Would you write blog posts for the competing broker down the street? Most likely not on a regular basis. Trulia, Zillow, Realtor.com are all sites I see as competing with mine for top placement in the search engines. What makes these sites successful? In part it is the rich and dynamic content that agents from across the country provide.
Some argue why not work for the search engines to find your site and also build a presence on the other “competing” sites – the point is for consumers to find you – I have to admit that I do have a profile in all of those places – I am also guilty of contributing some information on those other sites – but I have come to realize that feeding these sites only makes my job harder not only when I want to rank for big terms but it funnels down into longtail terms as well. Pretty soon XYZ neighborhood that was dominated by only a couple of sites now has a one or maybe even two entries now at the top of the search results from content provided by me but not my site.
While it is tempting to answer consumer’s questions or blog where there initially may be a bigger audience – this is really a short sided approach. Take the time to blog on your own website (or at least your own property). Over time those posts will show up for neighborhood results on your own space. For posts where you want immediate authority, consider posting at REW Blogs – a platform that has a lot of authority but is not competing with your own site in the search engines.
Going back to the idea of creating compelling content – if you are writing to create community vs. just writing for links, then wouldn’t this also be more beneficial on your own site.
Keep all this in mind the next time you get an email asking for your input to create a foreclosure dictionary or like the one I got yesterday morning from Trulia “We love you” yes they should love real estate agents for they are providing one of a site’s most valuable resources – content. Building an internet based real estate practice takes time – building one based on organic search engine results takes time and patience.
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Thanks for the heads-up, Carolyn. I just wish I’d seen this post before I went to the trouble of writing an article for Trulia yesterday after being informed by another agent what a great thing it would be for me to post there. Oh well, lesson learned I suppose! Thanks again for sharing your considerable knowledge of all things SEO-related. You are a great asset to the real estate community in general and especially to us newbie clients of REW!
Hi Carolyn, I’ve tried to warm up to Trulia a few times, but just can’t bring myself to participate. Like you I think the stand alone blog is king both in seo and potential ROI.
As a matter of fact I’m putting together a WP blog right now.
You are right on with this post. Trulia, Zillow, and even Realtor.com are to be considered your competitor. They have very little to offer you that you are not paying back many fold just in the content you could give them.
Hi Caroline, I couldn’t agree more with you and I’ve been beating that drum for years. Our goal should definitely be to out rank those sites for our areas and neighborhoods and you can’t do that if you are providing them with content.
I started answering some questions on Trulia back when their site didn’t rank well in Sarasota. Now that they are ranking well I have not participated. I agree with you.
I’m actually contemplating not blogging on Activerain either. I could put the same content on one of my blogs. However, I do find it fun to receive the comments and points. I question the quality of links that I am sending to my site from Activerain. I don’t think they are that valuable.
Marc I think you’re right about Active Rain as well. I’m also questioning the quality of links from there. I’m really not sure I’m going to blog there either – the authority of my blog went from PR2 to PR0 (at least on the foolbar scale). I agree that the comments and points are nice – I think I’ve finally gotten over the points thing.
Caroline sweetz
You made some very good and insightful points. However, home buyers seem to prefer aggregated listings along side with meaningful real estate advice from folks like you. They don’t mind googling for it now but this might not last long. The web is moving away from one search engine fits all and moving towards one for each vertical. As both trulia and zillow build their brand name, people will see value in visiting them directly.
For instance, google was the destination for food spots a couple years back but most ppl go to yelp for food. Why? Coz yelp has a platform for foodies that is beyond just ratings. Some food critics initially might have fought it but contributions kept coming from most. Eventually, the ones that started on yelp early stood to gain !
I cannot speak for realtor.com but I do notice that more and more first timers, potentially home buyers, are flocking to zillow and trulia. If you don’t believe me, just go to google trends and look for yourself.
So, my point is that while good seo is important, it presumes that people will use google/yahoo/msn search in the first place as much as they do now. Both you and I know these companies are backed by the same people that built google and microsoft. So, if they believe that real estate search can be better through T or Z and are spending millions of dollars to make it so AND home buyers agree (increasingly so), do you think we should fight it just to look smarter in the short term ?
Like you said, its a loosing battle. why not join them and take advantage of all that is free on their platform?
In no time, a new player will come to change the game.
Sweet Home – thank you for your well articulated comments. I understand the points you are making and I think you do paint a clear picture of the future and I agree with a lot of what you have to say.
I agree that consumers are looking for advice as well as listings. One advantage my local site currently has over T or Z is data accuracy. This is an advantage I have over some of the local agents web site as well and it has built trust with some consumers and has resulted in closed sales because the data on my site turned out to be more accurate than other sites they were visiting. I do think we as agents need to also consider ways to engage the users of sites more – to create that same sort of experience that consumers get when they visit some of these other places.
I also agree that SEO can easily become less important – although I’m personally very interested in search right now – I’m very aware that how consumers find things on the internet could change – social media is already changing some people’s search behavior.
It is daunting to think of the money these big players have to spend vs. an individual agent’s (or team’s) budget. One thing we as individuals don’t often talk about is what will happen when some of the larger brokerages really get interested in playing the internet game. However, I don’t subscribe to what ifs and if you can’t beat them join them – but I’m not a typical agent – I really have found I like the website/internet marketing part and I will do what it takes to make this work for me. The platform Trulia and Zillow have set up does not offer the same lead capture that my site has and that really is the key. Not all of the leads coming into my site are valid or even good leads, but they are a steady stream. Waiting for consumers to take the initiative and call or email has a much lower return – real estate is all a numbers game – the more leads, the more potential clients – it’s that simple.
I agree about Trulia. I know it keeps getting more popular but so far it doesn’t seem to be a household word in my neck of the woods. When I used to post my listings there the sellers could have cared less when I mentioned it. That might change in the future but I hope not as I am competing with them for my keywords.
I, too, have really been questioning my AR participation. I only post there to give myself links – but if they’re not worthy why waste my time? Although I’m not real active there, I might cut my posting there even more. I’m still on the fence.
I haven’t put anything of quality on AR in a long time. Mostly I’ll put up a post there to get a new page spidered on my main site. I have received some traffic from Trulia, but it was just that….traffic. I have to agree that it is far better to not feed them good original content, especially when they are actively trying to take over spots that could belong to actual real estate professionals in se rankings.
I don´t even think I am on Trulia. Did I miss anything?
No Mike, you haven’t missed a thing.
Great post. I’d agree about keeping your blog content on your own site, but what do you think of the value in answering questions on Trulia and other sites? It keeps you in front of clients looking in your area, and it’s simple (I’d imagine any realtor can answer any question about their community without doing much research). I spend a few minutes a week looking for questions related to my field (relocation) on a variety of sites just to keep my name out there, without any pangs of guilt about harming my own SEO efforts.