16 Real Estate SEO Mistakes That Can Hurt Your Marketing

Every brand operating online hopes to rank well in search engine results pages (SERPs) so they can be highly visible to online searchers and attract leads and customers. That is most commonly done through search engine optimization (SEO). The secret to doing so is actually pretty simple: Follow Google and Bing's SEO rules (a.k.a. abide by their search algorithms and recommended best practices) and you'll do well over time.

Then there are the mistakes: Tactics that are outdated or altogether frowned upon by search engines that can cause your website pages to be virtually invisible to online searchers. Discover 16 core SEO mistakes that can damage your digital presence and deter your real estate website content from ranking in SERPs.

1. Thinking it's still 2005 and assuming keyword-stuffing will actually work

Though you'll hear marketers discuss the early days of SEO as if they were a half-century ago, the reality is the concept of optimizing content for search engines is fairly new. It's more-than-understandable for these pros to think the inception of SEO was so long ago, because over the past 20 years (and even since the turn of this decade), there have been innumerable alterations to what constitutes a "good" and "bad" SEO strategy. The primary characteristic of a bad modern SEO plan is the overuse of keywords.

Back in the day, it was more than fine (even recommended by — gasp — Google!) to add in several keywords to your content to help it gain "SEO juice" and enhance its likelihood of being favored by the search gods. Simply put, this is no longer the case—and for good reason. Anyone can stuff keywords into their blog posts and landing pages to rank better. So, to ensure brands had to actually, you know, put effort into their content and be valuable for their audiences, Google and other search engines began to favor content with a more natural-language feel to it as opposed to content with 20 or more of the same long-tail keyword.

Here's one of the easiest-to-execute SEO tips and tricks you'll ever receive: Write for your audience first, then modify your content with a select number of appropriate, pertinent keywords. This number total will vary depending on the length of your content, but the real key to success with keyword inclusion/density is ensure none of the terms and phrases you incorporate in your content disrupt its flow and confuse your readers. Just write as you would talk to your home buyer and seller leads and clients, and then adjust what's on the screen with a particular keyword group that directly relates to the content.