I get a phone call at least once a week with agents wondering what they can do to get their websites up in the search engines.  Unfortunately, I don't have an easy answer.  What I thought I would do is to give you a general summary of how search engines work and some of the basic things you can do to optimize your site.  There are basically two ways to show up in the search engines, Organically (less expensive, but time consuming) and Hiring a Professional (costly but they do the work). 

Probably the most difficult challenge in organically optimizing your website to show up in search engines is that every search engine uses a different formula to determine what websites are "relevant" to a specific search.  To make things more complicated, that formula is constantly changing (Google changed their search formula 550 times in 2009!).  Search engines send out web crawlers and scan websites to index things such as Titles, Hyperlinks, & Key Words and enters it all into their formula to determine page ranking.

So what can you do to increase your page ranking?  Here are a few tips:

 - Make your site structure simple
 - Develop a list of specific key words relevant to your site
 - Use unique title tags for every page
 - Write a compelling meta description
 - Label & add captions for all images and video
 - Use headings, boldface type and italics to call out important information
 - Choose a site title (and URL, if possible) that contains your most important key word
 - Use Google Analytic tools.

If the tips above sound like Greek to you, it may be necessary to hire a professional.  Probably the best known way SEO companies work is by utilizing a pay-per-click system.  This can work, but be very selective who you use to do this for you.  There are many fly-by-night companies out there that won't get you the results you want, but will be happy to take your money.  Interview the SEO Company, do your due diligence in checking the companies background out before you give them your money.  If they say they can get you immediate results, be cautious!  SEO doesn't work like that; it can take three, six months or longer before you see real results.

While LeverageResource.com does not specialize in Search Engine Optimization, we can help you customize your website!  If you have some updating you would like done on your website, give us a call.  Have an idea of what you would like your site to look like, but have no idea how to make it happen?  We can make it happen for you!  E-mail info@leverageresource.com for more information.