Real estate leads: a long-tail tale
Realtor Notebook
By Teresa Boardman, Wednesday, August 27, 2008.
The spam and the phone calls just keep coming from those companies that promise to put my blog on page one of Google. I am on page one, and in the number one positions for the keywords that they are trying to sell me, and it isn't as wonderful as it sounds. It makes me look smart but doesn't pay the bills.
Agents who want their sites to come up number one in the search engines may not understand what that really means. It generates traffic, which is good, but it isn't the same as generating revenue. Traffic can be labor intensive, and time has to be spent "capturing leads" that are a challenge to "convert."
When people use Google to do a search they use all sorts of search terms to get what they want. I track the search terms they use to find my blog so that I know what to write about. I want buyers and sellers to contact me so I don't have to spend my time chasing leads.
The best clients I have are not the people who find my site by typing the name of my town and "real estate" or "Realtor." That brings in the woman in South Dakota who calls on the Fourth of July and wants to buy houses for $1 and sell them for a few grand because she watched an infomercial and is looking for an easy way to make money.
There are also assorted crackpots and weirdos from all over the planet who contact me while I am on the freeway trying to keep from getting run over by speeding semis. They ask me questions, and occasionally the questions are real estate-related. To think people pay search-engine-optimization (SEO) experts to improve the visibility of their sites so they can field calls from anyone and everyone about anything!
The best clients come in through the "long-tail" searches. A long-tail search is one that is more obscure and strategic, like "lofts by the Mississippi." The idea behind author Chris Anderson's long-tail theory is that there are endless opportunities in the long tail.
The more obscure keywords that people find my site through are related to niche markets. I sell a certain type of real estate on one side of town that is purchased by persons who represent a specific demographic, which is easier and less expensive than trying to sell everything to anyone.
It is simpler than it sounds, and it doesn't cost a dime. I see some of the Web sites of the people who have paid some big dollars for SEO -- they have little to offer consumers and I'll bet consumers don't stay on them very long, but sometimes long enough to become a possible future client, or a so-called "lead." Some of those sites capture leads, but the conversion rates are very low and working with all of those leads is tedious and time consuming. It is the same business model that the big brokerages seem to use, but they have the staff to deal with the mess and agents to take the leads.
Internet marketing is like any other kind of marketing. If it is strategic instead of generic there is a higher return on investment for each dollar spent. There are a lot of business opportunities in the long tail.
With so many competing for the big generic search terms it isn't hard to dominate a local niche on the Internet, as there are many: neighborhoods, historic homes, senior housing, lofts and investment properties, to name a few.
Most of us cannot provide all types of real estate services to all types of clients, yet often when we market our services on the Internet we strive to be found by everyone, leaving us with more "leads" when what we need are closed sales and dollars.
Teresa Boardman is a broker in St. Paul, Minn., and founder of the St. Paul Real Estate blog.
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Submitted by Judy Peterson on August 28, 2008 - 3:02am.
Teresa - Times must be tough for the SEO guys because the number of calls I get to make my sites number 1 on Google have been increasing. Many come from marketing call centers. I can often hear the sales pitch in the background. There must be enough people who fall for it. But the real gold is in the specific "long tail" search as you point out.
Judy Peterson,
Realtor
Prudential Fox & Roach Realtors
610-889-5509
www.MainLinePaToday.com
Submitted by Lenn Harley on August 28, 2008 - 3:26am.
More agents going on the Internet means more "experts" telling them how to do it meaning more "experts" telling them how to get the public to find what you've done meaning more SEO firms hiring beginners to give the "expert" advice to agents going on the Interent.
What the agents find is that there are no short cuts to SEO and no quick fixes to web sites and no "secrets" to Internet business.
Along the way the agent pay a lot of money to the overnight "experts".
Lenn Harley
Broker
Homefinders.com
http://www.homefinders.com
Submitted by Mack Perry on August 28, 2008 - 3:56am.
Teresa you are so right. An agent in San Diego by the name of Bob Wilson, www.homesalessandiego.com, has been preaching about the long tail searches for years. His site has been on the first page of Google for years for "San Diego Real Estate" yet he will tell you that the most productive traffic to his site comes from the long tail searches.
William M "Mack" Perry
http://www.mackperryhomes.com
Submitted by Catherine Read on August 28, 2008 - 4:20am.
I'm so delighted to see you bring up Chris Anderson's theories about the long-tail in marketing and sales. I've been explaining this to agents for about a year in helping them deliver content through their websites that is highly targeted to specific neighborhoods or even a specific condo development. It is a very effective strategy in reaching consumers with specific interests, and it costs no more to market this way than putting up generic content that fails to deliver information of any value. Thanks so much for bringing this to a wider audience Teresa!
Catherine S. Read
Creative Read, Inc.
