Guest blog post by Nathaniel Broughton

For the last 2 years, Google and Bing (the only search engines that matter) have become more aggressive in “suggesting” what keywords a user should search.

Picture this scenario.  You’re sitting with the cursor in your favorite search engine’s search bar.  You begin to type . . . and within a few characters, up pops a short list of suggested, bolded keywords to complete your query.  That’s Google or Bing guessing what it is they think you’re likely searching.

What are these suggest terms based on?  What does it mean for your business?

Google’s suggest terms are influenced by the popularity of keyword search phrases.  They aggregate this data and deliver the most common terms used.  For example, if you start typing “r-e-a” into the search bar, there are a few keywords that most people tend to complete their search phrase with.

“realtor.com” is a top suggest keyword in Bing.  “real estate” is a top suggest keyword in Google.

For businesses, brands, and even individual people, it gets more interesting.  It’s important to first be aware of the suggested keywords that searchers are seeing.  Search suggest is creating a new search environment for any business or professional online.

If you ignore it, you’re missing out on opportunities to drive new traffic, position yourself as an authority, and ultimately make more money.

Search Suggest Changes What People Search

First, consider how it can drastically change what people search.  When this was introduced in 2009, my mortgage bank saw some keyword searches explode.  Others completely fell off.  This happened for both generic searches around our services, and for searches on our company name specifically.

With all agents and brokers generating business from the web these days, you understand the value of both types of searches.  Say you are an agent in Newport Beach.  With search suggest, “Newport beach hom” typed into the search bar brings up the following suggest terms in Google.

Notice “Newport beach home tour” listed there.  Certainly, this keyword saw a spike in the number of times it was searched once it made the suggest list.

This is an immediate opportunity for an agent in that area to begin proactively marketing for that keyword.  Whereas in the past, hosting a page and ranking for “Newport beach home tour” might drive marginal traffic, with it as a suggested keyword it might now be worth thousands more visitors each month.

Marketing Your Brand in New Ways
Let’s look at another example.  This time one centered on an individual agent’s name.  I recently worked with an agent in La Jolla to find my home.  Her name is Meg Lebastchi.  When I go to Google and type in her name, here’s what I get in suggest:

Notice the 3rd keyword on the list: “meg lebastchi la jolla”.

If I’ve just heard about Meg from a friend, I’m going to look her up.  Since I know I’m looking to live in La Jolla, when I see that keyword suggested as I start typing her name I’m likely to click on it.  (If nothing else, I’m much more likely to use that as my search phrase than I was previously).

While Meg has a decent set of results when you search this exact phrase, as a marketer I see this as a ripe opportunity for her to do something even more.  She could register meglebastchilajolla.com for $8, and put up a simple website with her brand, picture, and her listings.

“meg lebastchi la jolla” is not a competitive keyword.  Many agents are out there competing on very hard keywords like “san diego homes for sale”.  This is low hanging fruit!  Hosting a website on meglebastchilajolla.com and doing some simple SEO will earn her a top ranking in a short time.  

Doing so would allow Meg to have more control over what a user sees when they go searching for her name.  Instead of a profile page on a national or company website, imagine what she could have an entire site dedicated to her.  It’s a chance to show a potential client like me how she’s the best agent in La Jolla.  Testimonials, pictures of her listings, and maybe some blog posts she’s written lately.

I think there are an unlimited number of opportunities like this for agents across the country.  Google and Bing are changing what people search for around your name, and your service area.  If you pay attention to it, you’ll find cheap, uncompetitive marketing opportunities to grab more business.

How Search Suggest Defines Your “Internet Reputation”
Another interesting aspect that has arisen from the introduction of search suggest relates to reputation management.  You should monitor this not only for opportunities to promote yourself, but also to recognize what customers might see about your reputation.

Truly, what are the suggest terms for your company name?  What are they for your individual name?  Do you know?

You might be surprised to learn that some common suggested terms are “reviews” and “complaints”.  As in, “yourcompany.com complaints”.  Hmm, as a business owner I’m not too excited about that.  But I also understand that you can’t please every customer.  If you’re in business, someone’s probably got a complaint right?
What you can do is be proactive about it.  Just the likelihood of someone searching “yourcompany.com complaint” jumps exponentially when that term gets suggested.

