Real Estate Search Engine Marketing - Lower Expectations

Yesterday I saw something that I found appalling. It was a promotional page describing the real estate search engine marketing services provided by a certain company ... a certain "Homes" company that shall remain anonymous.

Basically, it was a pitch page for a search marketing "service" that real estate agents could sign up for ... at an obvious cost. But what shocked me were the sales points made by the company. One of their claims was that your website is guaranteed to be indexed [definition] by Google within 60 days.

Those of you who are familiar with real estate search engine marketing are probably wrinkling your noses at this already, because you realize this is no major accomplishment to write home about. If you are not familiar with the process of search engine optimization, then let me explain why this is a "selling point" only for people with lower expectations...

If you put a new real estate website online and do absolutely nothing with it (no link building, no promotion, no nothing), the search engines will find it on their own through their routine web-crawling process. And they will probably find it in less than 60 days. Search engine spiders are always looking for new websites ... you don't need a special service to tell them your website is online.

Now, if you put a new website online and point a few links toward it from other websites (perhaps by publishing an article online or submitting the website to a web directory), the search engines will probably find it within a couple of weeks. Google, being the fastest and most aggressive of the major search engines, will probably find your new website within a matter of days.

You see what I'm getting at.

This company is taking something that will happen automatically (search engines finding / indexing a new website) and they are passing it off as a selling point for their real estate search engine marketing service. So from where I'm standing, this service is being marketed to real estate agents with lower expectations of what an SEO service should do.

Putting keywords on your website and waiting for search engines to find the site is the very first baby step in a long journey to meaningful rankings.

Let me give you a scenario to illustrate what I'm talking about. Let's say I am a San Diego real estate agent (where there are thousands of other real estate agents inside the county limits). I put up a new website, and I sign up for a real estate search engine marketing service that guarantees to get my website found and indexed by Google and other search engines.

So I pay some of my hard-earned money and wait for the amazing results. Sure enough, the search engines find my website within a month or so ... but they rank me somewhere in the "basement" below page 10 for important phrases like "San Diego real estate." Nobody will ever find me way down there!

So, in frustration I contact the company providing the real estate search marketing service, and I say: "Hey, what gives? My website doesn't come up at all when I search for San Diego real estate, or any variation of that phrase? What am I paying for here?"

To which the company might respond by saying they have fulfilled their end of the guarantee ... they got your website indexed within Google's database (and other search engines). So if you do a Google search for your actual website address, you will find your website. Success, right?

Wrong. In this scenario, nobody will ever find your website unless they are specifically searching for your name, your company name, or your website domain name.

In other words, they won't find you online unless they already know you. So instead of putting yourself in front of the hundreds of people researching San Diego real estate topics online every day, you're only getting in front of a couple of folks who already know you.

Like I said, to me this seems to be real estate search engine marketing for agents with lower expectations, or with looser definitions of "success."

Greater Expectations With Search Engine Marketing

But what if you expect more for your dollar? Well, if you do, I salute you. It's important to expect something worthwhile in exchange for they money you pay.

In fact, that's why we don't even mention the search engine indexing thing when explaining our real estate SEO services. We know that kind of thing happens automatically, so it feels sleazy to pass it off as some kind of selling point for our service.

Our mission sets the bar higher for real estate SEO companies, so I'd like to share it with you now. That way, you'll know what a search engine marketing service should be providing:

Our goal is to get our clients' websites on the first page of all major search engines for the phrases that are most important to their business -- or as close as humanly possible to the first page. As a result, this increases the traffic levels to those clients' websites steadily over time. It also ensures quality visitors will find the site, because we optimize / rank the websites for phrases that are directly related to the audience and service.

So instead of saying, "Hooray, the search engines know your website exists" ... we strive to say, "Hooray, your target audience knows you exist because you're on Page 1 of the search engines!"

There's a world of difference between these two objectives to search engine optimization. Which type of service you choose simply depends on the level of your expectations.

Trading Real Estate Links - Waste of Time at Best

Article Summary: You need links to your website in order to rank well in the major search engines. This much is true. But trading real estate links with networks of other webmasters is not the best way to go about it. In fact, it can be a dangerous SEO tactic that does more harm than good.

About once a week, I do some keyword research to see what kinds of Internet marketing topics real estate professionals are researching online. When I entered "real estate link" as a starting phrase, my keyword tool came up with a lot of search queries related to trading real estate links (presumably for SEO purposes).

So it seems a lot of real estate agents are still interested in link exchanges as a way to boost search engine visibility. But trading real estate links is a waste of time at best, and could be downright harmful to your rankings.

[By the way, if you’re not sure why anyone would trade real estate links in the first place, your might want to start with this article on real estate link building for SEO purposes.]

So I have published this article and intentionally optimized it for the phrase trading real estate links so that agents researching the subject will find this article ... and hopefully heed my warning.

Here's the bottom line. Trading real estate links is not an effective way to boost your search engine ranking. It may work in the short term, but there's a good chance your website will be penalized for "artificially" inflating your rankings through link swaps. If you've had your ear to the ground in recent months, you'll know that thousands of real estate websites suffered severe Google penalties for this very thing. [more]

So what's a real estate webmaster to do? How do you go about link building in such a way that produces good results while avoiding Google penalties at the same time?

