I had an opportunity recently to speak with Jeff Bernheisel (@JBern) who is the the Marketing Director for M Realty in Portland. Jeff has a proven track record for Search Engine Optimization results for his company when it comes to VERY competitive search terms like “Portland Real Estate”.

Jeff has built several websites that dominate Google including one that was dedicated to the ever popular Angry Birds game! In less than 5 months he ranked the site in the top 5 results of Google for the search term “Angry Birds”, in the process generating 20,000-30,000 hits a day!

I wanted Jeff to share in our interview some of his best SEO tips and how agents can achieve comparable results in their own market.

(Can’t view the video? Click here)

My takeaway? Content and links are king.

Angry Birds, Viagra and real estate SEO all in one interview. Surely worthy of 3 golden eggs.

I hope you enjoy our chat and if you have any specific questions for Jeff after watching feel free to leave those in the comments below.

Chris Smith, Chief Evangelist, Inman News, @chris_smth

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Guest blog post by Daniel Weisman

The question on everyone’s mind these days is, “how can I use SEO to get more rental bookings?”

The idea of Search Engine Optimization is that ranking highly in search results will lead to increased traffic and sales. While reaching the top of the Google search results seems to require black magic, keep in mind that it’s magic you already know: promotion. Doing SEO for vacation rentals and real estate mainly requires applying the promotional skills you already have to the tools available on the web.

The original references for all things SEO can be found here and here. For an approach tailored to vacation rental marketing, here are 5 steps to creating an SEO strategy:

1. Define Your Goals

As with any marketing campaign, SEO requires clear goals in order for you to work at it effectively, assess your results, and develop your strategy. Remember: Your ultimate goal is to book more rentals and increase your bottom line; NOT to be number one on Google.

The value of the #1 is intangible, but ROI is a reliable metric of success. Keep track of the time and money you spend on your SEO efforts, and you will be able to calculate the return on the campaign based on increased bookings.

Good SEO Goals:

• More bookings from search results
• Increased site traffic
• Lower bounce rate

2. Build a Website

You can’t have SEO if you don’t have a website! If you’re starting online marketing from scratch, then the first thing that you’re going to want to do is build a website. For vacation rental owners and property managers, Web Chalet, a new company, provides hosting and industry-specific site templates. Their product provides a quick and easy way to get all of your important information on a website with your own domain name and branding. For those who want more customization, wordpress.org offers a free solution for building robust websites.

Think of a website like a shop. You want a great location (domain name), an attractive façade (design), and a great product. Choose an address that’s easy for people and search engines to find. For example, if Paul owns a vacation property in Lake George, then he will be better off with a domain name like LakeGeorgeVacationRental.com rather than PaulsPlace.com. Be obvious and descriptive, and make it clear exactly what your site has to offer.

In addition to making your shop easy to find, you also want to make it inviting and pleasant. Make your site easy for people to navigate and you will be rewarded with love from the search engines and bookings. In their webmaster guidelines, Google esplains, “Create a useful, information-rich site, and write pages that clearly and accurately describe your content.” Keep things simple with clear content and easy navigation.

While we’re on the subject of building sites, we should talk about keywords. Keywords are the phrases that people search to find your site. Before you create any content for your site, think about the keywords that potential customers would use to find you. If I were searching for a rental in Lake George, than I would probably enter “Lake George vacation rentals,” or “Lake George cabins.” These keyword phrases are much narrower than a term like, “vacation rentals,” and they target more relevant traffic. You can do keyword research on Google by using the wonder wheel and related searches tools.

3. Provide Valuable Content

Search engines try to provide users with the best inforamtion, so make sure your site contains highly relevant, up-to-date content. Be sure to include a well-written description of your rental, high-quality photos, an availability calendar, guest testimonials, area information, pricing, and contact information. It’s also a good idea to keep a blog on your site with regular updates about the property, changes and improvements, area news, and special offers. The search engines like to see that a site is actively maintained.

If you already list your vacation rental on sites like FlipKey, then you may not need to create and update entirely new content for your site. FlipKey provides owners with widgets that display the booking calendar and guest reviews, among other tools. You can easily install these widgets on your site and keep all of your information up to date just by managing your FlipKey account.

4. Promote Yourself and Your Site

Even the best shop can fail if no one knows about it. You need to go out and do the legwork to get other websites talking about your site. Most of all, you want to get other websites to link to you. The search engines see these links back to your site and have an easier time finding your content. How do you get people talking?

