The art of getting
"googled"
Mark Courtney
If I “googled” you right now would I find you?
Your first reaction might be “Yes! Of course!” but how
much time have you spent googling yourself, in the same way a prospect might
search for your real estate services?
And can you be sure that the way you THINK your customers
search for your company
IS the same as what they ACTUALLY type into a search bar?
Is it even important? Back in the old days, a few glossy
magazine ads,
teamed with newspaper listings and leaving a stack of
business cards here and there
was the best way to grow your real estate business... I’m
afraid to say those days are long gone!
In fact more than 80% of real estate transactions begin
online.
Therefore if there’s one way of being found you need to
worry about it’s the internet,
because when someone decides it’s time to buy a house,
the likelihood is it’s the first place they’ll go.
And of course, when it comes to finding something or
someone via the internet
the natural reaction for most of us is to ask Google.
In fact “Google now processes over 40,000 search
queries every second on average,
which translates to over 3.5 billion searches per day
and
1.2 trillion searches per year worldwide.”
Everything is just a click away now and if your real estate business
Everything is just a click away now and if your real estate business
doesn’t have the same exposure and presence on the
Internet as other competing realtors
you might as well wave goodbye to your share of that 80%!
Bottom line?
Marketing your real estate business online is no longer
an option, it’s a necessity to survive!
With that said, here are some ways to boost your online
exposure
and increase your chances of being found in Google
searches:
Keep it clean
Start with a visually pleasing and functional website
ensuring everything makes sense and uses good clean code.
This includes clear titles, headings and text to enable
the searcher (and search engines)
to easily figure out what your site is about. Also think
about making sure your website
is easy to navigate taking into consideration mobile as
well as desktop users.
Build value, not
links
Search engines are also looking to establish your
trustworthiness and authority
and one way they do so is looking at what other websites
link in to your site.
It’s important at this stage to note that Google is
always changing, and therefore
you need to keep up with the ways Google does this; for
example it used to be about
getting as many links to your site as possible, whereas
now it’s far more focused on quality
as opposed to quantity. Focus on only obtaining good
quality,
relevant links from authoritative sites and don’t rush this isn’t
something that happens overnight
it’s about building and nurturing relationships and
therefore needs contribution over time.
Wording is key
When it comes to keywords, as I mentioned at the
beginning of the article
you need to work out what your market is typing into
Google.
Having the right keywords on your website is often
misconstrued
for having as many of the same word plastered across an
entire site.
The fact is, search engines, like people don’t like or
respond well to spammy text.
Therefore the best way to incorporate key words on your
website is to have one page
dedicated to what you do, with the right business focus
that aims to answer the questions
your prospects might have. It also helps to gather
insights into what search terms
your prospects are using so that you can make sure you
incorporate those words into said page.
Sitemaps are
essential
Sitemaps work as navigation tools; they list all of your
key pages
and tell search engines where they each are within the site.
Having a detailed site-map (especially if your site
carries a lot of content)
can help towards improving your website’s ranking on
search engines.
Metrics matter
Analytics give you a baseline to measure performance
and
focus your business improvement efforts.
Google webmaster tools, as well as Google Analytics, can
give you incredibly valuable insights
into where the most valuable traffic is coming from, as
well as informing you
on how people and search engines move around your site,
which is great for being able to analyse what is and what
isn’t working.
Consider DIY SEO
Doing your own SEO is a great idea because the likelihood
is that nobody will know
your real estate business like you do! Depending on your
level of expertise you may require
a little training or assistance, but in-house SEO is
certainly a bonus for businesses.
A Final Word
Internet marketing is here and it’s here to stay! And
there is no better time to make
a name for yourself and your business online than right
now.
Well, yesterday or last year was actually a better time.
You get my point though.
Whether you learn everything about online marketing for
Real Estate on blogs and forums
and do it yourself or you hire a professional to manage
things for you, it doesn’t matter.
All that matters is that people out there looking to buy
or sell their home can find you
on the Internet. And preferably on the first page of
Google.
You
can TCR music, poetry
or self development material for internal
knowing.
I
can Turbo
Charge Read a
novel 6-7 times faster and remember what I’ve read.
I
can TCR an
instructional/academic book around 20 times faster and remember
what I’ve read.
Perhaps
you’d like to check out my sister blogs:
All
aspects of regular, each-word down-each-line reading and education.
Turbo
Charged Reading uses these skills significantly faster
www.innermindworking.blogspot.com many
ways for you to work with the stresses of life
www.happyartaccidents.blogspot.com just for fun.
To quote the
Dr Seuss himself, “The more that you read, the more things you will know.
The more
that you learn; the more places you'll go.”
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