Real Estate SEO Blogs by Key Yessaad

As I proceed with my trainings on Real Estate SEO and Organic Placement I come across many Agents and Brokers who become frustrated with the need to manage and offer Content; in their mind you turn on a website and it is supposed to do everything for you – PERIOD. Well, I am sorry to say, this is silly – if you allow yourself to think about it carefully you will come to the realization that this makes sense.

Let me lay a scenario in front of you:

Your name is Angie and you work for Real Estate Agency A; you have a colleague Susan who also works for the same agency. Your Broker decides to invite a Real Estate Website Vendor, the best in the business, called Websites ”R” Us; the presentation goes extremely well, the tools they show you seem modern, the look of the website is attractive, they offer MLS Search, and the pricing is ok – so Angie and Susan take the plunge. They always wanted a website and now they will have something that looks cool…

Both Websites have been launched but nothing has happened; both Angie and Susan expected leads, you know Internet Leads… What’s up with that? – why are the consumers not coming? Isn’t the purpose of Websites Lead Generation?

1. Your vendor, Websites “R” Us, did not do anything wrong they gave you the tools you desired as you requested.

2. They integrated the MLS Search through IDX feed, and even gave you 10 generic pages that talk about Buyers, Sellers, etc…

3. Here is the Problem: Do you know that both Angie and Susan’s Websites are identical? You are thinking: No Way. My is pink with my picture and name and hers is Baby Blue with her own information.

Sorry; they are identical as far as Search Engines, in fact both websites have 99.99% identical Content. You both offer MLS Search and since you are in the same MLS you have the same properties, the same Search Method, and the same description for properties.

4. You have not even bothered to change the 10 generic pages they gave you; which is a low percentage of all your content.

5. When Google comes to your website it does not see anything new, as far as it is concerned your website and that of Susan’s have nothing that distinguish them. They even share the Same IP address; they have to – Websites “R” Us is a vendor and they place all the websites of their clients in one giant server and use the same methodology to serve the content to your would be customers.

6. Search Engines will then discount the websites NOT because they have a gripe against Angie or Susan but simply because they have that content already indexed and each new website from that vendor offers NOTHING NEW!

Search Engines are NOT in the Business of Your Sales; they are in the business of indexing Content and offering the most relevant to the Consumer; You are now forced to go buy Pay Per Clicks Advertising to generate leads.

If you do not take responsibility for your content and start adding your own you must realize that you do not have a Website, what you have is a Clone of a Website that has been sold to thousands of other clients; therefore you offer nothing new.

This is the toughest lesson Real Estate Brokers and Agents must learn: Real Estate Website Vendors are in the business of Cloning Websites; sure some of them will give you a graphic banner with your logo and photo, but the core content, the IDX Feed itself, is similar across all those who belong to that MLS, as well as the delivery mechanism. In other words they make money by cloning the same website over and over again – and I don’t see a problem with that; they just don’t put it in those stark terms.

Take Responsibility for your Content – More blogs on this topic to come!

Happy Blogging – Key Yessaad, Real Estate SEO Trainer