Everyone wants their own website to rank and surely everyone should strive for that. But your own website can only place in up to 2 positions on the 1st page of Google. That means by focusing solely on getting your own website to rank, you can lose leads because of those other 8 spots on page 1 that you are not in! Online flyers, classified ads, blogs (AR, Localism), etc. can all help you capture more of these spots. Read How you can dominate the 1st page of Google for an example of this.
First you need to decide which search phrases you want to target. Targeting “city real estate” is most likely one of your ideal search phrases but keep in mind that this may be very competitive in your area and may take awhile and a lot of work to get ranked. Does that mean you should not target that search? No, of course you should target it, but just don’t focus solely on it. Think of some niche, more targeted search phrases you can go after. Following are some examples (replace the word “City” with your actual city):
- City property for sale
- City land for sale
- City townhouses for sale
- City condos for sale
- City Luxury Property
- City Luxury Condos
All of the above examples may return a lower quantity of searches then “city real estate”, but they will result in targeted traffic. For example, we have a client that creates real estate flyers and only wants them optimized for “luxury” type searches. He sells very high-end luxury property and only wants to target buyers who are specifically looking for luxury property. He has had great success from focusing on these niche search phrases and it has resulted in millions of dollars in sales for him. Sometimes people only focus on traffic and what can bring in the most amount of traffic. It’s not always about traffic. You should think, “targeted traffic” and focus on bringing in quality leads rather than lots of traffic.
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Excellent advice Misty. Just yesterday I made a comment on a post that mentioned they are not going to have an outside blog because all they need is to have one at AR. They asked to give them one compelling reason why the should...your post is related to the answer. You want to DOMINATE Google not just have a spot on the page. Having more than one search result reach the 1st page should be everyones goal. As I explained to him if his outside blog achieves page rank the juice can then be passed back to his AR blog, RE website or wherever else he chooses.
That's a very compelling reason Bill and you are proof that it works.
Good tips. It isn't an exact science, but there probably more science in it than people realize.
Good tips. It isn't an exact science, but there probably more science in it than people realize.
Excellent advice, thanks a lot for that valuable information, need to put it in action on my marketing
Misty - Another great post on how to gain an advantage in the search engines. You and Bill (above) make a great point about dominating Google for your area. Even if you have one spot on Google page 1, you are still competing with the onther 9 spots that are easily accessible to anyone searching that page, not to mention all of the paid ads on the top and side of the page. And that's just page one...
Using your advice, someone can greatly increase their chances of being found and chosen for that ever sought after click-through.
Hey Misty,
Thank you for this interesting perspective - sometimes we get tunnel vision and lose track of the method that will bring the best results!
You are correct Kevin, it isn't an exact science but not as complicated as many think. Thanks for stopping by and leaving feedback.
Thanks Robert - let us know your results when you put it into action. We love to hear and see real world success stories.
Candis - your statement "someone can greatly increase their chances of being found and chosen for that ever sought after click-through" sums it up perfectly.
Laurie - yes it is very easy to get tunnel vision. Places like ActiveRain where Agents openly discuss different methods they use and the success they have had from it, helps us break out of that dark tunnel.
Of course Misty I am not a real estate agent, but the concept of eggs in a basket is applicable to many industries particularly in sales. My philosophy has always been spread it out. Throw the net far and wide. That way all the business coming in disperses risk to many and not a few.
Good strategy for business.
Bo
Misty - your subscribe link and my firefox are having issues - it keeps asking me to type in the letters, which I do, and then it repeats again. Sorry I couldn't subscribe.
Thanks for the heads up Sharon. It is subscribe code/form that Feedburner provides. I will play around with it in Firefox to see if I can figure out what the issue may be.
Absolutely Bo! "Throw the net far and wide". I love that!
Misty,
You are so right ! I have been trying to break in to "Philadelphia Real Estate" searches but have noticed that that is a crowded field and the niche searches have more opportunity to get up there faster and then over time work on the "Philadelphia Real Estate" Google search. Is a great little tip that I will focus on. You have a great blog ! ~ Chris
Misty:
I agree, I have fought for the general key words, but if you study your log files you will be amazed on the search phases that hit.
