There is no doubt that showing up on page one of Google for a highly competitive term like “Real Estate” would be awesome. Your site would be flooded with so much traffic you would not know what to do with it all. But there are a couple of problems with targeting such a huge keyword phrase. It may not be the right kind of traffic and it may not be worth the time it would take to rank for it.

Unless you are a general industry website you probably offer your services in a specific geographic area. Targeting local search terms is going to bring you more focused search engine traffic. One of the best ways to get local traffic is to rank highly in a search engine’s local search section.

It see what local search looks like you can do a search in Google or any of the major search engines for “City real estate agent”. Put in your city in this query. In most areas Google will return a map at the top of the search results with a list of realtors. You might even see that an agent has two first page placements. One on the map listing and one in the search results below.

So how can you get into that list? Start by doing some on page optimization. This could be on your bio page and include the keyword phrase in it like “...John Smith has been a Seattle real estate agent for 15 years”. I would also include the phrase in the title of page and the meta description.

Next get some local businesses to link to your site. If you are member of the local chamber of commerce you may be entitled to a link on their website. A link on the DMOZ directory is also a good link because they categorize businesses by state, province and city.

By getting as many local links as possible your are reinforcing the fact that your are a local business in that city and province or state.

Here are some other Local Link Opportunity:

Local Better Business Bureau
Local Library
Local Businesses (Try offering them content in exchange for a link)
Local Business Directories
Local Clubs and Organizations

And don't forget to make sure your address is listed in text on your site. If it is in a graphic the search engine will not be able to read it.

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