3 Alternatives to Trading Real Estate Links

1. Create high-value web content -- A better alternative to trading real estate links is to obtain links without the need for trading. You can do this by creating website content that is valuable, unique and useful. Why do you think I spend so much time blogging and create free e-books and articles? People link to these things!
2. Publish articles online -- I've been using this technique for nearly five years now, and I certainly wouldn't spend that much time on it if it didn’t produce results. By publishing articles online (and on a regular basis), you can steadily increase the number of websites that link to your real estate website -- thus improving your search engine visibility.
3. Hire us for our SEO services -- One way we provide value to our real estate SEO clients is by leveraging our network of real estate websites and small-business websites. I use these sites to increase the link popularity of my clients' websites, which in turn helps to boost their search engine ranking. And they don't have to waste their time trading real estate links to achieve results. Learn more here

Real Estate Marketing for New Agents

Marketing advice for new real estate agents:

When I talk to real estate agents who are new to the industry, one of the first questions they ask is, "How can I compete with veteran agents?" Or more specifically, "How should I conduct my real estate marketing program to compensate for my inexperience."

My response: "Take experience out of the equation, and focus on lead generation."

Remove Experience from the Equation

Veteran real estate agents were "newbies" at some point. They got past that stage, and so can you. In fact, everybody in the entire world has been new to something at least once in their life. We are new to elementary school, middle school and high school. We are new to the working world. We are new to people, places and social situations.

Everyone knows what it's like to be the new guy or gal. So why sweat it?

As a real estate agent, you'll find that most clients judge you by your knowledge, your personality and your professionalism. And here's the good news -- you can bring those things to work with you on Day 1.

Focus on Lead Generation

Some marketing "experts" will tell you to promote your brand and keep yourself "top of mind" with your prospect area. Those things are okay over the long-term. But if you're relying on them to generate business in the short-term, you better have some living expenses tucked away. It's going to be a long wait.

Here's where you, as a new real estate agent, can actually outperform the veterans you're up against. Build a better lead-generation program. Instead of relying too heavily on branding or top-of-mind awareness (secondary marketing strategies, by the way), focus on generating leads you can turn into clients.

Here are three specific ways to outperform the veterans in your area:

Be More Visible

Get yourself a website and start learning about search engine visibility. Search engines don't care how long you've been in business or how many clients you have. They will rank a popular, well-optimized website over an older, more stagnant website much of the time.

Build a strong web presence, get some people linking to it, publish press releases and articles online, and you'll make your website more visible to the search engines. See the resource mentioned at the end of this article for more.

Be More Proactive

Build an exclusive "must read" report around a hot topic in your area. Make it provocative and thought-provoking, not just another "Tips for Home Buyers." Urban sprawl is a great example. If there's development in your area, create a report along the lines of "How Urban Expansion Affects Your Property Values."

Choose a topic that matches your audience (buyers, sellers, affluent, middle-class, etc.). Build a direct mail postcard campaign to promote the report. Send people to a web page where they can sign up for it with only an email address. Make it easy for them.

You've just built your first lead-generation program, and no experience is necessary!

Be More Creative

Why not partner up with a mortgage professional, a home inspector or both to launch a home-buying seminar series? Make it free, easy to sign up for, and fun! Come up with a creative angle for it, like "The Modern Real Estate Process" or "Mortgage 101 for the Mathematically Challenged." Invite your local news to cover it (that's the kind of thing they look for on slow news days).

Knock people's socks off with the quality of your presentation and your enthusiasm. Give them your business card and other take-away items. Stick around afterward for questions and chit chat. There will be clients in that group, I guarantee it.

Conclusion

I spun off these ideas in the span of an hour. You might come up with a dozen more of your own. But let me ask you this -- how many of the tactics outlined above require vast experience? That's right, none of them. Be creative. Be proactive. Be enthusiastic and positive. Before you know it, you'll be so busy you'll forget how new you are.

* Copyright 2006, Brandon Cornett. You may republish this article online if you keep the hyperlinks active and retain the author's note and byline.

Learn More

Brandon Cornett is the author of several real estate marketing books. You can learn more about real estate marketing for new agents by visiting the New Agent Learning Center at: http://www.armingyourfarming.com

Round Rock Real Estate - City Profile

Recently, I saw an article on Entrepreneur.com that mentioned Round Rock, Texas as one of the best places in the U.S. to buy a home right now.

This came as something of a surprise to me. I live in Round Rock, so I know it's an increasingly popular place to live (especially for all of the Southern Californians moving here to get more home for their real estate dollar). But I still found it surprising, because typically it's Austin that makes it onto these lists, with nary a mention of Round Rock just up the road.

Here's what the article said about Round Rock real estate ... "Round Rock and Austin have seen incredible job growth and very stable home prices despite the downturn nationwide. Jobs continue to grow here--a factor for keeping inventory low and prices stable."

I don't know if the author of this piece has been to Round Rock recently, but keeping the inventory low is clearly not on anyone's agenda. On the contrary, the agenda seems to be "Build, build, build." Especially up in the northern part of the city where I live.

At any rate, I thought it was time to add a "Top 10 Reasons to Like Round Rock" article over at my new City Pages website ... for anyone interested in the city. I've also posted a Round Rock real estate page to Real City.

Real Estate SEO - New Developments

Is search engine optimization / SEO on your to-do list for 2008? If so, you may be interested in our new real estate SEO website.

Actually, I've been providing SEO services to real estate agents for several years now, but I've recently overhauled that section of the website to make it (A) easier to use, (B) more informative, and (C) more nutritious.

Okay, so it's not nutritious. But it's definitely cleaner, easier to use, and more informative. So click on over to the real estate SEO section of the site and check it out.



Another development on this front -- I have an account manager / customer service representative starting next week. It was inevitable, I suppose. It's not that I don't like talking to people on the phone and answering emails (I do). But the best way I can serve my real estate SEO clients is by actively managing their SEO programs ... not by fielding phone calls all day. So I have somebody coming in who will be the primary point of contact for most matters.

If you are serious about real estate SEO in 2008, but you want somebody else to handle all the tedious work for you, ours might be the kind of SEO service you're looking for!