Imagine you’ve heard about a company from a friend.  Or you’ve seen an ad on them.  Or you’ve already started doing business with them, and the next time you go to find their site, you start typing the company name into the Google search bar.

On the list of suggested keywords is “company complaints”.  Wait, what?  People have had complaints?  I want to read them.  I want to see if working with them is still a good idea.  Whereas 10 seconds ago this would not have been my search, now it is.  This is why it matters so much.

Step one is to do these searches on your own and see what’s ranking in the results.  Usually it is a mashup of your own website, some third party review sites like a Yelp.com or the BBB, and maybe a blog or two.

Are you happy with what comes up?  There certainly are a lot of things you can do to proactively manage these search results.

For your own website, you might start incorporating these keywords into new or existing pages.  I’m sure you have a testimonials page.  But a complaint page?  By housing a page on your site about complaints – that has “complaints” in the URL and in the title tag – you’ll likely rank highly for a search on “yourcompany.com complaint”.

It’s better to participate in the conversation than be outside it.  On your own site, you can have a comment box that allows visitors or customers to leave a complaint.  And you can be right there to respond to them to see how it can be rectified.  The whole conversation is published right there for future visitors to see.

While no one likes complaints on their business, most people understand that they do happen.  Seeing a company honestly responding to, and trying to rectify, complaints, is a good sign in my book.

Another easy action to take is to try and monitor the 3rd party sites and be active on them.  If someone is bashing you on Yelp, get on there and have a voice.  Deflate the situation.  Let them know you care.

You might also reach back to the Meg example, and register domain names that match the search suggest terms.  We did that with our mortgage bank.  After seeing ‘vamortgagecenter reviews’ added to the search suggest box (and the # of searches for it going up 14x), we registered vamortgagecenterreviews.com.  We built a simple website that allowed people to leave reviews of our services.  It’s worked out great – and ranks #5 for that search.

There’s no question that search suggest is a powerful determinant of what users search each time they head to Google or Bing.  As a professional, you are well-served to be aware of these terms as they change over time.  The steps required to both take advantage of new marketing opportunities and to monitor your reputation in the search results are not difficult.  Just stay aware, and stay ahead of the game.  You’ll find ongoing opportunities to better your business from search engines that others will miss.

About the author: Nathaniel Broughton @natebro is a veteran internet marketer who’s helped produce three Inc 500 winning companies.  He is the owner of Growth Partner Capital, a venture fund with services in SEO consulting, online reputation management, and premium link building.

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Even in today’s social world of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, text messaging and blogs – one of the best ways to still reach someone is through email. Have you ever had an open house and couldn’t find a business card a potential buyer handed handed you or couldn’t read the handwriting of the person who signed in? Sure you could search them out via Google or even on social media, but sometimes actually finding someone’s email can be challenging at best.

I just discovered Peepmail, the brainchild of Samy Kamkar (@samykamkar)

Peepmail is a search engine that delivers someone’s business e-mail, even if that e-mail address is not published publicly. Peepmail has a super simple interface. To use it, just enter the person’s name and the business domain where they work.

It doesn’t work 100% of the time – when I plugged in a few Inman News team members it didn’t pull us up but other domains worked just fine. I will definitely bookmark this site next time I need to try to reach someone and can’t quite figure out where there business card went or where their contact info is.

Have you tried this? I’d love your feedback, leave me a comment below!

Written by: Katie Lance, Social Media Director, Inman News, @katielance

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Recently, I googled “Google for real estate professionals” and came across this page on Google for real estate agents! Google truly has some fantastic (and FREE applications what can enhance any agent or broker’s business.)

Here are my top 9 favorite Google products for real estate agents:

1. Google Maps

• Google offers a free service that lets you make your listings easier for home-buyers and real estate agents to find when they look for properties on Google.com.

2. Submit listings to Google.

• By providing your real estate listings to Google, you will broaden your distribution and receive free traffic and leads through natural search results on Google properties. Real estate search results will be displayed on Google Maps, allowing users to immediately zero in on the neighborhoods most attractive to them.

3. Google Maps API.

• You can also place interactive maps on your own website using the Google Maps API. Display your listings on detailed maps and satellite imagery and give your users a visual, intuitive way to find the property that is right for them. Also, use the Google Maps API to show the location of your office and provide directions to your door.

