You’ve heard about SEO, but have you heard about Local SEO? It’s not your fault if you haven’t, but if you don’t take this moment to begin building your knowledge of Local SEO you will only have yourself to blame. This is where your attention should be if reason #1 has any meaning to you whatsoever... this is what you need.
#1 - LOCAL SEO IS THE REAL ESTATE INVESTOR'S DIRECT PATH TO THE FRONT PAGE OF GOOGLE!
Over the past year you may have noticed that a peculiar little box providing a map and local results are popping up more and more for real estate related terms. It is most commonly referred to as “The 10-Box” and as you have probably noticed… this “10-Box” displays local results prominently on the first page of Google’s search results!
Below is an example of the first page of search results where we can identify 3 distinct areas when doing a search for the term “home buyers.”
*note: Local result placement may vary, search for your terms and make note of which terms bring up a 10-box and which ones don’t.
Local SEO’s purpose is to get you on the first page of the search results by taking the optimizing for the local results. This is better than fine, this is great!
#2 - Real estate is a local business so we should be optimizing locally!
For example, we steer our marketing efforts locally by focusing on the Saint Paul market. We’ve optimized two different ways (traditional vs. local) and guess which one is outperforming the other. Take a look at the zoom in of the 10-box below for “home buyers.”
These 2 positions are by yours truly and they perform! Traffic is one thing, but if it isn’t someone in our target market within our local area then that traffic doesn’t mean a whole lot. In this case we can enjoy the benefits that Google Local provide by letting Google do their thing.
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Their IP address and search history triggers the Google Places box, making it most likely that the visitor is within our area.
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In order for this box to appear the keyword must be associated with local intent. To put it another way, Google Local actually relieves you of some of the burden of distinguishing actionable keyword traffic (traffic that is motivated).
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Google Places also comes with its very own set of analytics, so when you’re working on conversion you can base the ratio on a cleaner set of traffic data. In order for them to come through Google Places they ‘re automatically prequalified in intent and location!
Google Local results have treated us well and will continue to do so in an increasing number of ways.
#3 - Competition in Google Place for real estate investors is surprisingly light, but that's BECAUSE NOBODY IS TALKING ABOUT IT!
In zoom in above you can see that we have the top 2 spots.
These spots show up on the front page of Google search results to doubly qualified traffic in your local area.
The competition for Local SEO is much lower than it is for traditional SEO (MUCH LOWER) because nobody is talking about it. We’ve been on top of these local listings for about a year now and have yet to have had to defend our position at the topic of our local Google mountain.
It’s almost tragic Local SEO is so completely overlooked because we get real results and some of our best leads off Google Places. If you’re interested in getting started with local this next reason will make your day!
#4 - Local SEO is far easier than traditional SEO. Plus the traffic is better as it fits the online needs of real estate investors perfectly!
Traditional SEO, as cool as it sounds is hard laborious work because there is so much competition on a playing field that changes form weekly. If you’re not familiar with the role of search engine optimization (SEO) then this abbreviated flow chart will spell it out for you.
With traditional SEO every single step of this processes can be a major undertaking, especially when the SEO is competitive. But even in some competitive traditional SEO markets Local SEO is grossly overlooked because all the internet marketing sharks are too busy trying to outdo each other.
Here’s a side-by-side comparison of what you’re getting into when you’re deciding on which internet route you want to focus your optimization efforts:
For real estate investors this comparison illustrates on four key points the advantages Local SEO provides. Traditionally SEO can get ultra-competitive ultra-quick, but the way things stand becoming a first adapter and capturing the lead before others get wise to the benefits of Local SEO will surely payoff in the long term!
Reason #5: With Local SEO you don’t have to be the best in the World, you only need to be the best in your local market within your niche.
As things stand, only a small % of real estate investors are truly competing in Local SEO. Also since Google isolates areas by their location the competition will be mostly limited to other investors who have a lot to learn as well.
I simply cannot stress enough the importance of capitalizing on all the benefits Local SEO offers real estate investors. Your sellers and buyers are most often going to be local, when people search local there is intent on finding a solution which triggers the Local 10-box result.
Local SEO may very well replace the entire first page of Google results with Local results for certain keywords and this is your opportunity claim the best seat before all the seats sell out.
For the second let’s consider the worst case scenario that I’m wrong and Google Local won’t become the entire front page of results for certain terms. The very fact that our two top spots in our Local results has been feeding us quality leads for the past year is a real benefit that you can obtain.
Monday, October 25th I’ll be leading a live GoToMeeting training at 7pm Central Time where I will walk you through the steps you need to take to significantly increase your Local SEO power. It's not everyday that you get the chance to learn from someone who is fluent in both real estate investing and SEO.
Local SEO doesn't just help you, but it protects your business from being hijacked online!
This is your ticket to the front page of Google in your local market, click it!