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What Do Attorneys Know About SEO that Real Estate Agents Don't?

By Elizabeth Bolton

Real Estate Agent with RE/MAX Destiny Real Estate Cambridge, MA

May 14, 2009 04:43 PM

I was poking around online tonight and did a google search on "Massachusetts blogs". It gave me a chuckle when I found that 12 of the first 20 results were lawyers' blogs.

Mind you - of the twenty, only one real estate blog - Bill Gassett's - made the cut.

While my first thought was that Massachusetts must have more than its share of lawyers, I did the search for a few other states and plenty of lawyers' blogs came up in those results too - though not quite as many as for Massachusetts.

The results are similar when you dig deep in the "Cambridge real estate" google results. Plenty of attorneys' websites rank much higher than real estate agents' websites even with real estate as the search term. Weird!

So - I'm left with the question - when it comes to search engine optimization - what are lawyers doing right? or what are real estate agents doing wrong?

Any ideas?

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Robert T. Boyer

FHA Loan, VA Loan, Jumbo Loan,FHA Loans,VA Loans,Jumbo Loans - La Jolla, CA

San Diego Real Estate & Mortgage Loans, Ph.D. | VA Home Loan

I don't know. I did a search for "San Diego blogs" and found blog directories, news, surf reports, real estate, zoo, and so on. Maybe the pastime in your area is litigation? :-D

May 14, 2009 04:56 PM

Shane OnullGorman

Eau Claire Realty, Inc. - Eau Claire, WI

Eau Claire Wisconsin, Real Estate Agent & Realtor- Buy or Sell

It could be as simple as what is linking to those blogs. The attorneys might have .gov sites or high ranking sites pointing to them.

May 14, 2009 05:01 PM

Shane OnullGorman

Eau Claire Realty, Inc. - Eau Claire, WI

Eau Claire Wisconsin, Real Estate Agent & Realtor- Buy or Sell

The first one I checked had 15000 inbound links the second one had 150,000 inbound links. I would say its either commercialization where they can afford to get a ton of paid links or something to that effect. 150,000 links is alot.

May 14, 2009 05:03 PM

Elizabeth Bolton

RE/MAX Destiny Real Estate Cambridge, MA - Cambridge, MA

Cambridge MA Realtor

Hi Robert ~ Too funny! I really did think it was because we have so many lawyers but really it's something else. I did the city search with real estate but not "blogs" so it's websites I'm looking at, not blogs. Many agents sites are way back in the results but lots of attorneys are towards the front. I did the blog search for my state and I guess it makes sense that attorneys would be focusing statewide and agents would be more local focused. They're doing something right though.

Hi Shane ~ That's an excellent point about the .gov sites - I hadn't thought of that.

May 14, 2009 05:09 PM

Elizabeth Bolton

RE/MAX Destiny Real Estate Cambridge, MA - Cambridge, MA

Cambridge MA Realtor

Hi Shane ~ I hadn't done any of that digging - that's good to know. I don't ever see myself getting anywhere close as many links. Yikes!

Liz

May 14, 2009 05:11 PM

Ryan Shaughnessy

PREA Signature Realty - www.preasignaturerealty.com - Saint Louis, MO

Broker/Attorney - Your Lafayette Square Real Estate Partner

I made the cut - but I'm not sure if it was because I am an attorney or because I have a real estate blog.

May 14, 2009 06:12 PM

Andrea Swiedler

Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices New England Properties - New Milford, CT

Realtor, Southern Litchfield County CT

Hi Liz, I did it for CT and found a few attorneys, Joe Lieberman, and some irrelevant 2006 goverment issued crapola blogs. How about that? I don't know what it all means. As far as their websites go, I would bet attorneys are paying people to do them, but they most likely are static web pages, so .... I am clueless. Question for Ryan, was it his attorney stuff or real estate stuff that made the cut?

