Getting found on the Internet is important for any viable business, yet it can also be very challenging.

To effectively grab people’s attention and direct them to your website, you need to deploy a multi-pronged strategy that maximizes your website’s visibility. Traffic to your site comes from a variety of sources…search engines, direct navigation, bookmarks and links, to name a few. Learning how to use these tools and market your website is key when it comes to being found online. This article focuses primarily on Search Engine Optimization, one of the most efficient strategies for maximizing your website’s presence.

Search Engine Optimization

Though word-of-mouth and repeat business is essential to growing your business, how you market your website will determine whether you reach those who haven’t yet interacted with your property management company.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is key to effectively marketing your website, and reaching potential tenants and homeowners. What is SEO? Essentially, it is the science and art of maximizing your presence when someone searches for your services via a search engine like Google. Using SEO effectively will help maximize your website’s potential of being found when people use relevant keywords to search for services you offer.

Try this test to determine where your website ranks: search online for “property management in (your city)”.  On what page is your website listed? The first page…the second? If your website is not listed within the first two pages of a search engine’s results, the likelihood of a prospective tenant or homeowner reaching you through a keyword search is slim. Don’t take this to mean that you can’t be found online…with direct navigation, people who are specifically looking for you, find you. With SEO, we’re talking about the likelihood of people stumbling upon your company, when they don’t know you or your business.

So how do you implement SEO, and maximize your ability to reach the people who don’t yet know you? You have a few options:

1)     Hire an SEO company to help improve your website performance. You might find a good one through referrals, but be cautious. The world of SEO is full of snake-oil salesman. In fact, some of them have even tried to tell Google themselves that they could improve Google’s search engine ranking! Watch out for those that are selling you a bill of goods. If you choose to go this route, be sure to use a company that knows the PM industry, or you may be throwing away your hard-earned money. And speaking of money, there is typically a large price tag attached to SEO services.

2)    The better option (in our humble opinion) is to use the PM Website system, which provides many built-in SEO benefits, as well as tools and strategies to help you get found online. From ensuring that your page contains the correct content with the optimal text count, to avoiding design tactics that search engines cannot understand, all of our strategies are designed with the ultimate goal of driving the right people to your website. In your Admin Panel, click on Site SEO for basic strategies that will ensure you are seen when someone comes searching.