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Google's new freshness algorithm and the RealBird video search results

By
Services for Real Estate Pros with RealBird Inc.

Those of you who are following SEO closely might have heard about Google's new freshness algorithm and that they are now showing additional information along the search results like author photos, video thumbnails, social recommendations etc.

We were pleasantly surprised in the last few months by some of the treatments RealBird received from Google. First we noticed that most of the RealBird property websites are now enhanced with a video thumbnail in Google's SERP (search engine result page) and also that since the launch of the new RealBird platform, the number of indexed pages jumped from 300K to well over 1 million

Here are some updates:

1) We observed that the number of indexed RealBird pages on Google is climbing by a few thousands a day. On October 27 it was at 1,080,000, now, 11 days later it is at 1,170,000. That's an additional 90,000 pages in Google's main index in 11 days. Unbelivable.

2) We also noticed that Google is much faster in adding RealBird property websites in their video search results. There are now 22,700 RealBird property websites in the Google's video index. Searching for new pages in the video search - filtered for the last 24 hours - reveals 80 new items. 3,320 video entries are shown when searching for new items added in the last month ! Amazing again.

RealBird video search result

We are working on some additional improvements for search engine optimizing the RealBird system even further, but I wanted to share these new results first.

Pretty amazing !

-- Zoltan
RealBird.com 

RealBird

 

Comments(8)

Bryan Robertson
Los Altos, CA

Well this is interesting news and the core article on the performance of other websits is certainly informative.  As always, good content, published regularly, is clearly winning the positioning battle.

Nov 08, 2011 03:59 AM
Brad Yzermans
First Time Home Buyer & Down Payment Assistance Specialist in So Cal. - Temecula, CA
Temecula-Murrieta-Menifee FHA/VA Mortgage Lender

How does the number of pages indeaxd by google on yoru site impact an agents site or abilty to get their site indexed when they iframes it onto a page on their website?

Nov 08, 2011 06:14 AM
RealBird Real Estate Marketing
RealBird Inc. - Santa Cruz, CA
All-In-One Real Estate Marketing Toolkit

Hi Brian - Agree: good content, published regularily is the key. 

Brad - Just to clarify, the freshness algorithm is about ranking new (quality) content better, while getting indexed by Google fast is prerequsite for such. I mixed the two topics in one post, I was a bit too eager to share :) In the past, search engine experts claimed that iframed content is not followed by Google (again: following for indexing is different than following for ranking). I suspect - without any proof - that this is not the case anymore. Google is listening to as many signals as they can and iframe linking is in essence the same as linking into a new window. It's the author's decision to "point" to another website and that is what counts for PageRank, whether it's pointing by a regular link or via iframe. I am sure that by now they listen to signals on Twitter, the public stream of Facebook etc. to pick up content even faster. Again, this does not implies good ranking by default, only getting into Google's index, which again, is the prerequisite of ranking.

RealBird pages are optimized on a single domain name. Just like ActiveRain, RealBird carries this added benefit of fast indexing because by now, Google gave domain authority to ActiveRain's and RealBird's domain names due to the large amount of fresh content. There are a lot of optimization applied both on AR and on our own site and I can only talk for ours, but in general, this seems to be the case.

The best practice of getting a new content noticed by Google fast is:

  1. Share it on social networks (Facebook - public shares, Twitter, LinkedIn etc.). 
  2. In case of RealBird listings, use the embed html code (besides the iframe widget) to create an AR post for the listing. Or on any other blog or website platform. It looks nice and it links back to the RealBird property website, creating an easy way for Google to notice it fast
  3. AR's sidebar Links section is a very easy and quick way to have a pointer to new content. Takes a few second to set a new link up and it will link back from all of your existing posts
We do a lot of activities in the background as well that helps RealBird members' content being noticed very fast 
 
I hope this helps
 
Thanks
Nov 08, 2011 07:51 AM
Eileen Hsu
Douglas Elliman Real Estate - Manhattan, NY
LICENSED REAL ESTATE SALESPERSON

Zoltan, these are excellent information. We do use RealBird embedded iframe in AR blogs to give our listing extra exposure. I will stay tuned to hear about more updates.

Nov 08, 2011 08:51 AM
Christine Bohn
RE/MAX Professionals - Gainesville, FL
The Bohn Team, Gainesville FL

Hi Zoltan: This is great info.  I love my RealBird account and use all the features.  You've even gotten me addicted to Aminoto too.  I am a happy customer!

Nov 08, 2011 11:56 AM
RealBird Real Estate Marketing
RealBird Inc. - Santa Cruz, CA
All-In-One Real Estate Marketing Toolkit

Eileen - Thanks

Christine - Animoto is great, isn't it

Nov 10, 2011 06:55 AM
Mirela Monte
Buyers' Choice Realty - North Myrtle Beach, SC
Myrtle Beach Real Estate

Zoltan:  I am continuously reminded of Real Bird's power.   Real Bird and Active Rain are the best investments I've made in my Real Estate career. 

Nov 18, 2011 05:27 AM
RealBird Real Estate Marketing
RealBird Inc. - Santa Cruz, CA
All-In-One Real Estate Marketing Toolkit

Hi Mirela - Glad to be on your list of best RE tech investments together with AR :)

Nov 18, 2011 05:46 AM