Google continues to dominate search engine market share and establish itself as one of today’s most recognizable brands, because of one simple word – RELEVANCE. This term in its most simplistic form is what defines every aspect of Google’s evolution and is the largest determinant in their future success. But, how Google measures relevance is not so simple. It is a highly sophisticated and ever-changing model based on complex algorithms named after cute and cuddly things like Penguins and Pandas (two very recent and important updates). Don’t let the names fool you. Not understanding the impact of Penguin and Panda can seriously limit your ability to be seen as relevant, and can eliminate your ability to generate leads online. Everyone tries to manipulate and master the algorithm maze, but in the end, very few make it to the first page of Google for any given search term. The algorithms that Google uses to determine relevancy are frequently refined as they are committed to intelligently tuning the search engine to consistently provide the best possible search results and eliminate weak and spammy web pages from the index.

The latest Google algorithm changes have primarily focused on off-site factors like the quality of real estate related backlinks pointing to your site. Gone are the days that poor quality backlinks from non- authority  sites will support ranking positions that generate traffic.

Let’s take a closer look at some ranking factors in Google’s algorithms that can cause your rankings to tumble, and some improvements that can be made to conquer these challenges to help ensure your Website remains relevant in 2012 and beyond.

1. Make Your Website an Authoritative Source for Real Estate Information- Many agents believe that if you build a real estate Website, consumers will come. Maybe, if you put your Website address physically in their hands in the form of a business card…. Simply publishing a real estate Website and then walking away doesn’t work and puts you at a strong disadvantage when compared to your web-savvy competitors. And it certainly doesn’t take advantage of the power of the Internet for marketing. If you must tell consumers your web address, you have already failed.

Developing an authoritative source for localized real estate information takes a lot of work. It doesn’t happen by buying magical SEO beans that some telemarketer or over-hyping Website sells you. Adding an exhaustive list of local vendors or republishing someone else’s blog posts isn’t going to do it either. However, having a review section for local real estate and non real estate-related vendors is a fantastic way to generate unique and user-friendly content for your site. If you would like to include content that is written by industry leaders, or share “what’s happening” information from a popular local blog, then write a synopsis of that specific article. Whether it is about the local real estate market, a provocative political piece or a post about a new restaurant opening, writing your own rendition of the article is another smart way to generate unique and attention-worthy content. Be sure to cite the original article as many authors that publish on the web are appreciative of the gesture and may even link back to your article from their blog, potentially generating additional traffic to your site.

A word of caution with using the new curation tools out there that simply copy snippets other people’s blogs to your site: don’t do it! Use curation of content to give you ideas for blogging and as a way to be informed about the social conversation taking place about specific topics, but realize that Google doesn’t value copied content on your site.

The other not-so-obvious way to build up the number of pages that feature real estate information is to make sure your site features an indexable MLS IDX. For those of you out there that are not familiar with this real estate technology, indexable MLS IDX means that the real estate listings that are searchable on your site are able to be measured and weighed by Google as your listings, and not that of your local MLS.

2. Who’s Informing the Source? AKA-Who Loves You Baby? Google is progressively looking at the social graph. How engaged are your Internet marketing efforts within the social sphere? Are you sharing content and more importantly, is anyone sharing, liking and retweeting your content across the web? This is one of the hardest obstacles real estate marketers face because the chance of going “viral” in real estate is almost nil. This is not your fault or the fault of your assistant or marketing team. Trying to go viral by force is an obnoxious notion that rarely works. The best you can do is to create share-worthy content, whether it is articles, photos or videos. Even a witty meme could get you some very desirable social shares on any number of social sites that Google deems as relevant.

Keeping up social appearances is tremendously important as the word on the street is that Google will begin to devalue strategies that are easily manipulated such as link building via blog networks. If you don’t register a blip on the social graph but have 5,000 links pointed to your site using very strategic anchor text (the words in links that go to your site) Google’s algorithms are going to notice the disparity in weight. How much value this old method of link building will be devalued has yet to be seen. Diversity is the safest way to invest in your real estate Internet marketing future. Don’t depend on any one source to provide all of your ranking cues to Google. If you do buy real estate SEO, be sure to use a company that keeps up with Google.

3. Recency–Staying Minty Fresh–This can easily loop back into including synopses of interesting and geographically relevant articles or general industry-related articles on your web pages. The origin of Google’s algorithm known as the “Freshness” update comes from a relatively old Google patent that scores documents based upon how fresh the content is.

It would be a mistake to make a blanket statement that all pages must be refreshed frequently or Google will score them lower than others, but there is a certain half-life to your web pages. The rate of decay increases over time. Making small changes to your content will not likely have any impact so if you’re going to update your content, do so significantly. Adding a blog to your site will increase the number of pages over time which is a positive thing as this is seen as updated content. Updating on-page content can have a powerful impact on your visitors as well – are you still using a photograph and bio from 1995?

