How Realtors Can Use Online Marketing SEO to Become Experts in Their Industry

The first step for any successful realtor is to use web design and search engine optimization to create a traffic-magnet website. Once these online marketing SEO techniques have been employed, the audience will arrive with high expectations and very short attention spans. There are many ways to establish oneself as an expert within a field, but Adam J. Morien, founder of OptiTrex Internet marketing SEO company, says the best way is by providing in-depth information that is useful and dynamically written.

"The old saying is very true - 'Content is king.' You need the content to professionally portray a successful, conversion-centric website," Morien states matter-of-factly. There are many ways to add internet marketing SEO content - rewrite the homepage, add more portal pages, publish articles and press releases on third party sites, or start a blog.

"Blogging allows you to increase the ability of your voice to reach people and the number of people you can contact to establish relationship," added Daniel Rothamel, a member of Strong Team Realtors in Charlottesville, Virginia. "You can be constantly creating your own content and greatly increase your ability to educate people."

Blogs are especially important resources for out-of-state homebuyers and foreign home buyers - and therefore, make great online marketing SEO tools for realtors. This year, the National Association of Realtors found that, on average, 15% of a realtor's business comes from a foreigner purchasing a second home in America - notably Florida, Southern California and Texas (where half of all expats buy their US homes).

Additionally, a 2008 Mayflower Transit study interviewed more than 15,000 people about relocating from state to state for work - and they found that 50% of all respondents had moved in the last year for employment reasons! The most popular destinations were: Washington DC, Kentucky, Vermont, Nevada, South Carolina and North Carolina. Realtors in these particular markets need to be cognizant of these relocating audiences and provide more in-depth coverage of the distinctive neighborhoods, employment information and regional flavor of their areas. However, providing this information in any area is a great way to get ahead of the competition since most real estate websites are stingy with their information and overwhelmingly full of generalizations. It's a simple formula: the more specific the online marketing SEO information is, the more knowledgeable the real estate agent will sound.

"Blogging and social media online marketing are the latest and greatest strategies we use to increase quality traffic, leads and exposure of our clients' businesses," Morien explains. He adds that search engine optimization and blogging particularly go hand-in-hand because search engine spiders at Google and Yahoo are looking for certain things while ranking pages. The more pages of useful, keyword-rich content a website has, the more favorable that page will fare in the search engine results. Since most consumers never make it past the second page, Internet marketing SEO strategies need to focus on getting the client's site within the top 20 listings.

Another online marketing SEO strategy that ranks well in search engines is social media content - particularly Myspace blogs, pages and images (which is more open than, say, Facebook.) Social media marketing can be linked to a realtor's website and blog to create online chatter and inspire word-of-mouth marketing. "Think about social marketing like the chat room of consumer reports," Morien says. "We leverage our clients by setting them up as the authority resources in their industry - and the 'buzz' of social marketing and blogging has successfully contributed to this strategy."

Crafting press releases to market on third party sites and exchanging links with other industry leaders (like builders, housing organizations, etc) are other invaluable Internet marketing SEO techniques. These methods are like testimonials, votes of confidence and vouches for a realtor's trustworthiness. Not only does this resound favorably with audiences, but also with search engines which are scouring the Internet for the "best of the best," the most highly recommended and the most popular.

It's safe to say that most realtors don't have the time to maintain a daily blog, craft in-depth press releases or keep up with social media traffic. However, hiring a professional Internet marketing SEO copywriter for a few hundred a month can have a major impact. These trained writers can not only do all the research about neighborhoods, events, properties for sale and the local real estate market trends, but they can also write in an engaging, intelligent manner that will keep readers coming back for more.

"Home sellers and buyers are in the driver's seat today when it comes to finding real estate services on attractive terms," said the National Association of Realtors Chief Economist David Lereah. "This is a great time to look for a realtor who will deliver the best service and the best price."