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Gauging Trends For Your SEO With Google Trends (Working Examples)

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Real Estate Technology with Content, coding, marketing, host.

Having a rent-a-website $35 per month. Having a custom developed website (that actually gathers information) $899. Being in the top three on Google, Yahoo and Live ... you guessed it. Priceless.

For the last several years my money maker websites have been in the top 10 on at least two of the three almost every week for my most important key phrases. I have to admit I had a little inside information since I've been "online" since before there really was an "online". Then in 1994 I switched from BBS's to the brand new "world wide web" technology and eventually owned a fairly successful web services company which catered to The NRA, American Outdoorsman, Shari's Restaurants, Hunter Engineering, SiGARMS, The Canadian Pooplayer's Association, and so on. That is when I learned about paying attention to people much more in control than yours truly.

Major changes have taken place since that time but the basic techniques for getting on top and staying on top are still the same as when Gossamer Threads was the name of the day and Google was what babies did. Fresh relevant content with lots of links from other sites with fresh and relevant content. Active Rain is a beuatiful boost because, for the most part, there are few links from or to blacklisted sites associated with AR.

Many users of AR have learned much about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and the value of being "on the front page" of the major engines. We have learned how to make sure keywords are in the title of the page and in the URL (Uniform Resource Lookup a.k.a. web address) and repeated just the right number of times within the content. Too many and you lose. Too few and you don't get ranked high.

But right now I want to introduce some of you to the Google Trends machine. Now that you are aware that keywords need to be properly used, that you need to link to and be linked from relative content and avoid blacklisted sites you will love this trend tracker. I can almost assure you that checking this regularly and following the trend reports in combination with knowing your client base and market horizon you will be even more greatly rewarded for your pointed effort.

First An Example

You may guess that searches for FHA have gone up over the last few weeks but would you have also guessed that searches for refinance have gone down?

Google Trends: Refinance vs FHA

What you are looking at is a trend track from Google Trends where the red line is FHA and the blue line is refinance. This was accurate as of 10PM eastern on 9/Oct/2008 and may be a little more telling than you would have expected. You can check the current results by visiting this link.

The top lines are general search terms and the bottom pair are news search.

I think you would agree if you were a loan officer this is a valuable bit of information to have, agreed?

So give it a try for yourself. Try keywords important to you in your market area and your line of service.

http://www.google.com/trends

 

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THE OPINIONS IN THIS COMMENTARY ARE STRICTLY KEN COOK's PERSONAL OPINION AND NOT REFLECTIVE ON ACTIVE RAIN, NOVATION MORTGAGE, or ANY SPONSOR OF THIS WEBSITE.

EDUCATION BEATS LEGISLATION EVERY TIME. Get your clients, friends and family members to a LENDER RUN home mortgage seminar as soon as possible.

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Copyright©2008 Ken Cook. Georgia and Florida real estate investment loans, FHASecure and FHA Home Loans, nationwide commercial hard money and small business loans, non-recourse loans for real estate investors

Novation Mortgage, 2501 E Piedmont Road, Suite 201, Marietta, GA 30062 Georgia Residential Mortgage Licensee 20014. Florida Mortgage Broker Business MBB 0703760 FHA Lender - Equal Housing Lender

 

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I started writing on Active Rain in 2006 when I was representing the mortgage industry. I am no longer in that industry and many of the older posts contain outdated information. Please do not contact me for LENDING or MORTGAGE questions but rather contact a licensed mortgage professional from your area. I have always been in marketing and branding and that is still what I do. Thanks for reading!

Comments (13)

Victor Amadi
PRODUCER Realty, LLC - Greenville, SC
Greenville SC Realtor

Interesting, I can't wait to try this with some of our keywords here. Thank you for sharing.

Oct 09, 2008 02:47 PM
Ken Cook
Content, coding, marketing, host. - Marietta, GA
Content Marketer/Creator

Victor - great! Let us know how it works out for you.

Oct 09, 2008 03:11 PM
Sharon Alters
Coldwell Banker Vanguard Realty - 904-673-2308 - Fleming Island, FL
Realtor - Homes for Sale Fleming Island FL

So is this what our SEO company used when they came up with what keywords we should use? And if I may ask, how many key words should you have in an article and how many are too many or is that not an exact science? Thanks for a very interesting post. I used to live in Marietta - and Buckhead - and Ansley Park - and Midtown - and other places in Atlanta. LOVE Atlanta :)

Oct 09, 2008 03:37 PM
Adriana Steel
WC & AN Miller Realtors (A Long & Foster Co) - Chevy Chase, DC

Wow, that is great info Victor. I have yet to figure out SEO, but I keep trying. 

