Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for Real Estate

There is a niche on the Internet for just about every business you can imagine and that includes, of course, real estate. Go ahead, run a search for ‘real estate’ or take things up a notch and run a search for real estate in your local area. The enormous numbers of hits that come up might shock you. How are you going to make your site stand out? What will make it more interesting to the search engine spiders and thus higher ranked? Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is in order. Creating content that is unique to the real estate market and content that will work for your particular niche market involves the specific use of keywords and other techniques.

First things first, SEO, or search engine optimization, is defined as the ability to increase the number of visitors through improved search engine visibility. Consider this: a visitor is unlikely to click through scores of results after they perform a search, they are more likely to just check the results on the first page before trying another search term, so it is critical your site ranks high enough to be placed on the first page of results.  Specifically, 68% of all searchers do not go past page 1; 98% don’t go past page 3.  This is why SEO is so important … you need to meet your new business at a common meeting area … page 1 of Google, Yahoo and Bing!

Knowing what SEO, knowing what your objectives are and actually achieving those objectives is not the same thing.  Your competition is strong which makes it more difficult, but your competition is generally local, which is a positive when it comes to SEO.  Local SEO is less expensive than a regionally-based or nationally-based SEO plan of attack.

Beyond this, the task at hand is identical to all other Internet Marketing except for the nature of the content being focused on real estate and your local geography.

Internet Marketing, including Search Engine Optimization (SEO), outsourced to a professional Internet Marketing Firm is a key short and long term decision in planning for success gaining clients online.  SEO involves a sophisticated set of processes consisting of two main tracks; onsite optimization and offsite optimization.  Onsite optimization involves the implementation of content and code to make certain that the scanning mechanisms of the search engines (spiders) can quickly and precisely understand exactly what your web pages are all about.  Offsite optimization involves the promotion of relevant content that is linked to your website by additional coding techniques.  This syndication results in wide deployment of articles and press releases, that when accepted by hundreds of online publishers, results in links directly to relevant content on your website; these links are called backlinks and are the major factor in search engine rankings.  The best quality and the largest quantity of backlinks results in top rankings for the targeted keyword phrases promoted through syndicated content.

As mentioned earlier, Internet Marketing is expensive.  The good news for local real estate firms and agents is that local SEO is not nearly as expensive as nationally-based or global SEO.  This is because the number of relevant competitors is obviously much lower.  The overwhelming majority of online searchers include local keywords or geocentric keywords when they search e.g. New Jersey New Homes, Fort Myers Real Estate.  This requires a locally-based content and keyword strategy.  In this sense, there is no difference in the processes and specialties of Internet Marketing whether you are talking real estate agents, attorneys, doctors, accountants, electricians, plumber or landscapers.  While there are huge differences in these professions and businesses, the internet marketing processes remain precisely the same.  The only difference is obviously the website content as well as the content designed for syndication to promote the backlinks and ultimately high rankings and visibility.

When seeking an Internet Marketing Professional use the following simple checklist as a guide:

1. Keyword Research – this is the cornerstone of all Internet Marketing.  There should be a heavy emphasis on this as the first step in SEO.
2. Strong Emphasis on Content – just walk away from any SEO Company that isn’t emphasizing a constant flow (weekly) of new, fresh, non-duplicate content in the form of articles and press releases for the purpose of indexing and syndication.  Blogging should be discussed and seriously considered as an additional source of regular new content.
3. See Live Results – you should be able to verify the success of the SEO company by typing client keywords and seeing their clients on page 1 of Google … time and time again.
4. Client Interviews – interview 1-3 current and renewing clients to verify results but also to better understand the process from the client perspective.

Keep in mind that Internet Marketing and SEO are long term processes that never end.  If you stop, you will soon see yourself drop in the search engine rankings.  As such, this is a serious commitment but one that can be very rewarding and potentially the strongest marketing component for your firm.  Of course, if you have any questions, just contact us.