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Posted about 15 years ago

5 Web Marketing Tips Real Estate Agents should Know About

Your capacity to connect with customers online is becoming more important everyday as people look to the web for answers, reviews and to purchase products. Developing your skill set to engage customers online can result in a relationships and transactions but it may be more challenging than simply posting an update on Facebook, Twitter or the social media flavor of the year. To market your product and skills online takes time, focus and a strong commitment to learn how to navigate this powerful tool. Here are some tips to get started.

1. Be aware of trends. This doesn’t mean that you have to fully embrace every new idea that comes along. There is so much out there and new ideas are born every day. Some are good, some are phenomenal (for a time) and some won’t make any sense for your personal style of marketing. If you learn about something that fits well and its generating a “buzz,” use it as it seem appropriate. Trends, by definition are a tendency to shift in one direction, so you remember this, particularly when a trend is at the evaporation stage.

2. Don’t place everything on one bet. Google’s early 2011 algorithm change delivered a powerful blow to article marketers. Businesses and individuals that have built their entire online presence using this one linking block are now greatly challenged. Diversity is critical. Your banker will tell you this as concerns your investments; consider time spent on marketing as an investment. Diversify your Internet marketing resources so Google can’t wipe out your visibility based upon one algorithm change. 

3. Focus on a niche. If you’re trying to establish yourself as the new threat, start where you can get some traction. In real estate, niches are already cut from targeting property features like luxury homes, golf homes or even retirement communities. There are an abundance of alternate niches to go after like equestrian, affordable, HUD, foreclosed and more. It’s easy to do if you use real estate technology that automates this process creating tons of long tail keyword advantages. You could target dozens of untapped real estate niches online at the same time and do it effectively.

4. Consistently provide valuable content. Followers, visitors and hopefully homebuyer’s that visit your site or profiles expect some value. Take it beyond simple listing posts, engage your consumer by presenting your take on real estate trends or share an insight on the local market. It’s tough to get any kind of following so don’t disappoint by publishing white noise. It’s a true challenge to make real estate listings exciting one by one but you can add some spark by including thoughtful static content. It’s much easier to spend time developing spectacular content if your real estate IDX solution does the greatest portion of the marketing for you.


5. Dig in and stay committed. You’ve resolved to take on the Internet and have tons of fresh ideas but as you get busy from marketing on the web and drop off like a old fly. Building an online marketing presence is not something you should do on and off again. Especially when it comes to building offsite links for your site. You want to keep the inbound links to your site or profile(s) coming consistently and from diverse locations as this is a positive indicator to the search engines in many ways.


Comments (5)

  1. Anita - Thanks for the tip! I have added our company to that page.


  2. Hi Ellin, I love this site! If you are a broker, be sure to register your brokerage on the companies page: http://www.biggerpockets.com/companies


  3. Thanks Anita for a very helpful article. Sometimes it is so hard to find the time to stay current but it pays off when you do. I have just discovered Biggerpockets and am looking forward to learning more about this site.


  4. Hi Kevin, I'm hesitant to make any sweeping statements since it hasn't all shaked out yet and being in SEO for a few years, you learn to be humble. Panda/Farmer update is the latest algorithm change and it is said to have impacted content farms (article directories) and sites that have a lot of low quality content. The problem is that lots of quality sites were penalized as well and this may or not be adjusted. What helps with search engine optimization is consistently marketing your web pages, developing quality content for both on and offsite optimization as well as ensuring whatever technology you use to publish web pages is optimized and fully crawlable by the search engine spiders.


  5. Anita, has it come out what helps in search engine optimization with google since the 2011 changes? You identified many key points, I was wondering if you knew about what the changes were or is the new algorithm a secret?