Real Estate Marketing & Beyond
Many real estate agents we work with who are just in the beginning stages of learning and understanding search engine optimization and how it can help their business often ask what keywords they should use or how should they determine a proper keyword strategy. While figuring out which keywords you should target for your real estate website may seem like a simple task, there might be more to this process than you may think.
Keyword research is a critical step in real estate search engine optimization. Determining what keywords and long tail keyword phrases users are searching, and how weak or strong competition may be to rank for such words and phrases, can be a complex procedure that takes time and constant monitoring. To do this, there are a variety of free online tools you can use such as Google Adwords, which is probably the best direction to take.
Once creating an Adwords account, you’ll see a field where you can type in a simple key word or keyword phrase to check its status. Next, search your chosen work or phrase to see various statistics like competition level, the number of global monthly searches, and the number of monthly searches. Along with that, Adwords will also provide numerous other keyword ideas or variations so you can compare competition level and ultimately the number of searches.
While a high competition level may seem scary and harder to compete for, often times that can be a clear sign that a high level of users and traffic are searching that term. Similarly, if a keyword has little competition, reaching a higher ranking may be easier, yet you may not see a high-rate of traffic.
Thanks to tools like Google Adwords, figuring out important stats relating to various keywords relating to your local real estate market couldn’t be easier. Determining which keywords to use or what keyword strategy to take for your own real estate website, however? Well, that’s where things can get a little tricky. Of course each situation is different, and everybody has their own opinion on whether or not going after high competition keywords is right or wrong. But when choosing which direction is right for you, be sure to consider your overall SEO and/or PPC budget and come up with a realistic timeframe as to when you’d like to start seeing your site start ranking organically or how soon you’d like to begin generating incoming sales leads.
My advice: If you’re patient, persistent, and are in the web marketing game for the long haul, trying to rank for high competition keywords may be the way to go. But if instant gratification is what you need and desire, try focusing on less competitive, long tail keyword phrases to hopefully start generating traffic sooner rather than later.
Joe Heath is a graduate of Indiana University and also holds a Graduate Certificate in Real Estate Development from Drexel University. After working as a Market Research Associate at Hanley Wood Market Intelligence in Chicago, Joe now works as a Web Marketing Specialist and is a managing partner at Real Estate Web Creation, LLC.
Thank you for the great advice! We have been researching Google Adwords for our website this past week and have decided to give it a try. Your blog helped clarify the difference between choosing between the high competition and low competition words.