Measuring the sentiment of searchers can help you determine which additional phrase combinations (or roots of phrases) can deliver more high-value long tail terms. One way to do this is to use the Google Keyword Tool to get a list of variations relevant to your main phrase, and then use a Tag Cloud in order to see which words most prominently figure into the mix. Most tag clouds will make frequent words appear to be larger, so you can easily see a quick visual snapshot of the most common words. You can even find several free Tag Cloud generators online, which let you drop lists into a field.

In the example below, we used a small group of terms related to “logo design” in the Google keyword tool. At a glance, you can see that the terms “logo” and “design” have the biggest frequency, and these terms are followed by terms like business, software, company, award, corporate, and best. Terms like affordable and portfolio are less popular. Therefore, if you have a website (like Web.com’s LogoYes logo design division) that is relevant to these keywords, then you know that you can pepper them into your content in order of importance.  A more in-depth test may include a much longer list of terms in order to recognize broader trends.

To understand the nature of your existing traffic, you can also make a tag cloud by exporting your Analytics keywords (usually you have to do this in blocks of 500, but you can get a pretty good sample with the first page) and then feeding the word list into the cloud. You may be surprised at some of the high frequency words that come to your site, but you can then make adjustments either to cater to those keyword visits or to reduce the profile of words for which you don’t care to be found. While people normally don’t think about eliminating unnecessary “free” traffic, a lower quality search experience and higher bounce rate may have a negative long term impact on rankings, and dilute your value among your core market. 

For both approaches, the keyword search volume or traffic volume for each individual keyword is not measured. Instead, the goal is to find out how many other individual words are appearing in search results and in actual traffic. By making a quick study of the terms in each situation, you can usually discover opportunities for further optimization or content building. For example, if a relevant keyword appears often in searches, but is not getting traffic to your site, then you can create material that matches up with consumer sentiment.

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As a group, realtors can also use guidance on the need for certain SEO changes to their sites, since they may have already bought a pre-packaged site. There are only a few website design companies out there who specialize in MLS (Multiple Listing Search, a dynamic feature showing all available homes in an area) functionality, so as a rule, realtor websites can all look very similar. This similarity often extends to the content on the site itself, and in some cases the only original content on a real estate website will be the realtor’s name, address, phone number, and the neighborhoods served by the agent.

Anyone who’s read Dale Carnegie will know that the fastest way to gaining shared understanding with people is to explain things in terms that they can understand. People in SEO tend to drop a lot of jargon about keyword density, H tags, anchor strength, and site trust, all of which are concepts that could take several hours of training to truly grasp. This is would be similar to an agent talking about comps, escrow, and title searches before asking customers about what they’d like in a home. Relating the world of SEO to the world of real estate can make it easier to move ahead with vital site changes, and make your client, who is in this case a realtor, a partner in your success.

How do you relate SEO concepts to realtors? If you think about it, SEO isn’t all that different from real estate. Agents in commercial and residential real estate sell the location and the structure on top of it. In this case, the location is the domain name, and the structure is the website. The further you go toward the top of the search engine results, the more valuable the real estate. Likewise, a well built site at the top of the SERPs is akin to a luxury home in Beverly Hills. Naturally, real world locations are a bit more permanent, but SEO companies have an opportunity to show agents that the best spots are worth the money.

Using real estate concepts in SEO doesn’t stop with the website. Links to the site, and their quality, can be explained in these terms as well. In the SEO world, we talk about linking to “bad neigborhoods.” Likewise, an endorsement from a gated community (like a .gov site link) is worth more than 200 from the studio apartment complex downtown (like directories that give links to anyone, including casinos and adult sites.) The importance of page title writing can be likened to summarizing a home’s best features first. It isn’t that much of a stretch to say that your page title should be crafted in the same way that you’d place a classified ad for a home. If you really want to belabor the metaphor, you could even say that things like content, internal linking, and alt tags are analogous to zoning or HOA regulations. If you’re clear on how SEO elements relate to each other, the astute agent should get the impression that (just like the sales process) an incomplete SEO job isn’t going to end up generating commissions.

