RISMEDIA, February 12, 2009-The most competition-intensive thing you can do with your website is to develop all of your content around keywords and phrases that are generic real estate, as “YourTown real estate.” Virtually 95+% of your competition is doing the very same thing. Far from a negative, this opens up a great opportunity for you.
Wait, you say! I work residential real estate, so I really don’t have a niche. Actually, you have several.
For example:
Single family homes
Townhomes
Condominiums
Foreclosures
Investors
First-time buyers
Neighborhoods, subdivisions or areas
Relocations
You may not do all of these, but would you if you had the clients? And, each of these is a niche that can provide opportunities to create very focused content, with key phrases your competition isn’t targeting.
If you look at the traffic statistics for a real estate site with high traffic, you’ll be surprised at the search phrases that bring many of the visitors. It’s called the “long tail” of search. Much more than “yourtown real estate,” they’re coming in on phrases like (assume “yourtown” in front or in back of most of these):
New homes for sale
Foreclosure homes
Condominium projects
Condominiums in town
Downtown condominiums
Building codes and restrictions
Subdivision locations
Land use restrictions
Homes for sale in
Land for sale in
Townhomes in downtown
Single family homes in
Home styles in
Downtown condo covenants
There are a great many more, and you can even combine some of those into others. The point is that you can spend your time and effort in creating content that’s focused on these niche words and phrases. There will be far less competition, and you’ll do much better in the search engines. You don’t need a novel on these topics. Here are some example titles for SEO and short 300 or so word pages:
Denver Downtown Condominium Projects
Typical Denver Condominium Covenants
Denver Condo Covenants to Beware Of
Denver Condominium Sold Statistics
Price Trends for Denver Condos
Denver Downtown Condominiums Map
Negotiating for Your New Denver Condo
There’s more, but you’re getting the idea. By developing short content pages with these titles and the key phrases in the page, you’ll be developing that niche with SEO, and your competition will be left behind in the long term.
We’ve only touched on the tip of the opportunity iceberg. Do the same for commercial, investors, foreclosures, short sales, and other specialty property types or types of transactions. Your site can develop several niches, each as a major page with sub-pages for each title and phrase. Why compete for the major words when you’re able to get first page search positions for the lesser-used key phrases?
Let’s talk about neighborhoods and subdivisions as a niche. Think of them as your farms, as this is a familiar concept in real estate marketing. Instead of post card farming a large subdivision, think of it as a sub-site on your website. It becomes a major page, with sub-pages for (again, subdivision name before or after phrases):
Covenants and Restrictions
Homes for Sale
Condominiums for Sale
Area Maps
Business and Shopping
Area Schools
Area Churches
Sold Property Statistics
History and Development
Again, you get the idea. While hundreds of your fellow Realtors are fighting for major competitive key phrases, you can “work the fringes” for neighborhoods and subdivisions. You will get very targeted traffic, as there are searchers wanting information specific to these neighborhoods.
If you want your website to actually bring you business, working the niche property and transaction types can be your best tool. Just getting away from the normal real estate site plan will help. You know, the site with about a dozen pages, with these buttons on the home page:
Search Listings
About Me
Buyer Information
Seller Information
My Listings
Take that site and compare it to one with some of these choices:
The Denver Condo Scene
Downtown Denver Living
XYZ – A Subdivision in Demand
Investing in Denver Area Real Estate
The Denver Foreclosure Market
These pages can take you to sub-pages with very specific focus on things we’ve talked about in this article. Trying to put too much information into one page is poor SEO strategy. Besides, if a site visitor arrives at your site on a search for “downtown Denver condo covenants,” they’ll be thrilled to come to a page that has that as the only topic. That’s why Google and the other engines will give that page a good position as well.
Peyman Aleagha is the founder and President of RealtySoft.com. RealtySoft provides Realtors with Real Estate Web Design, Real Estate Print Marketing and Free IDX solutions. Find out more about RealtySoft by visiting RealtySoft.com.
