The Blogs below focus on the idea that without a fundamental understanding of how Search Engines work and crawl the internet it is very difficult for Real Estate Professionals to become Internet Marketers.
What if you started thinking of the Internet as our national Airline system; regardless of what Airline you use you will have to have an Airport to take off from as well as land on; So in effect the national and international System of Airlines, Planes, Pilots, etc… an be reduced to Airports or Hubs that airplanes must rely on. Those Nodes or Hubs are connected to other Hubs through flights or “Links” – on the Internet they are called “Hyperlinks.” Many of these Hubs are regional and receive 1 or 2 landings and take-offs a day, others like Atlanta Georgia will get thousands of such as well as many more competitors vying for the highest visibility.
How to Understand Internet Crawling: Airports are Web Pages - Flights are Hyperlinks
The Internet is an amalgamation of hubs (Web Pages, etc…) connected by Links (Hyperlinks) to guide you from this location to the next – You must understand that crawling and Indexing is driven by Hyperlinks.
The way Search Engines guide their crawlers to map out the whole Internet is by hopping on flights and marking each Hub (Hyperlink) and following the planes that leave that location to other destinations (other Web pages that have Links…)
As you proceed to build your Internet Visibility think of yourself as a Stop, a small Airport in your local town – you need to find planes that fly to your Airport or no one will ever hear of you – Links or Hyperlinks are the glue on the internet; from other Stops to your stop – the More connections from Big Airports and Big Airlines to your Location the more visitors.
Resolve yourself to share your Story and find ways to link it on other hubs – the bigger the hub the more notice you will get; that is the essence of SEO.
The Chart below reveals that those who pursue a dual track strategy between Paid Search and Organic Visibility get rewarded almost twice as much as those who pursue only Pay Per Clicks. The Chart below is from a research report done in 2007 by iCrossing and reveals a strong Synergy between Natural and Paid placement. (Many experts in fact believe that these numbers have increased radically.)
A company that managed to have both Paid placement on Page 1 as well as a page 1 position organically generated twice as much clicks as those with just PPC Advertising; in fact they increased their visibility, as in Orders, Page Views, Visitors, and Time on Site by nearly 50%. Recent numbers I have collected from Real Estate Brokers with this Strategy reveals a 4 to 1 ratio – namely two clients with similar Real Estate markets and Advertising Budgets, one pursuing only a Paid Strategy generates on average 150 Leads a month; the other using a dual track Paid and Natural generates 800+ Leads.
Think of this way… the ability to Search by using Google and Bing is helping the Consumer move from being an Amateur to being "Professional Consumer" – the ease to research products and services in the comfort of one's anonymity is very empowering. This is called SEO and a new breed of Real Estate Marketers are embracing in force.
When Real Estate Professionals fail to pursue their own Internet Marketing Placement they open the door to Internet Scrappers who armed with a license start selling you Internet Leads;
How do they do it you ask…?
Simple, they use your listings, your IDX feed, your MLS, to aggregate giant websites with the proper SEO Rules, move up organically and turn back and sell you leads that are looking at your listings.
Oh yeah – they then come up with names such as the Real Estate Referral Network or some convoluted big name to impress you.
It is your job to claim the internet and you must not fear this process… Your Marketing on the Internet is your Job; this not about the commission you earn – this is about your local business reputation – so:
- Focus on your Neighborhoods,
- Focus on your Listings,
- Focus on your Sellers,
- Learn the fundamentals of Internet Marketing,
- Roll up Your Sleeves and start Marketing (Blogging.)
SEO is used to confuse you – you can no longer afford to be in the dark.
I write articles on SEO and Internet Marketing for the Real Estate Industry as my way of paying forward the good fortune of intellect and partners I have in my life; those articles and solutions are picked up from time to time and published and various platforms by readers who find them helpful or informative…
But here and there I always confront a savvy SEO Marketer who tells me that the information in not profound enough – and they are right… if you understand Internet Marketing and SEO than an article of me showing how to make a hyperlink is silly; unfortunately if you don’t understand how hyperlinks are made (Psst: Ctrl-K) SEO is gibberish to you…
PS: SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization” – or Organic Placement on Search Engines.
Today an advanced Internet user chose to take me to task about an article I wrote about the various form of Searches performed by users – his beef was “tell me something I don’t know…” Right!!! If you already know this stuff than my Article was not for you in the first place… most Real Estate Agents are stuck at Square “1? because the whole SEO Industry is driven by Geeks for the benefit of Geeks… So sorry some agents want to understand the behavior of Searchers and Real Estate.
So What should you do to conquer your place on the Internet?
- Take charge of your story and try to relate humanly with your Customers.
- Stop Selling Real Estate Everywhere and focus in your “Neck of the wood.” Remember Real Estate in Las Vegas is very different than Real Estate in Charleston South Carolina – Hummm…
- Write Blogs that educate your customers on your area and be happy with being the expert in your localized Neighborhoods…
These simple ideas go a lot further towards your success on the Internet than the illusion of understanding SEO – Ask yourself “What do my Sellers and Buyers want in my area?” – you will always succeed if you struggle to answer this basic question.
