Dear Matt,

I currently pay for driving visits to my web site (with the BuyerLink program), but have a limited budget. Are there any free ways I can get more visits to my web site in addition to what I do with HomeGain?

- Sally Dalhgren, Minnesota (real estate agent)

Dear Sally,

What you’re referring to is Search Engine Optimization (SEO), the art of making your site more findable by the search engines (and therefore getting free traffic!).

While you could get a 4-year degree in SEO and still not know everything there it to know, one of the easiest things to do is improve your site HTML tags.

When a search engines scans your site to see if it contains specific criteria, it will first look at these tags. Instead of broad, generic terms like “homes for sale” or “California Real Estate” which can generate tens of millions of search results, try to be more specific and localized.

Include names of local cities, towns, neighborhoods, even subdivisions; this will give you more of a shot at standing out in a group of hundreds, instead of millions.

If you need ideas about what tags to include, use a tool like wordtracker’s Keyword. This will not only generate new tag ideas, but tell you how often they are searched for.

Good luck!

Regards,

Matt Malmgren
Manager, Client Services, HomeGain

More questions about SEO and getting more traffic to your Web site? Email me at blog@homegain.com