When You're Tops In Google for Key Phrases Nobody Uses - So What?

I see it at least once a week. Some company or person involved with selling some service or product to Realtors® is congratulating a proud real estate agent for being in the top 3 results on Google for a search phrase that will bring them zero visitors to their site. It's interesting to me why a real estate agent in any town in this country would want to work to get top position in Google for "top tech realtors" and "best tech real estate agent." It's useless on so many levels:

• If I want to buy or sell a home in Topeka, KS, those are certainly the terms I'd search on.
• Even if I wanted the most tech-savvy real estate person in Bangor, Maine, would I find them with this search?
• How much time did this real estate person waste in getting to this top Google position?
• Google's Keyword Tool shows ZERO searches on either of those phrases worldwide.

Now, if I was a real estate person getting paid an affiliate fee for touting the services of the company that got me this placement, maybe there's something in it for me. But, if I'm a real estate agent in Houston, TX who makes their living representing buyers and sellers of real estate, there's never going to be a dollar in my bank account from site visitors who arrived from these key phrase searches.

The next time some sales person or SEO "guru" is trying to get some of your hard-earned money for top placement in Google, have them show you with Google's own tool that the words and phrases they're going to get you to the top with are actually something someone's using. Even more, just use your own common sense to determine why anyone who wants to buy or sell real estate in your area would be searching with that phrase in the first place.