Looking at SEO vs. Content and Just Writing Good Copy

 December 19, 2014

When you’re thinking about writing articles for your website, you also need to consider how the search engines, mostly Google, will index your pages. That’s called SEO or Search Engine Optimization.

It used to be, and you’ll still find a few people advocating this, that optimizing for search engines meant stuffing an article with the terms you wanted Google to find so the page would be on the first or second page when the term is entered into the search engine.

So you’d find pages that read poorly but had a dozen or more uses of the term real estate in them, or real estate in San Diego. 

It was awful!

Google has gotten smarter

Fortunately, Google has gotten smarter — that is their programmers have. They’ve gotten very good at developing algorithms that can read or understand natural language. Google has also set up or programmed rules that prohibit keyword stuffing.

And so, by the way have the other major search engines.

Fortunately you and I do not have to understand a logarithms. What we need to do is write in clear, simple sentences. The Google robot will then come around and quote “read” your pages and index your site so it will show up when people search for real estate terms that you use.

Pick a focus word

Every article you write should have a focus or a keyword or phrase that lets Google know what the article is about. For example, I used a focus word for this article of real estate SEO that works.

If you Google that phrase, you’ll find it has something like 19 million entries. If I do my article right it’s likely to show up on the first couple of pages of Google when that phrases searched.There are of course other factors, many of which we have no control over. Google does take a look to see how many legitimate sites are linking into your site, how many links you have going out, how fast your website is delivered, etc. But gently optimizing for search does increase your article’s’ chances of being and is totally legitimate.

Real Estate SEO that works

If I’m really clever all work the focus phrase into a subheading as I just did above. I’ll also find one or two more ways to use to use it which is probably enough since this article is relatively short period.

Real Estate SEO that works doesn’t overwhelm the reader with the focus word or phrase. Instead the text flows naturally and easily.

It does take some practice to learn to write SEO friendly copy, but it isn’t rocket science. In fact Google actually tells you what it wants at their site, www.webmastertools.com. Be warned it is written in fairly esoteric language that sometimes drives me just mad.

It can help to Google up phrases like real estate SEO that works and read the read several of the articles to find out what they’re all about. Just be sure the articles were written no longer than six months ago; the more recent the better because Google and the other search engines are always updating and refining their search methods. Using an outdated article can actually cause you to lose ranking rather than gain it.

Choosing a focus word or phrase and using that both the body copy a couple of times plus in at least one subhead will go a long way towards making your articles findable via Google and the other search engines.

Read the quote in the graphic at the start of this article. Matt Cutts leads the team that is the genius behind making Google such a great search engine. Over over again he says, one way or another, make your site really serve your target audience and you’ll do fine.

I’m not an SEO expert, but if you’ve got questions I’ll try to answer them or give you a pointer about where you can find the answer.

real esate


Anne Wayman

By Anne Wayman

Before Anne Wayman became a writer she sold real estate in Southern California. She worked with her father who learned the business from his father. Not surprisingly she learned a few things along the way. Since then, she has been freelance writing for over 30 years – she is a grandmother, loves cats and writes about a wide variety of topics including real estate.