Uniqueness is another site aspect that can be related to realtors, but some caution should be advised. In the same way that many homebuyers are satisfied with “vanilla” homes in developments with only 3 choices of exterior paint color, real estate agents may want to have a site with the exact same features of any other website. From an SEO standpoint, however, there should be at least one unique feature that is going to keep people coming back to the site. This may be an MLS search that doesn’t ask for a signup, a mortgage/ payment calculator, or a virtual tour of the neighborhood. Most sites talk about schools and community centered-events, but a realtor who gets more in-depth and interactive may get multiple visits from shoppers who are seeking to eventually make a buy. An interesting feature like up-to-date pricing or recent sales figures may get realtors links from media outlets, blogs, and even other agents.

The value proposition of real estate SEO cannot be underestimated, and some of today’s most successful agents already know this. Even though there are more realty websites on the internet than almost any other small business model, the vast majority of these sites contain minimal SEO value, either because of unoriginal content, poor keyword selection, no link popularity, bad design elements (like frames), or Flash elements that can’t be crawled. For this reason, there playing field for many online real estate markets is surprisingly level, and a moderate amount of search engine friendly redesign plus link building can create a definite impact.

Relating SEO to client business models can be helpful for a variety of reasons. Working in a client’s own vernacular gives you an ability to relate to the client, and you will save time if you can turn SEO concepts into relevant ideas in the customer’s mind. Obviously, you don’t want to oversimplify things too much, but there is a clear advantage for bringing search engine concepts into the mindset of your clients. Even highly competitive salespeople have a network of colleagues and competitors with whom they share information, and one comfortable SEO client in real estate can literally create dozens of leads from people in the same geographical area. Since many agents prefer to stick to certain neighborhoods or homes within driving distance of their offices, a good SEO company can work with several local agents without excessive overlapping. Some real estate brokers may even want all of their agents to follow a solid SEO strategy, since this will mean that the agency itself will have more visibility in the search engines, even though it is spread among several different sites. In all of these cases, an agent who can relate to SEO concepts is going to be more comfortable with the type of changes necessary for success, and the cost of generating quality real estate client leads.

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Several factors are at work in DMOZ listings. First, a person needs to submit the listing to the proper category. Each category has its own editor and there may be a more relevant category unknown to the submitter. If an editor gets a submission for what is perceived to be the wrong category, the submission will get forwarded to the “right” category. The submission, even though it is from another editor, ends up at the back of the queue.

Second, not all editors update their listing categories, and some editors may have a financial stake in not allowing new listings. For instance, you may be selling fishing rods and your competitor may secretly be the editor of the fishing accessories category. DMOZ tries to prevent this from happening, but there is no easy way of establishing for whom an editor may work. Furthermore, editors may not be diligent in reviewing all of the listings requests they get, or there may be a backlog of requests ahead of yours, all of which need to be reviewed by hand. Because questionable sites have been submitting themselves to DMOZ, much of this backlog could consist of “junk” submissions.

Finally, there is some indication that a resubmission request for a website actually cancels out the original submission. Therefore, a request that was 1 year in process will end up at the back of the line when a new submission request is made. Assuming that an editor is reviewing the category, the request is now at the back of the line.

While we still submit to DMOZ, we have found that inclusion has become the exception and not the rule. Normally we recommend submitting only the most basic information about your site, without any superlatives or “sales oriented” language. When choosing the category, first look for any other relevant categories. One way to do this is to search for your competition on DMOZ, and see if they come up in a category that is similar to yours. In the absence of a DMOZ listing, Web.com Search Agency highly recommends other directory link building which is more immediate. Submission to the Yahoo directory is good for SEO, costs $299 per year, and even brings some physical visitors. While we believe that DMOZ listings can have a good positive impact on web rankings, the 2+ year wait for approval is beyond the SEO expectations of our clients.

Special note: some companies claim to have “guaranteed DMOZ placement” for a price. This would appear to violate DMOZ terms and conditions by giving priority in exchange for monetary compensation. If you decide to go with such a service, be sure your method of payment is waiting in escrow or can be charged back if you don’t get the results you are looking for.

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