Do the search engines 'read' the navigation buttons? If so, are REW's templated buttoms readable? Finally, is it a good idea to put keywords in the buttons? In other words, is it better to dislplay a button as 'Real Estate Buying' vs. 'Buying,' or another example, 'Real Estate Financing' vs. simply 'Financing?'

I've used what fits best, therefore leaving out some keywords to make the site look better.

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Southwest Chicago Suburbs Real Estate is an affordable area with close access to downtown Chicago. Money Magazine says that Orland Park real estate is one of the best places to live in the U.S. Next door you can find Tinley Park homes for sale and get Orland Park amenities at a more affordable price.

Buttons are graphics, and search engines don't "read" them. They can read the "Alt" text associated with graphics.

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Ron Goodman, GRI, REALTOR®
Prudential Colorado Real Estate
Denver Colorado Real Estate: Highlands Ranch, Parker, Littleton, Castle Rock
Adwords for Real Estate: PPC Setup Services & Consulting

REW sites don't use actual buttons but links which are readable.

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Southwest Chicago Suburbs Real Estate is an affordable area with close access to downtown Chicago. Money Magazine says that Orland Park real estate is one of the best places to live in the U.S. Next door you can find Tinley Park homes for sale and get Orland Park amenities at a more affordable price.

What Google & other SE's see when looking at a site's Menus & buttons depending on how the site's menu & buttons are coded ... certainly the (standard) P2 menu is not readable by bots ....

If you're unsure about your own site, the easiest way to tell is to pull up the cached snapshot of the page (via the G toolbar) then click "cached text"

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Calgary Real Estate
Sarasota MLS
Calgary Luxury Real Estate

Your "buttons" are actually spiderable CSS, so yes SE's read them

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Nope, graphics like buttons can't be read so you have to include a "title" and an "alt" tag in the HTML so they can get some usable text out of them

That's incorrect. As Morgan and I stated, REW sites use spiderable buttons/links and the original question pertained to a new REW site.

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Southwest Chicago Suburbs Real Estate is an affordable area with close access to downtown Chicago. Money Magazine says that Orland Park real estate is one of the best places to live in the U.S. Next door you can find Tinley Park homes for sale and get Orland Park amenities at a more affordable price.