Greetings, fawn845!
As around 90% of all website traffic comes from Google, achieving Top
Rankings in Google Search Results is certain the "Holy Grail" for
webmasters. Let's see what we can do to improve yours.
1. PAGE RANK
------------
Your PR is 4
You can determine a site's Page Rank using the Google Toolbar, which
is an add-in to Microsoft Internet Explorer. You can read more about
the Toolbar, and download it, here:
http://toolbar.google.com
By comparison:
Result #1 : PR5
Result #2 : PR4
Result #3, 4, 5, 6 : PR6
Result #7 : not ranked
More about Page Rank in a moment...
2. TITLE
--------
One of the VERY first things the Googlbot sees on a web page is the
<title>, and so it is a very important factor when trying to get
ranked high in Search Results.
As you must have already realized, the very top listing probably
appears there because the title of their page starts out
<title>Bellingham Real Estate...</title>
On the next two sites listed, the phrase "real estate" starts at the
3rd non-blank character after the 1st word "Bellington".
Based on the cached version of your website, your title *as it is
currently indexed by Google* is
<title>Bellingham Washington's Real Estate Resource-The Johnson
Team</title>
with the phrase "real estate" starting at the 13th non-blank character
after the 1st word "Bellington".
However, when I look at your page as it currently appears, the title
is actually
<title>Bellingham Real Estate - Bellingham WA Homes For Sale</title>
so it seems clear that you realized that you needed to make that
change to your title. This should help; the next time the Googlebot
comes around, it should index your site with the new title.
3. JAVASCRIPT
-------------
With the exception of the 4 Bellingham Herald pages (which we'll get
to in a moment), what your site has that the other sites above it
*don't* have is a LARGE amount of javascript at the beginning of the
html code. This can really hinder the ability of the Googlebot to
fully access your text, and because the Googlebot assigns importance
to things based on where they appear on the page, because your text
starts way down on the page the Googlebot probably doesn't think it is
that important.
You should pull out the chunks of javascript into "include" files,
such as this example from one of your competitor's pages:
<script src="/WTLInclude/utm/__utm.js"></script>
4. TEXT
-------
For the most part, the major Search Engines no longer look at <meta>
description and keywords, because webmasters were "stacking" these
with hundreds of unrelated terms in an attempt to artificially improve
their Search Results Rankings.
This means that the text on your page is ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL.
However, if you run your URL into Search Engine World's Spider
Simulator, you will see that you don't have a great deal of text on
your main page:
Spider Text
menu Bellingham Real Estate Listings The Johnson Team is a Full
service real estate agency providing both buyer and seller
representation in the following areas: Bellingham Birch Bay Blaine
Ferndale Lummi Island Lynden All of Whatcom County! Let us help you
with your Bellingham real estate needs! Buying? Selling? Relocating?
Bellingham Real Estate Looking for a stunning island vacation rental?
Check out The House at Sunrise Cove! Spectacular views, complete
privacy and a spacious home The Johnson Team 1215 Old Fairhaven Pkwy,
Suite E Bellingham, WA 98225 Bellingham Real Estate Office Email:
info@johnsonteamrealestate.com Toll Free- 1-888-713-3056 Phone: (360)
527-8766 FAX: (360) 527-8769
Contrast this with the amount of text on the front page of the #1
Result:
Spider Text
bellingham juggler real estate by owner Home Listings Services
Testimonials Sold Resources Glossary Artists About Us
Contact Calculators Articles Links Sign Up w elcome to
Northwest Washingtonšs Real Estate by Owner ONLINE, where buyers and
sellers meet and SAVE! Check out our property listings in Whatcom,
Skagit, Island, and Snohomish Counties - and now expanding as far
south as Seattle. RBO ONLINE is the primier listing site for buyers
and sellers of real estate by owner, with more regional FSBO listings
than any other online resource. For sellers, RBO offers maximum
exposure of their home to local and national buyers. It is the NUMBER
ONE site for FSBO listings in our region on Yahoo, Google and on other
major search engines, receiving an average of 1500+ hits daily! See
the sold home listings in the Northwest that were sold by owner. Come
see why Bellingham for sale by owner is the place to find and list
your home . s earch for homes: Ad Number: go advanced search RBO home
design Serving Bellingham, Ferndale, Blaine and Western Washington. w
E BELIEVE THAT: • Pride of ownership is a very compelling sales tool.
• The fruit of your labor should remain with you...Preserve Your Home
Equity! • Property owners are most knowledgable and well equipped to
market their property. • Face to face negotiations between buyers and
sellers produce a "meeting of the minds" and better agreement. • The
home owner is passionate about the property's good qualities and
honest about its defects. • Selling your home FSBO, or "By Owner" is
extremely rewarding – financially and personally. • Real Estate By
Owner Magazine provides the components needed for your property to
sell – by owner! Need help deciding what size house to purchase? Use
our free mortgage calculator to determine what home would best suit
your family. Advertise your business with a banner ad on RBOšs
website! Call or email for details! 360-647-1234 or homes@rbosold.com
eatured Home featured home 3 bedroom, 1 3/4 bath, all appliances
included. Family room, open floor plan, tile, new roof, skylights,
vinyl windows. Wood, propane and electric heat. 1600 square feet
w/garage. Nicely landscaped with hot tub. Corner lot with shed. Real
wood siding. Directions for drive by: At Sudden Valley take gate 3. Go
right at stop sign. Take next right on Harborview Dr. Go 1.3 miles and
take right on Topper Court. OPEN HOUSES Sun. April 27 1-4PM Sun. May 4
2-5PM Sun May 18 2-5PM Click for more info... eatured Home featured
home 1,300 square feet, 3 bedroom, 1 bath, .20 acre, detached garage,
large fenced back yard. Opportunity for additional living space in
attic. Easy I-5 access. New updates include: 30 yr. roof, electrical,
plumbing, gas heat, interior/exterior paint, refinished fir floors,
vinyl flooring in kitchen and bath, kitchen cabinets, light fixtures.