May 14, 2009 11:13 PM

Joel McDonald

Joel McDonald -- www.AutomatedHomefinder.com - Castle Pines North, CO

Interesting! How involved are Attorneys in the real estate process in MA? ie: although we always advise that buyers/sellers have contracts reviewed here in CO, it's rare that attorneys get very involved. However, in New York, I understand that attorneys are often just as much (if not more) involved in a real estate transaction than Realtors.

I wonder if it might be something like that there in MA.

May 15, 2009 12:47 AM

Elizabeth Bolton

RE/MAX Destiny Real Estate Cambridge, MA - Cambridge, MA

Cambridge MA Realtor

Hi Ryan ~ Congratulations! Wanna share any secrets? :)

Hi Andrea ~ All sorts of fairly small shops (of the legal variety I mean) are way up in the "Cambridge real estate" results - at least way ahead of lots of agents' websites. They don't strike me as optimized (paid I mean) but the ones that Shane pulled sounded that way - I can't imagine getting 150K links otherwise. And to have their blogs dominate the "[state] blogs" results really struck me - they're doing something right it seems.

Hi Joel ~ We're what I heard one lawyer call an "attorney state". We don't use escrow companies and ~99% of the time both seller and buyer have an attorney for the transaction. So it makes sense that legal offices mention real estate on their websites.

Liz

May 15, 2009 01:11 AM

Ryan Shaughnessy

PREA Signature Realty - www.preasignaturerealty.com - Saint Louis, MO

Broker/Attorney - Your Lafayette Square Real Estate Partner

Liz - If I told you the secret, they would kick me out of the club.

May 15, 2009 08:43 AM

Paula Swayne

Dunnigan, Realtors, Sacramento (916) 425-9715 - Sacramento, CA

Realtor-Land Park, East Sac & Curtis Park -Dunniga

Hi Liz!
How about more money...are they paying their way to the top?

May 15, 2009 11:40 AM

Elizabeth Bolton

RE/MAX Destiny Real Estate Cambridge, MA - Cambridge, MA

Cambridge MA Realtor

Hey Ryan ~ We can't have that!

Hi Paula ~ I'm really not sure. They don't read as super optimized sites to me but who knows. Sometime when I get a chance I'll have to to dig a bit deeper and look at links, etc. like Shane did. It's mysterious - and a bit disheartening too.

Liz

May 15, 2009 03:51 PM

Anna "Banana" Kruchten

HomeSmart Real Estate - Phoenix, AZ

602-380-4886

Ryan should spill the beans! Come on ....you're safe with us!

I wil look at AZ next. Very interesting. Can't wait to see what pops up!

May 16, 2009 11:04 AM

Anonymous

Lawrence

Maybe it's just that you used "Massachusetts" rather than "Boston" or "Worcester" in your search... perhaps most RE (and other non-legal) folks associate themselves more with a specific town or sub-area of the state rather than the entire state.

-L

May 16, 2009 01:57 PM

#14

Elizabeth Bolton

RE/MAX Destiny Real Estate Cambridge, MA - Cambridge, MA

Cambridge MA Realtor

Hi Anna ~ Wouldn't you love to know the secret?!

Hi Lawrence ~ Absolutely. It makes sense that agents' sites tend to be more city specific but in the "[city] real estate" search results it's quite interesting how many attorneys' websites rank better than many real estage agents' since it's a secondary search term for them and the primary term for the real estage agents. And I definitely thought it bizarre that for the "[state} blogs" search the results were so dominated by lawyers - I mean is nobody else blogging in Massachusetts? We do have a lot of attorneys but still... For reasons I can't figure their blogs and websites do *very* well in the search results.

Liz

May 16, 2009 03:22 PM

Lisa Wetzel

RE/MAX Realty Affiliates - Carson City, NV

CDPE, SFR carsonvalleyland.com

Liz - Great Blog! What an eye opener! I tend to avoid this part of the Internet, great info, i learned a lot!

May 17, 2009 02:21 AM

Kevin Vitali

EXIT Realty Beatrice Associates - Middleton, MA

Helping Massachusetts Home Buyers and Home Sellers

One too think about, but I have no answers...

Jun 09, 2009 08:24 AM