By George, I think he's got it!!!

Hey guys, I've been amazed by watching all these discussions how people are trying to achieve first page of Google for "major" keywords.

Honestely, who cares?

Let me tell you a little story.

Up until about a month ago, I was ranking pretty well for most of my major keywords.  For my most important keyword, I was ranking #14 in Google and slowly climbing up.  My keyword was 'southampton pa real estate'.  One morning I decided to check my rankings, as I usually do, guess what, I'm #241.  A week later, I'm #345.  I've been trying to get myself to first page of Google for the past 6 months and one day, all that hard work, down the drain.

I was furuious.  Angry and upset.  But...  here's what I did.  I live in Bucks County, PA.  Very large county with more than 1,300 subdivisions in it.  I placed a name of every single subdivision on my home page.  I have them all.  All 1,340 of them.  Yeah, took me about 16 hours to type them all up, but they're there.

After I was dropped to page 1,000,000 in Google, I started noticing that I'm getting more hits.  All of a sudden, I went from 20 unique visitors a day to 70 unique visitors a day.  People are searching for 'homes for sale <subdivision name> <city> <state>'.

My page is about 150K.  Big, very big, but I end up in top 3 for any of those search terms.  One of the subdivision's name is Huntingdon Brook.  If you search for 'homes for sale huntingdon brook southampton pa', I'm #1 in Google for that search term.  I get about 70 of them per day for different subdivisions.

So here's my question, why spend months and sometimes years, try to get to first page of Google for major keywords, when you can be there in less than a week. They're not major, but it's something people are searching for and they're looking for information.  I'm currently working with REW on creating a Custom IDX solution where people can search for homes by subdivision name.  It will be the first in my area.  That way, I'll provide my visitors with exactly what they're looking for.  No registration, no obligation.. You're more than welcome to browse listings, but when you're ready, I'm there to help you.

If you're the one looking for a home, wouldn't that be nice?

Russell,

I added the cities and subdivisions to my website about 2 weeks ago and have had similar results, it was a great decision! Also keep in mind that the more relevent density a website has the better the chance your site moves up for the major keywords (slowly maybe, but still). Of course there are a zillion other factors that affect SEO.

Thanks!

Parker Byron

Kansas City Real Estate

www.JohnsonCounty.com

Russ Great post!

The Long Tail is very powerful stuff. In a large market, it's extremely difficult to get on Page 1 for "CityName Real Estate". But that's where everyone thinks they have to be.

I've found the leads from people finding the site through focused, long tail terms are often more serious and closer to buying/selling than the folks using more generic/popular terms.

I'll take Page 1 results for dozens of "lesser" terms and let the other 18,000 agents in Phoenix slug it out for "Phoenix Real Estate".

Lonn, I agree with you that it is pretty powerful in a listing presentation.  I'm not sure about other areas, but here in Bucks County, PA most of the homes are in subdivisions.  We have over 1,300 of them in one county.  So when you're at a listing presentation, have your potential seller type in <homes for sale in subdivision city state>.  When they see that your site is #1 in Google for that search term, the first thing they'll say is 'Wow!'.  I've experienced that and they love it.

I just know myself.  I live outside of Philadelphia and if I would want to look for a home in Philly, I don't think I would use 'philadelphia real estate'.  I know areas in the city, schools, malls, etc. and I pretty much know where I want to live, so I think concentrating on long tail terms is probably as important, if not more, than concentrating on major keywords.

Just make sure you give your visitors exactly what they're looking for.  If they're looking for homes for sale in a specific area, show them homes in that area.

Oh Lonn, another thing to point out about a listing presentation.  Before you meet with the sellers, create a Google AdWords campaign for that area.  Set your PPC at $10 and when you're at the presentation, ask them to type one of the keywords from that ad and they'll see that you're on a first page of Google.  Then when you come home, you can either turn it off or lower the PPC.  I've done that once.  It was awsome.  I had a listing presentation for a seller in Philadelphia.  An hour before I left the house, I created an AdWords campaign.  My keywords were 'philadelphia pa real estate' and 'philadelphia pa homes for sale'.  I set my PPC at $10.  During the presentation, I asked the seller to go into Google and type in 'philadelphia pa homes for sale'.  I was on the first page of Google and they loved it.  They didn't ask me any more questions and signed all the paperwork right away.  I then came home and lowered my PPC to $1.  It works!

Dare to be different!

Would you say you need to list all the subdivisions on the home page of your site or will it work on another page?  I ask only because I've worked very hard to make my site functional and good looking and having a list like that will take up a lot of space and be hard to make look attractive.  Do words link to the neighborhood associations or is it strictly a list?

I know a competing agent who spent 2500-3000 dollars to develop a website and spends $200 a month to get SEO done for her so she's number one on yahoo.  I've done this all myself (thank you Point2!) and got some books on SEO and I come up on the first or second page for my key words depending on which you use.

I've heard that getting to the top on Google is hard if not impossible so I haven't even tried.  But I might consider listing the subdivisions if other people have seen results.

My current list is just a list with no links.  But I'm currently working with REW on developing a custom IDX solution where visitors can search for homes for sale by subdivision name.  I just want to provide them with what they're looking for.

You don't have to place that list on your home page.  You can break it down into multiple pages, but make sure that those pages are indexed.

Good luck.

How do you index the pages with a Point2 site?  

Sincerely,

Al Block

Stupid is as stupid does.

Thanks Russell.  I started working on it already.  It's going to be a big job, but hopefully well worth it.