A real estate agent recently mentioned to me that even though he's still in the top of Google for common terms about his local real estate market, his traffic is down significantly. What would explain this? How could this be possible? All indications are that his market (a southwest US city) is growing rapidly and the number of new residents moving there is climbing faster than other cities.
One of the explanations that I’ve come to understand about search dynamics is that the general population of search engine users has changed significantly over the last 8 years – essentially consumers are now better conditioned and know how to use search engines and with greater efficiency. Many of us now know that to get better results in a search query we must use more focused terms and typically more terms.
Think about how you use Google versus someone who is less adept. Experienced search users have matured to be more efficient with search. Those of us that are search power users (i.e., anyone that has used Google for say, more than five years) don’t realize how efficient you really are. Furthermore, as advanced Internet users we [mistakenly] assume that less experienced Internet users continue to do things the way all newcomers to Internet search do things. This is simply not the case – almost all search users are traversing much the same learning curve that us more experienced users have followed – they are learning (with every query) that they can manipulate the results to get exactly what they want. The shift is ever so subtle – it’s almost impossible to detect, but it is there none-the-less.
Armed with the ability to find exactly what they want, is it possible that your target audience of searchers are simply skipping over your high ranking terms that aren't so specific and getting right to the information they want?
28 Comments on Rankings Up, Traffic Down? Search Users are Getting Smarter
OCT
20
2006
When I check my analytic reports every morning on my RealEstateBlogSite, I am always amazed what words people use to search. Very specific and in many cases, very long! It certainly changes my perspective of what to blog about. Thanks for the explanation.
Ranking have been up for us and traffic had been down for about 2 months.
Now the traffic and leads are back up without a change in rankings. Market conditions have WAY more to do with this than the knowledge of how to use the search tools. There wouldn't be a instant change if it was the knowledge level of searchers, it would be a slow change/evolution. Market changes are swift and can effect your traffic almost overnight.
Can it also be attributed to the fact that Real Estate sales are down, which would indicate that traffic would be somewhat down as well? I moniter 5 different sites that we own and beoieve me, we use all different forms of tracking and I see that unique visits are still off from last year and the year before.
Yes the Real Estate market is taking a hit, this morning I stopped my google adwords. the ROI was poor, with all the negative media on housing, the consumer confidence is at a low, this could explain the problem.
"There wouldn't be a instant change if it was the knowledge level of searchers, it would be a slow change/evolution."
Correct - abrupt changes in your stats is not reflective of the continual and subtle shift of search behavior. But there's plenty of anecdotal data to suggest that people are finding ways to leap over short tail terms that are ranking well, but perhaps showing fewer conversions as a total percentage of historical conversion rates.
The internet is just a fishing line in the sea of prospects.
Building relationships with people, providing top quality service, promise less and deliver more, and your client base will explode without so much dependence on SEO.
Word of mouth is still the most powerful advertisment on the planet!
"Can it also be attributed to the fact that Real Estate sales are down..."
Sure - that's the trouble with data - there's typically never one reason for any observed change. ;-)
This post is intended to suggest [one] reason that may cause your visitors to bypass terms that rank high. This is a subtle shift but an easily misunderstood aspect of consumer search behavior.
Ken says - "Market conditions have WAY more to do with this than the knowledge of how to use the search tools." While Ken may be right, he probably makes that assertion based on experience. "WAY" means much more likely - how likely is currently anyone's guess.
But Ken may also be observing a correlation, not a cause. To absolutely know, you must eliminate the variable associated with real estate market fluctions - then, and only then would you be able to detect how consumer search behavior is chipping away at short terms that rank high but may be less as effective as time marches on.
Tony said - "Sounds like it's time to hire a full time expert!". That's not the reaction I'm hoping for because I don't believe it's necessary. More realistically I think it's time to shape your strategy for reaching customers and there are some very simple things you can do to combat users skipping over your high ranking terms. One step is to create content that is only discoverable with more terms, not less. You heard that right - optimize a small portion of your content for unpopular terms; subjects that are more focused, and then watch your server logs to see if it attracts anyone. A good way to do this without any effort is to blog about really focused topics.
