internet partnerships. Seek out people with complementing businesses to yours and and refer each other business and traffic both in person and in cyberspace.
5. Directory Submission. There are many free and paid directories that will provide linking opportunities. Best-web-directories.com is an excellent resource. Make sure the directories are relevant to your website.
6. Ask for it? Find relevant sites that might give you or charge you a small fee for a link. Local newspapers or chamber of commerce sites are a good example. Another example, Seattle Real Estate!
7. Blog Comments. Comment on blogs with a link back to your site as part of your signature. Make sure the comments add to the post. “Good Post, Bro”, does not qualify.
8. Article Submission. Submit articles to sites and if it gets picked up, the traffic and links can be potentially huge. www.realestatevoices.com is a new real estate themed site similar to Digg.
9. PR. Do something remarkable, write a press release and submit to prweb.com or any online press release site. They will release your article to the press and you may get picked up by some noteworthy sources.
10. Charity Events. Get involved with charities, they typically list people that are associated with their organization.
Remember that your website is your online business card so you’ve got to give it out as much as you possibly can. Make sure that you’re getting your name out there, and most importantly, providing a means for them to find you and know more about what you do.