As you probably well know by now, the real estate market has been slow in the past few years. That's not to say that there aren't people out there still doing very well, but the fact of the matter is that properties are not selling as easily or as quickly as they used to.

The key to a fast and profitable sale has always been to make your home stand out from the competition - by doing things like repainting your front door, getting new carpets or a new garage door... Whatever it takes to maximize the appeal.

This of course is more important than ever at the moment, and one crucial aspect of the process is getting people to actually view your home. So the question remains; what is SEO and how can it help?

SEOing your property

SEO (search engine optimization) basically means that you ensure your website or page appears well in the search engines (ie, Google) when people search for things.

Now almost certainly when you sell your property, it will be listed online somewhere, whether you are selling yourself, or using a realtor, if your home isn't in all the best places online you are losing a lot of sales opportunities.

So if you are selling your 2 bed home in say Atlanta, if someone searches on Google for say "2bed house Atlanta" don't you want your house listing to come up top and centre? Sure you do...

How To SEO

Now it goes without saying, that as you are probably not a professional SEO, and probably have other important things to do anyway, you won't be launching a full SEO campaign on your house.

To an extent this is really the job of your realtor and/or the site you actually list your property on, but there is plenty you can and should do to help:

Keyword research

Your first job is to think about what keywords prospective buyers might search for, if you are selling a 2 bed there is no point optimizing for "3 bed". Also thinking about your location is important to. Should you optimize for "Atlanta" or drill down further to your specific neighbourhood? Generally the more specific the better, but use the Google keyword tool to check that there is actually some search volume for your chosen phrase (I recommend exact match by the way), there is no point ranking for something that no one ever searches for...

Title and Description

There is generally more than one way to write something, but the great news is, now you have found your target phrase(s), you can carefully write the titles and descriptions on any property sites you list on for maximum SEO effect. Remember that you are still writing for your audience too though; try to include your keywords without making the listing read like gibberish. It's common sense really.

Link building

Chances are, your target phrase(s) are going to be pretty niche anyway, so you don't need to do a lot of link building, but one good idea is to sign up to any property or location related forums and make your signature link back to your property. If you use Twitter, tweet about it to. Just mention your listing wherever you can online. Blogging about it is a great idea too.

Check your progress

As the sales process goes on, make sure to Google your chosen phrases regularly to see if your property listing comes up. If so, it might be worth considering other phrases you can target as well. If not, re-double your link building efforts until it does.

This guest post was written by Alex from Mesa Garage Doors; Click here for more information about our range of garage doors and services.