Real Estate and SEO…

Real Estate SEO is like Lightning

There are a numerous dynamics that make SEO for Real Estate a lot like “Lightning” for many SEO companies. To begin with agents often find themselves – even within their own company –competing against each another for strikes.  Although they all work under the umbrella of a local brokerage, or even national real estate firm. Agents must begin to differentiate themselves from other real estate agents and companies. Usually agents will use locations, unique areas, in some cases even developments, to set their services apart for home buyers.

The brokerages have to manage and promote the brokerage and brand. All while helping their agents to stand out of the pack, and to be successful within their niche. But the company also needs to create and maintain consistent marketing of their look and feel. Frequently this seems contradictive to both real estate agents, and other brokerages.

SEO for real estate is compounded by MLS or IDX feeds that have not designed their links with search engine optimization, linking or keyword benefits in mind. The volume of content in Multiple Listing Service’s makes the task of real estate SEO far more problematic that it should be.

Real estate SEO becomes very tough due to the culture and business rules that currently exist in the industry. In addition the sites are often bulky and complex, with agents, and brokerages vying to appeal to the largest volume and variety of clientele. This is specifically the case with large multi-area, multiple office real estate agencies. They want to have content on multiple geographic areas and locations, then desire to perform well in searches. Google and other search engines also want websites to appeal to large variety of demographics.

A real estate company always needs to be certain of their keywords before initiating a search engine optimization program. Even more challenging is the fact that keyword competition in real estate can be extremely competitive. Many real estate companies and agents are all competing for the same keywords in most cases “location and real estate” or “location and homes for sale” Also, be aware of scandalous search engine companies that engage real estate companies with promises high rankings for obscure keywords.

Because there are many challenges and complications in real estate web design and SEO, I recommend that real estate companies and real estate teams hire an experienced SEO consultant to design and implement a comprehensive SEO strategy. It is also good if the SEO professional has a specific strategy to work on gaining high-quality in-coming links. This is often the missing ingredient in the quest for high search position for a real estate company.

Conclusion:

Google and other search engines will always struggle, with such a competitive environment of target rich websites and real estate agents. Your only hope is to use a reputable SEO company that understands keywords, intelligent link building, web design, all “meta” tags, as well as the local environment.