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The Search High Street
I find the Search High Street analogy very useful when thinking about how to compete for property leads on the internet. The analogy aims to highlight how and when estate agents and property developers can compete in the natural search rankings.
If you are an estate agent competing in a local domestic market, the street you choose to locate your business on will have a huge effect on the number of buyers and sellers you get through your door.
Your position on the street is also important. If a buyer has to walk past nine of your competitors to get to you, chances are you won't get much business.
In the Search High Street analogy, every search phrase typed into Google represents an individual street and your position represents your natural search ranking on Google. I have chosen to focus on Google as it takes a 76.1% share of UK searches (Marketing Sherpa: Search Marketing Benchmark Guide 2008) and is by far the most important engine for targeting UK buyers.
Using this analogy, you need to decide which streets you want to be on and which streets you don't. As in the real world, not all streets are equal.
- Some streets are not worth competing on because nobody walks down them
- Other streets are very busy with window shoppers who are not interested and will probably waste your sales team's time
- Some streets cost more than others to compete on, and you have limited resources
You keyword research will help you determine which streets you want to build on and which streets you don't, by looking at the volume, relevance and competitiveness of many different phrases. See also Estate Agent Keyword Strategy.
Google as the local planning authority
To make things more difficult, there are strict planning laws in place which Google controls. Google doesn't like commercial enterprises (they want you to use paid search) and they give preference for planning permission to libraries or "authorities" on subjects that are relevant to the user's search. For example, an authority site on Bansko in Bulgaria may well be granted planning permission for the search phrase "property in Bansko".
Your "authority" is determined by the relevance and coherence of the content you have on your website (your website theme), the size and age of your site and by the number and the quality of inbound links you have. See also: Link Building: Introduction for Estate Agents.
Building a themed library
One of the things that is often overlooked in search engine optimisation (SEO) is the importance of have a strong and coherent theme for your website. Search engines favour websites with strong themes as they usually provide better results for the searcher. Everything else being equal, a site with a theme "Marbella property" will be ranked above a site with a theme "Costa del Sol property". The title of your homepage and your navigation bars are the key elements that determine your theme.
Let's assume that Website A has a homepage all about property in Costa del Sol and pages linking off it about property in towns in Costa del Sol, of which Marbella is one. Website B has a homepage all about property in Marbella and links off to different property types in Marbella, for example, villas, luxury homes etc.
Website B has a stronger theme and everything else being equal, Google will return Website B above Website A. Of course in reality, everything else is not equal. The ranking will be affected by inbound links and "on the page" factors (See SEO: Introduction for Estate Agents) but it illustrates some very difficult trade-offs that you need to make, especially if you work in many geographical regions.
Building a large library
Google favours large sites over smaller ones as it judges they are a better resource to answer user search queries. Check how many pages you have indexed in Google by typing in "site:www.mysite.com" into Google search and compare this to your competitors.
There are three ways you can increase the size of your site: by adding more editorial content, by adding more property and by expanding the options in your property database. For example, you could add more locations so that your database automatically generates web pages in locations you don't have property for. It is not quite as easy as that, as you need to get the pages indexed as well as just producing them. See also: Estate Agent SEO - Introduction.
Competing with libraries
Property portals have some inherent advantages, in that they are often bigger and better linked than estate agents' or property developers' websites. The trick is not to compete against them. If your business model allows, find a geographical or lifestyle niche and build content and relevant links within it. In my opinion, you still need to advertise on property portals anyway as they play a huge role in the consumer's search for property. See also: How people use search engines.
Advertising in libraries
According to a 2005 survey by Burst Media of 13,000 web users, 56% of people reach websites via search engines (paid and natural) while 28% of respondents go direct to a site or via a bookmark, the rest from visiting from links.
I don't have figures specifically for overseas property buyers but it stands to reason that they will often bypass searching Google for long periods when they find great libraries with lots of relevant and well-presented content. If property portals get their product and their marketing right, they can generate large volumes of quality leads. See also: Portal Marketing Checklist.
Buying a sale sign
Search engine optimisation (SEO) takes time. If you want instant results through search, you need to pay. I liken this to not having a shop or High Street presence and having to buy a sale sign on the side of the street to advertise your business.
From the studies that I have seen, it can bring great results to use both paid and natural search together, especially if you are competing for market share as well as just leads.
In any case, it can get expensive and you need people who know what they are doing. Google Adwords prices are rising and you really need to work hard on your advertising copy and landing pages to keep your cost per lead manageable. I will be adding paid search articles to the site as soon as I have the time.
Conclusion
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is a long game. It requires an appreciation of when and where you can compete and when it's best to leave it to businesses who are better equipped to compete than you are, such as property portals. A good online marketing plan will have a mixture of activity of which SEO will be just one part. The most important thing is to understand what your customers actually do online and to employ tactics that enable you to generate quality leads. This website explores some of these tactics with the aim of helping you improve your online marketing methods.