Do you sometimes feel that Google runs your life?

If you’re a real estate agent – or any other kind of service provider – you need a website. Then you need visitors to that website.

Some accomplish that entirely by driving visitors from other places such as Facebook, Twitter, print marketing materials – including prospecting letters and business cards.

Others use ads on Google, Facebook, etc.

Meanwhile, most of us would like to have all the visitors possible from organic search.

That means we have to please The Google gods in order to get high search placement. We have no choice but to pay attention to Search Engine Optimization.

Google wants content.

We know that, we’ve been hearing that for a long time. But the debate rages over how long each page must be in order to capture Google’s notice. Some say every page must be 2,000 or 3,000 words. Others say they get good placement with 300 words.

Of course that content must include keywords. Those are how Google knows what our pages are about.

Next, Google wants fresh content.

That means two things:

• We need to keep adding content.
• We need to keep the content we already have “fresh.” In other words, we need to make periodic updates.

Buyer and seller pages:

Some things don’t change. For instance, it will always be wise for sellers to have their homes clean, de-cluttered, well-maintained, and ready to be shown on short notice. It will always be wise for buyers to stay within their financial comfort zones and to choose a location before they choose a house.

When the market changes, however, other advice might change. People need to behave differently when they are in a buyer’s market instead of a seller’s market.

Meanwhile, even if everything is staying the same, you can still keep adding content.

You could pull some statistics from NAR’s surveys and let your buyers or sellers see how their opinions compare to the answers given in those surveys. You know the ones: “X% of home buyers say the most important consideration is: (whatever it is).” How about listing the “most wanted” feature in new homes this year – or introducing the paint color of the year and telling how people are using it.

Remember that pleasing Google will get the visitors to your site – and the quality of your content will bring them back. Write well!

What else needs to be kept current?

Start with your bio. If it says you’ve been in business for 10 years and you wrote it 3 years ago, that’s not good! In addition, in that time you may have won an award, gained a new designation, added a new niche or territory, taken up skydiving, or even adopted a new canine or kitty.

And don’t forget: If you’ve changed brokerages, your bio needs to be updated immediately. So do any other pages on your website that mention the brokerage.

Next – Your community pages. Things do change in communities. You may have a new subdivision, a new shopping center, or a new industry. Perhaps a major employer has added hundreds of job opportunities to your market.

Of course the market stats are in constant flux, so those pages should be updated at least quarterly.

Meanwhile, you can add fresh “community content” through your blog. Write about favorite restaurants, celebrations and other community events, or your favorite non-profits and their activities.

You could even write about how the weather is affecting the real estate market. Right now it’s blistering hot in some parts of the country while others are being flooded. How is that affecting home sales?

QUOTES OF THE WEEK

“In the information age, man and spider both live in a web.”
Amit Kalantri, Wealth of Words

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“Google’s colourful, playful logo is imprinted on human retinas just under six billion times each day, 2.1 trillion times a year – an opportunity for respondent conditioning enjoyed by no other company in history.”  Julian Assange

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“Google only loves you when everyone else loves you first.”  Wendy Piersall

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 Your niche adds opportunity for more quality content.

Whatever your niche, you have specialized information and advice to share with your clients. Parcel that information and advice out in blog posts.

Be sure to use keyword-rich headlines, then blend in more keywords that lead people to your niche in your city. The “big guys” like Zillow and Realtor.com won’t even be competition for you, because they don’t offer that information.

SEO button courtesy of Stuart Miles @ freedigitalphotos.net
Laptop Image courtesy of punsayaporn at FreeDigitalPhotos.net