I've had several instances lately with realtors either asking for help, or cutting off their noses to spite their faces, when it comes to the concept of LINKS on their homepages.
It seems we all have our special ideas about how best to have incoming links displayed and where. Since the new algorithim change several months ago where they have almost completely discounted reciprocal links, those of us who know what we're doing have gotten rid of most of these, and particular those endless "links" pages that the ripoff SEO companies have been milking money for over the last couple of years. My group of friends and affiliates have always favored homepage links over interior ones, mostly because they are easier to maintain and it doesn't take hundreds of them to work.
That being said, many realtors even went overboard with homepage links...some having 100 or more at the bottom of their pages. I have a couple of older, possibly "authority" sites that probably have more than they should have...although I've been working to get rid of all but the most important ones.
Real Estate Linking Strategies
In the beginning, we all did reciprocal links that way too. Now most of us are able to find a way to make them one-ways instead, and these are even MORE powerful...requiring even less in number, and if used along WITH a comprehensive linking strategy involving blogs, press releases, article writing, and directory links, they are great for your site's PR. It MUST be done in moderation, and should be done with other realtors that you know and who, themselves, have a concept of proper SEO. Like any other linking, if they screw up and get penalized, it can reflect back on you. The best of all link partners are your competitors, oddly enough.
But as the argument wages on about the number of links on a page, and whether an incoming link from a homepage with 50 others is worth as much, or less than a homepage with 30...or 25...or none, for that matter. Since the beginning, Google has said to keep outgoing links on a page to 100 or less. The question is...WHAT is considered an outgoing link?
Outline Your Website Navigation
If a website has 40-50 great interior pages (with a real estate website, perhaps descriptions of neighborhoods, types of housing, retirement info and such) and also another 50-75 links to other websites...reciprocal or one-way...do you use the total of both? We didn't for a long time. I'm still not 100% sure either way. Most SEO's absolutely think so, however.
But there is a way to lessen the navigation links, and therefore lessen the "bleeding" of PR from the homepage all the way around. So many realtors don't understand the concept of site-maps, themed groups of pages, and how to most effectively link to your inside pages from the homepage. One of the worst culprits are the Advanced Access sites...which all contain scads of pages about schools, population demographics, relocation information, taxes, and all kinds of STUFF, that is important and perhaps interesting to a buyer, is also not necessarily important for most of your viewers...which are there to look at available property! It's good to have alot of content...actually imperative. But you don't need a link to every single one of these pages on your homepage!
In school, most of us learned the basic concept of doing "the OUTLINE". I can't think of a better time to use an outline than for a website that has more than 25-30 pages of content. Try to decide which of your inside pages are more important to your customer and will promote sales. Put these in your navigation and sprinkle the links in your homepage text. You probably don't have more than 10 or 15 pages that are really important. Concentrate on promoting these from the homepage, from your blog, and from press releases as well. They will end up often with as high of a PR as your homepage, and in the best cases, may show up as extra listings in search results! THIS IS WHAT YOU SHOULD BE AIMING FOR.
If you have a page about schools, about weather, about local attractions....relocation resources, businesses, government information, etc...then create a main page for the area. Call that page the name of the area...such as www.yoursite.com/your-city.html. Lump all those "reference" pages together on THAT page, and have one link on the homepage to IT...not 6-8 separate links.
If you live in an area that encompasses 3 counties, 6 cities, and 10 sub-divisions, try to make an outline. Have separate paragraphs in your text with a teaser and heading for the 3 counties.
On that county page, link the city pages....and the sub-division pages if you want. Or have another main page for the cities, and link the sub-divisions off there. Besides the ease of navigation, you are also adding great, themed, and optimized pages for each area, and it gives you another chance to rank FOR that area. Call the pages something like "/randolph-county-real-estate.html" and then "myrtle-beach-condos-for-sale.html".
You'll have only 3 homepage links in this case, instead of 19. If you feel that some of the cities are more important than the county, then add a column on the homepage with direct links such as "North Myrtle Beach Real Estate" or "Myrtle Beach Condos". Keep it limited to important pages! When you do a blog post, do one just about Myrtle Beach's real estate offerings, and link to that interior page from the blog. If you have a featured home in one sub-division, go to one of the classified ad sites such as Backpage.com and do an ad for it...free, or for pennies a day. Put a link on the ad back to that interior page, and you get PR to it!
You end up with an easy to navigate, CLEAN homepage, that doesn't overwhelm the visitor with too many options, yet makes it easy for them to find the area or home they are looking for. And no less important, you help the search engines to more easily focus on your most important search terms on the homepage instead of confusing them as to your main area theme... DILUTING your search terms!
So now your navigation and text links on the homepage are counted more like 15 or 20 instead of 40-50. You've got room to put some outbound homepage links to other realtors...or local businesses, or whatever themed links you find to help you with Google's important PageRank.
Remember that outgoing links are like pin pricks. You lose a drop of blood with every one. Be sure you are getting an equal or greater drop of blood BACK from a link for any that you link out to. Keep in mind that your inner pages usually don't have equal rank to your homepage. So if your homepage is a PR4, and you link to that inner city page that is a PR2, even though it links back to the homepage, you only get a half of a drop of blood instead of a whole one. You want as many great pages of content as you can get, yes! But you don't need to link them all from your homepage. You only defeat your SEO efforts when you do.
One last, very important must.... BE SURE YOUR INSIDE LINKS TO THE HOME PAGE ARE TO YOUR DOMAIN NAME. Don't do the old-fashioned "Home" links to index.html or default.html. Use your main search terms in the links whenever possible, and if you use graphic buttons for your navigation, be sure to use additional TEXT LINKS at the bottom of all inside pages.
I'm off the soapbox now...:-)
Stay tuned for more Real Estate Marketing Tips and Rants from Myrtle Beach Web Design.
