Real Estate SEO Adviser

Trading Real Estate Links - 3 Superior Alternatives

Despite the recent Google “shakeup” that penalized thousands of real estate websites for participating in link exchange programs, a lot of agents still see trading real estate links as a worthwhile pursuit.

In truth, there are much better ways to obtain links to your real estate website. Better still, the link-building techniques below do not run the risk of incurring a Google penalty, which is often the case with over-aggressive link exchange programs.

[By the way, if you’re not sure why anyone would trade real estate links in the first place, see item #6 on the SEO 12-step program.]

3 Alternatives to Trading Real Estate Links

1. Publish articles online. I’ve been using this technique for nearly five years now, and I certainly wouldn’t spend that much time on it if it didn’t produce results. By publishing articles online (and on a regular basis), you can steadily increase the number of websites that link to your real estate website — thus improving your search engine visibility.
2. Create high-value web content. A better alternative to trading real estate links is to obtain links without the need for trading. You can do this by creating website content that is valuable, unique and useful. Why do you think I spend so much time blogging and create free e-books and articles? People link to these things!
3. Hire us for our SEO services! One way we provide value to our real estate SEO clients is by leveraging our network of real estate websites and small-business websites. I use these sites to increase the link popularity of my clients’ websites, which in turn helps to boost their search engine ranking. Learn more here

Here’s the bottom line. Trading real estate links is not an effective way to boost your search engine ranking. It may work in the short term, but there’s a good chance your website will be penalized for “artificially” inflating your rankings through link swaps.

Related article: Going Overboard With Reciprocal Links