Local Blogs locking up Google Real Estate
Here's one more reason blogging works for Realtors that isn't yet obvious. You're now hearing from Ardell and others about how blogs power lead generation. For a local real estate agent blogger, your search engine optimization (SEO) objective is to get onto the first page of google for queries about your home town related to real estate.
I have realized in my every day conversations with Realtors that the concept of the Long Tail is quite abstract, particularly since most have not heard about, let alone read about its utility. Mary at RSSPieces has a perfect article explaining the Long Tail and how useful its application is to real estate. However, this explanation just won't float in an "elevator" conversation... in fact, the article may just be way too technical for most agents to read, so I resort to this simple reasoning (play acted to a hypothetical San Ramon agent):
"As a Realtor who wants to be found by google, you won't have much luck getting traffic from consumers querying 'san ramon real estate'... Why?, 'san ramon real estate', and its cousins like 'san ramon homes for sale' are highly targeted keywords for any San Ramon agent with a website. And agents as well as lead gen companies like HomeGain have spent lots of money on SEO to get them ranked high on these targeted keywords. This is an example of a "short tail" keyword - by definition, it's a specific keyword with usefulness that is immediately obvious."
"Your objective is to get top google ranking on keywords that aren't as high profile as 'san ramon real estate', but are still related or relevant to 'san ramon real estate'. These variant queries, like 'san ramon real estate seminar' or 'san ramon real estate market', 'san ramon real estate economy' are long tail search terms because they are more infrequently queried, but are still the type of search keywords your potential lead might use."
"And if you google on these variant queries, you'll notice TheHarperTeam blog of San Ramon will rank high, in fact #5, #3 and #1, respectively. They'll also rank high on search keywords not related to real estate, such as 'san ramon wifi cafe'". There are plenty more long tail keywords than short tail keywords and if you begin to dominate in long tail searches, in time, it will eventually help boost your recognition by google with the valuable short tail searches."
The Harper Team blog has only been up and running for about four months now, and it's poised to lock up a lot of the long tail searches in San Ramon (and its neighboring communities) based on its blog's "google juice".
Here's a key benefit of blogging that has been left unsaid: if you're a local agent blogger, now's the time to lock up real estate - it's the real estate of the first page, the top ten returns - of google searches. Once you've locked up your communities, other bloggers who join the game later will be starting up with less google juice than yours... it's harder for them to leapfrog into google's first page ahead of you.
My buddy Dean has a nice metaphor for blogging based on the Old World of real estate marketing - it's like calling Yellow Pages in 2008 to buy a Yellow Page ad... the operator will say, "sorry, we're completely booked for 2008, in fact we just can't take your listing at all because our top ten advertisers have bought all the ads into infinity."
Technorati Tags: long tail, real estate marketing, real estate blogs, blogging, blogs, google, seo, short tail, long tail search
Great post about the long tail. All the pennies, nickels and dimes in the fountain add up to real money!
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Great summary!
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Absolutely right on the mark. The blog portion of my real estate site has it's own url and has garnered better position on the high-traffic keywords than the sight itself. Blog url and site url went from PR3 to PR5 in three months once the blog started posting.
Unlike other SEO tricks and strategies, long tails and blogs should be around a while. It is a win-win-win. We want the visitor, Google wants a relevant click and the visitor wants relevant area information.
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The long tail drives around 65-75% of the search traffic to my sites. Though, having a niche blog, type in any condo in Seattle and I'm usually in the top-three results.
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BLOG = Better Listing On Google
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This is good news for bloggers -- there will be more and more companies willing to pay you for blogging. It's pretty cheap, considering how much money they sink in traditional forms of marketing!
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Pat - Thanks for the mention - I think. Another 3 months and I might have the "real estate" you mention sewn up. Now you've let the cat out of the bag, someone might give me a run for my money.
Once or twice a week I look at my "hittail" results just for entertainment. It's wild what blogging does for a website's traffic.
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This is just the kind info I've been looking for. Being the only real estate blog in my area, I should see the rewards in a few months. Oh, happy days!