Submitted by Lon Cohen on August 28, 2008 - 5:46am.
This is a very good article on the use of the long tail in search. Like many industries (real estate agents and mortgage originators included, of which I used to be one) there is a lot of misinformation and "bad press" out there about what an SEO company or consultants do.
For one, if an SEO company calls you and says we will guarantee a #1 spot on Google (or any) SERP, my advice: Hang up! Run away! This is one of those people who gives SEO a bad name.
SEO is a strategy not a quick fix.
It is part and parcel to marketing, and it is for everyone and also not for everyone. Everyone should practice some good SEO techniques to compete on the web. By virtue, if you have a website, you have taken step number one in SEO. But don't ever think SEO is just about a few keywords and a #1 position.
SEO is about the long tail, it's about linking, it's about creating good content that serves your user and consumer. It's not about capturing and converting leads from a #1 position.
It's about capturing the right kind of leads that and converting them to sales. It's about connecting website, people and businesses. It's about marketing.
Submitted by Tom Sykes on August 28, 2008 - 5:46am.
I couldn't agree more. The 'long-tail' generates a huge amount of search engine referrals to our site. The most conversions come from the more specific searches, rather than the more general ones.
Submitted by Bob Carney on August 28, 2008 - 6:03am.
Amen Sista...
I love turning their sales pitch on them by asking them if they are sitting in front of a computer, now type the term in that you are trying to sell me... Do you see my site on the first page? Thank you have a good day.
Bob Carney
Frederick, MD
REALTOR
http://FocusOnFrederick.com
Submitted by Gahlord Dewald | Thoughtfaucet on August 28, 2008 - 6:09am.
Theresa, this article is going to be required reading for any of my clients who ask me to get them to be "number 1 on Google." They'll believe it from an actual realtor way before they believe it from anyone else.
Thank you very very much for writing this.
G. Dewald | Union Street Media | Internet Marketing Blog for Real Estate
Submitted by Chris Adams on August 28, 2008 - 6:12am.
...the moral of the story?:
...if your phone rings in your car and an SEO wants to SERP your site, you may want to wrap your tail around your wallet.
A small voice form a room full of rocking chairs,
Steven Stearns
www.obeo.com
http://obeoman.blogspot.com
262-325-8687
Submitted by Chris Adams on August 28, 2008 - 6:14am.
Okay, that is "FROM" a room full of rocking chairs...
Steven Stearns
www.obeo.com
http://obeoman.blogspot.com
262-325-8687
Submitted by chris frerecks on August 28, 2008 - 6:16am.
Great post Theresa. It can be difficult to reign some folks in on the idea of the long tail and how it's strategic versus the usual subject topics.
As an example, [understandably it may or may not bring the most qualified leads]: a client told me he wrote up a brand new restaurant in his area. He'll do this from time to time because it not only demonstrates local authority, but enthusiasm for the community's local businesses. As a result, he became relevant in the search engines for this restaurant in his area.
Apparently, the owners had no web presence and folks were searching and finding him. He got a bunch of traffic to his blog, was awarded a listing by some folks who were also in the market for an agent and... the long tail was personified!
In Real Estate, there's such a rich local opportunity to share what you hear, see, know and the overall enthusiasm you have or your marketplace.
Thanks,
Chris :-)
Submitted by Jeremy Brandt on August 28, 2008 - 6:33am.
Great post Teresa, I could not agree with you more. For agents (and any other business owner) web site traffic does not always equal good traffic.
We have found incredible value in the "long tail" of Internet marketing, and specifically avoid high dollar and high traffic keywords that do not produce results.
Our company works with thousands of real estate investors and agents, connecting them with hundreds of thousands of qualified, actionable, ready-to-sell-now, home sellers. That doesn't come from advertising on keywords like "what is my house worth".
For those looking for real research into what works in Internet marketing, I highly recommend MarketingExperiments.com (no affiliation).
Jeremy Brandt
Founder, CEO
1-800-CashOffer
www.CashOffer.com
Submitted by chis eliopoulos on August 28, 2008 - 6:39am.
I cannot believe that this article was not written by an "expert" but by a "simple" working broker. LOL
Teresa thank you for sharing your hands on experience with this article. Articles like this from practitioners have much more value to our industry than volumes from "experts".
Thanks again. Chris
Submitted by Sam Chapman on August 28, 2008 - 7:25am.
You are right on with your post about the long tail. My long tail makes up for over 20% of my website visitors. This is one reason blogging is so important. Blog titles and posts can draw all sorts of long tail hits.
Site Austin homes.
Search Lake Travis Homes.
Read Sam's Austin Real Estate Blog
Submitted by Tim O'Keefe on August 28, 2008 - 9:21am.
Okay allow me if you will to throw some nuance into the discussion.
