A CONTINUING DISCUSSION ABOUT REAL ESTATE INDUSTRY ADVERTISING IN 2009.

Chapter 3 examines:

INTERNET DIRECTORIES and SEARCH ENGINES - The gentleman on the phone is offering you the very best opportunity for Internet advertising advertising yet invented.  First, you must go to their web site and let them lead you through the nose in a step-by-step procedure that produces the desired result, seeing a web site on their directory or search engine.  Don't you wish the site you saw was yours???   Of course, you do.  However, what this guided tour didn't reveal is that the very search engine or directory on which they offer to take your money to subscribe you for a year is that this very web site, search engine or directory.

My comment to the caller is always the same:  "JUST GET OUT OF MY WAY".   Without the aggregators, national real estate directories and search engines, all of our web sites would have significantly higher rank in Google searches.   A simple search for real estate related keywords will usually produce 5-6 real estate directories or search engines.   Where does your web site rank in a search result for your keywords?  It's probably below Homes.com, Zillow and others that rely on agents' content, listings, etc. 

Of course, if you take the time to research their web site, they will have a PR of "0". They can't explain that. 

WHERE DOES THAT SEARCH ENGINE OR DIRECTORY RANK ON GOOGLE???  Since the salesperson has you on the phone and you are on their search engine or directory, you have no opportunity to verify the value of their search engine or web site.  

TAKE A DEEP BREATH AND THINK FOR A MINUTE.  Have you searched for "web site search engines" or "real estate directories"?  If not, do it now before you receive another call from a well trained salesperson offering you something you would love to have, Internet leads for YOUR search terms. 

SEARCH FOR "REAL ESTATE DIRECTORIES"and you'll see many that are familiar and many not so familiar.  What they will be is real estate directories that have good Google Search Engine Results (SERP).

• ABC Real Estate Directory
• REALS.com
• Real Estate Directory

SEARCH FOR "REAL ESTATE SEARCH ENGINES" and you'll see the top ranked sites for that important search term.  Is the web site that the salesman leading you through in the search results for that term?  If not, why not?

• Real Estate Search Engines (Arming Your Farming)
• Tech Crunch
• DTHomes

WHAT DO ALL OF THESE DIRECTORIES OR SEARCH ENGINES HAVE IN COMMON?  They are competing with you for Internet space.  If you have a web site, blog or any combination of the two, you will have to rank above these real estate directories and search engines to be found by a consumer.  Except that when your geographical market area term is added to the search, more real estate agents' sites will produce. 

• MOST INTERNET DIRECTORIES AND SEARCH ENGINES ARE DESIGNED TO SELL ADVERTISING.
• MOST INTERNET DIRECTORIES AND SEARCH ENGINES ARE DESIGNED TO SELL ADVERTISING. 
• MOST INTERNET DIRECTORIES AND SEARCH ENGINES ARE DESIGNED TO SELL ADVERTISING.

Indeed.  They have designed their web site to sell Google AdSense ads.  Or, they are synidcated with media advertising companies.  THEY NEED YOUR SUBSCRIPTION FOR CONTENT.  Once you have subscribed for a year, you will pay for a year often without the ability to determine the value. 

WHAT ABOUT THE CLAIMS FOR "HITS" BY NATIONAL WEB SITES?  SO A WEB SITE GETS A LOT OF "HITS" AND RANKS HIGH ON A NATIONAL SCALE?   SO WHAT?

IT'S NOT ABOUT "HITS".  So your web site doesn't have a significant market share when compared to Zillow.com, Homes.com, HomeGain.com, ServiceMagic.com, Realtor.com.   SO WHAT?  Unless you launched your web site to sell advertising space and are using real estate listings or agent/broker information for content, which is why the national sites need us, what difference does it make if your web site doesn't get the hits that Zillow, Homes.com or other content and listing aggregators or advertising sites receive.  Are you advertising your services or listings on the Internet to sell real estate or to get "hits" on your web site?

WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE TO YOUR BUSINESS IF YOU DON'T RECEIVE A LOT OF "HITS"?  Probably none.  Except you will have a Herculean task ahead to rank higher in SERP for popular real estate terms.   Fact is, sooner or later, the consumers who search the Internet for keywords and keyword phrases that would show your site on page one will have to wade through a number of non-real estate web sites to get to your and that of your competitors.  That makes the Zillow, Homes.com, etc. web sites our competitors.  They don't sell real estate and they're not competing for buyers or sellers, but they are competing with us for Internet space. 

If you're a real estate agent with homes listed for sale in Columbus Ohio, how does it affect your business when a home seller searches for "home values in Columbus Ohio"and there are about 9 web sites in the Google search results (SERP) that are not practicing real estate agents' or brokers' web sites.

If you're a real estate agent advertising your services on the Internet, how does it affect your business if your web site isn't in Google SERP for the search terms "real estate listings fairfax virginia" and 5 out of the 10 search results are not agent or broker sites. 

IT DOESN'T!

What DOES affect your business is when a consumer searches for "real estate in Los Angeles" or "homes for sale in Dallas Texas" or "New Homes in Poinciana Florida" and YOUR WEB SITE SHOWS ON PAGE ONE OF GOOGLE SERP. 

The next time you receive a telephone call from a salesperson from a real estate search engine or directory web page who claims to have a partnership with Google to put your keywords on page one, don't believe them.  If they had that type of partnership with Google, they wouldn't be cold calling real estate agents trying to sell us leads, keywords, directory placement or search engine placement. 

IS THERE ANY VALUE IN DIRECTORIES?  When one looks at the number of real estate related search engines and directories, you have to realize that the likelihood of a consumer finding you on a real estate directory on page 10 of Google SERP is remote.  That said, don't underestimate the value of a backlink to your web site or blog. 

What you don't know is whether or not that directory will actually give you a backlink.  Research a directory to determine whether or not the agents included in that directory are receiving backlinks.  If not, you're probably not going to get any benefit from the money spent. Many of these directories have "no follow" commands for Googlebot in their source code. 

HEY LENN, WHAT'S THE BEST WEB SITE FOR BACKLINKS? 

ACTIVERAIN.COM

Courtesy, Lenn Harley, Broker, Homefinders.com, 800-711-7988, E-Mail.