Search engines want traffic: The major search engines are constantly changing their algorithms, the mathematical and analysis methods for rating sites. These are very closely guarded secrets, and we really don't need to know that much about them. However, we do need to remember that the goal of every search engine is more users for their search site. Google grew so quickly mostly because their results, more than the other engines, brought the searchers to information more in line with what they wanted.
Get the searcher to the information fast. All the engines are striving to get a searcher to precisely the information they want with just one click. Knowing this, you can plan your site to provide what the searcher wants, and it follows that the search engines will want your site to show up more often. Forget about all the tips and tricks for fast first page placement. Even if a few of them work for a while, they all ultimately get discovered by the engines and the sites using them lose their placement.
Concentrate on a longer term strategy of site design that will place large amounts of your area real estate information, or content, on the site in ways that make it easy for the visitor to locate and use. What types of real estate web site content do most visitors want when they visit?
The greater the body of content that your site presents, the more the search engines will visit and catalog it. Of course your content needs to stay relevant to the overall theme or focus of the site, which is real estate, and buying and selling of homes and land. There are experts out there that say the engines, particularly Google, are working toward very sophisticated analytical programs and databases that relate words and phrases for better results. For example, they are learning the phrases related to real estate, and using this phrase database to rate a site more accurately based on how all the pages relate to each other and the site's subject.
The internet is all about the free and easy exchange of information. Get into that mindset, and place lots of really interesting information that's of value to your visitors up on your site. There are ways to make sure that the content is more search engine friendly, but your first concern is the visitor.