1. Broad words* get tire kickers or people at the very start of the search with not a clue what or where. Specific words get buyers and sellers.
* Broad gets motivated buyers in the case of a corporate relocation.
2. Long Tail is a deceptive concept because anything can be long tail. "Victorian Houses for sale not next to a refinery with a good school district." Is a long tail word. Not at all useful for anyone however. Why?
No qualifying location amongst other things.
A better more useful approach that lends itself to more meaning to the reader and more organization to the writer is staying specific.
One way that can help you is the journalistic approach of who, what, why, where.
Think of specific in terms of location and type of home. Golf homes in Santa Barbara, Victorian Homes for Sale in the Walteria section of Torrance, Houses for sale on ABC Street in Manhattan Beach, etc.
So when preparing to write you simply come up with location and words that modify that location. County, City, Neighborhood, Development, etc. And words to modify the type of home, Two Level Victorian. Find as many synonyms as possible for each word.
The value of specific words or long tail if you will, is that they are not competitive. Because they are a pain to scale or mass produce.
Thus a Homegain or Trulia are probably not going directly after them, thus they cannot compete with you. (Wonder why they are offering free blogs and platforms? Don't let that noose they are offering bruise you!)
3. Problems with Long Tail or Specifics is that they are time consuming. And they will not always just rank really easy unless you already have good positioning in the larger words. This is for a number of reasons. Mostly to do with link values.
This is probably the biggest diservice in the whole long tail discussion as Anderson did not write the book for SEO methodologies. So his ideas fit somewhat into SEO, but not at all perfectly, especially as you niche down like you would as a Realtor.
Cheers,
Tim O'Keefe
http://www.houseblogger.com
http://www.spiderworkz.com
310 533 9145
Submitted by Steve Mattison ABR e-Pro on August 28, 2008 - 9:39am.
Post and comments were very informative, this is good stuff Tim and all before you, thanks.
Submitted by Martin Fenton on August 28, 2008 - 12:23pm.
I enjoyed the article. I have been telling clients for over 4 years that being ranked one page one for your key searches is great, but in the end, the best leads are going to come from the long tail search results.
I have told them over the over again, that the first priority are too focus on long tail search results and if you focus your efforts on obtaining these results, there is a good chance that over time you will also get first page results for your keywords.
The key to everything is to understand what is required and implement your knowledge on a daily basis. No individual agent in a large market in todays marketplace can expect to obtain top rankings for competitive keywords in a cost effective manner.
Thanks for taking the time to write this article.
Chief Tutor
Offering [URL="http://www.realeffort.com"]Real Estate Marketing[/URL] and [URL="http://www.emarketingmanagement.com"]Internet Marketing [/URL]Consulting. We also now offer [URL="http://www.perfectpropertywebsites.com"]Single Property Websites[/URL]
Submitted by Justin Britt on August 28, 2008 - 1:10pm.
People who call you on the phone to sell you SEM (search engine marketing) aren't really search engine marketers. That's why they're calling instead of you finding them in the search engines.
This is a great subject because long-tail should be a very important part of your SEM strategy. If I was on a limited budget, I would focus 100% of my that money towards long-tail terms. But don't forget the importance of your main keywords. If you can afford it, you want to be everywhere.
--
Justin Britt
Head-Web-Head
Hawaii Life Real Estate Services, LLC
Hawaii real estate | Real Estate Marketing
Submitted by Glenn Sanford on August 28, 2008 - 1:12pm.
I don't disagree that Long Tail generates quality traffic however I firmly disagree with the comment that "City" followed by the term "real estate" generates bogus unqualified leads. This year even though I was hoping to do a bit more this year with that term, in my local market of Bellingham Washington, the term "Bellingham Real Estate" will generate off Google approximately $30,000,000 in closed residential real estate business with an average price of about $290,000 per property or over 100 sides.
For other cities that I am ranked for City with the term Real Estate at the #1 position on Google I will generate another $40 - $50 million in residential sales. We talk to our clients and ask them the search terms they type in the search engines and it is almost without fail "City" followed by "real estate" or to a much lesser extent "City" followed by "Homes for Sales".
Sure there are goofy people out there that want to low ball properties and maybe we get a few more of those with the shorter tail searches, but I would much rather dominate the shorter tail searches and convert that traffic then to rely on obscure search terms and hope.
Founder / CEO
BuyerTours Realty LLC
http://www.BuyerTours.com/
Submitted by Brett Young on August 28, 2008 - 1:16pm.
Theresa,
I agree wholeheartedly about your emphasis on the 'long tail'. Sorry for the shameless plug, but your post was very timely in light of my plans to release a Beta tool this week that generates real estate keywords based on niche, specialties, type of homes you focus on, your services etc. One search produces up to 75,000 unique keywords within a couple of minutes. That's definitely a thorough 'long tail' list.