Google’s algorithms will continue to change, so as a Website owner, you always need to be aware of what Google is evaluating you for. If your Website’s Google rankings have fallen or are not improving, evaluate your site utilizing the points listed above. Easy, cheap and fast “ranking solutions” may sound good in the short term, but it’s always a better choice to position your site with a successful long-term real estate marketing strategy that will generate a steady flow of organic traffic and leads, and that’s exactly what top performing agents are doing.

As home sellers and buyers become more and more Internet savvy, real estate agents and brokers look for ways to stay ahead of the pack and attract a bigger share of potential leads. And as we ALL know, Facebook use continues to grow worldwide, with the lion’s share of the users logging in to their account at least once per day. Combine the fact that there are more than 700 million Facebook users worldwide and that over 90% of all homeowners begin their home search on the Internet and anyone can see that Facebook is simply the place to go for networking of all kinds. Real estate marketing also now has a clever way of becoming a part of day-to-day Facebook social networking activities. 

Since searching for homes almost always begins on the Internet, it seems natural to give those shoppers (and those who have homes listed) a leg up by providing a searchable IDX MLS Home Search right on a real estate Facebook business page.  Leads, potential leads, friends, and anyone within a given circle of influence can hop on Facebook anytime and now have the capability of searching for homes. Because they are already on Facebook, agents are giving shoppers and buyers something extra that will assist them in either finding a home or providing a unique way to market a property. 

Because searching takes place right on Facebook, anyone looking at homes is already on a website they know and trust. The cool thing about this home search is that it contains advanced search features and a registration page. At any point, someone searching can click a button to register to get more information and the lead info will be sent right to the agent. This particular home search approach is not overly aggressive. When searching a specific home, a potential lead has the option to contact the agent at any time by leaving their name, email and phone number. They can also request information specifically on an individual property. The Facbook IDX MLS home search does not force a user to register, thus making it very friendly to the person searching.

Another great benefit to this relatively new feature on Facebook is that all of a company’s information and culture is right there! Because a lead or potential lead is already on a given Facebook page, they can read about an agent, see their photos, read what other clients and friends are saying and get a good idea of what the agency or brokerage is all about. It makes for a very warm and fuzzy environment where there is no pressure.

Dynamic Page Solutions offers this unique Facebook feature for clients and non-clients. Call 888-782-8184 for a special introductory offer.

You have probably heard about it by now, but Pinterest has been sweeping the Internet with sensational eye-capturing images since its birth in March of 2010. In a recent interview with Co-Founder and CEO of Pinterest, Ben Sibermann, via Liz Gannes of AllThingsD.com, states, “Pinterest is a platform that helps people discover things that they didn’t know they wanted”. This is exactly what we need in an industry like Real Estate.

With regard to the previous paragraph, this technique is the perfect way to generate more business for your company. Pinterest works solely on pictures, therefore when you visit Pinterest, you are welcomed by a slew of visually appealing images to “pin”, share, or “like” on your profile. These pictures are linked directly back to the original site it was taken from. This is the perfect way to generate leads, back links, and get those gorgeous photos of your property out there for everyone to see!

In a recent blog post via thechrisvossshow.com , “with nearly 80% repin rates and only about 1.4% retweets on twitter “, It is no wonder why Pinterest is becoming the number one way people are sharing the things they love most.  Even when you are not on Pinterest, you can still use the pin booklet on your toolbar to pin pictures directly onto your board.  Other sites need you to be logged in to share.  Pinterest also rewards new customers by letting their pins show up on the first page of Pinterest for the community to see!  This is a great way to get people to check out your site.

Pinterest is a site that is particularly advantageous to the real estate industry simply because of the sharing and repins. People are more likely to “repin” and “like” your images because they are visually appealing. This means your site will likely be hit more times and will generate more hits because of repining and likes.

When you are pinning things you must also keep in mind that the original pinner is shown and the site you originally pinned from is on the pinner’s wall.  Repins also keep the original source page no matter how many times it is used. For instance, if your pinned image goes viral, then you are automatically linking back to your original source each time an image is repined on a user’s board.

With the above stated, if you want a new angle to generate more leads and click through’s then Pinterest is your ultimate tool for successful back-linking.

Has Internet marketing gone to the dogs? Maybe it’s actually gone to the cats! Internet Real Estate Marketing has always presented unique challenges in drawing the most attention and getting click-throughs and response. So what role do dog and cat videos play in getting a response from a reader? Maybe more than you suspect. And Google is in on the action, too.

