As real estate professionals with websites and blogs, we're approached all the time by companies and individuals wanting to sell us SEO (Search Engine Optimization) services, or website and blog templates that are touted to provide great SEO benefits. I'm not saying that there aren't valid claims here, in that how a site is designed can make a huge difference with SEO. There are also some SEO specialists ("gurus") out there who can offer value and get you better positioning from their services. If it's affordable and works, go for it.
But, be sure that you're being given a clear picture of the value of the "benefits." A real estate investing website, one which I think does a great job, prompted me to write this post. I like this site, I'm a member, and they offer a blogging platform for investors. It's a great way for an investor to get the word out that they buy homes in a certain area. But, what caught my attention was a post that gave the example of the SEO benefits you get from using their blog platform. An investor, in just a few days after a blog post, got the top two positions in Google searches for "buy houses Joplin," and "buy houses Joplin Missouri" from their post title and text about buying houses in that city.
I used the Google keyword tool to see what kind of search volume these two phrases were getting, and the Google result was "Not enough data." This is what you get when there is little or no volume of searches over time on a word or phrase. As other Joplin real estate related phrases in my test showed monthly volume as low as 73 searches, it's clear that these two phrases just aren't being typed in by those wanting to sell a home in Joplin. That's not to say that it doesn't happen now and then, and even a couple of searches a month might bring in business.
The point is that you should not just hire an SEO person, or use a certain product, service or platform based just on them giving you top position examples; unless you verify that these top positions are actually for phrases or keywords that people are really using. Generally, if they're using them, there will be competition in content creation to grab those key phrase top positions. The more competition, the harder to get into those top three spots. I could write a post today about "orange Volvo mud flaps for highway visibility," and get top position on that exact search phrase in no time. It's a little like the "If a tree falls in the forest and there's nobody there to hear it, was there sound?" If a search phrase is #1 in Google and there's nobody out there searching on it ...
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