How We Increased SEO Keywords for a Kansas City Based CRE Firm

Company Overview

Our client is a full service Kansas City based commercial real estate firm with a heavy specialization in leasing, development, and management for both retail, and office properties. They also provide their services to other real estate property types such as mixed-use,  civic, and multifamily projects.

Due to NDAs we are not permitted to release the name of our client. 

Goals

The firm’s main goal was to increase their Google search ranking for specific local SEO keywords focused around Kansas City for their commercial real estate firm.

Challenges

When it comes to performing SEO campaigns almost all websites suffer from some of the same core issues. In this case our client had problems in 5 key areas. 

Poor Technical SEO Health

When we speak to companies about improving their technical SEO we are mainly referring to the foundational principles of their website. Without mastering the basis and creating a solid foundation you will never rank well on Google or other search engines. Here is a great way to think about what technical SEO actually is. Lets take the example of building a home where your “house” is your website. 

A strong home is built on a solid foundation so it can support the weight of everything else that comes next. So If your “house” is built with a shaky foundation it will fall OR at the very least not hold up well in a storm.

Your website is no different. If your technical SEO health is poor the rest of your SEO will also suffer.

Our client had horrible technical SEO health suffering from things such as 1923 minified Js and CSS files, 410 broken external links. 567 images without alt alt text as well as a whole host of other issues.

No Previous SEO Work

This was also their first time doing any type of SEO work after decades of being in business. The firm was very well known however they were still getting beat out by their local competition on Google. With no prior work performed the Cindtoro team was in for an uphill battle to get them the Google recognition they rightfully deserved.

Lacking Internal Links

Because the CRE firm never had any pervious SEO work performed they also did not have any internal links across their website. Google struggled to find and index other valuable pages when the search engine crawler would discover them. Internal links cannot be placed in mass or too quickly due to the risk of appearing spammy. Any new link we placed was going to need to be done carefully and with discernment to avoid any issues.

No Keyword Strategy

Additionally, since our client had never done any SEO before they had no keyword strategy. Keywords are the life blood of an SEO campaign without proper use of them you will never be able to rank well on Google.

Slow Website Speed

A slow website speed can be caused by a number of factors such as images that are too large, using old outdated image formats, server issues or other factors.

What We Did

Cindtoro Website Audit

We found the issues listed above in addition to thousands of others with the help of our Cindtoro SEO website audit. We developed a comprehensive approach to looking at all aspects of a website’s health in order ensure we do not overlook anything that may have been holding our client back from success.

An SEO audit is included in our SEO services however if you would like you can purchase a standalone audit here.

Researched and implemented keywords

Since keywords are the lifeblood of an SEO campaign our clients SEO budget allowed for a total of 6 keywords, They were some of the following:

These keywords were researched by Cindtoro and approved by our client as they reflected their core offerings as a CRE firm.

Fixed Technical SEO Health

After we had their keywords picked and approved we could finally get to work fixing their technical SEO issues. We started here because we wanted to lay a strong foundation for their website. We started with the most pressing issues 1st and moved our way down the list to less pressing ones. We outlined the main bulk of technical SEO issues under the “Challenges” section above.

Optimized Images

Another key part improving our clients technical SEO health was optimization of images. So, during our process of fixing their alternative text and names of files (Yes, Google reads those) we also SEO optimized all the images on their website. The Cindtoro team was able to do this by converting the less optimal Jpeg versions to Jpeg 2000, WebP and AVIF file formats.   

Increased Internal Links

Next, our team systematically implemented additional internal links as needed into the website. We added these links everywhere we possibly could and did so in a way that would not harm their rankings or website.

Addressed Page Speed issues

After we were done with that we addressed the page speed issues they were experiencing by minifying the JS and CSS files. If you have ever heard a digital marketing professional say they need to “minify a CSS or JS file they are referring to reducing the amount of whitespace and comments inside of the code. The process of minification makes code unreadable by people but benefits a website’s load time helping to load the website faster improving the SEO score and core web vitals 

This translates into a higher Google ranking for that website.

Results

Our client saw incredible keyword gains as a result of Cindtoro SEO efforts. After we ran the client through the Cindtoro SEO process and fixed the above issues in addition to others not documented in this case study. Of the keywords approved by the CRE firm’s marketing manager. Our client soared through the rankings achieving 1st page Google rankings as well as high 2nd page rankings in a matter of a few weeks. 

If you would like the same results for your CRE firm get in touch with the Cindtoro team today to see how we can help your business.

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