Anyone who has been converted to the importance of the long tail by this article will certainly see the value of my Real Estate Keyword Tool. I've posted some information and rough video demo that you can view to see how it works at the URL below. And by the way, it's completely free.
Brett Young
Principal Broker
High Ground Realty
Learn about the Real Estate Keyword Tool at:
www.newpaltzrealestate.com/real-estate-keyword-tool.php
Submitted by Jeff Manson on August 28, 2008 - 5:02pm.
I agree long tail is great, but being found for the big key words is not SO BAD either :-) If you have a good site that provides the user what they are looking for. That would usually be listings in the market they are searching. With a system that will send them new listings when they come available. They will actually contact you when they are ready. What’s so bad about that? You are a real estate sales person, aren’t you?
Jeff Manson
American Dream Realty
Hawaii MLS search
Oahu real estate company
Submitted by Dennis Pease on August 28, 2008 - 10:55pm.
Good timing on this article, I recently started paying more attention to my long tails but I'm not sure about conversion rates for my main keywords vs long tail searches, so I found this informative and it also gives me more of a reason to continue watching and writing. :)
D Pease
Remax Integrity
Eugene Oregon Real Estate
Submitted by Kirk Tidwell on August 29, 2008 - 6:02am.
There are many ways that a real estate company can get in on the long tail. One of the ways to be found is getting on the niche sites, as you have mentioned. The hard part about this for most agents is trying to separate the good sites from those that are just trying to get their money. One should always do their homework on a site that they are considering spending advertising dollars on.
Some of the key things they should look for are traffic volume, length of visit, demographics and key words that drive traffic. They should educate themselves on the terms used in the quantification of traffic. Unique visitors, visits, page views and hits all mean very different things. One unique visitor to a site may visit it five times in one day. During those five visits the unique visitor might generate 100 page views. While generating 100 page views he may cause 1000 hits.
There are many free tools that can help agents in the site evaluation process. Quantcast.com (my favorite because of the great demographic content) Compete.com and Alexa.com are a few of the sites that can help. These site also have tools one can use to compare sites side by side.
If there are any other tools that folks use I would like to hear about them.
Submitted by Russell Volk on August 29, 2008 - 6:28am.
This is so true regarding the long tail. I've been using HitTail for about 2 years now and it's amazing to see what people are searching for. If you know what people are looking for, you need to tailor your website and provide the most relevant information. That's called target marketing and these leads will convert better.
Great post.
Website Bucks County Real Estate
Submitted by Carolyn Gjerde-Tu on August 30, 2008 - 7:54am.
For anyone who uses tracking software like hittail, there is no doubt that you get a lot of traffic from long tail terms. Some of these hits do lead to good clinets. The more broad city real estate searches also bring good clients, it is all a numbers game. The more people who visit, the more potential clients.
Carolyn Gjerde-Tu
Davis CA Real Estate
Submitted by Rich Johnson on August 30, 2008 - 3:06pm.
The problem with a long tailed search is that it might result in contacts that have already connected with a Realtor. This type of a search can put you at the bottom of the food chain.
With that said, the current real estate market is more dependent on local Buyers who are taking longer to make buying decisions. It is putting more pressure on us all to do a better job with follow-up so that when the Buyer is ready we are agent that is still top on mind. Because of local Buyers dominating the scene & the increasing length of time involved in purchasing there is more credence to the long tail theory of prospecting.
Rich Johnson
360-319-3267
http://www.johnsonteamrealestate.com
http://www.johnsonteamrealestate.com/blog/
Submitted by Larry Hotz on September 3, 2008 - 1:13pm.
At our bloggers meeting in August, we discussed the value of longtail searches. We found several examples where just one or two posts about a particular subdivision would yield a result on the front page of Google.
While no one knows how Google values the elements within its algorithm, it certainly appears that blog posts tend to reinforce the static page content within an integrated real estate website.
Denver Real Estate Blog | Denver Relocation
Submitted by Jonathan Bentz on October 9, 2008 - 6:19am.
From these comments - all of which are great - I have to say that I think a lot of real estate agents don't fully understand the internet consumer. Sure, some people searching the internet will become low hanging fruit leads - they are moving or relocating in the NOW and need an agent.
However, the cycle for an internet consumer in the real estate industry is 28 months! On average, a client who comes into a site as a lead will make a sale or be looking to buy over the course of 28 months. What you won't be able to tell from a first site visit is what point in the cycle they are in. So taking these internet real estate leads and cultivating a relationship with them so they become a low hanging lead is necessary.
Just because a lead comes in from your website doesn't mean they're going to want to sell ASAP. Build a pipeline of leads from your site and cultivate relationships. Word of mouth still works for agents, right?
Jonathan Bentz
ProspectMX
717.406.1840 ext. 3407