If you are a Real Estate Agent, Real Estate Broker or provide a Real Estate service, you know how important effective real estate web promotion is to your business. The large number of people searching the internet for local, national and international real estate information cannot be ignored.
At the same time, you may think that effective real estate website promotion is too difficult to master, too expensive, or simply too mysterious to understand—an area reserved for experts in the field of search engine marketing.
Like most professionals with highly specialized skills, search engine marketers have a vested interest in making their field seem mysterious and difficult to master. But it’s actually not that mysterious. Anyone can dominate the search engines in virtually any local market. All it takes is a little common sense and some hard work.
The principles involved in getting a good ranking for your real estate website are pretty simple and straightforward. These are the same principles that apply to search engine marketing for any website, and it’s actually quite easy to apply these principles to real estate websites. Many real estate agents have simply given up trying to rank well on local real estate search engines because they don’t properly understand the process.
But think about it for a minute. When you do a Google search for “Phoenix real estate” or “Banff real estate” or “Halifax real estate” or “Fort Lauderdale real estate”, and you see the same real estate agents or agencies on the first page week after week, how do you think they got there? What magic real estate website promotion formula are they using or who have they paid to get this high position?
Now, before you answer that question, ask yourself how do you think Google assigns these positions to different websites? Does your giant computer just pull names out of a big cyber hat? Do they use secret rules that only a few experts know about?
Of course not. All the major search engines make it perfectly clear what they are looking for, and especially Google. If you want to score well for a term like “Phoenix real estate” or “Ottawa real estate,” really all you have to do is fill your site with good information about Phoenix (or Ottawa) and focus your home page. very deliberately. in those search terms.
Search engines like focused content. They assume that if your site contains a lot of content relevant to “real estate Phoenix” then it should show up highly in searches for that keyword.
The problem, of course, is that there are already a number of other real estate websites that offer good content focused on your favorite search term, so you’re going head to head with sites that have previously established a position, and it will take a little time and a fair amount of work to overcome them.
That’s fair enough. After all, if the real estate agent down the street offers more focused and relevant information than you do about the market you’re both looking for, she deserves to be above you in search engine rankings. It makes sense, doesn’t it?
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t keep trying. It just means that you have to be patient and work harder. Take a close look at your site and overcome it by refocusing your site and creating more interesting and valuable content. Focus is the name of the game. Make it very clear that you are the “expert” on “Calgary real estate” by offering the kind of things an expert would offer.
And please, feel free to mention the search phrase you are trying to rank for. If it’s “Kingston real estate” or “Sacramento real estate,” use that term throughout your home page. Say to yourself, “OK Google, so you’re looking for real estate websites that have something to say about ‘Sacramento real estate’, well here I am. I breathe Sacramento Real Estate. I ooze Sacramento Real Estate. I AM Sacramento Real Estate .” This is called search engine optimization.
In the meantime, while you wait for Google to come close to your top search term, also look for some less competitive ones to focus on. For example, if you want to service the entire Ottawa area, but most of your clientele is in Kanata or Nepean, focus some of your internet marketing efforts on those smaller markets. You have a much better chance of getting results in these significantly smaller and less competitive markets.