Real Estate SEO - A Harsh Reality

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

I've been writing about real estate search engine optimization for years now, and providing SEO services for nearly as long. During that time, I have frequently encountered a common misconception about real estate search engine optimization. It's the notion that SEO is a magic cure that can overcome other deficiencies with a real estate website.

Here's the reality of the situation. Search engine optimization can certainly increase the amount of people who find and visit your website. That's the primary purpose of real estate SEO -- to increase the amount of qualified traffic to a website. But SEO cannot motivate people to take any sort of action once they find your website.

Real estate SEO is a traffic generator. It is not, however, a brand builder, lead generator, or motivator. If you think of the Web as a highway, with websites being stores along that highway, then SEO would be the equivalent of road signs. Those signs will help people find stores, but they won't persuade that person to purchase anything from the store. That's where product positioning, store arrangement and other factors come into play.

Now transfer this back to real estate websites. Search engine optimization can help the right people find the right kinds of websites, but it won't persuade them to stay on the site, contact the owner, fill out a form or download something. That's where lead generation, positioning, content quality and website usability come into play.

Why do I revisit this lecture on real estate SEO so often. Because about once a week, I get a phone call from somebody who says, "I need SEO because my website is not generating any leads."

Search engine optimization can do a lot for your website. But don't put unreasonable expectations on it. Don't expect it to be a lead generator. It delivers the traffic ... it's up to you to capitalize on that traffic.

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