Simon DavisOne of the main problems facing any business, and especially real estate, is the issue of adequately optimizing their websites for search engines to find them. This has nothing to do with Google favoring bigger brands over fledgling agencies, it just means that they have put more time into their SEO. This is due to many reasons, chief among them being the independent nature in which agents work inside of their agencies. Coming and going as needed and using the agency building or space as more of a basecamp than a headquarters.Other than simply not doing it at all, here are the most common SEO mistakes made by real estate agencies:Not Creating Content While getting a website will make you findable on the internet, it doesn’t mean it’s going to be simple. With the Google Panda update, lower-quality websites were given much lower rankings. This means that websites that do not produce user-oriented content will not be placed as high as sites that do. That means content such as blog posts, infographics and videos about things in your industry suited to your locality.In the early days of SEO, you could quickly throw up a page with some contact information and load that sucker with hollow, keyword-jammed content. Obviously, Google caught on to the idea and implemented some changes to ensure that a website actually had value and they weren’t linking to spammy websites for the sole purpose of boosting their visibility on Google.Pro-Tip: write for your audience first and then modify the content for SEO.Posting Duplicate Content While short, commonly used phrases are okay to implement across your website, you want to make sure not to take large pieces of content and copy them to other areas. Google picked up on early SEO marketers utilizing one piece of long-form content and simply altering the keywords to try and raise rank without putting in the work to develop additional content.Put together an editorial calendar to plan, create and publish for the future. Instead of wondering week to week what you’re going to write, you can simply take a few hours to plan topics for a month or three. When you’re developing consistent, fresh content, Google looks favorably upon your site.Using Bad LinksGoogle understands that sometimes links go bad without you realizing that it has happened. However, if you are repeatedly linking to websites that are filled to the top with spam content, you could find that you are being penalized by Google. You should be sure that any outbound links support what you’re saying and are from reputable sources.It’s considered best practice to exclusively write content that is related to your industry and only link to websites that will help best make your point and provide value to your user base. For example, if you’re writing an article about the importance of utilizing an IDX real estate service, links to websites supporting that claim are going to help you rank better.SEO is not something that you will ever complete. It is always changing and growing and in order to stay relevant, you have to evolve with it so you don’t get left behind! [author]About the Author: Simon Davis has been a full-time business writer since the last 4 years and has had the privilege of attending some of the most renowned business conclaves held across the world. When not on business he loves spending time with his girlfriend and a bit of adventure sports. [/author]