Search Engine Friendly Websites

In an era where “Content is King” having a search engine friendly real estate website is essential for ranking well in the search engines. A major point missed by most major IDX or RETS custom MLS vendors is the utilization of Search Engine Friendly URLs (SEF) on all MLS (multiple listing services) listings.

By allowing the search engines to index your entire MLS you not only offer a service to your visitors by the inclusion of these listings but you better your chances of ranking in the search engines by the inclusion of possibly thousands of listings.

Unfortunately most of the major 3rd party MLS vendors not only DO NOT furnish Search Engine Friendly URLs they still use either a sub-domain to their domain OR an in-line framed solution. Both are obsolete technology and do nothing to assist with your personal domain ranking well. Many SEO experts even argue that redirects to a vendor’s domain can actually harm your search engine rankings.

The point is there is NO point in NOT potentially utilizing ALL of your listings as content on your real estate website. This is not “Black Hat” Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It is just common sense.

Listings in your MLS database that are indexed by the search engines can be found by simple searches such as addresses, MLS numbers and other keyword phases and thus provides a value added service for your visitors and listing clients alike.

Fresh Content

If “Content is King” then it would be fair to say that “Fresh Content is Queen”. Search engines love fresh content and visitors demand it. By using the listings in your MLS database as content your site can be continuously updated with new listings and changes to older listings such as price changes.

What to Look For

Now that we have explained the benefits of using Search Engine Friendly URLs (SEF) on your real estate website let’s examine your URLs.

The benefit of having as many pages indexed by the search engines has been explained. So on your website what to the URLs look like and what domain appears on a search of your MLS?

If your see strings such as “?” or “#” or similar characters in your URL they are NOT SEF strings.

If you see strings with sub-domains to your vendor in them then you receive NO benefit from any pages that are indexed. Your MLS vendor does. The string will appear something like http://yourname.yourvendor.com/listings/mls674521.html

If you have a search page that displays a static URL (the same for every search) and a scroll bar within the page to the left of the search criteria then your IDX/MLS vendor is using what is called an “I-frame”, also know as an in-line-framing solution. This system actually puts your vendors search page within your page and again gives you no SEO benefit.

Summary

All UltimateIDX™ and UltimateRETS™ packages use search engine friendly URLs. With our “URL Generator” you will have a unique search engine friendly URL for every listing in your MLS database whether your local Board uses IDX or RETS.

So if you are ready to harness the power of your MLS as a content generating machine order one of our packages today.