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Is Trulia ruining your Real Estate website’s rankings?

By
Real Estate Broker/Owner with PMZ Real Estate

One man thinks so, and a lot of other real estate professionals might agree. Especially tech savvy ones.

Galen Ward posted a blog entry regarding Trulia’s so-called “underhanded” SEO (search engine optimization practices). In most geographic areas a search for “san francisco real estate” for example will pull up Trulia’s website as the first result, burrying other relevant local real estate companies websites. Ward believes this to be unfair.

One of his very valid beefs is that Trulia makes links to your website on their website, no-follow links. This means that search engines like Google and Yahoo will ignore linking to your website, losing out on precious SEO ranking.

While it is more than likely not the case that Trulia wants to destroy your website ranking, they definitely do want to rank number one. Are you getting what you expected from your relationship with Trulia?

Also, take a look at how they optimize their website. Talk to your IT administrator to see if you can do the same. A couple things that I have noticed that would really make a difference in a real estate websites rankings is having a landing page for each city that you do business in. Also make the URL for that city search engine friendly, ie: http://www.pmz.com/modesto/ca/real-estate/ or http://www.pmz.com/stockton/ca/real-estate/. For each of those landing pages, in the title and metadescription, include something like, “Modesto Real Estate & Modesto Homes for Sale” to make it more relevant to your geographical area. That’s really just the beginning.

Comments (5)

Scott Leaf Personal Real Estate Corporation
Keller Williams Elite Realty, Port Coquitlam, BC - Port Coquitlam, BC
Scott Leaf & Associates Real Estate Team

All Search Engines are destroying proper search rankings, the biggest buck wins. 

Heck it is a never ending battle to have my own name pop up in the first page of Google when I search my own name! 

May 07, 2008 10:05 AM
Bart Whitmore
Keller Williams- Louisville - Louisville, KY
Real Estate Agent
Very interesting post, I havent used Trulia yet, and I am not sure if I will
May 07, 2008 10:08 AM
Eric Egeland
RE/MAX SUBURBAN - Libertyville, IL
SFR, e-PRO, CDPE

thanks for the post,

the big boys will always be at the top for general searches, but I think more area specific searches will/should still pull up regional websites

May 07, 2008 10:15 AM
Linda Lipscomb
Linda Lipscomb RE/MAX Lexington Henderson County TN - Lexington, TN
731-695-1118, Lexington TN Homes

Good post.

Not tech savvy, so I learned something.

Thanks.

May 07, 2008 10:19 AM
Shirley Parks
Sands Realty 210-414-0966 - San Antonio, TX
Broker, 210-414-0966, San Antonio TX Real Estate

grrr... that is annoying... thanks for the information!

May 15, 2008 05:35 AM