In 2010, there was a study conducted by the University of Texas at Austin. The findings concluded that about 42 percent of Americans think of themselves as “dog people” in contrast to 12 percent who identify as “cat people”. About 28 percent of respondents said “both”. The Internet though, is overwhelmingly “CAT”. This is evidenced by the popularity of www.LOLCats.com, the ridiculousness of www.StuffOnMyCat.com and the marketing genius that is Catvertising. Cats have also been connected to some of the hottest memes over the past decade. Spaghetti Cat anyone? How about Keyboard Cat?

So why have cats seemingly edged out man’s best friend on the Web? It’s not too dog gone hard to understand. Cats project an image to which anyone can relate. They can be sweet, they can be stupid, regal, hilarious, in peril, threatening, cuddly….anything. This makes cats the perfect marketing conduit to relay any kind of message. That, plus they work on the cheap.

Leigh Alexander of ThoughtCatalogue.com said, “Popular themes for Internet cat pictures suggest that the cat is perplexed by his/her environment; the cat is demanding of something in a regal fashion [cats may often be implied to be ‘overlords’ or ruling-class characters from science-fiction movies]…”Catvertising

Getting back to the cute cat or dog videos…Google has recently started indexing sites/domains that have embedded YouTube videos. Think about this: the video that you have embedded is being indexed by Google, and if it’s something that has already gone viral, you’re going to get traffic and start ranking, even if the YouTube video you’ve embedded is not 100% related to the page or the blog post that you’ve written. Even better, the embedded video does not have to be yours.

So what does this mean for your real estate marketing? It means you should think creatively and find ways to utilize popular YouTube videos within your online campaigns. Can you fit a cat video in to your real estate marketing message? It certainly is worth giving it a shot and thinking outside of the kitty litter box.

I am consistently at a loss to explain why it seems that so many real estate agents and brokers don’t use Twitter. As a well-established and unique social networking platform, it is a very convenient method of sharing short messages and a superb way of sharing links, photos and videos.  Twitter took flight six years ago (can you believe it?) and it still seems to be looked down upon as a place where people spew their ever-changing location, breakfast entrees or endless political opinions. But when I see how great and helpful Twitter is to real estate marketing, it makes me wonder why more people don’t take advantage of it.

In questioning a general lack of Twitter love from agents and brokers, I’ve had a chance to do a bit of research and I do see the issues.  Real estate agents and brokers simply need to learn how to use Twitter to their advantage and they need to stick with it. The road in Twitterville is dotted with “dead birds”–abandoned accounts where an agent posted a few times, never to return. I have also seen accounts where agents posted a handful of their most glorious home listings and then migrated away. Perhaps as a baseline to this blog post, it should be understood that the only people that will receive your news on Twitter are those who “follow” you (or if someone searches a keyword that happens to be contained in your post). Just because you “tweet” something doesn’t mean a hill of beans if no one is following you. Therefore, building a group of followers should be a long term goal.  Here are four helpful tips for fledgling tweeters in the real estate industry.

Take Flight-Anyone who has used Twitter for any amount of time knows that you have to just keep flyin’. Building your audience “nest” doesn’t happen overnight, no matter what any automated program promises you. The most important thing to remember on Twitter is to be interactive. If you only post links to your listings and nothing else, it sends the message to others that you’re just going through the motions and you don’t have much of value to offer. A strong account engages with and mentions various followers, includes news, trivia, photos, videos and industry information and contains links to a variety of sources. Not only is that the goal of a successful Twitter channel, it’s also the hallmark of a great person or business to follow.

Go Link-Twitter is great for links. But do followers really want to see the same link over and over again? Instead of only linking to the front page of your website–link to blog posts, individual website pages, YouTube videos, industry news stories, etc.  That will encourage Twitter followers to return to you as a dependable source of a variety of information.

Get Engaged-The best way to gain more followers is to engage with them. “Retweet” (RT) others’ news when you think the news will also be of interest to your followers. Mention your followers by name and suggest new “tweeters” to your current followers by adding ‘#FF’ at the end of your post. Go to established Twitter accounts that you know and enjoy. See those that they are following to find others with similar interests. You can also search Twitter for any kind of subject (city, community, neighborhood etc,), which will also help agents hone in on potential homebuyer leads.

Hash It Out-Placing a hash tag (#) in front of any subject (#PhoenixHomes, #HomesForSale, #RealEstate, #WoodbridgeCommunity, etc.) in your tweet will allow others to find your posts by those given subjects. Routinely using a hash tag for a community or neighborhood name where you are selling is also an easy way to assert your selling savvy and give potential leads an easy way for to find you.

You can follow Dynamic Page Solutions on Twitter at @DynamicPS.