Listing Sites

Most listing sites, like FlipKey, will provide you with a link to your personal website. You want to list on some of these sites anyway, so make sure that you take advantage of their authority and provide them with a link to your site.

Chambers of Commerce

Chamber of Commerce sites are good places to get noticed on the web. Join your local Chamber and make sure that they include a link to your website in their accommodations section.

Destination Marketing Organizations

Find the local destination marketing or visitor and convention bureau website and see what the options are for getting your site listed. Sometimes all you have to do is ask. You may also find local travel guide sites and directories – if they are ranked highly in search results, then it’s worth talking to them about getting a link to your site.

Local Bloggers

Bloggers are a tougher community to crack, but also a valuable community to be a part of. Think of blogs as your shop’s neighbors. Many of your customers are going to have lunch at the restaurant next door and then ask for a recommendation for a place to shop in the afternoon. If you’re friends with the maître d’, then he’ll recommend your store and not your competitor’s. Get to know the bloggers who write about your area and they will be happy to recommend you to their readers.

Social Media

As I wrote in my article on Social Media for Vacation Rental marketing, Facebook and Twitter are great platforms for promoting your property. As with bloggers, these sites are all about being social and not about hard-selling. Claim a Twitter handle and a Facebook page and get involved in conversations that interest you. You’ll meet some interesting people and find some great supporters to spread the word about your awesome rental.

5. Track Your Progress and Adapt

Finally, make sure you’re tracking your progress. There are plenty of tools available for keeping track of website traffic, but the industry gold standard is Google Analytics. You can create a free account and install Analytics on your website just by following Google’s instructions.

Once you have Analytics up and running, it’s easy to get carried away with the numbers. If you want to see how your SEO efforts are doing, then you will want to pay attention to the Search Engine traffic, which you can find under “traffic sources.” There’s a lot of information to take in here, but if you see the traffic generally trending upwards, you’re on the right track!

About the author: Daniel Weisman is a Social Media Specialist at FlipKey.com, which features more than 100,000 vacation rental properties around the world.  You can read more of his writing on The FlipKey Blog and connect with him on Twitter @flipkey.

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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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Guest post by: Matthew Smith, Public Online Marketing, Dell

Go ahead and open Google and search for “your city” real estate agent. You should see an image like this:

These results you are seeing are called Google local results. They are local businesses in the area Google thinks matches whatever term you just searched for. As you look over these results think to yourself, do you see your real estate company or your competitors? If you don’t see your company, you are missing out on a free opportunity to attract leads. To give you an example of what you are missing out on the word “Austin real estate agent” is searched 210 times in Google every month!

In this article we will teach you how you can rank for your local terms to and attract those potential customers over your competitors. We will first cover how to get listed in Google local and then how to rank above your competitors.

Firstly you need to go to Google Local. To register your business you will need a Google account so create a free one if you have not already. Once your account is created, you will be taken to a screen that asks for your country and telephone number. Make sure to put the phone number you would like listed in Google maps. Google may actually call this number to verify the business listing and this number will be shown in the Google local map. Once you have inputted your phone number, Google will check to make sure that number isn’t already associated with another account; if it is not you will be taken to this screen to create your business listing.

Company – Simply add your business name.

Street Address – Here you want to add the address of your business. If you do not have a physical address you can actually just put your home address and set Google local not show your address on the maps.

Main Phone – This is the phone number you want your customers to call when they see your listing.

Website – Just put your normal website.

Description – In this space you want to add a description of your business that includes the city you are targeting. So for my example I am targeting Austin real estate agents. Therefore in my description I said we provide the best Austin real estate agents in the area. This inclusion of “Austin” tells Google that my listing is specifically related to that search. Think of it like this if you searched online for Austin Texas Pizza you wouldn’t want to be shown pizza places in Dallas. Saying your local area in the description helps show users and Google what your businesses focus is.

Category – Here you want to add the 5 best related categories. So for the first category you would most likely put Real Estate Agency.

Service Ares and Location Settings – Here is where you will set what geographic areas you serve. I mentioned in address that you could turn off your location, and this can be done by checking that do not show my business listing box.

However, only set that if you do not have a physical location. You should always set your areas served or distance from one location. If you type your zip code in the distance you can actually pin point a geographic area you work in. That way you can ensure your listing is only being shown to people that live in the general area as you.

Hours of Operation – You do not need to put your hours of operation unless you want to. However, if you do have specific hours and a physical location people can visit I would add it.