Oct 10, 2008 04:25 AM
Joan Mirantz
Homequest Real Estate - Concord, NH
Realtor, GRI, CBR, SRES - Concord New Hampshire

Hi ken...should I try to see if I can change my user name on here? Is it hurting?It has no keywords.

Oct 10, 2008 12:26 PM
Vickie Barrington
Bluewater Real Estate - Atlantic Beach, NC
Carteret County Real Estate

This is so interesting. I am new at all this but willing to learn everyday.  Thanks

Oct 11, 2008 12:57 PM
Ken Cook
Content, coding, marketing, host. - Marietta, GA
Content Marketer/Creator

Sharon - it could be what someone charged you to use :) I use multiple tools but I also include creating the content to get users to the front page - fee depends on key words/phrases. I would love to know what your people did and what they charged for it. Marietta has the lowest foreclosure rate in the metro area - wow, imagine that being a bragging point :(

Adriana - I'm Ken, Victor commented :) Thanks for your comment and if you ever need any help don't hesitate to contact me.

Joan - you mean on AR? I'll call you for a RealNowRadio interview and we can talk about this, too. Thanks!

Vickie - as long as you realize the value of being on the front page of the major search engines for your keywords in your market you're light years ahead of some of your competition.

All: Don't forget to post to other blogs that are KEYWORD ASSOCIATED. I don't get much SE juice from Facebook, MySpace or Twitter but I do from BLOGX3.COM

Oct 12, 2008 03:27 AM
Sharon Alters
Coldwell Banker Vanguard Realty - 904-673-2308 - Fleming Island, FL
Realtor - Homes for Sale Fleming Island FL

I think we are paying $280 a month for a year and we have to create the content. They give us an idea. We have monthly coaching calls where they tweak things. They did work on the keywords and meta tags and other things I'm not sure about - my husband knows more about that part. I'm not unhappy with it because it has helped us focus more on the internet but honestly can't say we have gotten a sale yet because of it.

Oct 12, 2008 01:38 PM
Lane Bailey
Century 21 Results Realty - Suwanee, GA
Realtor & Car Guy

I'm not 100% today... still down with the creeping crud.  you sent me into a cughing fit with the Canadian Pooplayers Association....  I just couldn't continue...  Thanks.  ;^ )

Oct 16, 2008 10:07 AM
Richard Byron Smith, NMLS #184479
Mortgage Loan Officer, Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation NMLS #2289 - Chattanooga, TN
Mortgage Loan Officer

Ken,

Wow. My blogs typically show high in search phrases, but not my site. Still trying to figure out how to keep everything up.

I know what I think is needed on the site, but struggle to get it done. It would be great to know what is needed.

This needs to be featured, and I will flag it so.

Also, I followed the RealNowRadio. Maybe I can figure out how to talk good. :)

Thanks,

Richard

Oct 16, 2008 01:53 PM
Ken Cook
Content, coding, marketing, host. - Marietta, GA
Content Marketer/Creator

Sharon - that does it, I'm re-opening my web services company. I used to charge $499 per YEAR including 1 hour of coaching per week.

Lane - I still have some junk they sent me, you want it? You didn't see my billiards room - did you? Get better.

Richard - I bet you talk just fine. Me on the other hand - I have my hands full with getting my new credit card info into BlogX3 and I just switched servers for Novation and been having a war with DNS.

Oct 16, 2008 02:33 PM
Richard Byron Smith, NMLS #184479
Mortgage Loan Officer, Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation NMLS #2289 - Chattanooga, TN
Mortgage Loan Officer

Ken,

It is a scary thing to change servers. I wish you luck. I will check Blogx3 out again today. Maybe it will be back up. BTW have you ever typed blog3x by mistake?

Richard

Oct 17, 2008 12:26 AM
Gena Riede
Riede Real Estate, Lic. 01310792 - Sacramento, CA
Real Estate Broker - Sacramento CA Real Estate (916) 417-2699

Ken, that looks like a great site to visit and checkout. Thank you for the heads-up. I'm off to search.

Oct 24, 2008 12:57 PM