I am hearing a lot of chatter that agents are frustrated that the national aggregator/lead generation sites, like homes.com, realtor.com, realestate.yahoo.com, citysearch, trulia, etc., are dominating the first page of search results (SERPs).
Often, this is accompanied by "conspiracy theory" talk, or just plain old resignation, as in "that's the way it is".
NOT THE CASE, folks.
Site owners who DO THE RIGHT THINGS in terms of search optimization generally displace these various "lead generation" sites (the big boys) from the first page of Google. I will provide a couple of real examples, below.
In fact, I use all of this as very good "rule of thumb" indicator to determine the "local market" competitive situation for a particular community. If the top ten Google results for the term "Town ST real estate" are nearly all the lead generation consolidator sites, I know immediately that few, if any, local agents are taking their search optimization seriously, if at all. It's then wide open territory for ANY local agent (new, old, male, female, indy, full-time, part-time, rich, not so rich, etc.) to drive a truck through it.
If the top ten results are mostly local agents, then it's a dogfight that's going to take real effort to compete. Phoenix, for instance. In that community, the lead gen sites have been almost entirely
displaced from the first page. If there was a conspiracy, then the big boys would demand to have Phoenix for themselves. Yet, they can't really seem to compete there.
Alternatively, if you look at first page Google search results for "Green Bay WI real estate", it's loaded up with lead gen sites. My bet is that few agents in Green Bay have done much of anything to rank well. If they had, they would. Heads up, Green Bay.
Here's the reason...A locally focused site has a much better opportunity to focus on the terms that matter to them. This includes page structure, content structure, depth and breadth of content, and most importantly, the link anchor text on links pointing back to the site. The search engine algorithms have been designed to reward this focus. The goal is to deliver the most focused content for a particular search term. They do not reward "big boys" for the sake of big.
The big sites rank well in a specific community search due to a lack of competition. When the engines can't find a site that is well optimized and focused for a particular term, they default to the "next best thing". Each of these consolidator sites has a single page about a particular community, and they have enough link popularity to their entire domain to drive that single page to the first page of the search results. It's weak competition out ranking no competition.
Please take this fictitious example that follows as an attempt at constructive criticism that might help some of you....A search engine cannot reward an agent for having page title tags that read "Your #1
TOP TEAM Agent for ten years - The Jane Doe Century/MAX Group". In terms of search optimization, that kind of title tag on a page has virtually no traffic value. Yet, I see agent sites structured like this everywhere I look. Those sites will NEVER rank well for their own "Town ST real estate" search rankings. The lead gen sites will.
There are still hundreds of such communities in the USA, right now, in which the lead gen sites still dominate the first page of results. What baffles me is why this is the case, fifteen years into the WWW.
Honestly, the real estate industry, by and large, is still in a massive state of denial in terms of search marketing. if someone can explain that to me, please do.
Fixing it is the single most important thing that an agent can do for themselves, in terms of overall marketing for their agency, going forward. The Web IS where real estate marketing takes place these
days. Good search results are not even all that expensive or complicated to arrange. How this wide-open opportunity is ignored in this industry so consistently is just baffling.
Agents who have done the right things, and use the WWW effectively, are, by and large, managing this downturn. Just look at who is closing deals in your own community *right now* (not two years ago),
and look at their search rankings.
Agents, take control....Here's a multi-page document that was specifically written for real estate professionals, using real estate examples:
Search Engine Optimization Basics For Real Estate-Related Websites
http://www.domaindrivers.com/seobasics-realestate-main.htm
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Hi Dirk,
Very interesting observations! In your Phoenix example: What search phrases are you using to verify that local agents are winning? Also, which search engines did you check?