Bad SEO Advice for Real Estate Agents … from the NAR
By Matt McGee on Mar 16, 2010 in MY BEST POSTS, SEO
It’s bad enough when vendors offer real estate SEO services and/or advice that isn’t worth a dime … but what about when the national organization that’s supposed to support real estate agents starts spreading around misinformation to its members?
The National Association of REALTORS® offered up some SEO tips in its official magazine last month via an article titled “6 Weeks to Better Search Engine Results.”
I like the idea behind the article — simplifying some of the low-hanging SEO fruit into tasks that can be worked on one week at a time. Good idea. But some of the specific advice is … well … not so hot. Frankly, some of it just exacerbates the same problems that have plagued real estate agents for years — namely, that so much of what they call “real estate SEO” is over-the-top and spammy.
Here are the six one-week tasks listed in the article:
- Week 1: Write Better Page Titles
- Week 2: Broadcast Your Links
- Week 3: Use Keywords Generously
- Week 4: Reword Outgoing Links
- Week 5: Develop a Site Map
- Week 6: Tweet About It
On the surface, that list looks … okay. Not great, not what I’d list, but not terrible. It’s when you get into the specific suggestions that things get ugly and real estate agents get misled. Let’s look at a few tips:
Real Estate SEO: Linkbuilding?
Under Week 2: Broadcast Your Links is this advice:
Develop a campaign to get other Web sites linking to yours. Focus on social networks and trusted real estate Web sites, advises Cheryl Waller, a real estate technology expert in Port Saint Lucie, Fla. One way to do this is by making thoughtful comments on real estate blogs and leaving your link as part of your blog post. “You don’t need 14,000 links to your site. What you do need are relevant links to your business from reputable Web sites that are trusted by search engines,” Waller says. This helps search engines deem your site as trustworthy, too.
Reality: Commenting on blogs can help with exposure, but it’s not a “campaign” and isn’t likely to make a search engine think your site is trustworthy, either. Worse, it’s something that too many people overdo and get wrong. A lot of real estate agents dropping links on each other’s blogs only adds to the perception that the entire industry is one big spam-fest. Consider these two comments that came in overnight on the Richland Real Estate Blog:
Not very “thoughtful,” is it?
Real Estate SEO: Keyword Density?
Under Week 3: Use Keywords Generously is this advice:
While it might seem like overkill to repeat certain keywords heavily throughout your site, the strategy really does work, says real estate and technology blogger Matt Rains, a practitioner with Keller Williams Atlanta Partners in Loganville, Ga. He suggests incorporating the top phrases that you want associated with your site—”St. Louis Historic Homes,” for example. For strategic ideas, try the Keyword Tool on Google AdWords. Using the tool, you can type a phrase that’s relevant to your business and immediately find out how many people search for that term each month. Your main keywords should appear at least 10 to 13 times per 700 words on a page, says Mark Menzella, who runs RE/Advantage, a real estate Web design company in Fairfield, N.J.
Reality: Keyword density is a myth. There’s no perfect amount of times a keyword should appear on a page to rank, because there are countless other factors that determine a page’s relevance and importance. Hearing “real estate Web design” people pitch this advice only reinforces the idea that real estate SEO is a joke. Better advice is what I said here: There’s no magic formula or perfect “keyword density” — write for your users so the pages are readable, but be sure to include the right search terms as you write.
Real Estate SEO: Twitter?
Under Week 6: Tweet About It is this advice:
“Now that tweets are indexed in Google, Twitter has become an important part of SEO strategy,” says Misty Lackie of Go Smart Solutions, a technology consulting firm in Grover Beach, Calif. So get a Twitter account if you don’t already have one, and create useful tweets that happen to include your business keywords and links to your site.
Reality: I love Twitter, but the SEO benefits of using it are neglible … especially if your tweets are going to “include your business keywords and links to your site.” Look below; does anyone think this is how to use Twitter?
No human will click on the link in a tweet like that, and since the link is no-followed, there’s no SEO benefit from using Twitter this way, either. Twitter can be an amazing tool for local visibility, but it has nothing to do with Google indexing tweets (users are blind to real-time results). It has to do with being real and creative on Twitter, not spamming your keywords and links there.
