SEO Responsibilities for Real Estate Brokers

Question: I am the real estate broker of my office—what are my SEO Responsibilities?

Strange question; right?

Well, not really. As the broker of your real estate agency, your job is to provide the best experience for your customers. You have been doing all you can to attract real estate buyers to your website, but you may have neglected the needs of your sellers.

Isn’t it your job to provide the best marketing for your listings?

Sellers want you to be the loudest bullhorn for their property—they need to sell their home quickly and for the highest price; they hire you to create the noise necessary for their property to help it sell quickly. Are you offering them that needed visibility?

And is there a more visible medium than the Internet?

As the broker you must understand the fundamentals of SEO—yes, it is a term that has been tarnished by many, but its essence is simple: “Search Engine Optimization” means that your website is visible high enough so that the consumers who search on Google, Bing, or Yahoo can interact with you.

For the consumer, SEO is very simple—“If I find you on page 1 of Google, I may do business with you!”—This sucks; right? Well, consumers like that their Internet experience can shield them from salespeople until they are ready to transact; they like the power of searching and doing their homework so they don’t get rushed into a sale. Do you blame them?

So what are some of your SEO responsibilities as the broker of your agency?

1. Understand that many SEO companies want you to remain in the dark as to the topic of Internet marketing, and therefore sell you programs that keep you in bondage. You must educate yourself and use your inner sphere of successful Internet colleagues to point the way to the right strategy; ignorance is no longer a valid excuse.

2. Understand that Facebook/Twitter/Social networking are not SEO per se and have little direct effect on your website's organic ranking (although, that may be changing). They are important if placed in the right context of your Internet strategy. Don't confuse your activity on Facebook for high visibility in Google.

3. Understand that the buck stops with you: You are the broker and therefore are responsible for both being visible at the market level and also at the agent level…and, yes, I mean online. If I search for “Lexington SC Real Estate” or “Beaufort Real Estate Agents,” it is your job to guarantee that your agency is on page 1 or 2 of Google. How you do it is a combination of education and partnerships with the right vendors.

4. You MUST have a Mission Statement for your business. Make sure it is dynamic and provides direction and focus for your business commitments. Here is a non-real estate sample:

“Brentwood Community Service Center provides basic-needs services to the homeless of Brentwood, Ohio, so that they may become self-sufficient and get back on their feet.”

I have picked an example that has nothing to do with real estate to force you to design one for your agency. So what is your vision?

5. You must focus. Are you selling real estate everywhere? Many brokers' egos dictate that they pretend to be real estate wizards in all markets! But the reality is simple—you can only be the real estate expert in your local market. Can you accept that?

6. Create a network of colleagues and solution providers. Many will simplistically call this link building, but that suggests that the effort is one-dimensional. You ought to see it as building real estate alliances that serve your customers first. Many brokers fail to do this because of greed; they desire to have a percentage of every real estate transaction, whether it occurs in their market or not (referrals) and become isolated islands on the Internet. Are you an island in the Google sphere?

7. Writing/Marketing is SEO: Good content with proper links build your visibility and drives Google to you. I know what you are thinking—what content, you ask? Look at the description you write about your current listings. Are they adequate? Do they help the consumer get a good sense of the property? Are the pictures sharp enough and full of details? Remember, marketing is telling a story!

The technological forces of change are being embraced in droves by your customers. Brokers must find the time to balance the traditional methods of real estate services and enhance them with Internet visibility. It is not an either/or proposition; it is an and/and paradigm.

This article was written and reposted with permision from Key Yessaad.

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