The number 1 thing real estate agents can do to increase search rankings in Google

Today I wanted to write about a question we get very often.

How do we make our website rank higher in Google?

The answer is, very simply, get links from other websites to your website. For example:

• Get a link to your website from your local council
• Get a link to your website from any local clubs you are involved in
• Get a link to your website from suppliers or partners that you work with

For more ideas on where you can get links to your website from, check out this website.

But “this is crazy” I hear you say. “Why does getting links to my website help me rank better?”

The field of SEO is quite complex and it’s always evolving. Google has hundreds of ranking factors in it’s algorithm, but at the end of the day, what Google cares about is:

1. Good quality websites
2. Popular websites

Why does Google want popular websites?

Imagine for a moment that you are Google. You have billions of websites in a huge list. Someone searches for a real estate agent. How do you sort out which ones are the best?

The primary way Google has solved this problem is that it counts every on the internet as a vote. If someone links to your website, they are voting for your website. If you put a link on your website to another website, you are voting for that website. The more “votes” a website has, the higher it will rank.

Not all links are equal though. Some links will help you more than others, and some links will actually hurt you.

The best links are:

• From a website that is relevant to your website. For example, a link from a hairdresser website to a real estate website is not relevant. However a link from a property investor website to a real estate website is relevant.
• From a high quality and/or authoritative website. A link from your local council is authoritative. A link from a spammy directory website is not

Some links can hurt your rankings and must be avoided:

• Links that you can buy from cheap SEO companies (you get tons of emails from these guys every day)
• Links from spammy websites that nobody would ever actually read

In summary, the best thing a real estate agent can do to rank higher in Google is to get links to your website from local, high quality, somewhat related sources.

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