SEO works by driving targeted traffic to your business website. If you are an independent broker and are the company’s only employee, then you are mainly just competing with other companies in your area, which is a difficult task in itself.

If you are an agent working for a large firm, you are not just dealing with competition from other brokerages in your area. You are also competing with the other real estate agents at your company.

It’s more than likely that your particular firm already has a comprehensive web page that allows users to search for listings and look for a real estate agent.

You have to find a way to stand out in the crowd so that people will specifically seek you out for assistance rather than you having to rely on the luck of the draw.

One such way for you to do that is to have your own web page that is linked to your firm’s site but also is searchable in the search engines.

This means that when people are researching real estate in your area, your personal web page will come up and you get the opportunity to convert them to clients.

You might work for a large firm that is so well known that you get what you feel is more than enough leads. The company’s web site might even have allotted a page for you, so you feel this is enough.

After all, why should you go through the time and expense for something that you already have and is working for you in a satisfactory manner? While this all may be true, consider this; what if you decide to go to another firm or open your own brokerage?

Don’t assume that your clients will remember your phone number or email address. Even if you send out an announcement, people may have moved or changed their email address.

Although you may have done a memorable job for them, if they call the real estate office that you formerly worked for and you are no longer there, they will be redirected to another real estate agent at that firm.

If they remember your name and try to search for you on the Internet and can’t locate you, then they will have no choice but to use another real estate agent.

Having your own searchable web site will enable those clients that you have lost contact with to find you easily. Even if you already have a web site and you carefully included your name in your URL, just because someone types your name into a search engine doesn’t mean your page will come up.

This is especially true if you have a common name such as John Smith. Many clients aren’t big on patience and will not be willing to sift through multiple sites just to find you. It’s up to you to make sure that you are easily accessible if you want to keep your client base in tact.

Utilizing Search Engine Optimization will ensure that your old clients can find you and new clients will be able to view your site and ask for your help.

This makes it worth the effort to take the time to create and optimize your web site so that you will be accessible to those who wish to do business with you.

One of the first steps in SEO is to design your website to target a particular audience, in this case those who are interested in buying or selling real estate in your region.

Search Engine Optimization employs three basic concepts, those being text, links and increasing the popularity of your web site, all of which will be discussed in much further detail in later chapters.

• Web Content and SEO
• Web Site Links
• Web Site Popularity

You may be thinking to yourself that SEO is going to take a lot of effort to be effective and you are absolutely right. So, why should you even bother?

After all, your sales are pretty good and your referrals are more than enough to keep your profits up so why fix what isn’t broken?

Think about it this way; as a real estate professional it’s important for you to keep up with the trends in your field.

This includes real estate laws, housing values, property taxes, popular neighborhoods and knowing the best school districts. All of this information is subject to change at any given time so it’s important for you to remain current.

The same way that important factors change in the real estate industry, they are also changing in how society goes about seeking the services that they need.

Before, they may have pulled out the yellow pages but now they sit down at their PCs to search for what they want. Even if you don’t see the need to make sure that your web site is highly visible in search results, you can bet your competition does.

It’s great to have referrals that help you to gain new clients, but those clients still need to be converted. Prior to the internet when a client referred a friend to you, they may have asked for your phone number.

Now they want to know if you have a website and what the address is. We are now living in a tech society and today’s technology negates the need for clients to come and sit in your office for a face to face to discuss their real estate needs.

At some point they may have to but initially, they try to find out what they can on the Internet. They’re busy and want to be able to shop around from the comfort of their own homes. They are also savvier and will use the Internet to compare what you are offering to what your competitors are offering.

If they pull a search and your competitor’s site comes up and yours doesn’t, this gives the appearance that your agency is not technologically up to date.

This may make them wonder how up to date you are in your knowledge of current trends in real estate and lead them to use your competitor instead of you.

Remember what you had to do to get your license? The classes required to learn all there was to know on an intellectual level and then the training that followed to teach you proper sales techniques. Real estate is an ever changing industry.

Between whether it’s a buyer’s market or a sellers market, changes in laws and taxes, you have to keep up with the trends. This is why many states or provinces require you to take continuing education classes, so that you will be well informed.

Consider learning about SEO as another needed form of education that will enhance all of your knowledge and help you to become even more of a success.

If you have read through this book and taken the time to consider whether or not you have the time, resources and ability to employ all of the search engine optimization techniques given here and decided that it would not be feasible for you to take on all of this on your own, then its time to consider hiring outside help to do it for you.

Not all real estate agents and brokers do have the time required to put all of these practices in place and it’s a sign of wisdom to recognize that fact before trying to accomplish something that may end in disaster due to lack of time to focus on all of the steps effectively.

Just because you can’t do this all on your own doesn’t mean you’re your sight has to remain relegated to the unseen pages of search results.

If you’ve got an advertising budget but not the time or inclination to optimize your website or page yourself, then consider hiring professional help to take care of your site’s optimization.

An SEO consultant can either advise you on how to optimize your website or handle it for you as well as handling the updating of content and changing your keywords on a regular basis.

They will make sure that your interior and inbound links are working properly and that you continuously have fresh content on your site that is relevant to your keywords and phrases.

Because of their experience they will be able to pick the keywords and phrases that will increase the traffic to your site. You won’t have to worry about getting all of your pages indexed because they will handle that for you and make sure that your site gets noticed by all of the search engines.

It might seem like a costly alternative but this is not necessarily the case. It all depends on how you look at it. If you are paying a webmaster to host and maintain a site that the search engine spiders seem to have never heard of then you are already losing money.

Some businesses instituted a website just to be able to say they have one but if no one is looking at it then it’s a waste of time. Sure it’s nice to be able to show it to friends and family or print it on your business card and stationery to let your offline customer’s know it exists but your site needs to be generating commission producing leads so optimizing it is well worth the expense.

Besides with all of the money that you can make from your site, the profit potential may far outweigh the costs of using an outside SEO consultant.

• Different Types of SEO Consultants and firms
• Determining Your Optimization Needs
• Expertise
• References
• Start the Bidding Process
• Beware Consultants That Appear to be Unethical

There are different types of SEO consultants and firms. Some are independent freelancers who will come up with an SEO strategy for your website and implement it for you.

There are also advertising agencies that usually engage in media advertising but have gotten on the SEO bandwagon. Because of their success with the media they may know time proven strategies to get your site noticed.

There are also interactive agencies that include you in the SEO process. Before you pick one you need to decide what your personal search engine optimization needs are.