Photos – Here is one of the tricks to ranking well in Google local. You need to add business photos. This can be as simple as your logo, the geographic area you serve, or anything real estate related. If you look at the first image in this article you will see a few of the listing show fancy buildings. You want this image to pop and make your listing stand out. Google also likes listing a lot more that have pictures versus those who don’t. I would recommend adding at least 3 pictures to your page.

Videos – Another trick to help you rank in Google local is to add videos to your business listing. A great video would be to quickly film your building and your interior space and then upload it to YouTube. You need to understand that Google wants to show local listings that actually appeal to customers. They do not want to show a local listing that has no profile flare or information people will find interesting.

Additional Details – Here you will add a few additional details about your business. These little additional details actually help you rank in Google local so it is important to complete. For my real estate example I added “Real Estate Areas Served” and then added “Austin” you could then add it additional area you serve.

Once you have added all these details you can click submit at the bottom of the screen. This will then bring up a few verification methods. Google will sometimes offer a verify by phone method. This method is the easiest and involves Google calling your phone and giving you a code that you input into the verification box. However, the other method is to verify by postcard. In this method they will send a postcard to your physical address that you will need to input. Once you verify your listing by one of these two methods you are ready to go.

So now you have your listing created let me quickly cover once method you can now quickly implement to get ranking in Google. If you look at a local result you will see reviews next to most listings. Your goal is to get just as many if not more reviews then your competitors. What you can do is contact any customer you worked with in the past that you had a rapport with and ask them to review your business. I would recommend emailing them and following up with purchase, also add in how much you enjoyed working with them. At the end of that email you will add your business listing link so that they can easily go and review your business. The goal is to make the review process as easy as possible. You do not want to burden your web reviewer but you want to encourage them to give you honest reviews. Once you start getting the reviews your rankings will increase along with customer trust.

This is just the beginning of what it takes to outrank your competitors and drive leads. If you would like more information or have any questions please feel free to email me at matt@theseovoice.com . You can also visit me online for free seo tips and more.

About the author: Matthew Smith has been working professionally in the SEO industry for over five years – working for both small and large SEO firms and now work at Dell doing what he loves. Matthew can be contacted on Twitter @smith_matthew or on LinkedIn.

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Guest post by Joe Salcedo with Chase International in Reno, Nevada.

Imagine a business – a real world business – that offers ABC service, where “ABC” is something very specific and unambiguous.  Whenever this new business introduces themselves to new clients, they always explain “we’re in the ABC business” or “we offer ABC” and the text on their website, print marketing and elsewhere reflects this.

Now consider that this business has competitors.

Likely, thousands of them and all those competitors are also saying “we’re in the ABC business” because, well, that is THE way to describe what they’re offering.

At that point, the company that owns ABC.com or ABC.appropriateCCTLD (country code top level domain) has a MASSIVE advantage.

Never in the history of real estate can an unknown agent catapult herself into the arms of a pre-determined market need.

This is where prime real estate domains give you unprecedented edge, because these terms are what home buyers are searching for via search engines.

After all, their URL matches what they do, so whenever somebody sees the URL they already know what service they can expect to find there. There’s no need to start the marketing dialogue with “We’re coined-brand-name, and we offer ABC”.  Suddenly, you’ve slashed your marketing budget, as you’re piggybacking on the “train of thought” of their new and existing customers, who are looking for a company that offers “ABC”. 

In 2007, a very well known and respected agent in Reno ushered me into her office to prod me why I wasn’t advertising at Homes and Land.  She told me that people needed to know about the brand “Joe Salcedo” and if people didn’t know I was still in the market, how can they do business with me. She made sense; problem was it costs $800 to get a full page ad that ran for only two months.  I didn’t have a budget but it got me thinking: “in the presence of our colleagues here in the office there’s no way I could compete with the brand of this well known, loved and respected agent, but outside our office doors she really didn’t have much of an advantage over me.  Nobody really knew who we were.”

That same day, I dropped all my print advertising and marketing projects and decided to go all-or- nothing in building my online presence.  My goal was to build my brand, at the same time target generic real estate searches that buyers typed in search engines. 

My plan was three-fold:

1. Research what my potential buyers were actively searching for
2. Build remarkable content around it
3. Make every effort for people to find it.

Hence, my first site: “A Reno real estate agent who lost $50,000 is on a mission to understand the market just a little bit better.”    I wrote every day and pretended that people were actually reading it.  I researched about keywords, links and later on invested in a new site design.  It took me a year before I got the leads; but boy was it quality.

But one thing I learned that I wish I knew when I started: invest in the best domain you can find. It’s worth it.  It’s market defining.  It’s instant respect.  And because a successful real estate site is achieved through great content and marketing it, a solid domain name can cut your marketing expenses by half.

