How to Rank High in Google Keyword Search Locally

Question

I know the answer is mostly SEO. But I also heard it's a long process and people pay large amount of time to get that ranking high up there. Is this something I can do myself? You know, like writing an article from time to time. But what are the things I should be aware of when writing those articles? What weighs more in Google when it comes to SEO and ranking high in organic search?

Owen Dashner · Answer

@Andrew Y., check out themightyinvestor.com.  Jerryll Noorden is The Man when it comes to SEO for REI.  I recently hired him for SEO consulting to get my site ranking to the top in my market (work in progress).  He knows his stuff.

Aaron Cote · Answer

Hey @Andrew Y.

I run an SEO agency, so I might be able to help answer your question.

The answer is exclusively SEO. Sometimes it’s strategic SEO, and sometimes it’s accidental. I’ve seen quite a few websites that haven’t invested in SEO, but are still ranking high for specific keywords and getting traffic because they’re consistently putting out high quality content.

This is absolutely something you can do yourself - it just takes a while to really learn the basics of SEO, and then a little while longer to get up to date with best practices because almost every training resource will be out of date (Google updates their algorithm SO frequently).

When I’m working with my writers to create content for my clients, I plan out the entire article in a ‘content optimization guide’. I basically look at the competitors that are performing well to see what they’re doing right, find the average word count, recommend some keywords and phrases to incorporate, and then structure an outline for the writer to go off of. Basically, I find what’s working already, and then improve upon AND make it unique. I personally don’t write anymore, but creating these guides allow me to get exactly what I need from my writers to get content that ranks. My advice if you wanted to tackle this on your own would be to look at competitors that are performing really well and just noting down some of what they’re doing and try incorporating that to a degree. If they have unordered lists in their copy, try including an unordered list. If they have question subheadings, try including that.

One of the largest ranking factors is backlinks. There’s not a lot you can do on your own without much knowledge on different backlink acquisition methods, unfortunately. One of the next largest ranking factors is quality content. Make sure that the content you put out helps lend your brand an expert, authoritative, and trustworthy reputation. Google prefers websites that hit those 3 indicators (E-A-T for short).

Hopefully this helped,

Aaron

Derek P. · Answer

@Andrew Y. If you want instant results and not have to wait months for SEO, you should consider Google Ads. I work for a digital marketing agency where I run campaigns for Google and Facebook ads. That’s definitely the way to go for fast and effective results.

Aaron Cote · Answer

I use Ahrefs and SuferSEO primarily for competitor analysis.

I don' know of any specific courses that are extremely helpful for real estate SEO, but the Beginner's Guide to SEO by Moz is a phenomenal resource for getting into SEO in general.

Tim G. · Answer

When did it become only vendors answering questions here.

Jerryll Noorden · Answer

Forget all the answers given here that tell you anything about articles.

Thats friggin baloney

The only thing you need to care about is, "Am I providing through value to my traffic". Do you think your traffic is on your website to read articles?

No!

They need to know if you can help them or not. It is about credibility. I am not saying articles are bad, but you do NOT focus on articles.

2 things you need to focus on.

1) your website needs to resonate with your ideal traffic.

2) you need to be sure your ideal traffic can quickly see you are credible. You have about 4 seconds for traffic that lands on your site to find you credible enough to even give you a chance to read your articles.

Never write articles for SEO purposes and that is the #1 disqualifying metric any SEO company will tell you.

If people love your site, stay on your site bookmark your site and frequent your site more then they frequent the other sites, you will rank #1. There is nothing magical or technical about it.

Have the best value providing website  and you will rank #1.

If you run a blog, then maybe, think writing engaging articles.

You run a site to reel in distressed home owners.

Articles is not what they are after. They are after cash for their house.

Jerryll Noorden · Answer

Do not use Ahrefs or the sort.

This is truly for people that know nothing about SEO.

Here is why.

My competitors know nothing about SEO. The company they hire know nothing about SEO. They are trying to see what THEIR competition is doing that also does everything wrong. So you have sheep spying on sheep.

Spying on your competitor does what exactly?

That is not a measure of doing it correctly.

The problem with all these SEO Geniuses" is they NEVER focus on what matters. The ONLY thing that matters is your traffic, NOT competition, and definitely not Google.

ALL you need to care about is providing value to your traffic, and you are not going to accomplish this by kissing Google butt.

Do I know what I am talking about?

You decide.

NEVER listen to an SEO company and never try to please Google. If you truly want to be successful at lead generation you need to look into becoming more credible than anyone else, as that directly relates to providing value to your traffic.

Andrew Yu · Answer

@Owen Dashner Cool. Thanks for the resource. How long is the process gonna take you? If I were going to pay someone to do it, how much should I expect to pay?

Andrew Yu · Answer

@Aaron Cote Thx for explaining that to me! What are the tools you use for SEO analysis on competitors? Also what course are really good out there on real estate SEO?

How to Rank High in Google Keyword Search Locally

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