The Importance of Being Specific (Part 1)

One of the most important concepts surrounding SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) is that you should strive to be as specific as possible when creating your webpages or marketing content. For appraisers, it shouldn't be too much of a stretch to shy away from being general, and it's absolutely critical to even be found in Google by even some of your most important keywords.

Here's an example: your "service area" information on your homepage. All too often I see an appraiser who has put "The greater Chicagoland area" or "Serving the entire Bay area" or "…for the tri-state area."

Even worse is when I see "…and surrounding counties" or the equally heinous "Noth Central Texas."

Google doesn't have a clue what the heck "North Central Texas" means, and so the only real keyword here is "Texas." Anyone want to venture a guess as to how many websites are vying for the top-ten Google ranking for the word "Texas?" Probably not going to happen for you.

Instead, get more specific. Zoom in. Try some city names, county names, etc. Bullet points are good for this, too, but more on that later.