Search Engines

Real estate agents surf the web and look up information in search engines just like customers do, but quite often, when planning websites, real estate agents don’t always think like a customer.  The average consumer uses their favorite search engine and enters a search term that they understand, and this may not be the terminology actually used in the industry.  By focusing on typically used keywords when developing a website, agents can fine-tune search engine marketing traffic to ensure their agency site appears higher in the search engine results.  Z57 explains the two major types of search engine marketing tools – search engine optimization and pay for placement.

Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) uses a combination of tools to increase the ranking a site achieves in search engines. These tools include optimal use of keywords, consistent online activity and the availability of multiple web sources with the company brand.  These web sources may be a Facebook page, a website and a blog, all with the company brand prominently displayed.  Higher rankings on search engine result in better search engine marketing traffic.

Pay for Placement

Just like it sounds, pay for placement is when an advertiser pays a search engine to automatically place their website at the top of a search engine result.  This places the link to the pay for placement site above sites that are listed organically by the search engine.  The photo below shows the difference between the organic search placement and the paid search placement.  Because the site shows first, the belief is that those who search for certain keyword strings will be more likely to click on those sites and increase search engine marketing traffic.