Anyone who knows me well, knows I have a passion for real estate investing. It is that passion that helped me see the value in the internet as it pertains to a business ranking their website. I draw a lot of parallels between real estate and websites and view web properties as digital real estate that can be leveraged. Keep reading below for the parallel drawn between real estate and SEO for a website, and learn why SEO shouldn’t stop at the on page level.
On Page SEO
Think about the last time you paid a visit to a show home in preparation for deciding which builder to task with the construction of your next house. How do you know which model to select, or which layout is best suited to what you are looking for? The answer is in the floor plan. Every show home that you visit, will have a floor plan for each of their models for you to take home and review. This is where they display the layout of each home including bedrooms one through three, four, or five. As well as washrooms, laundry room, kitchen, living, and dining areas, etc. Without this layout, you would not have a clear picture of the home that is to be. Likewise, on page SEO is the floor plan for your website, which gets laid out for search engines like google to identify what your website is trying to communicate. When the google gods arrive to your web property, they will be able to easily identify every corner of your website efficiently and communicate those corners to the eyes of your potential customers. Furthermore, on page SEO includes optimizing the speed of your site and call-to-action placements to help increase conversions. This is the pre-requisite for your website’s off page strategy. In order to be effective off page it is important to prepare on page and avoid future discrepancies.
Off Page SEO
So you have a website, and it has been optimized locally in hopes that google and other search engines will find it and understand what you are trying to offer your customers. However, if the on page optimization is where you’ve stopped, you’ll be waiting a very long time to see your website on the first page of any search engine (assuming you have competition). There are instances few and far between where your competition has not put any effort into their website, allowing you to rank without an off page strategy, but this is not likely. Off page SEO speaks to the methods used to gather votes for your website. With a simple online search you’ll quickly figure out that backlinks to your site from other websites are what we’re talking about here. However, not all backlinks are created equal. Let’s use the real estate example again. When your house is on the market, real estate agents within the community will direct their clients to your home if it suits their needs. However, some agents carry more clout than others, with their experience in the industry and trust that has been built within the community over the years. Which realtor do you think is likely to have more power when it comes to “voting” for your home? The one who has more trust in the community or the one that doesn’t? Similar to this, search engines will determine the value of your backlinks based on the source they are coming from. To have a strong off page strategy requires time and effort, and can be very tedious when attempting to acquire trusted votes. Have no fear, as we already have these strategies planned and ready for execution. The only decision you must make is based on the time you want us to dedicate and the budget you have to work with. Of course, you can find other ways to have this done, but keep in mind that your strategy must stay in line with best practices. Otherwise, trying to short cut these methods may put your website at risk of being penalized.
