This short blog may seem contradictory at first – after all the freedom to Search for Solutions on the Internet has revolutionized many business processes. Your ability to Search for a flight from Nashville to Charlotte and comparison shop while still in your PJs is a freeing experience.

The same is true for searching for Real Estate and Millions of Users do so on a daily basis; in fact many do so by visiting Search Engines like Google or Bing – nothing new here…

I am talking about another type of Search – the kind you ask your customers to perform when they visit your website.

The above example shows that this Real Estate Broker took his MLS Search, the one he uses with his MLS Board, and placed it in his website for the benefit of his clients, and although it seems like a powerful idea – he fails to understand that consumers search differently than Real Estate Agents.

Let’s look at some nagging problems with the above Search Form:

The “Area Box” is placed high and asks the visitor to first select a county or an area by number – really; are you kidding me?

The City Section, which is a natural search for most visitors, tells you that there are 200 Cities and you must select a county first to reduce the number of choices.

Even the silly section like Bedrooms asks you to select from one drop-down box and Thru another one. Why are you making the life of your visitors painful – it should be one drop-down and you select 3+ and it means 3 Bedrooms or more.

I could go on for awhile, so let’s talk about 2 ideas that correlate to the above:

1. Too many options; you must always offer a Quick Search – City, Bedrooms, Bathrooms, Type, Price Range – done! You can continue to offer your clients a Monster Search Page that requires a PhD for them to fill out – but you must also offer a Quick Search Form. Focused Short Forms produce more results and create more immersive experiences.

2. Focus on your area of Business; with the advent of large MLS Boards covering multiple cities and multiple counties many Real Estate Professionals commit sin #1 of trying to use their website to cover every city in their MLS. They think more is more… So so wrong! Offer searches in your Neck of the Wood. You maybe a licensed Realtor in Manchester Tennessee and that does give you access to searching for homes in Nashville; but Nashville is not your primary market and you are diluting yourself by offering everything. Create Search Results that are focused on Manchester Tennessee and rank yourself well for that… the moment you find yourself chasing too many rabbits you will catch none!

Internet Marketing and Real Estate SEO are difficult and nearly impossible if not focused properly.

Happy Blogging – Key Yessaad