A student of mine who attended one of my trainings a month ago called and said: “I am over 65 years old, I know I need to blog, and I know I need to use links – but I don’t think I can do it!”
I knew what she really wanted to ask – “Am I doomed to fail if I don’t embrace the internet?”
It is an anxiety filled experience to feel like you have been left behind; but what she did not realize is that she was talking in the abstract about all this technical stuff but what was important was richer than the terms “Blog,” “Links,”. “HTML,” etc…
Her fear of being doomed was in fact misplaced… I asked her to think of these so-called “new” platforms as familiar ideas masquerading under new nomenclature.
- A Blog is simply a story that describes a product, experience, or solution you wish to share with everyone.
- A Link or Hyperlink helps you guide your story from one location to the next.
Simple right…
YES!!! it is that Simple…
We spent 20 minutes on the phone, she wrote her first blog, and she told me that she made it more complex in her mind than it really was.
Are you making Internet Marketing and SEO more complex to prevent yourself from doing what you know you ought to be doing?
Embrace your place on the Internet and tame to your will…
Understanding your Internet Marketing must include understand the way your customers search on the internet… Expect days of incubation; in fact the example below shows how buying shoes on the internet is driven by persistent switching between websites and even between brands…
- Searching Decision Activity – “Which Shoes to Buy?”
Shoes, Homes, iPods, Cars, – they may all seem different to the professional Salesperson – but consumers are clamoring for the process to be the same… easy, thoughtful, informational, and void of gimmickry.
In the above Search Sequence the user spent nearly an hour switching between websites to find the perfect shoes – it 1s always about the shoes and the experience on the site; the user has a desire and she needs to quench it…
How is the Search Experience in your website? have you pretended to be a consumer and searched on your website – how was the experience? have you overly focused on SEO and forgotten the fundamentals? How about your Sellers – do they like what you do for them online? Do you still think that Shoes and Homes are different for the would be Internet Visitor – you will soon be very surprised; Yes the incubation experience is longer in Real Estate but a good Zappos Website always wins at the end.
There are 3 categories of Search Queries and all are driven by your would be customers’ Intentions – in this blog I introduce a new term that engenders a better grasping point as to the work of the Real Estate Marketer and her Internet Strategy.
The three types of Searches are:
- Navigational Searches – example: “The Broker in Charge of ABC Realty in Brevard North Carolina.” These are very straightforward searches about specific pieces of information. 10% of all the queries on the internet are Navigational. For the Real Estate Professional it is the equivalent of having a very informed Business Card on the Internet. Nice at best…
- Transactional Searches – example: “Greek Restaurant in Wilmington NC” is a transactional type of Search. It is focused and will probably lead to a transaction of some sort; some think that this type of search resembles Navigational Queries but here the transaction is imminent within a focused intention. About 10% of all Internet searches are Transactional. The Real Estate Professional is not really involved in this category – the business of Real Estate is driven by incubation – those who desire to become “Transactional” fail again to understand the concept of “Customer Intent.”
- Informational Searches – example: “Foreclosures in Columbia SC” is a type of Query that fits within this Category. 80% of all Searches fit this Category. Real Estate on the Internet is purely Informational – Yes if implemented properly it will lead to Leads and Customers; but those names are for those who wish to build relationship. Your Real Estate Website must be driven by localized information so you can be rewarded with a Registration. The failure of many Brokers and Agents is to think of Real Estate as Transactional – I wish to coin the term Transcubational.
Yes, Yes, the term “Transcubational” does not exists – I made it up to mean the intersection of a long Incubation that Leads to a Transaction. A lead will be become a transaction if it is allowed to incubate over weeks and months…
Details on Academic Paper with the above statistics: “Determining the informational, navigational, and transactional intent of Web queries“
Good Marketers transcend the geek-speak of SEO by having simple meaningful ideas - they replace concepts such as Keywords and Search Phrases with "Customer Intent."
It may sound simple on the surface but an idea like "Customer Intent" allows the Real Estate Internet Marketer to focus on becoming a Specialist - as in: if your customers are looking for condos in Lexington South Carolina they will probably type something like "Condos for Sale in Lexington SC," or "Lexington SC Condos for Sale," etc...
So set aside the geek-speak of SEO and focus on the needs and desires of your audience; Search Engines are just tools to help with the intent of Searchers - your job is to be there offering solutions for their intention.
One simple way to understand the Internet Conversation between your website and Internet Marketing Plan and the response and initiations of your Customers is to remember that it is driven by “Search.”
Customer Service becomes “Search Solutions;” or as some have come to call it SEO – Search Engine Optimization.
"Drive your Real Estate Excellence – Don’t let SEO be the source of your confusion!" - Key Yessaad
Real Estate Internet Marketing, Real Estate SEO, Google Marketing Trainings, Real Estate Websites, Real Estate Trainings
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