IMPLEMENT YOUR STRATEGY
An agent without a website or blog isn’t one that will come up on homebuyers’ radar now that most people search for homes online. But you can’t just create a website or blog and let it sit there – it has to be a viable part of your marketing plan. If it won’t get you leads or promote your business, you’re not using it to its full potential. Then, the next part is getting your site to come up when homebuyers search for homes on Google. But know that SEO/SEM can be a fickle beast – once you think you’ve figured it out, Google changes its algorithm, thus changing the game.
“SEO or SEM is a commitment, and before anyone starts to invest time or money into it, I would recommend they invest time or money into research and their website, because no matter how much of either you throw at SEO/SEM, it isn’t going to matter if your website stinks or isn’t relevant,” says Nobu Hata, director of digital engagement for the National Association of Realtors.
To get started, monitor where your current Google page rank is (Alexa.com will tell you this) or see where your website lands in a few searches for what you’d like to come up on page one of Google for. The chances of appearing in a standard Google search for “Chicago real estate” are slim, but “Lincoln Park real estate” or “60010 real estate” are easier to work toward. Use Google Adwords or the Google Trends sites to help you figure out what top real estate searches are. You could even ask your current and last 10 or 20 clients what a day in the life of their real estate search looked like. Write down their search terms and compare it to your research; now you have the makings of a strategy.
But a strategy is useless until you implement it and monitor your progress, and implementing your SEO strategy is a huge time investment – the basics of SEO require quality content that is not only frequently updated, but relevant to the Google searches you want to appear in.
“What works for SEO, whether you are a brokerage or an agent, is good, strong, updated content,” says Chris Haran, director of strategic planning and initiatives with Coldwell Banker. “It takes work and lots of it. There are plenty of ways to ‘game’ the system, but none of them will last long, as Google will find you and punish you.”