Final Thoughts
If you’d like to see the whole article for yourself, it’s on Realtor.org. Sadly, it seems that nothing has changed in the two-plus years since I first wrote about real estate SEO being a disaster and a joke. Even more sad is that the bad advice is coming from the national organization that’s supposed to make life easier for real estate agents.
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19 Comment(s)
By Misty Lackie on Mar 16, 2010 | Reply
I would like to clarify that the “So get a Twitter account if you don’t already have one, and create useful tweets that happen to include your business keywords and links to your site” was not my quote. I did write a post a while ago about how Google and Bing are showing Twitter results within the Google search results but never suggested that people stuff tweets with business keywords and links to their site. I just wanted to clarify that because the statement in the article appears as though it was a quote from me.
By Matt McGee on Mar 16, 2010 | Reply
Thx for that, Misty. I purposely avoided saying anything about the folks quoted in the article because I know that sometimes the writer/reporter misunderstands or miscredits a quote. My beef is with the overall thrust of the article and the poor advice coming from the national organization.
By Jonathan on Mar 17, 2010 | Reply
I’m torn between thinking this is great, because it keeps most people making mistakes while those of us that know clean up. On the other hand I feel bad that NAR is the one perpetuating this dribble.
Here’s the thing….NAR knows nothing about the web or new media. Just take a look at what they’re doing in Social Media right now.
Broadcasting the same message over many different platforms to the same subscribers. Anyone following them closely will be caught up in the echoes of repeated CRAP.
I’m glad you pointed this out, I’m going to share it with my base so they too can be in the know.
JR
—–>Oh and link to my site blah blah tweet tweet
By Michelle on Mar 17, 2010 | Reply
Regarding link building, the biggest problem is finding good information on how to create a link building campaign regardless of industry.
Even at search marketing conferences, no one will provide any actual strategies to use. So it’s inevitable that spammy tactics are implemented simply because it’s nearly impossible to find any information on good link building tactics.
I’d love for someone to actually share some resources on how to create an effective link building campaign.
By Matt McGee on Mar 17, 2010 | Reply
That’s true, Michelle — I’d say that, for the most part, link building is very difficult to teach in the typical conference setting. 15 minutes is just not enough to get deep enough in most cases. That said, if you ever get the chance to hear Deb Mastaler talk, do it. At the SBMU conferences back in ‘08, she did full 45- and 90-minute link building workshops that were absolute gold.
By Colette Chamberland on Mar 17, 2010 | Reply
Actually, I love this article, you know why? Because before I got into real estate, I was in web development for 15 years. Go ahead NAR, give my competition the edge it needs
By Geordie Romer on Mar 18, 2010 | Reply
Matt – I’d love to see you get a little more involved in what some of us call the “re.net”.
Keynote at a rebarcamp or two?
Write posts for geekestateblog.com?
I can’t tell you how many times I mentioned this blog at SXSW last week. I think you might need to give me some cards to hand out at events for you
By Matt McGee on Mar 18, 2010 | Reply
Hey Geordie – I guess a big THANKS is in order first for your promotion efforts last week.
Not sure what I’ve done to deserve that, but thank you.
I don’t know much about rebarcamp or the geekestateblog.com that you mentioned, but I’m generally open to speaking, blogging, and other opportunities like that. I get busy sometimes and can’t do much, but if things fit my schedule, I’m usually pretty open to that kind of stuff. If you have something specific in mind, let me know.
