SEO methods under fire
Last month, we reported that the debate over third party real estate sites’ SEO tactics has been renewed as listing syndication rules change and as various brokers across the nation pull their listings feed from the third party sites. The scene is changing.
For years, third party real estate media sites have been under scrutiny by SEO experts for using what some call “questionable tactics” as they are accused of hurting real estate brokerages’ ability to achieve search engine visibility for their own websites. VHT Visual Marketing Services calls the listing sites’ methods “black hat” tactics, and is fighting against what they say is an injustice.
VHT Chairman, Brian Balduf opined, “Brokerages are tired of being blocked from search engine results due to the questionable tactics commonly used by third party aggregators such as Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com, and Yahoo. Brokerages provide their listings for free, and in return, the aggregators commonly insert ‘no-follow tags’ on the links back to the broker’s websites. The ‘no-follow’ tags effectively tell the search engines to ignore the actual source of the listing data. It’s dirty pool.”
Defending the methods
Deeply entrenched in real estate, Jesse Friedman has a unique point of view in his role as President of BrokeragLeader.com which offers brokerages a “complete online solution for generating and tracking leads,” which led to his founding of Diggsy.com, “which aims to be the simplest and fastest Nationwide real estate search on the internet.” Friedman serves real estate professionals, aiming for their websites to rank highly, meanwhile also understanding the role of a third party real estate site, having founded Diggsy. Friedman explains to AGBeat exclusively his position on the debate about SEO tactics from his unique perspective.
Cutting exposure
Friedman echoes what many say is the top attraction to the third party real estate sites, noting that “Zillow having 24 mil visits in October means if your hiding your listings from them and other third parties, you are severely cutting exposure to potential buyers.”
“The goal of an agent should be to sell their clients home at the highest and best price, not worry about gaining views on their own site or trying to obtain both sides of the transaction (which has ethical implications in itself),” he added.
It’s not “black hat”
Much controversy surrounds how third party real estate search sites treat listings. Friedman explains, “The big 3rd party Syndication websites, as well as ours, Diggsy.com do not engage in “Black Hat” techniques. Adding a “nofollow” tag to a link is standard practice and does not devalue the site being linked at all.”
Friedman adds, “If anything, current research shows that a well rounded link profile, which includes nofollow links is essential to proper search engine optimization and marketing. The reality is that these big sites get traffic because they simply offer tools that people like to use and remain an independent source of information for people that are undecided on what agent or brokerage to use.”
Competing with the “big boys”
“Furthermore,” Friedman said, “agents and brokerage can compete with the “big boys”. Our proprietary Brokerage Leader platform and SEO that we offer brokerages consistently garner top search results with some clients getting as many as 20,000 leads over the past couple years with thousands of unique visitors a day.”
Fridman notes, “As a listing agent, you have intimate knowledge of your listing, target buyer and local knowledge. Use that to your advantage, blog about your new listings and become an expert in your community. This will help you rank better, not removing your listings from 3rd party websites.”
What if third party sites went away?
“Diggsy and our competitors put a ton of effort into our online marketing and presence,” said Friedman. “If we were gone, brokerages would still be competing with each other for rankings. The fact of the matter is it takes the right approach and ultimately hard work. Get a good website, utilize proper search engine optimization and marketing and pound the digital pavement and you will get the results you are looking for.”
