Throughout the last few years, search engine optimization (or SEO) has become increasingly important for online businesses. To remain competitive, outranking your competitors on search engines like Google is priority number one. But what makes your website and its content optimized to rank ahead of the other lenders online, and how much can you do to influence your ranking?
As it turns out, by following just a few simple tips and tricks, you can turn your website into an SEO-ranking machine and boost your exposure to online borrowers. So, as you’re preparing to take over search engines with your content, consider these strategies to maximize your mortgage SEO effectiveness and reach.
Build your website on an SEO-friendly platform
If you don’t already have your own mortgage website, then your first step is to make one as soon as possible. Your website serves as a useful tool for borrowers to learn more about your business, get important mortgage news and updates, and see your mortgage rates. Before you can start being an SEO all-star, you need to build your site where your efforts can flourish.
There are plenty of website platforms that can provide what you need, such as WordPress, which is relatively simple to learn and offers a number of options. Setting up the site will take some time and technical know-how, however, and you’ll want everything to look professional as a positive reflection of your company. If you don’t have the time or aren’t sure you can create the site you want, ask a friend or colleague to recommend a Web designer with WordPress experience. You’ll also need to pay a hosting service, such as Bluehost or GoDaddy, to store your website files on its servers. These services are inexpensive, with plans starting at just $4 a month.
Choose your words wisely
Once you have a mortgage website built on a platform that lets you Zillow Preferred your SEO muscles, you’ll want to begin putting it to good use. Start generating Web and blog content that provides valuable information to your customers while helping you rank highly on search engines and increase your exposure.
The key? Choosing the right keywords. Using specific keywords that are relevant to your content and represent what your clients are looking for is a great way to rise in search rankings. Before deciding which keywords to focus on, perform some research to find out what your target audience is searching for. While broad keywords will often give you the most exposure, they won’t necessarily bring you the right kind of traffic that converts. Choose keywords that relate to your business to ensure the best quality visitors and contacts.
There are several places to include your keyword phrases for best results:
- The HTML title tag
- The meta description (the brief description that appears beneath each search result)
- The content of the page (but don’t overdo it; Google pushes down “spammy” content in its search results)
- The file name and alt tag for each photo you post
Once you’ve put your well-researched keywords into the right places, your website will begin drawing in all of that SEO goodness.
Be the resource your clients need
Presenting yourself as a knowledgeable and trustworthy source for mortgage news, information and guidance should be a high-level focus for your site content. Presenting need-to-know information in a manner that’s easy to understand and relatable to your audience can set you apart from competitors and prompt your site visitors to share your content.
Being a reliable source of information can also help you get noticed by other mortgage and real estate sources, who may use your content in their own posts. By citing your content and linking back to your website, they create another door through which traffic can enter your site and expose more potential borrowers to your rates and lenders.
One of your top SEO goals should be to earn links from as many trusted, authoritative websites as possible. (Facebook and Twitter count as trusted, authoritative websites.) How do you do that? By making sure your website contains useful, updated information, such as recommended contractors and stagers in your area or tips on buying and selling.
The media can be your best friend in this effort, as media sites tend to have strong authority on Google. For instance, if you can get quoted prominently in a local newspaper article about a current real estate trend, and if the reporter links to your website, your website’s search engine authority gets a boost. That’s because Google sees links from trusted, authoritative websites as a vote of confidence for your site. You don’t even have to get a link from the media site to receive some SEO benefit from a mention in an article.
Install Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools
Google Analytics is a free service that analyzes the traffic to your website so you can determine where your visitors are coming from, the pages they most frequently viewed, if they used a mobile device or desktop computer, the number of new versus repeat visitors, and so on. You can use this information to help determine what appeals, or doesn’t appeal, to site visitors, which in turn helps you understand if your SEO and content efforts are paying off. For more information, see how to add analytics to your website.
Google Webmaster Tools is another free service that evaluates your site and lets you know if there are any structural problems that prevent Google from indexing your content in its search engine database. The service also displays the keywords most often used by visitors to find your site, which is helpful feedback for your SEO efforts. For more information, see Setting up a Webmaster Tools account.
Keep it up
SEO isn’t something you can focus on when building your site and then forget about. As the mortgage industry changes and evolves, so too must your SEO efforts. Try to dedicate time each week to coming up with new, optimized content for your website. Be active in promoting your new content, and regularly evaluate what’s working, and what isn’t, so that you can keep only the most valuable, relevant content online. By following these simple tips and tricks you can keep traffic flowing into your website and, ultimately, capture more potential borrowers. After all, that’s what every mortgage lender strives for, and SEO is an important step toward reaching that goal.