Mastering the art of search engine optimization isn’t easy, especially as this crucial component of website visibility is always evolving. Still, there are a few simple things you can keep in mind to help your site’s content stand out from the pack. These tips may be just a starting point to getting a handle on the broader topic of SEO, but ensuring that you’re covering these key elements is half the battle.

1. Publish Long-Form Content for an Audience You Understand

To win at the SEO game, it’s important for content to:

  • Genuinely engage your audience’s interest
  • Include variants of long-tail keywords that are relevant to your business
  • Give search engines lots of material to work with when providing information about your page topic

The easiest way to hit all these marks at once is to occasionally produce blog posts of 1,500+ words, the kind of long-form content that allows you to deliver the value that goes with talking about a topic in depth while fulfilling your SEO needs in a naturally flowing way that doesn’t look forced. Your content, of course, won’t rely on length alone; its value stems from providing your readers with detailed access to your expertise and your authentic passions as they pertain to the real estate business. It’s not necessary to go long-form on every post, but the more you’re able to do it, the more valuable your site becomes to potential readers and the better your visibility on search engines is likely to become.

2. Pay Close Attention to Your Content’s Design, Pacing & Flow

Regardless of length, the most powerful content does three things:

  • Captures the reader’s attention from the outset
  • Holds their interest with varied and visually pleasing formatting
  • Offers knowledge as part of a naturally flowing, cohesive story

The Internet is brimming with useful tools that can help you make all these potential elements of a post work for you, including everything from headline analyzers that can help get your piece off to a dynamic start to readability analyzers that can help tighten up your content and improve its readability. You can also find comprehensive, research-supported guidelines to formatting your content for maximum effectiveness. The more you learn and leverage these techniques, the easier it becomes to generate high-quality content.

3. Use the Right Kind of External Links

On many topics, relying purely on your own expertise — however extensive — may not be enough. You can boost your content’s credibility by also including external links to qualified expert voices and sources. It’s important while choosing these kinds of links to ensure their information provides a meaningful contribution to your topic, and to avoid linking to sites that are spam-prone or carry unannounced paid advertising. If you can get these sites to link back to you in turn, you can also build relationships with other content creators that further boost your visibility and drive more traffic to your site.

With the right blend of quality and well-designed long-form content supported by authoritative, relevant outbound linking, your real estate website will be in a position to meet and exceed your SEO needs.