Click for more info... See our listing of sold homes . Real Estate by
Owner has helped to sell over 100 million dollars of private &
commercial property in the past decade. RBO WORKS! Check out our SOLD
HOME page and find out how easy it is to keep your equity in your
pocket! *Spring Special* List your home with RBO UNTIL IT SELLS!
Affordable, Effective Advertising for FSBO Properties, Building Lots,
Land and Commercial Properties! You have Nothing to Lose! Your home
will be seen by thousands today!! Š 2003 RBO Sold Bellingham web
spacer Netpaths web design company
I recommend that you develop at least a couple of nice little
descriptive, correct-English paragraphs to include on your front page;
make sure that the words "Bellingham" "real estate" "realtor" "homes"
"WA" and "Washington" appear at least 3 times within that text.
NOTE THAT IT IS IMPORTANT THAT YOU ***NOT***:
1) Include simply text lists of words such as appear in your meta
keywords tag (i.e., bellingham real estate, bellingham homes,
bellingham properties, bellingham mls, bellingham foreclosures,
bellingham property, bellingham listings, bellingham foreclosures,
bellingham fsbos, blaine real estate, blaine property, birch bay real
estate, birch bay property, ferndale real estate, ferndale homes,
ferndale property, lynden real estate, lynden property, lummi island
real estate, lummi island property, bellingham waterfront property,
bellingham acreage)
The Googlebot is EXTREMELY smart, and it recognizes such lists as
"spamming" attempts to artificially improve Search Results Rankings.
2) Overdo it by using in your paragraphs excessive amounts of those
key words I suggested above; if they appear 20 or 30 times within one
page, the Googlebot is also likely to regard this as a "spamming"
attempt to artificially improve Search Results Rankings.
5. "alt" LABELS
---------------
These are the little descriptions that "pop up" when you place your
mouse over a link or an image, such as the "Bellingham Real Estate
Listings" which appears when you place your mouse over the little
house enclosing the words "View Listings".
<IMG NAME="ViewListings_01" SRC="images/ViewListings_01.jpg"
alt="Bellingham Real Estate Listings" WIDTH=130 HEIGHT=116
BORDER=0></A>
The Googlebot considers these as text. You are already doing a great
job with these.
6. BACKWARD LINKS
-----------------
When entered in the Google Search Text box
links: www.johnsonteamrealestate.com
://www.google.com/search?q=links:+www.johnsonteamrealestate.com+-site:johnsonteamrealestate.com&num=100&filter=0
reveals that you have 11 other websites with a Page Rank of 4 or
higher that link to you. This is excellent.
However, this is a major factor in Page Rank, so you will want to
continue to try to get sites with PR4 or higher to agree to link to
you.
By comparison:
Result #1 : 6 links
Result #2 : 13 links
Result #3, 4, 6, 7 : 84 links
Result #5 : 207 links
I recommend that you look at the sites which backward link to the site
which is Result #5 and see if you can get listed on these as well.
://www.google.com/search?q=links%3A+www.johnlscott.com++-site%3A.johnlscott.com&num=100&filter=0
One pitfall of getting backward links is getting your URL listed on
websites that the Googlebot considers "link farms". These are
frequently characterized by link pages with dozens -- or even hundreds
-- of links to other sites, and they can get your site banned from
Google's index entirely.
Another possible pitfall is including such "Link Exchange" pages on
your own website. I notice that you have recently removed yours:
http://216.239.33.100/search?q=cache:tNJjfsU6srQJ:www.johnsonteamrealestate.com/real_estate_links.htm+links:+www.johnsonteamrealestate.com
I hope that this removal is permanent. The Googlebot would probably
penalize your Page Rank for this.
7. SIZE OF SITE
---------------
The Googlebot has indexed 53 of your pages:
://www.google.com/search?q=%22%2Bwww.johnsonteamrealestate.%2Bcom%22site%3Awww.johnsonteamrealestate.com&num=100&filter=0
By comparison:
Result #1 : 6 pages
Result #2 : 13 pages
Result #3, 4, 6, 7 : 84 pages
Result #5 : 207 pages
Having a higher number of pages of real content on a site can be
helpful to Page Rank, though not nearly as much as those factors
listed above. HOWEVER, DO NOT ADD PAGES TO YOUR SITE JUST FOR THE SAKE
OF ADDING PAGES. Some webmasters have added copies of the same pages
over and over again, all under different names. The Googlebot
recognizes this sort of duplicate text as another kind of spamming
technique, and will penalize a site for doing it.
Finally, just a suggestion of mine as far as aesthetics: your site
would be far more visually appealing if you put one picture (approx
3"x 4") on your front page, perhaps of your office building if it's a
nice one, or of a beautiful home (and don't forget the "alt" label!)
Before Rating my Answer, if you have any questions about this
information, please post a Request for Clarification, and I will be
glad to see what I can do for you.
I hope that this Answer provides exactly the information that you
needed. Best wishes for increased search rankings and traffic for your
website!
Regards,
aceresearcher |
,
0 Comments
)