It’s also important never to lose sight of the fact that a URL is not just useful online. It could be used to show up in TV and radio ads, newspaper and magazine ads, press releases, news stories, on invoices and packing slips, on the side of vans and fleet vehicles, on billboards and posters, and in potentially hundreds of other distinct types of location.

In every single instance, it will be easier for a new customer (who’s got the idea of needing ABC in the back of their mind) to remember ABC.com/ABC.cctld than ANY other conceivable URL! Basically, you’re dropping the seven repetitions that are typically needed to make a marketing message sink in down to one.

How to search for demand:

• Seobook keyword suggestion tool (free, but requires registration).
• Google adwords tool
  

Note: real world testing is a lot better, these tools could give misleading numbers.

Here’s where you can start finding domains

• Godaddy.com (sometimes you can still find decent domains for $9, only for low to medium competitive markets)
• Robert Schilling’s massive inventory (expensive but he has some of the best names in the business. Reno realestate.net’s asking price was $24,000)
• Sedo.com (has some good names for reasonable prices.  Most of the names you can bid on)
• Buydomains.com (good secondary market seller.  Can give great discounts if company owns the name)
• Afternic.com (can help you search for the sellers who owns domains you like)
• Memorable domains (some of the best .co.uk domain names for $2,000)

Additional thoughts:

• Let the domain age. Start building now. Put up a basic WordPress site, host it on your host server (like pair.com), put up decent content and point a dozen links to it (directory and blogs).  Google trusts older domains.
• If you’re curious what American Real Estate terms are usually searched for: (city name and area precedes these terms):    “__Homes”, “ _____Real Estate”, “ _______Homes For Sale.”  “Real Estate” seems to be the most expensive and sought after.
• In moderately competitive markets you don’t necessarily have to invest in generic real estate terms.  In many low to medium competitive markets you can build a branded name and point targeted links to it (“Boise Foreclosures Guy”).  And that could pull rank.
• Long tail keywords (“Reno Short Sale Expert”) are the most profitable and easy to rank for.

In conclusion, real estate has been depressed the past 4 years. Realtors and brokers are gun shy and have remained passive in their marketing.  Now is the time to search for good deals.  I just bought a Nevada related major keyword for less than $700.  It has an estimated 800 searches a day on Google alone (broad search).  Even at less than 10% of that volume, I still can get 80 searches/day on just one keyword.

About the author: Joe is more fascinated with business models than supermodels.  He writes for a Reno real estate blog since 2007 and is currently experimenting on his brand new domain Lake Tahoe Real Estate.

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A couple days ago, Dustin’s post on Rain City Guide caused quite a stir amongst Real Estate bloggers (myself included) who became concerned about double-posting their content on more than one blog. I had been updating my ActiveRain blog with posts from this site, which may or may not have affected my standing in Google’s search engine.

Google’s Page Rank is critical to a blogger, or any webmaster for that matter, as it determines how highly your site is placed in any organic search results. Tweaking your site for maximum SEO (Search Engine Optimization) can be a complex process, and is one that has spawned an entire cottage industry of consultants and companies that claim they can help you do it.

I won’t dive into the specifics of good SEO techniques, as this is a topic that has been more than ably covered on a number of other blogs – but I will share a couple of tools that I discovered recently that may be able to help you keep an eye on your ranking.

1. Google’s Site Status Wizard is part of their newly launched Webmaster Central, and allows you to find out whether your site is currently being indexed by Google’s spiders. It also gives you a number of diagnostic and statistics on your placement in Google’s index.
2. In a similar vein, Yahoo!’s Publisher Network recently rolled out Yahoo! Site Explorer (accessible only with a Publisher account), which allows you to manage how Yahoo Search sees your URI and RSS feed.

Both are incredibly valuable tools, that will only continue to grow even more so over time. Since I have only just set up my site, many of the statistical functions were not live yet for my domain – but I imagine these will be very helpful in tweaking my site in the months to come.

One caveat, Site Status Wizard and Site Explorer both require that you authenticate yourself as the owner of the URI which you submitted. This required uploading a small file or META tag to my domain, so that the search engines could verify I was who I said I was. Bloggers who host their sites on hosted blogging platforms like Blogger or Wordpress.com may find they have some trouble doing this however.

So, the next time you have a mild panic attack about your search engine ranking with Google or Yahoo! – don’t worry. Reassure yourself on where you stand using either of these two tools.

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