I spend about an hour a night working on SEO, but I can not get it to show up for some targeted keywords. I use google webmaster, so I know what my top search phrases are. Any ideas on why my site will not show up for phrases that I want to target.

The keywords I want is the name of my site and I have it sprinkled throughout the content of the home page. I also have links that the text is the keywords and I still can not get any google love for the phrase I want. Any suggestions?

Your site's title is "Cabot Arkansas Homes" and you do rank in Google's top 10 for that phrase. I assume you are targeting that phrase as the keywords one is targeting should always be in the title tag. If that is not what you are targeting you need to change your title tag for starters.

From the sound of it, you are spending too much time trying to focus on onsite optimization versus offsite optimization. Just putting the keywords you want to rank for in title, h1, h2, h3, etc. tags will help, but not nearly as much as as getting your keyword(s) on anchor text from other sites. If you are not already doing it, you might want to give reciprocal link exchanging (with relevant sites) a shot. That way you can tell them exactly what you want your anchor text to say.

Your site is #6 when I do a search for you title "Cabot Arkansas Homes".

Most people would kill for that spot.

I think the best thing you could do would be to get a new domain name - something like 'CabotArkansasHomes.com' - domain name accounts for 20% of your success- if your main keyphrase is Cabot, Arkansas, then it's best if it's part of your domain name. That one change will make the most difference for you.

Next, I'd consider hiring a developer to create a 'lighter weight' page for you - your current site uses heading tags only once- use more h1 or h2 tags for big text instead of font tags. Your page also uses way too much code to accomplish it's task. Simple is better for seo.

Finally, I think you are trying to optimize too much on the home page- let your home page be optimized for your top keyphrase, and create other pages for the lesser phrases.

How many links do you have off your main page. The way links should be done if you really want to give them away is exactly the opposite of what they say for the link for empowered Realtors at the top of this forum. The spell it out frame them or put them on another site in a frame in your page. It is all about net links to your site.

The more I have read about SEO the more I realize how this forum is really tops and how smart the guy that runs this forum is. All this relevant real estate information. The first thing to do captain is get some links off this site. They give you 300 characters for ubb links. Anchor text links off this forum.

Do not change your url name, why would anyone wait to age a url.

Get the links and cleen up your out bound links. No wonder the sites off the directory rank so well even in my out of the way place.

Totally agree....a good catchy real estate domain name accounts 80% of your business website success/presence.

Website creation is the easiest part.

Chris
http://www.HomeYouTube.com

I totally disagree just look at names like "yahoo" or "google" they seem to work just fine for them. Or how about "redfin" or "zillow". It is really about back links and key words. The name is irrelevant but if it makes you feel good do it.

I Agree with Salty on this one... The domain name itself has more importance with respect to your offline marketing than online actually ... ... If you can get a great domain with your most important keywords in it great... but IMHO... any domain that fits that is easy to remember and brand is better that the multiple hyphenated kind just for the purposes of getting a tiny keyword in url benefit ... then again...I could be wrong

I totally disagree. You domain and links have aged on your existing site. You will basically be starting over if you change your domain name.

(Initially),They do spend a lot of money in advertising compare to having a good strong domain like http://www.RealEstate.com or http://www.WallStreet.com.

I don't spend any money on my sites because they are easily indexed by google. A good domain name is worth a lot of money!
I put some in domain parking , drawing traffic and getting money back!

Chris
Internet Marketing

I totally disagree. You domain and links have aged on your existing site. You will basically be starting over if you change your domain name. [/quote]

True that! Get the domain if you can and build another site. Eventually the new one may rank higher than your 1st one

Here's another tip: People search for "homes for sale in YOUR CITY" i.e. "homes for sale in jacksonville fl" or "jacksonville florida homes for sale" in my case. It's worth it to try and get those domains and build one page sites too Eventually, you'll have two maybe three of your sites on the 1st page on yahoo, MSN and IF you're good... Google.

Text link backs should match your domain name OR the key word phrase that your site is built around too.

Sorry.. gotta run so this is going to be a drive by answer

Being Indexed and ranking well for competitive terms are 2 VERY different things... Even a site ranking well for great terms that isn't designed to capture leads for people searching specifically for those terms is pretty useless too... you'll still get a few leads by accident but nowhere near the amount a correctly designed landing for each term will.

One of the things I still see that is a big no no... is people who pay large money for competitive terms in a PPC campaign and then when the visitor clicks the link they land on a page that isn't specifically designed to capture for that term... This is a huge mistake... People won't stay and search for what they thought they had found... 3 seconds and on to the next site...

When a lead is captured it should set in motion any series of automated & normal follow up instantly ... if this isn't happening it's less than efficient

As for Ranking... There's a lot more to linking than there was not so long ago... I'll expand on that when I have more time.

You are actually doing fairly well. But for the amount of competition for the phrases, and the time you spend you should be better though.
Contact me privately if you interested in a little help.

Lots of websites that are very similar because they use the same backend create a obvious footprint that the SE's will see very quickly. This is just one issue you may be having.