4. Google Earth

• Give your agents and clients the power of 3D satellite imagery with Google Earth Pro. Exceeding 200 million downloads, Google Earth has redefined the way people interact with real estate and property information. Publish your listings in Google Earth’s KML data format to expose them to a new, sophisticated audience. Also, give your company the ability to research and present property information overlaid with school districts, parks, roads and business listings.

5. List your business on Google Places

• Over one-third of people looking for real estate information on Google are searching for agents or brokers. You want your name and address to be displayed when they search. Google Places gives real estate professionals an easy way to submit business listings. Submit multiple locations with a data file and conveniently manage and control listings.

6. Market homes in 3D with Google SketchUp

• Google SketchUp Pro is a deceptively simple, amazingly powerful tool for creating, presenting, and modifying 3D models. Model your properties in Google SketchUp and give your clients a 3D view. Enhance your website listing by using the animation capability of Google SketchUp Pro. Allow customers to freely explore the home, community and its surroundings in 3D. You can also use Google SketchUp Pro to print to high-resolution devices, place your models in Google Earth, and post them to the 3D Warehouse.

7. Gmail and Google Apps

• Communicating with colleagues, clients and other agents is essential to every real estate professional. Google offers a package of simple and powerful tools that you can use to communicate and collaborate more effectively, for less. Google Apps includes fully customized email addresses with plenty of storage, instant messaging, sharable calendars, tools for sharing and collaborating on documents and spreadsheets, and even collaborative wikis. What’s more, you can access these services and all of your information wherever you are — at your own desk, on other internet-connected computers, and even while you’re on the road with your mobile device. Best of all, there’s no special hardware or software required, so you can be up and running with Google Apps with minimal hassles.

8. Create a Google profile

• When you’ve created a business based on your name, you want to be easily discoverable. Creating a Google profile makes it easier for prospects and partners to find you because Google profile results appear at the bottom of U.S. name-query search pages. Your profile can include photos, information about your real estate business, and ways for people to contact you. Turn on the ‘Send a message’ feature, and anyone with a Google Account can send you a message through your profile, without having your email address revealed to them.

9. Create a YouTube channel to showcase your listings

• Allow your listings to sell themselves and give home buyers the ability to pre-screen potential homes before they contact you by creating a YouTube channel. YouTube actually reaches the specific audiences you are looking to reach: real estate buyers and sellers. Did you know that YouTube viewers are 90% more likely to obtain information about real estate online than the average American?

Google sure has come a long way!

This is a great video I found a few days ago – a 2 minute look back over the last 11 years of Google. I wonder what is NEXT for this super-search giant!

The Google Story (can’t view the video, click here)

What is your favorite thing about Google? Leave me a comment below!

Written by: Katie Lance, Marketing Manager, Inman News, @katielance

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Today’s ‘Fun Friday’ blog post is dedicated to some of the coolest and most interesting articles (in my opinion) that I came across this week.  Interesting to note – all of these stories were stories that came through my Twitter feed this week.

I am constantly inspired by the amount of knowledge that I see day in and day out throughout social media and industry blogs. As a real estate agent – I hope you find one or two great nuggets of info that will help you and your business!

Social Media

Social Media Use on the Rise in TV Newsrooms
‘What Social Media Will Look Like in 2012′
Foursquare’s New Policy On Fake Check-ins: Shoot To Kill

Twitter/ Facebook

Explaining Twitter to Those Who Don’t Get It
How To: Find Killer Twitter Content To Tweet
50 Clever, Hilarious and Geeky Twitter T-Shirts
4 Facebook Apps Add Professionalism to Your Profile

Gen X/Gen Y

10 Things Generation Y will not pay for
Adapting to Gen X, Y clients – Today’s agents must drop the ‘expert’ approach

Mobile

Twitter CEO (Evan Williams) Explains Twitter’s Move Into Mobile Apps
Apple To Help Early iPad Adopters Kick Start Campaign

Blogging (disclosure: these 2 links below are my blog posts – but thought they would be good to add to this list in case you missed them this week!)

