Google “title agency” right now.

The page that will appear in response to that query is called a search engine results page, or SERP. Have you ever thought about how Google decides what appears on that page?

You should, because it affects your company in a major way.

Up at the top and along the right-hand side, in pinkish boxes, you will find advertisements. People pay Google for their websites to be listed here when searchers type in a certain keyword.

The rest of the results, the ones not in the pink boxes, are called “organic” results. This means that they appear because of a complicated algorithm that determines how the pages are built, what content they include, and their relative “importance” as compared to similar pages.

A good web developer knows that building a website is not just about making it look pretty. It’s not even just about being easy to use. A good website must be designed with search engines (including Google, Yahoo, Bing, and others) in mind. It must take their search algorithms into account and thus make it easier for the engines --and therefore humans -- to find the website.

There is a variety of ways to accomplish this. One important way is to figure out what the most important keywords are for your website.

A keyword may be a single word or, more likely, a phrase like “title agency.” You must consider both the nature of your website (what searches do you want to be found for?) and the way searchers think (what are they looking  for?) when choosing keywords.

Google has a keyword tool that can help you identify keywords that are frequently searched for. You can use this tool or any of a variety of other tools to determine which keywords should be included in your website.

The next step is to either build content around those keywords or edit the content you already have to include those keywords. This must be done carefully, however, as Google and other search engines are very sensitive to “tricks.” Too many keywords will get you in trouble, and too few will not produce results. In general 2-4 instances of a given keyword on a given page is best.

Next you must consider the “tags” on your website. These are the words that appear at the top of a browser window when you are on a webpage, as well as the words that appear in a search engine’s 3-line “blurb” in a results page, like this:


The words included in this “blurb” will determine in part whether your site appears in the search results. Refining a website to make it more search engine-friendly is not a do-it-and-be-done operation. You must continually refine your keywords, optimize and re-optimize your pages, and carefully study analytics to determine what is working and what is not. This is obviously a time-consuming and complex process.

This is why many busy title and mortgage companies find it useful to outsource SEO to experts like the marketing professionals at Mandrien Consulting Group.

Once you have begun the process of optimizing your website, you will want to begin building what are known as backlinks to your site. Essentially, every link to your website found on the internet improves your site’s relative “importance” and thus makes it more likely that you will show up close to the top in search engine results pages.

Backlinks must be built strategically, since quality in this case trumps quantity (though you will want both, ideally.) There is a variety of ways to go about this, but beware of any “black hat” techniques that promise to get you hundreds or thousands of links overnight. These are scams and will ultimately have negative consequences for your website. Links must be built carefully and strategically over time. Most companies do not have the time or resources to devote to this, and again find it useful to outsource this work to experts like Mandrien’s team of marketing consultants.

To learn more about our SEO offerings or get started with your marketing program today, give us a call at  917-338-4222.