Lonn makes a good point ... many folks will use terms other than real estate (e.g. <city> homes, etc.).  But, the analysis I went after was how to get placement for keywords that had a high number of impressions but with an acceptable level of competition .  

"<city> homes", etc. had lots of competition ... thus hard to get the placement I wanted.  The keyword sets I chose had less competition ... and, in the aggregate, more impressions.   Therefore, IMHO, would generate more business at less cost.  And, it is generating business.

(Of course, that doesn't mean don't go after placement for the other keywords ... just that it makes sense to go after the easy targets first.)

Gregory ... there is a lot more to it.  But, understanding which keywords to use is right at the baseline of the SE optimization and your pay-per-click campaign.  

Essentially (to be nicely placed on the SEs), you need to incoporate them into your domain name (if possible), meta-tags, website text, alt-tags, etc.  You also need to submit your website to the search engines so they'll spider it.  And, you should find sites that will point to yours (one way is best, but recripocal link-exchange is OK).

Lonn's ebook (it's on the blogs here) gives a good starting point to understanding all this.  Because there is more to it than just keywords.

Teresa ... buying Point2 neighborhoods is OK because clients will find them (and thus generate business for you).  But, I'm not sure how useful they are for SE optimization for your website.  

What I was discussing was creating a page on my website (vice a Point2Home neighborhood) for a physical subdivision and then driving traffic to it.  The supposition is that not many websites (read Agents) do this.  Thus, it will be easier to get 1st page position on the search engines and, if you want to do a adword campaign, cheaper pay-per-clicks.

Gregory,  

I don't believe the pay-per-click advertising actually helps your page to be indexed (although I could be wrong) so that you will gain page position in the "natural" rankings (i.e. those you don't pay for).   I'm using the pay-per-click as a mean to generate business  until I gain "natural" position for a particulare keyword.  When that happens, I remove that keyword from the pay-per-click campaign.

I currently budget $1,000 per month to my adword campaign.  But, I work in an area were the keywords are very expensive (over $3.50 everytime someone clicks on the link for some words).  This is why I'm so intriqued with the analyzing which keywords generate traffic but don't have a lot of "natural" competition -- like the subdivisions (which cost around 25 cents per click).

As far as a budget goes, it can be whatever you want to spend.  When you sent up an adword campaign (w/ Google, Yahoo, MSN) you tell them: 1) how much you'll spend per click & 2) what your monthly budget is.

When you tell them how much per keyword you'll spend for a click, they'll tell you what the estimated position in the sponsered area will be.  I never go after the first or second position.  Instead, I try to be number 3 (which really means I'll usually vary between position 2 & 4).  My experience tells me that this is just as good as being #1 in the sponsored area.  And, it saves between 25% to 50% on the per click price.

Not sure if this answers your question.

Teresa ... you can see a couple of subdivision pages I've built:

  http://jeremyranch.parkcitysold.com and

  http://powderwood.parkcitysold.com

On the page, see how I've used the subdivision and other keywords through out the text. In Internet Explorer, click on view then source.  You'll see how I've setup the meta tags to match the text.

(any comments on improvements to these pages would be appreciated)

Greg ... If you don't feel technically comfortable, then a SEO company is a necessity -- after all a website that no one can find is pretty much worthless.  But, plan to budget $3K to $5K per year for the help on top of any direct (e.g. pay-per-click) expenses.

I don't really have one to recommend since I do my own SEO.  (I was involved in the computer/software industry for 30 years before becoming a realtor.  And, am a retired Air Force LtCol ... so, the retirement check funded my real estate start up.)  But, I would suggest that you give it a go yourself before you pay anyone.  

Start by looking at Lonn's ebook.  And, there a lot of us who will help answer your questions.  Of course, some of the advice may be worth what you pay it (free = ? LOL).  I would also recommend a free tool from www.WebCEO (I'm sure we'll now see a religious disccusion on its pros/cons 8^) ... this will help with SE submissions, reviewing your rankings, etc.  I use it and it has helped a lot.

IMHO, they should be somewhat different.  Each page should have a theme that is focused on a particular set of keywords.  I say this for  because you want to have your site show on the search engines for as many keywords as possible ... and, it is hard to optimize a single page for every keyword or potential keyword combination.

The real question is what those keywords/themes should be ... since there is a wide variety of ways that a potential client could enter a "real estate" search term.

I'm going to start a new blog entry on what those might be and ask others to contribute to the list.  Or, point to real estate articles that might give us ideas.