Real Estate SEO

Join us for our monthly LogicClassroom tomorrow night!

Our topic this month is “Maximizing Lead Conversion.” We’ll be looking at sites that efficiently convert users into leads. We’ll also discuss how leads are best incubated and we’ll delve into a concept we’ve been preaching here at Boston Logic for years -  consistency o the user experience.

You can attend in person at our offices or you can sign in to the webinar. RSVP to ksierant@bostonlogic.com

Yes, it’s a process.

If you want to SEO your real estate website, then you need to follow a process.

Here’s how our process works:

Stage 1
In the first stage of a real estate seo campaign, we don’t touch a website. We start with strategy. We pick keywords that the site ought to rank for in order to be successful. We take a look at competitors and their websites. We create a social media strategy and a linking strategy. We benchmark lead generation, traffic, and ranking for bell-weather terms. We also create a project management plan which includes a plan for the first 3 months of the campaign.

With all of this prep work done and approved by the client, we start the implementation.

Stage 2
This is the ongoing part of the campaign. We implement the tasks in the project management plan and report on their effects. Each month, we provide a report to our client on how the seo campaign is performing. We also show them what we’ve done and what we’re planning on doing next. If the client has input or wishes us to change priorities, we can alter our plan.

SEO elements

Now, this plan isn’t the same for every site. For some sites, we start by implementing a blog and then we start populating the blog with content. Other sites might have lots of content on them, but the technology isn’t allowing search engine bots to find and spider the content. So, we might first make these upgrades.

Often sites have pages of content that have value, but the content hasn’t been optimized. They could be missing title tags and description tags. The content might need to be more keyword rich or the site might need better internal linking structures. Augmenting, modifying, and optimizing content is usually a per of the plan.

Also, we implement off-site SEO including a linking strategy and a social media strategy. Monthly reports include inbound link counts and social media measures as well.

This stage can go on for as long as the client wishes to increase their traffic. After a year or more, or once we’ve reached top ranking for our bell-weather terms, we start focusing on new terms.

Why the SEO process is important
Following this adaptive, iterative process we consistently see results over time. The fact is that you can’t just make a plan, implement it and then walk away. If someone tries to sell you seo and then have a set procedure, even before they’ve looked at your website, then it’s unlikely you’ll see results at all. Good SEO must start with strategic planning and then include an evolutionary process. Planning, then implementation followed by reporting, analysis, and a revised plan, followed by more implementation. This is the only sure path to success in Real Estate SEO.

Outdoor can work. Here’s a great example:

When you want to reach a mass audience with a geographically targeted message, Consider outdoor media.

Now, you may be puzzled why we’re writing about outdoor on an SEO and online marketing blog? Well, first, here are some reasons we love outdoor:

Have a look at the billboard in the photo above. That’s quite a message. It’s in a place where this woman knew her husband would see it. Well, so did another 250,000 people. Let’s call the woman the advertiser and the man her market. Well, she had a very targeted market and she get her message right to them. Imaging your perfect customer. Is there somewhere they go all the time (other than Google). Can you catch them when they’re looking for what you’re selling?

Next, outdoor is highly geographically targeted. Now, with Google adwords, you can pick, in a pretty precise way, the areas where your ads will show up. If you’re doing SEO, and you want to get local, you’re going to need to pick localized terms. The nice thing about this strategy is that the more specific you get, the better your customer will be. Also, these hyper specific terms are easier to rank for and cheaper (if you’re using PPC). They just get fewer searches then some of those marquis terms.

So, here’s why I don’t like Outdoor:

It’s hard to change your message. If you spend $10,000 putting up a billboard, you’re stuck with it. The cost to put up a different billboard is quite prohibitive and it’s going to throw your ROI calculations into the red. By contrast, PPC campaigns can have different language running in about 5 minutes.

Just the other day, i saw a billboard that said BUY MORE CARPET is huge letters. Then, there was some language, in much smaller font, telling you who put up the ad. The problem is, I can’t for the life of me remember whose ad it is. Also, they don’t want you to just buy more carpet. They want you to buy more from them. So, if the ad had said:

BUY MORE CARPET
(from us)

This would have been more effective.

I guess the folks who put up this ad were going for laughs, but all they had to do was work their name into the joke and then they’d get a lot more bang for their buck. Dunking Doughnuts has a good slogan “America Runs On Dunkin.” If they’d made the slogan, “America Runs On Doughnuts” it wouldn’t have been nearly as effective.

I just feel really bad for that carpet company. By the time they figure out that their message isn’t helping their brand, it’ll probably be too expensive to change. Luckily, the woman who bought the billboard in the photo above doesn’t need to change her ad, even if the message never reaches her audience. I don’t think she really cares.

The other day, a fellow submitted the following to one of our websites:

My name is Phillip R***** and I am representing interested parties looking to unload some top-level real estate .com domains. Here are some examples of these domains available:

austintexasrealestateagent.com
desmoineshomerealestate.com
desmoinesrealestateagent.com
desmoinesrealestateagents.com
idahohomerealestate.com
newyorkcityrealestateagent.com
newyorkcityrealestateagents.com
newyorkhomerealestate.com
arkansasHomerealestate.com
batonrougelarealestateagent.com
berkeleyrealestateagent.com
bethesdarealestateagent.com
brooklynrealestateagents.com
coconutgroverealestateagent.com
costamesarealestateagents.com

These domains, because of their keyword rich nature, will surely send an optimized website to the top of Google, Yahoo, and Bing, which can save you a tremendous amount of time and money in the optimization process.

Should you or a client be interested in purchasing or leasing any of these domains – or would like to inquire about additional domains we have available to us, please contact me at 206.xxx.xxxx via email at his.name@gmail.com.

Wow, that’s just completely wrong! The fact is that your web address does not affect your Google ranking at all. Google Doesn’t really care if your URL is bostonlogic.com or Google.com or anything else. Google cares about the content on your site, how new it is, and how many other people think it’s great.

Now, a good URL can be helpful. If you were doing a search, would you click on a website with an unfamiliar name, or would you click on a website that has your search term in it? ex. if you were looking for Newport real estate, would you click on newportrealestate.com or realestateagentsRus.com?

So, there is some value in a good URL, but don’t get carried away. Having the right URL doesn’t vault you to the top of the search engine results pages.

One last note: A lot of folks think it’s just SO HARD to find a web address that’s not taken. They search sites like GKG.net for an available domain name in vain. Well, we help clients do this all the time. Most of the time, clients are just so frustrated that the names they come up with are taken. Well, in most markets, the marquis names are taken. You’re just going to have to get a little creative.