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Spend some time in a real estate marketing forum online, and you'll soon discover that search engines top the list of hot topics.

Every agent wants his or her website to rank high in the search engines, and rightfully so. But with so much information (and misinformation) out there, the path to success can be hard to follow. This article will help you navigate.

Five steps to better search engine rankings:

Step 1 - Choose Your Key Phrases

The first step in any search engine optimization (SEO) campaign is to determine your key phrases. Key phrases are those words and phrases you want your website to be found for in the search engines. For example, if you're a real estate agent in Smithville, Texas, one of your key phrases might be "Smithville Texas real estate."

Don't choose your key phrases based on a hunch. Research them. Find out how many people are searching which phrases. Overture (a Yahoo company) has a key phrase research tool you can use for free. It's located at http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/rc/srch/. If you really want to get scientific, you can sign up with WordTracker. It's not free like the Overture tool, but it's much more thorough. It includes all of the major search engines with its results.

Step 2 - Evaluate Your Infrastructure

This section will step *briefly* into the technical weeds. Even if you don't fully understand this information, you will benefit from it. If you hire a web designer, for example, you'll be able to speak intelligently about your search engine aspirations.

A website with clean, properly structured HTML (web code) will have greater search engine visibility than a site with complex, poorly structured HTML code.

Search engines rank your website on its content (among other things). The more complicated your website's HTML code, the harder it is for search engines to find what they want ... your content. That's the importance of having clean "lightweight" coding on all your pages.

Burying your site's content under mounds of Javascript, table tags and graphics will only reduce your SEO success. You can avoid these things by hiring a professional designer, and telling him or her you want a properly built website that's primed for SEO.

Step 3 - Create Quality Content (And Plenty of It) Even if you do everything else right, your site will rank low if it lacks quality content. Search engines love content. It's one of the ways they validate genuine websites from "spam" websites.

Revisit your list of key phrases from Step 1. Find ways to interweave those phrases -- in a natural way -- throughout your content.

One way to achieve this is to add article pages to your website. An article of 300 - 500 words will allow you to integrate your key phrases in a natural way. Good for search engines, and good for your readers.

Step 4 - Obtain Inbound Links from Quality Websites

Search engines also evaluate your website based on the number (and quality) of inbound links. Inbound links are hyperlinks on other websites that link to yours.

When it comes to inbound links, you should favor quality over quantity. It's far better to have inbound links from a handful of quality websites (that already rank high with search engines) than 100 "starter" sites with low ranking.

You can increase the number of inbound links in several ways. In my opinion, writing and publishing articles online is the best way to go about it. "Article marketing," as it's known, warrants a discussion all to itself. Just know it can help you increase the number of quality sites that link to yours.

Step 5 - Be Patient and Persistent

Search engine optimization takes time. People who say they can get your website on page one of Google overnight are either (A) lying to you, or (B) using practices that will do you more harm than good in the long run.

A solid SEO program takes time and persistence. But take heart in the fact that once you achieve good ranking through the practices outlined above, you'll be able to maintain your ranking for quite some time. Of course, it helps to make SEO a perpetual part of your overall marketing efforts.

Conclusion

There you have it, five steps to a solid SEO program: Determine your key search phrases. Evaluate your website's structure. Add quality content to your site. Seek inbound links from quality sites. Be patient and persistent.

By taking the time to do it right, you'll be able to achieve better rankings, maintain them longer, and drive qualified traffic to your website. So keep learning, and keep at it!

About the author:

Brandon Cornett has worked as a web writer and marketing manager for a direct mail company serving real estate agents since 1986. His "Agent's Guide to Web Marketing" and his free newsletter are available at: htt p://www.ArmingYourFarming.com/products