Feedback from my clients and prospects indicates the same preference for the long tail rather than the short one. They tell me that they search for specific condo buildings, amenities, neighborhoods, even financing terms.
Bill just got of a conference call with Ira about this very subject! The searches as specific as they are make the internet a great tool but someone still needs to interpret the data and that is where we as agents need to focus on our value propositions, as well as keyword phrases.
Yes, there is a big difference in ways the power user and the novice search. For example, did you know that many people simply put their search term(s) in the URL address bar?
"...many people simply put their search term(s) in the URL address bar?"
Yes - I heard that some time ago, but I wish we could find out the percentage that do this. Given that [some] browsers are now smarter about passing those errant requests off to your default search engine, it's possible that some people have never done it any other way because it simply works if your system is configured to use that ability.
I also heard that a sizeable percentage of searchers now know how to use OR, AND, and NOT and the percentage is rising steadily. The only thing that explains why people are taking time to learn this stuff is a general dissatisfaction in the results returned when using simple keyphrases.
Do you get the sense that search results are getting better or worse? My sense is the quality of results being returned is falling - perhaps it's correlated with the number of pages indexed (10 billion or so?) so there's simply more crap we don't want to find. ;-) I'd like to hear how you all feel about this.
Thank you, Bill and everyone who has replied, for a great deal of "free" information. I might have attended a 4-hour seminar and learned less than what you all have provided in a few brief minutes.
For me, I'm with Tony Marriott. Time to hire an expert!
Maybe it's content related. I work on my website frequently and believe that when I bring a full-time techy on board, my traffic will increase. In the meantime I'm learning with my visitors at the same time. Thank-you statcounter.com...
It's to bad one can never know for sure, but I know that I also rank for most long tail searches. So when my traffic drops it is across all types of terms, not just "city real estate". Actually "city real estate" doesn't (and never has) driven the majority of my traffic even with #1 positions.
Good point about SEO. That's one of the reasons that I'm doing a lot of blogging on specific neighborhoods. Folks are no longer searching for "Real Estate", they are now searching for real estate in xyz town and abc neighborhood.
We have experienced a slight downturn in traffice and we have a page rank of 5 with Google (not bad considering that MSN.com has a page rank of 7). I agree with the others - more about the market than anything.
Thanks for the comment. It's been almost two years since I wrote this post, and I just re-read all the comments. Thanks for reminding me I said this. ;-)
The data and approach is still as important as ever, and searchers continue to find better ways to put their hands on exactly what they want - thus reshaping the nature of search engine strategies ever so slightly every day.
I looked at your website - very colorful. I also took a glance at your blog. Between the two, you have managed to get Google to index 90 pages of content. To get lots of search referrals (especially from the long-tail of queries), you must have a lot of pages in the index. If your blog were really working the way it should, you should see many of your recent posts in this index. If your website were really tuned up, you'd see a web site grade of 60 or more - yours is about 26/100 at the moment - a really poor grade.
Suggestions...
Get a MyST Blogsite. Lots of problems will vanish and we'll send you a modest monthly bill. ;-)
If you can't afford the best influence platform available, get a free Wordpress blog - it will produce far better results than you're getting now.
Monitor your website with Web Site Grader - this free service will help you identify specific areas that need improvement.
I used the Pay per click and went through $500 in just 2 days and never even found where my google ad was located...next time i am calling google. I did not experience a happy result.
$500 in two days is a monthly budget of $7500. Spend a few hundred a month on a blogsite, build the content base for a year and then enjoy 2,000 new visitors a month. Cost: $500 a month. PPC equivalent value @ $1.60/click = $3,200.
PPC is not sustainable or strategic - you need to focus your energy on a long-term marketing strategy.
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Yes, there is a big difference in ways the power user and the novice search. For example, did you know that many people simply put their search term(s) in the URL address bar?
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When I check my analytic reports every morning on my RealEstateBlogSite, I am always amazed what words people use to search. Very specific and in many cases, very long! It certainly changes my perspective of what to blog about. Thanks for the explanation.