Real Estate SEO Blogs by Key Yessaad

Organic placement is Earned and must be Planned – the topic is called SEO, Search Engine Optimization, but I call it “Customer-Driven Search Marketing.” The idea is quite simple – Users and Would-be Customers are Searching the Internet for what they want – your job is to be present as one of the choices on the first page of Google, Bing/Yahoo… Nothing profound here; But how do you go about planning your SEO Strategy? and What do you focus on?

1. Real Estate Websites are driven by Databases and one of the most important ones is the Multiple Listing Service through feeds called IDX, Information Data Exchange. These feeds are given to Brokers who are members of that specific board; How you integrate the feed to your website is the most important decision you can make. I rank this as Priority Number 1 in your Search Marketing Campaign.

2. The Real Estate Website Vendor you use is the second most important aspect of building your Internet Strategy. It goes beyond the amount of money you are willing to spend – it goes to the longevity and Hosting Platform your vendor will offer. Are they using an ASP or a PHP platform – and oh yeah; what the heck is that?

I have seen vendors come and go and many of them do end up either selling their platform of not have the necessary resources to grow the Search Visibility – the company you use if crucial to the future of your Web Strategy; unfortunately many are having to drop a vendor for the next best thing and in the process are losing all their Search Engine Visibility and having to start from scratch again. This is the worst thing you can do if you don’t have a plan to tackle it properly.

3. The Third most important factor in your Internet Strategy is your Local Internet Competition; Are you studying them? Do you know what to look for so you can match and overtake them? is your local market bombarded by the usual suspects: Trulia.com; Homes.com; Realtor.com; RealEstate.com; Zillow.com; Yahoo.com; etc… all of these companies dominate Page 1 of Google because of Syndication – there is nothing you can do about it except to accept that they are there because we ceded our leadership to them. Your website MUST contain and offer the best Search, the Best Information, and the most scalable content than anyone. Until you realize that you are going to remain average and always behind them.

4. Focus on one Market NOT a panoply of many; your resources are limited and if you try get to Page 1 of Google for 10 Search Terms than you are dividing your resources (Money and Staff) into 10 areas and you will end up with less not more… I would rather be on Page 1 for something than be of Page 15 for everything. Focus, Focus, Focus, as in: Location, Location, Location…

I will end this blog post by reminding you NOT to be intimidated by the Default Players who have cannibalized your Search Ranking; they are there because we have failed; they are there to sell advertising back to us; they are they to sell our agents and brokers referrals because we have failed to be there. The internet has been a flop for many brokers and agents because the watchdogs have remained silent; the only thing left is to bid for leads and prices keep going up, and up, and up… So this Blog is NOT about SEO – it is about your Responsibility on the Internet and the Solutions you will bring to your clients.

Happy Blogging – Key Yessaad, Real Estate SEO Trainer