Real Estate SEO and Technology Blog

If you don’t already know this little gem of information, you HAVE to have “Search the MLS” on your website. In fact NAR tells us that the number one thing that your buyers are looking for when they come to your website is the ability to search for listings. The problem is, while many agents are aware of this need, they seem to hide the link behind such vague navigation links as “Buyers”, “Search Homes” and “Tools”. Want the tool to work for you? Here’s the secret:

I’m often asked “What is the easiest thing for me to do to my website to make the biggest impact in my visibility or rankings?”. Well I can tell you that this is an easy one. The answer is your Page Titles. Note that I said Page Titles in the plural sense. Many people know that they have a Page Title on their Home Page, but did you know that all of your pages have Page Titles? So what must you do?

You might not know it, but the Domain Name that you give your website can make the difference between ranked at the top of the heap and the bottom. The reason for this is in the change of Google’s algorithm which they call “Google Caffeine”. Content is everything now. In order to rank its websites, Google is now reading your website and asking itself “Is this website congruent?”. In other words, if you walk by a storefront and see the sign says “Barber Shop” and when you walk in, it’s a Pizza Parler, the store is NOT congruent. The Domain Name doesn’t match the content.

Many have asked me about a study that I did while doing a class in San Diego with regards to the Long Tail Theory for keyword phrases. 

Let’s look at an example of that class. I asked the class “if you could have any keyword phrase to optimize for, what would it be”? Of course you probably know the answer. It was unanimous. “San Diego real estate”. We did a quick search for how many people had requested this keyword phrase on Google.

As a real estate SEO specialist, I am constantly taking on clients who want keyword phrases that are incredibly competitive or downright impossible to get; at least in the short term. For example, if you live in Denver, and you’d like to have “Denver Real Estate” as your main keyword phrase that you get to Google’s first page. Well join the club and get in line as there are 10.9 MILLLION others that also are vying for that very same phrase. So how do you make real estate SEO work for you?

While most people don’t know it, Google has come out with an entirely new algorithm called Google Caffeine. To break it down simply, Google has gotten much more sophisticated at understanding what sites are about and which ones would answer the searcher’s question best.

There are 3 main areas that Google Caffeine looks at: 1) Domain Name, 2) Website Title and 3) Website Content. Google asks itself while indexing these three areas, is it congruent? In other words, does the keyword phrase in the Domain Name, match the Website Title, and does that match the Website Content? Most agent sites don’t match up. With a Domain Name of MarySmith.com, a Website Title of Denver Luxury Homes and content that doesn’t mention either of these, you have no congruence.

Many agents are just now realizing the power of video. More importantly, they are realizing the power and flexibility of YouTube video. Why YouTube? Let’s take a look at some statistics:

YouTube Viewership Facts

• YouTube accounts for more than 99% of all videos viewed at Google Sites. This means that if you’re thinking of using another video tool, your audience is going to be very small indeed.
• Google Video accounts for less than 1%. In other words, the second most popular video tool has only 1% market share for Google sites.

Get ready for a new real estate SEO change. According to Google’s Matt Cutts, Google Caffeine has a new algorithm change from the search engine giant that is here to stay. The change officially took effect June 8th of this year and sent some websites into a spiral and others to the top. Google’s aim with Caffeine is to serve up better, more reliable search results to its users. Of course as always, Google is looking to use its technology to reward legitimate, substantive resources while, at the same time, deflate rankings of sites that are attempting to manipulate the system.
Caffeine is not cause for alarm, but it is cause for you to evaluate and adjust your website where necessary. Google Caffeine is placing more emphasis than ever on the content of your site.

Realtors are being hosed by their own (supposed) mortgage association affectionately called Fannie Mae. To prove that this quasi Governmental-Private business entity has now gone black to the core, witness their new “green” patents for (yes this is the real name for both) “System and Method for Residential Emissions Trading.”

I wish I had a nickle for everyone that has asked me what the heck are RSS Feeds and why are they important in the social media world of real estate SEO.

Well let’s start out with a quick definition of what RSS is. This is an acronym for Really Simple Syndication. Think of it as a subscription, just like your newspaper or magazine subscriptions. Almost anything electronic on the Internet such as email, websites, blog sites, Facebook sites, Twitter sites, etc can be subscribed to. Consider not only subscribing not only to the New York Times, but more narrowly, subscribe just to the Gardening and Real Estate sections of the New York Times. Get the idea?

Many people wonder why it is that some people seem to always be so high in the SERPs (Search Engine Ranking Positions). They may have just as many back links, the same Page Rank, the same quality content and maybe even similar keyword phrases. All things being equal (which of course they never are), sometimes it comes down to the domain name that the person chooses. If you are selling real estate in Denver, having a domain name like DenverRealEstate.com, MyDenverRealEstate.com, OnlineDenverRealEstate.com, etc. will many times flag the search engines that your website is really all about “Denver real estate”, which is the search term that was typed in.

I am constantly reading various SEO magazines, feeds and blog sites and I came across a post that I just had to relay by Nick Stamoulis. I think that it relays my thoughts as well.

Being an internet marketer for many years now I have heard some really out of whack misconceptions when it comes to SEO and how it helps grow a business online.

Here are some of the most important misconceptions of SEO that I think should be called out: