I have had a lot of email the last few days because I have discussed real estate. I want to say something here, but I want to say it delicately because every situation is different.
If you live in a market where real estate is king and there are 5,000 real estate web sites in your market just optimizing your site is not going to do anything for you. I have had clients and readers tell me they are spending $300-$400 a month on SEO for their 30 page web site (and most of the time it is terrible and/or unethical SEO). Sadly, with what they have there is no hope for them to currently compete with the top dogs.
If you are going to hire an SEO consultant or and SEO company please understand that in the real estate industry search engine marketing is crucial! Just improving your site is not enough! If you have a small real estate site YOU MUST market from the outside.
A Good Example of What Needs to Be Done in Large Real Estate Markets
There is a man in Sarasota who is in real estate. He has obviously studied SEO and he knows quite a bit. His name is Marc Rasmussen. His goal, I believe, was to obtain the #1 for “Sarasota Real Estate“. The company that held that spot was Michael Saunders. I have been watching Marc for over a year. I believe it was about a year ago I actually emailed him and told him how great the optimization on his site was. He understood optimization and how important the copywriting was as well. It was obvious.
So. Michael Saunders had 2,700 indexed pages and a PR of 6. We all know that if a company has a top placement for years you are going to have to work really hard to grab that spot. Marc worked for over two years to create 4,700 pages (that has gone down recently) and obtain a PR of 4 and he finally passed up Michael Saunders. Additionally, I see his site on the first page of Google for nearly every Sarasota real estate phrase I have entered. Google loves the site and they should.
SEOs will look at the site and see what he has done and the amount of work is apparent. Marc will own these placements for a long time (Unless Michael Saunders come back…) if he keeps it up and his site is worth a bloody fortune in this market. It is because of Marc and people like him that I am getting a ton of calls…realtors nationwide wanting to figure out how to do better. Local realtors want the same success, but success takes time…
Some Points I Feel Are Important
To SEOs
Real estate is a tough industry. It isn’t really fair to optimize 30 sites in your market and make lots of promises. It isn’t fair to the brokers who are killing themselves to make money right now. I wrote about exclusivity last month regarding real estate clients. I am being paid well and I am being fair. Being fair is really mportant. SEOs need to figure out what works best for them and their clients in their market. Every market is different.
To Realtors
I you want to do well on the web you are going to have to step it up and work your butts off. Obtaining the places you want on the web is not easy and it DOES NOT happen over night. Also, you need to find someone that knows what they are doing…someone that can come to you and explain to you point by point why those on the first page are on the first page and then explain to you just how much work will need to be done to get you there. If they say, “Pay us $400 a month and it will happen” this is a warning sign. You are the client. If you are spending $5,000-$20,000 for SEO and SEM this year your consultant or company should take a good 2-3 hours, at a minimum, to review this with you. You have a right to have things explained to you and to be honest this is our job.
Lastly, find an SEO or SEO company that has experience with real estate.
We All Know…
…how important real estate is to our economy. We also understand that to do well in business today one must excel on the web. Real estate agents / brokers are going to have to devote a significant amount of time to improve their site and market their site as well.
Be careful with your money…be careful who you hire and learn from your competition.
Melissa- SEOAware.com