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Thanks for your comments... the feedback I'm getting from discussing this "Google real estate" concept and how there are only 10 spots up for grabs is one of alarm. I presented the concept to a group of agents this morning and they are shocked by the fact that 1) they didn't realize blogging was so powerful to the search engines... and 2) they could be locked out of the search engine results of their local neighborhoods within a short time by their competitor agents.
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Nice article, Pat. Emailed the link to several new bloggers.
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RE: "There are plenty more long tail keywords than short tail keywords and if you begin to dominate in long tail searches, in time, it will eventually help boost your recognition by google with the valuable short tail searches."
I have really noticed a positive difference in our main RE/MAX site- www.HomesByJV.com with local search terms. I think the relationship it has with our blog is gradually bringing up its own "Google Juice".
Very cool!
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The anecdotal evidence is piling up... broker owners and managers - are you listening?
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shhhhhhhhhhhhh...don't tell anyone about this! lol
Funny thing is...even after discussing this with agents and brokers and giving them the data and countless posts such as yours on the topic, they STILL don't get it.
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There are so many things the real estate industry does not "get" which is why the RE business models are in the shape they are in...
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Google's dedication to the democratization of everything and the empowerment of one is obvious here and blogs are the central force replacing institutional and corporate control of almost everything.
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It's fascinating to watch what is happening with regard to self-published content, (blogs, podcasts, wikis). The early adopters will certainly enjoy a lion's share for a while. One thing I think we in the RE.Net should start talking about is the issue of Net Neutrality. I'm normally pretty conservative in my take on all things Free Enterprise, however in this instance I think the very fabric of what we are enjoying now runs the risk of unraveling at the hands of the major telcos and portals in this country. Do a few searches on the issue of Net Neutrality to get a better understanding of it.
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Good topic Mike... the internet evolves so quickly, we as its participants of RE.net can easily get blindsided by developments from the peripheries of the "internet industry". I will check further, this is also a transparency issue.
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Long tail search terms are far more entertaining than "_____Real Estate." At one time I was Google #2 on page one for "ways to shave"--beaten out only by "Learning the Best Ways to Shave...Pubic Hair." That was a hoot.
It is also helpful to show up #3 for "most expensive mansion."
My advice? Just relax, write and do it often.
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What kills me is all the agents I speak with who say they love the idea but don't have time and many of these are the same agents who have one listing and no buyers they are working with. What ARE some of these agents doing with their time?
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This is a great example of proper SEO for real estate key words. Your explanation for the long tail is excellent. I have only been blogging for around 4 months but immediately took interest in how to get on to the 1st page of google for most real estate related key words in my market. The long tail is certainly the way to make some immediate headway.
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Pat,
Thanks for a great article. What I find interesting is that I am on Pg1 of google for some "real estate" terms - however that only drives about 10% of the traffic so that's why I love blogging - the other 90% that naturally occurs. It's funny to look at other page 1 real estate results that are websites that get single digit hits per day and our 6 month old site gets @300+ new visitors a day - long live the long tail!!
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Short tail for vanity, long tail for sanity
The real beauty with the long tail searchers is that they tend to be buyers rather that lookers.
As they browse the web for individual properties or property services, they tend to narrow down or qualify the searches made. We would rather be contacted by some one who has found us on a search for '2 bed apartments for sale in West Hampstead' than something like 'London apartments for sale'.
We have more chance of getting a deal from from the more qualified search.
The more general search needs to be qualified by a human at far more expence.
Short tail searches are good for increasing your listings and gaining instructions in front of customers.
If you are top of the main searches, they know that people will be able to at least see thier property.
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Thanks for a great article. What I find interesting is that I am on Pg1 of google for a few long tail oriented "real estate" terms. I recently realized not to be worried with alexa and the like but rather to drive the buyers with stories.
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I am literally one of the only regularly updated blogs in my area. I do hope soon i will be at the top, especially after the upcoming PR update. I have not been around for one, so we shall see!
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Blogging is a great marketing promotion tool that helps you reach and communicate your audience and also helps promote your business/site to google.
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Local search is getting to be very important, SE are giving a "special treatment" mostly Google. Blogs are a great tool to promote local real estate.
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Thanks for the article. Good point Cyndee Haydon!
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