Inman

To SEO or not to SEO, that is the question

Before real estate agents jump into the search engine optimization (SEO) game in the hopes of raising their online profile, they should have a handle on the time, effort and resources that are necessary to do it right, and what the “ROI,” or return on investment, will be.

That’s according to Jeb Griffin, director, product strategy and development, for franchise giant Re/Max LLC.

“Is it worthwhile to engage in SEO, or is it better to just go out and buy leads? I think it’s different for each agent, but I think it’s something each agent has to explore,” he says.

At the very least, agents should be have a presence on social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and ActiveRain.

“If you want to engage consumers on your website, that’s taking it to the next level,” Griffin says. “That’s where you potentially need to spend some time writing blogs; you potentially need to spend some time and effort learning SEO, and all those scary terms out there like metadata and descriptions and keywords — but it’s doable for agents.”