By Geordie Romer on Mar 20, 2010 | Reply
Matt-
The rebarcamp movement is a series of 1 day free conferences for real estate geeks and newbies to share info. Yesterday was the most recent Seattle event. You can learn more at http://www.rebarcamp.com and I’ll try and rope you into the next Seattle event.
http://www.geekestateblog.com is a real estate tech site and I know they would LOVE to have you guest post. Mike Price is the guy to talk to. mprice at mlbroadcast.com
By Bryon on Mar 20, 2010 | Reply
Matt, I came across this entry looking for what new things are available in real estate and the internet webs. I have read a little about keywords and for the most part I understand that these things are important for search engines to find your listings (and find them first!). I am also playing around with a wizard making tool I was told about by a young man I met at a technology conference here in Chicago. The idea seemed interesting, the tool lets you build a plan of any kind and then publish it to the world and your clientelle. Somehow it takes care of making my wizard available on search engines with the keywords I choose. I have started on a plan for selling real estate property here in Chicago. The link address http://www.mypopproject.com/o/v/publish/read.php?id=12 will take you to the introductory page of this plan.
By Andrew Mooers on Mar 28, 2010 | Reply
At the 30 year mark in real estate sales, I see two situations. ONE the technology gap with real estate brokers, agents is getting wider and many just want to throw $4000 at the problem and forget content, daily riding the blog bike, posting video new fresh content that SE reward if formatted, written right. And buyers want, are starved, thirst for it. TWO the area is needing to be marketed as the buyer is not in our backyard anymore and way way beyond the town line. Many agents, brokers just post a few images shot with gobs of vaseline on the lens, same old one size fits all (BAGGY) copy about nice this, nice that and how great the agent is. SEO is great but what’s being peddled, sold and the message — how it is being created just as important as the signal/platform it rides on. Granular, short and long tail…the average agent has no clue.
By Jim Schibly on Mar 30, 2010 | Reply
Very solid advice – I would strongly suggest that backlinking is important but only a fraction of what it takes to get ranked – good solid content on your site and article and video submissions to popular directories will do more to get backlinks and drive traffic to your site
By David Hood on Apr 23, 2010 | Reply
I agree that keyword density is an out dated concept when trying to get page rank for certain keywords. I think the same is true for Meta tags when it comes to getting page rank for keywords. The future IMO is long tailed get words specific your listing address or MLS number.
By Christopher Ronk on May 31, 2010 | Reply
Hi Matt,
Thank you for one of the more honest articles on the subject real estate SEO.
One piece of advice that I tell all of my clients is that you cannot fool Google. They know exactly what you are up to. If you want be ranked high in Google, you need to be a trustworthy business that is active in your community and build real relationships with other websites.
You should hear some of the responses I get.
By John Jones on Jun 17, 2010 | Reply
@David Hood – I’ve had many clients be more successful with their long tail terms than their short tail terms. Even though they do well for both short and long terms, they get far more traffic from the many long tail terms.
Long tail also almost always means that the interested party knows exactly what they want and are closer to the buying / contact point them someone typing in something much more general.
By Ted on Jul 11, 2010 | Reply
I like to comment on this but it sounds like you already made up your mind. There is a lot of truth to the advice on here but it isn’t worded the right way. Actually, if you put any more than 40% keyword density it gets a little dicey. Ive been able to push a site from scratch past 30 million sites in 6 days.
By Cheryl Waller on Jul 12, 2010 | Reply
It seems the author used expert quotes to back up her ‘opinions’. HER opinion in this sentence: “One way to do this is by making thoughtful comments on real estate blogs and leaving your link as part of your blog post.” turns my advice into advice to ‘BLOG SPAM’.
I agree with Matt on his take of the advice in this article. Like Misty, I am offended that the statement in the article appears as if it is advice from me.
The article reflects badly on my reputation (and apparently also on other quoted experts) and gives bad advice to an industry in serious need of sound SEO advice.
That’s not very ‘thoughtful’ either. Thanks NAR! Way to go!
By Jennifer Giraldi on Jul 17, 2010 | Reply
Awesome article Matt, I remember that exact same article you are talking about as some of the agents interviewed were from the Atlanta market and my direct competition. One thing you have to look at was the purpose of this article. 99% of Realtors reading it have no idea what any of that means anyway, so I would not put that much stock into it. Most agents still do reciprical linking still.
By Tim Makelaar on Jul 22, 2010 | Reply
Well, you’re a little bit harsh don’t you think? The writer actually makes a few good points, although they’re a bit traditional. I mean, I didn’t read anything about link bait, which still is the best way to get links..