Real Estate Agent, Brokerage and Mortgage Blogs

I have recently encountered a glut of bloggers that have taken some very bad advice in the form of reciprocal linking (this one seems to be repackaged monthly as a comment scheme, blogroll or some other hair-brained idea), too many links on a homepage, more than one H1 tag on a single page, etc. 

There are a lot of sources for SEO advice in the real estate blogosphere, however, you need look at each person doling out that advice.  In the same way you wouldn't get parenting advice from Britney Spears, you don't want SEO advice from a self proclaimed guru that can't rank for their own keywords or can't pass simple SEO analysis.  Look past the fact that a person says they are an SEO expert and look at their ability to successful put multiple websites or blogs on the first page of Google for short tail keywords in difficult markets. 

Who should you trust?

Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz

Aaron Wall of SEOBook

Stephen Spencer of Net Concepts

Matt Cutts of Google

Andy Beal

Michael Gray of GrayWolf SEO Blog

Basically, people that do SEO as a living not a hobby. 

What kind of advice is BAD advice?

Most of the bad SEO advice I have seen lately, looks like it came straight out of 1999: reciprocal linking, large linkage on homepages, increasing the number of pages through open forums, keyword spamming, etc.  What may have worked in 1999 will get you shot through the heart in 2008.  So, listen up kiddies, take notes and DOT NOT FOLLOW the following advice:

1. Change your permalink or url structures for better SEO

When you hear, "hey, this is a better way to structure your urls/permalinks" don't go changing them.  You are indexed based on your existing url structure, so if you change it- you are breaking your links in Google's index.  Irrevocably changing permalink structure on an established site from http://www.sitename/category-name/post-title to  http://www.sitename/date/post-title  will throw your site out of the search engines for a period of time until they are able to fully re-index you. Remember,  Google isn't psychic- you cannot change the urls of your posts and think Google will be able to figure out where all those posts went unless you use a self healing 301 redirect feature. 

Read also: Permalinks explained

2. Name categories anything you want

When you hear, "Don't worry about how you name your categories," ignore it.  Be specific- write them for users and search engines.  Make them keyword rich and easily identifiable ESPECIALLY if your permalink structure uses the category name in your url.

3. Posting to multiple categories causes duplicate content and you'll get banned

When you hear someone telling WordPress users that posting to multiple categories will cause duplicate content (the implication is you will be banned from Google), use some logic:  There are times when this can happen but your little blog with a handful (hundreds +) of posts isn't even a blip on the radar to Google, so if you think you will get banned for duplicating a page here or there- don't be so egotistical, they don't care.  Duplicate content filters are looking for colossal offenders like spam sites that mirror thousands of pages across domains. Or, you can solve the whole problem by not passing category or parameter info in the url... wow, there is a simple fix to the whole supposed problem, imagine that.

Read also: Duplicate content filters explained

4. Gang commenting, reciprocal linking and the like is a good way to build backlinks

When you hear someone advocating a group of bloggers to form a gang and comment on each others posts with keyword rich text or link to one another in blogrolls, STEER CLEAR OF IT.  Jay Thompson covered this one extensively.  This is best compared to Revenge of the Nerds.  A whole bunch of PageRank 0s commenting on each other's posts with each others keywords to boost relevancy is pointless.  It's not hard to imagine that Google is able to look and say look all these links coming and going from the same places - sure looks like reciprocal linking to me.  FYI: the days of commenting for backlinks are over- everyone puts no-follow tags in their comments now. The keyword usage was ridiculous as it just looked like spam to both Google and users. There is a point where the density gets so high, Google just considers your page irrelevant. 

Read also: Google slaps real estate blogs for reciprocal linking

Read also: Does Google hate your link love?

5. Large blogrolls and more than 120 links on your homepage is not bad for SEO

Telling the entire blogosphere, a large blogroll in your sidebar is fine or more than 120 links on your home page is acceptable.  Go ask some of the bloggers struck down in the blaze of glory that was Google's last two PageRank Updates.  You bloat your page past the 120 link threshold and there is a good chance you will be penalized because you look like a link farm to Google.

Read also: Google hates your blogroll

6. Use a lot of chicklets to show how popular you are and help social networking

20, 30, 40 useless chicklets and advertising in your footer is totally cool. This won't look like link farming to Google at all.  One of the key ways of gaining trust with Google is gaining inbound links not doling out your links (that probably have little value unless you are a PR5 or above) to others.  Don't waste your links.  Use them wisely and with discrimination.  You only have 120, so use them for navigation or give them to sites your visitors will find useful.  My personal opinion is many chicklets people put on their blogs are only there to stroke the bloggers ego.  Wow, I'm #1 on such and such blog directory- does the consumer you are trying to convert care about that?

7. An un-moderated forum will help you increase the number of indexed pages in Google so your site will climb the SERPs faster

You know, this strategy probably will help you get more indexed pages, help you generate more traffic and show up higher in the SERPs... for terms related to porn and prescription medication! Putting an un-moderated forum on a blog to increase the number of indexed pages is just irresponsible.  If you think you can stomach the results of this faux pas, click the link below.

Read also: Un-moderated forum makes me blush

NOT SAFE FOR WORK IMAGES INCLUDED IN THE FOLLOWING POST

How to identify an SEO imposter

If your source for SEO advice gives one pieces of advice then contradicts it a month later, your SEO might be an imposter

If they make money selling houses and not technology services, your SEO might be an imposter

If your expert's examples of SEO are only related to their website with no proven ability to replicate those results on other websites, your SEO might be an imposter

If your expert's examples of SEO are Stupid Examples and Observations,  your SEO might be an imposter

If your SEO expert tells you Google is bad and Google just doesn't understand how brilliant your website is, your SEO might be an imposter

If you follow your expert's advice and your website or blog loses PageRank or search engine positioning, your SEO might be an imposter

If you can't find your website with Google, two hands, a flashlight, a GPS and the URL, your SEO might be an imposter

If your SEO gives you advice but cannot explain (from a technical perspective) why they believe that advice will benefit you, your SEO might be an imposter

How to avoid BAD SEO ADVICE

Always ask why the person giving you advice is recommending it and before you implement it, make sure that a respected authority in the SEO word seconds it by doing a search on Google.

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