June 2011 IDX Broker Agent Newsletter

This month we have a quick survey for you. Complete this survey and we will list you as a beta contact for future product/feature releases!

Training this month will focus on organic search optimization tips, dynamic meta tags for search engines, and how to build custom area-based search pre-defined search links.

Best regards,
The IDX Team
@idxbroker

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Tips

IDX Broker provides search-friendly, indexable page links. Below are a few tips for making the most of the organic search-friendly features provided by IDX Broker.
  1. Build Custom Links and save them in your account. Use URL names and Title Tags for saved links that include keywords that you would like to see indexed. Search engines will pick up your IDX content more quickly if custom links are placed on your home page.
  2. Set up Dynamic Title and Meta Tags for your property details pages. This feature is described in detail in the article below. In order for these tags to function correctly, be sure to include title and meta description and keyword tags in the HTML for your website. If you are using the static global wrapper, be sure to include these tags in the HTML here as well. If these tags aren’t present in your wrapper, IDX Broker will not be able to automatically inject your dynamic tags.
  3. Claim your primary domain and Custom Subdomain for IDX pages in Google Webmaster tools.
  4. When choosing a Custom Subdomain, choose something like search.yourdomain.com or realestate.yourdomain.com.
  5. Add a lot of unique content to your website and your IDX pages. When search engines see unique content on your website, they are encouraged to crawl deeper, and index more pages.
  6. Publish unique content about neighborhoods, areas, or listings – either inside a saved link for a specific listing type, or on one of your own hosted pages about a neighborhood or area with a link to custom search results. Be sure to use relevant keywords in your link names.
  7. Choose a domain name that has a PageRank. You can use SeoBook’s Rank Checker to check the PageRank of a domain name.
  8. Create a sitemap for your website. A sitemap for your IDX pages is not necessary but we recommend that you place the IDX Broker sitemap.php link in your footer. Note that this is not an XML-based sitemap, however, it is very likely to be indexed and crawled (because the link is located on your home page), resulting to more indexed IDX pages for your site. 
Given the right settings, you can encourage the search engines to index your IDX pages, and deliver organic (free!) traffic to your website!
 

Dynamic Title And Meta Tags

DX Broker gives you the ability to replace standard title and meta description tags on your property detail pages. Benefits of setting up your dynamic title and meta tags include:
  • More organic search traffic: Search engines prefer unique meta tags to static meta tags and so more IDX pages are likely to be indexed.
  • Better targeted organic traffic: Site visitors are more likely to click on links that contain information like listing description, address, city, zip code, etc. in the search engine results.
You can set up your dynamic title and meta tags in IDX Broker under My Preferences -> Global Preferences -> SEO Options. Here, you will see three sections – Dynamic Title Text, Dynamic Meta Tags Description, and Dynamic Meta Tags Keywords.


 
To activate any of these features, simply click the radio button to Yes. Once activated, your dynamic tags will be inserted in place of the title or meta tags already present in your global wrapper. You can format your dynamic title and meta tags using a combination of available dynamic tags and static text. For example, a dynamic title tag could look like this: {City} Real Estate {Listing #} – {Listing Address} – {Display Name}.
 

 
The dynamic meta description and keywords work similarly to the dynamic title tags. You can add your own static keywords, and mix and match those with the dynamic keywords. This will ensure that the meta tags display descriptive, relevant content.
 

For more detailed information on setting up Dynamic Title and Meta Tags, see this article in our Knowledge Base.
 

Building Customized Area-Based Search Results

One of the most popular ways to use IDX Broker’s Custom Links tool is to create separate search results pages with listings broken out by neighborhood, subdivision, or area. You can easily create separate links with unique content about a neighborhood, and also include current active listings within that area by saving your custom links in IDX Broker. When custom links are saved in your account, there are several customization options available for each link. We’ll go over the three most important features for SEO below:

Special Link Subheader
Use the Special Link Subheader to add extra content to your results page. This feature comes in handy when building neighborhood results pages. By using a sub header, you can place custom text and/or images describing the neighborhood and the types of listings site visitors may find there. This content will display directly above the search results.


 
Special Link Title
Give each custom link its own unique page title. You can create this title using terms describing the search results, such as city, county, community name, price range, property features, etc. This title will display in the title bar of the site visitor’s web browser.
 
 
Special Link Meta Tags: Description & Keywords
Add unique meta tags to each saved results page to optimize your custom IDX pages for SEO. The meta description should be a description of what site visitors will see when viewing the page. You can use the first couple of sentences from the content displayed on that page. Use the meta keywords to list the terms for which you feel your page is important.
 

 
By taking the time to customize your saved links, you are providing much more unique and relevant content to both your site visitors and search engines.
 
We hope you enjoyed your Agent Training Newsletter! If you haven't completed our survey, please do that now.