Search engines are not only looking for relevance in key words and phrases. They are also looking for the popularity of the keywords. You might specialize in foreclosure properties and choose keywords that are relevant to that topic.

Earlier I showed you how to use keyword selector tools to find out what keywords were popular during the month before this one. Now that you have chosen your keywords that you find most relevant to your site, you have to narrow it down even further by using the keyword selector tool to figure out which of them are the most popular.

Another thing that you have to take into consideration is competition. Chances are your competitors are also going to be using the same keywords that you choose to use.

This makes your selection of keywords even trickier because you now have to find a way to choose words that combine relevance, popularity and competition. This isn’t really as hard as it may seem.

a) Don’t Just Choose the Most Popular

Your first thought might be to just use the most popular terms that people initiate searches under that a strong relevance to your site. This might seem like the prudent thing to do but don’t forget the example that I gave in section B.

When I did the Google search under “Kentucky Listings”, two brokers chose keywords that were not as popular among their competitors and managed to wipe out a huge amount of competition by doing so.

This particular phrase may not have gotten as many hits as other keywords, but you can guarantee that it did get some and there was no one but these two brokers returned in the search result pages.

This speaks volumes for the wisdom of choosing keywords that are less popular than those that will return pages and pages of brokers for you to compete with. By choosing these keywords they managed to find a successful balance between low popularity and high relevance.

b) Stay Away From Keywords That Have Lots of Competition

The next things you need to consider are competitive keywords and which ones you should choose. Choosing keywords that are highly competitive in the real estate industry can make it harder to rise up in the search engine rankings, since many of your competitors are using them as well.

Remember the second example in section B when I did another Google search under Kentucky Homes for Sale. This keyword phrase was obviously much more popular with the competition than was Kentucky Listing.

So much more so that it returned pages of brokers who used the same phrase. This does not mean you should not use words that are competitive. If you want to use such phrases then fine but make sure that ones you choose are highly relevant to your site.

In the best case scenario, the keywords and phrases that you choose will be high in relevance, be popular among real estate searchers and lower in competition with the other brokers that you are competing with.

This is why it’s essential to constantly change your keywords and phrases as well as the content that they relate to you. Make sure you keep track of your hits and conversions and keep a chart for each keyword and phrase that you use so you can note which ones were the most effective.

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