SEO is not quite a science and not quite an art.
Richard
Thanks Chris for the compliment. The method discussed in the post is a great way to work your way up to the more competitive "Philadelphia Real Estate" search. Come back and report your success with niche searches when you have time.
Richard- funny you mention the log files. I am literally in our log files right now preparing information for another blog post. I am always amazed on some searches that bring in traffic. Searches that I would have never thought of. I am looking at one right now that brought in a fair amount of unique visits for "3 bedroom virginia home". There is even a lot of traffic coming in from zip code searches. Your log files can tell you so much.
Like the new series...I continuously coach on this concept. You just cannot place all your eggs in one basket, makes no sense- and the web is all about diversification.
Agree with quality vs. quantity, especially when the markets rebound.
Thanks Rebecca. When other industry professionals coach on the concept, you know there is something behind it. I am happy to see that many Agents and professionals are applying this method with great success.
I am interested to see your next post in this series. I think it makes sense to "spread the wealth" between other vehicles than just our website.
Misty, another great post. It's hard for me to gain ranking in the Charlotte NC market because of the 6000 agents here. Any suggestions?
Thanks
Rich Ferretti
www.RichFerretti.com
Charlotte NC
Hello Rich - following are some searches that you might want to think about trying. Each of them will bring in less traffic then something like Charlotte NC Real Estate but all combined could bring in a nice amount of "targeted" traffic. It is very important though that the pages on your website, blog posts, flyers, etc. you create for the following keywords, relate to those keywords. My next post will discuss how you can use long-tail, targeted pages to build link backs to your website and increase your chances for ranking with more competitive keywords.
Charlotte NC condos
Charlotte NC multi family
Charlotte NC luxury property
Charlotte NC affordable property
Charlotte NC affordable homes
Charlotte NC foreclosures
Charlotte NC bank owned
Charlotte NC 3 bedroom homes
Charlotte NC 4 bedroom homes
etc...
Misty - thanks for this post. I am a bit confused about outside blogs. I bought a domain name and have it pointed to my web site. So my 'outside blog' goes to my website where the domain name is invisible and it references 'active rain' as the source. Is a blog on your web site an outside blog if it references active rain as the source? I have a wordpress account that I am not really using. I think I tried to use my domain there and it didn't work. Do I have to have an independent host? I have read you shouldn't post anything multiple times as it becomes spam and I get that. That said, how do people post blogs to 8 sites and that gets them google juice and not considered spam? Or maybe they're just posting links if it's twitter, facebook, etc.? Thanks in advance for clarifying this.
Ditto what Sharon said. I could not complete the subscription form for email.
Good advice I'll look at our ranking. Now which city do you use?
Hi Sharon - I noticed that you don't have a domain name for your AR outside blog. You are linking it to http://sharonalters.activerain.com/ instead. In the long run you will benefit more if you setup an actual domain name for your AR outside blog.
I am personally not a fan of posting exact duplicate content to multiple blogs. Different platforms will display and layout the content differently though, so Google won't necessarily treat it as duplicate content, but instead will assign one of them the master. My personal preference is to create slightly different versions (content) on different blogs. Syndication is an entirely different story. When you syndicate your content (listings, press releases, etc.), generally the sites its syndicated to will either only pick up a small portion of it and then link back to the master or will display it in a completely different context (layout, etc.). Syndication can be very powerful when done correctly.
Apparently the feedburner subscription is not always working in Firefox. I tested it in my Firefox browser and it worked so not sure what the issue is. I will dig into it some more and try to find a fix.
Another great post, Misty! I have been making a lot of progress on Google over the last year, but I can always do better!
Quick question for you on the AR "outside" blog -- do you edit your posts for your AR blog and your AR outside blog so they are a little bit different and google will recognize them as separate entries?
This is a great one I actually read the 2nd first but bounced here to read the first in the series.