25 Killer Resources – Blog Content for Realtors
5 Elements to a Successful Real Estate Agent Blog

Google/Online Search

10 Simple Google Search Tricks
5 Ways to Leverage Real Time Search in Your Online Marketing Mix

Would love your feedback – leave me a comment below!

Written by: Katie Lance, Marketing Manager, Inman News

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Last week I stumbled across a really interesting and easy-to-use personalized search plugin – Kikin.

Kikin, plugin you download for your browser, was launched in late 2009 and is still in beta form. When you search on Google, Bing or Yahoo – in addition to your regular search results, it will also aggregate relevant content from: Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Google Reader, iTunes, eBay and/or Amazon.

Although Google is beginning to aggregate social media into its search parameters – what is different about Kikin is that you see results from YOUR streams – which means you are getting richer, personal and more relevant search results.

Here’s a screen shot from a search I did with the word “news”:

Who wouldn’t prefer the recommendations of friends through Facebook or Twitter over results returned by a search engine?

There’s a few things I really like about Kikin:

1. It’s compatible with Firefox, Safari and IE (Chrome coming soon)
2. Quick download. It took just seconds to download it and I instantly start using it.
3. Re-tweet function. Within the twitter stream you can instantly re-tweet something.
4. Customize Twitter stream. You can opt to view just your Twitter stream or all tweets.
5. Facebook news stream. Kikin connects with your news feed via Facebook Connect.

I also really like that you can easily moderate what content you want to see and which content isn’t useful to you.

You may not be interested in results from eBay for your searches, which you can disable (of course, it will still show up in your Google results). And if you tire of Kikin’s results, you can easily minimize the pane. It will interesting as Kikin moves out of it’s beta phase to see what kind of impact this may have on real estate home searches or agent searches.

For fun, I typed in ‘Realtor’ into Google using Kikin, and this Twitter post came up:

“If the realtor & her client next to us each stopped answering incoming cell calls they might get their biz mtg finished. Weird. Rude. Unpro.”

I also typed in ‘Realtor Bay Area’ and from iTunes dozens of real estate podcasts came up! from ReMax and Prudential. Interesting!

The bottom line is this: search is becoming more and more personalized and relevant. Not only that, but Kikin makes perfect use of how so many of us interact on the web – we surf from one site to another looking for prices, reviews, etc.

I’m looking forward to seeing how this company evolves!

What do you think? Would love your feedback, please leave me a comment below!

Written by Katie Lance, Marketing Manager, Inman News

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Trulia released its API this morning, simultaneously sparking a whole new business model (the mashup of a mashup) and thus introducing in others a whole new level of self-doubt and period of intense philosophical reflection on what it means to be a mashup. (I mash therefore I am?)

I guess this is Real Estate 2.0^2.0.

Trulia’s API provides access primarily to two types of data; local pricing trends and search behavior. Potential developers can find more information on the Trulia API site.

The hope is that the release of their API will spur all kinds of new development. Someone could pair it with the Zillow API, throw in some craigslist feeds and a Flickr photo feed and create the ultimate neighborhood real estate portal, for example.

Not to be outdone on day one, Trulia’s developers held an internal competition and came up with two examples of what can be done with the API. Both are pretty cool.

Truliaholic

I had a lot of fun with this tool. You compare two US cities and produce instant visual comparison of average list price or search popularity. I didn’t really care about search popularity, but comparing list prices in different markets was fun.

Open Challenge to All Readers: Can you find the biggest difference between two markets in the US? (Post your findings in comments)

plotornot.com

Potentially the more statistically useful of the two – but not as visually impactful. Allows you to compare two different data sets from a state (e.g. median household income vs. average listing price) and see how the two relate on a scatter chart and median line.

My favorite search – ‘Does the Average rainfall relate to the Average listing price in Oregon?’ (Apparently not!)

I can’t see many agents taking advantage of Trulia’s API, however it may just be what tech-savvy brokers, who want to add more contextual information to their sites, have been looking for. Unfortunately, the data offerings (avg. price and search popularity) are somewhat limited right now, though I hope to see this expand in the future.

Update: More from Techcrunch.

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Ms. Dewey is a different kind of search engine. Makes Google and Yahoo! feel a little boring. Check it out and you’ll see why. I’m not sure how relevant its search results are – but then again, does it really matter?

[via Chris Pirillo]

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