SEO Magic
Stop Squinting – there is no smoke. Put down the shades – there are no mirrors.
When I asked (on Twitter) earlier this week for ideas about what to cover in this week’s article, more than one of you wanted to know “What is special about real estate SEO, how is it different from regular SEO?”
Got your pen & paper ready? Nothing is different. Well, almost nothing. I’m serious, stop laughing.
What do YOU sell?
The only real difference is what you sell, and how you sell it. Typical retailers always carry the same products, by the same manufacturers – day in and day out. They can build on that, create content that describes each of them in every possible way, so that no matter what someone types into Google, MSN or Yahoo, there is a good chance they have it covered. Realtors, as you know, do not have that luxury. Actually, if your “inventory” is sitting around long enough that it needs to be SEO’d, you have bigger problems…get off the computer and go sell something ;-D. Let’s take a step back – what do you really sell? A building? A house? A condo? No – you sell homes, neighborhoods, lifestyles – people’s dreams.
What do you write about then?
Those dreams, and lifestyles are what you write about, those YOUR content that never changes. Create articles – or better yet, series of articles that describe each of the neighborhoods you service. Forget the web for a moment. If I called you on the phone and said I was considering a move to your area, but had not decided yet, what would you say to me? Would you say “Great, I have a 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom with a pool that would be perfect for you”? Probably not. You would probably try to sell me on the area first, then steer me to a neighborhood and finally to a home. Your web sites should do the same thing.
Not all experts agree
I’m going to tell you to do something I noticed some of the “experts” I found by Googling “real estate seo” tell you not to bother with. Write about your properties on your blog too. Don’t just bury them in the MLS, or whatever system you have. Sure, the bots & spiders etc can crawl those dynamic pages now, but why let yourself be limited to a few boxes and a paragraph or two? Fill a page with elegant text describing the place. Don’t forget to add pictures – properly named and tagged of course, and even a video tour. The more types of media you can attach to a page, the more likely you are to rank well. Blended search is becoming very powerful. If you don’t know about blended search yet – look into it. In a nutshell, engines are displaying results from image, video, blog, news and web searches all together in one place – the more of those you are in, the better off you will be.
Is that it?
It really, REALLY is. I keep telling people – most of SEO is not rocket science, it’s just taking the time to think about what you have and who you want to read it. It’s in the planning.
As always, I welcome your comments and your questions.
Bob
March 7, 2009 at 11:42 am
Jack,
You make it sound like SEO is simply content. Am I misunderstanding you here?
Doug Francis
March 7, 2009 at 12:06 pm
Thanks for this insight, amazingly targeting toward me. This is the concept that I have been developing for the past two weeks with my team of two clients. A total rework of my strategy. I’m excited and totally on-board.
Marc Fuller
March 7, 2009 at 7:54 pm
I agree that content is ever more important to Real Estate SEO. (Particularly with advances like Google’s semantic indexing.)
But like a good real estate transaction is a balance of price and terms, effective real estate SEO is a balance of content and structure.
Put all the best and most content in a poorly structured website codebase and you will have at best mediocre SEO and search marketing results.
I would also suggest that it is better to place all your content under one domain to increase content mass, ranking, enhance your branding and reduce bounce rate.
Leslie Martin
March 8, 2009 at 8:06 am
It’s good to see someone backing up what my web guy has been telling me. It’s about getting your voice out there regarding your listings. Blog about them, Facebook about them, etc. And, link all that to your main website. That’s what Google likes to see–content and links are the key.
Good article!
Jack Leblond
March 8, 2009 at 9:07 am
@Bob – Content is a *BIG* part of the SEO process, not the only part. As Marc points out, it’s important to also have a good structure.
@everyone – There are numerous steps in the SEO process, please don’t think I am saying this is all you do – content is just one piece of the puzzle. My goal for this article was simply to let you know that when it comes to SEO, it does not mater what your site is about, the process and procedures are the same. Don’t let the people who “specialize in Real Estate SEO” pull the wool over your eyes.
Richard Stabile Bergen County Real Estate
March 8, 2009 at 3:06 pm
Jack,
It is all in the words. The search engines like the right words, pictures with tags, videos, and properly structured titles and descriptions. Also, links are important to move up. However, Yahoo is starting to derank all locals and use all the national sites, even in local markets. This is crazy but I think they want people to have to pay to get the clicks. The data miners are going to sell the brokers back the leads on their own listings, HA!
I believe SEO is dying in these markets! There is an oligopoly plan to scoop the positions.
Jonathan Phan
March 9, 2009 at 3:57 pm
Good information.
Claire
March 9, 2009 at 4:08 pm
I like what you said, “You sell homes, neighborhoods, lifestyles–people’s dreams.” My husband and I like helping people find their “home”. In our website we have been using information, pictures and videos in webpages and blogs to help people discover certain neighborhoods or subdivisions. Thank for reinforcing what we are doing.
ShaunsHouses
March 9, 2009 at 5:17 pm
Bob and Jack,
SEO is simply content. From what I’ve research, SEO should be based on human popularity rating vs search engine stuffing for lack of a better word. good article.
Ken Montville - The MD Suburbs of DC
March 9, 2009 at 7:56 pm
An interesting take on SEO especially the “blended SEO” tip and the permission to actually blog about my listings.
Kirk
March 9, 2009 at 11:30 pm
Hey Jack, speaking of SEO one of the best ways to pick up some “magical” SEO points is to use a page name.
Instead of “p=10698” you would use “real-estate-seo” or something similar. Just a suggestion,,,
Jack Leblond
March 10, 2009 at 5:23 pm
Shaun – SEO is more than just content, but content is one of the most important parts. You are correct though that it should be written and presented with the reader in mind, not the engine. Under no circumstances should anyone ever try to stuff a page to rank better.
Kirk – let’s take turns, this week you be the preacher and I’ll be the choir. If this were my site it would be that way …probably. AG has been around a while and does a great of linking articles both internally and externally and that helps far more than a good “page name”. Google does index dynamic URLs, and this site does well in Google – in my mind, the link is not so bad.
Marc
March 10, 2009 at 5:48 pm
Just a little more content and then this thing will really take off!
Bob
March 10, 2009 at 7:28 pm
Content is only part of the equation. Adding more content for the sake of content isnt SEO. Not even close.
los angeles lofts
March 10, 2009 at 11:50 pm
Real estate SEO is a large monster. While content is king, there are many different ways to write the same thing. Presentation has very little to do with SEO. Remember you are competing with a million other real estate websites so you better have something valuable. Don’t forget to exchange with quality links.
Rebecca Williamson
January 9, 2011 at 2:36 pm
It is definitely important to focus on your content. All the SEO in the world cannot overcome subpar content. They’ll hit the back button and find another page that will give them the information they are looking for.