So, you want a highly-ranked “niche” or “farm area” website for your real estate business?
First things first, you have to decide what you are going to target, and make sure you have a clear shot at showing up high on Google’s search rankings. So, you should take the time to do this right.
The simple answer is:
- Brainstorm.
- Search Google.
- Get narrow.
- Check out the competition.
- Pick something.
Not as simple as it sounds, is it? This is a crucial step, so I’ll elaborate:
Brainstorm.
You likely already have in mind what kinds of homes you know how to sell best, or what area of town you like to sell in best. Get a piece of paper out, and write those down in a vertical list. Leave some space between each idea.
Ideas: It could be the building you live in, the neighbourhood you live in – anything you can speak passionately about, for *at least* minutes on end.
Search Google.
Next, get out your favourite googler: web browser, smartphone, iPad. Pick your pleasure, and go to google.com.
Our goal is to gauge which of your ideas will actually be the *easiest* search terms to get to the top of, so we’re going to write down some searches and the # of results for each to help us make that decision.
The key here is to quickly and easily get to the top of a search term.
- Type in [your city] and the words “real estate”.
>> Look at the number of search results (it should near the top of the page). Write this number down at the top of your brainstorm paper. - Look at the first item on your list, and type in the first search term that comes to mind.
>> Write the search term you chose and the # of results you got for it.
>> Choose a variation of that search term (i.e. use words like condos, townhouses, houses, properties, listings, mls, real estate) and take notes of those as well. - Repeat this for every item on your brainstorm list.
Get narrow.
The number of results for the “wide net” that is cast by searching your city and the words “real estate” should give you a benchmark against which to compare the other searches.
For example, at the time of this post, “Vancouver real estate” yielded “About 23,800,000 results”, while “Kitsilano real estate” yielded “About 346,000 results” and “Kitsilano townhouses” yielded “About 52,300 results” (Kitsilano is a popular neighbourhood in Vancouver).
Another example: at the time of this post, “Calgary real estate” yielded “About 34,100,000 results,” “Calgary SW real estate” yielded “About 461,000 results”, and “Calgary 17th ave condos” yielded “About 73,100 results”.
From these two examples, you can see that the narrower the term, the fewer competitors you would have if you targeted that search term.
Check out the competition.
Now that you have an idea of how much competition volume there is for a handful of search terms, you want to see whose sites are showing up on page one, two and three of the Google search results.
What you should look for is how many of the websites on page one and two are real estate brokerage sites vs. classified sites (i.e. craigslist), or other conglomerate sites. Those are sites you won’t be able to compete with.
Note how many individual agent sites are showing up on pages one and two, and THEN you want to take a look at how much of the content on their website is dedicated to that search term.
For example, if I observed the only agent websites that showed up on page one or two were sites that did not have listings or content dedicated to my search term, then I would know that I could “beat them” to a higher position in the search results. I could do it reasonably easily, simply by putting out more relevant and current information on that topic.
Pick something.
Yes, the time has come to make a decision. I would encourage you to pick the search term that will be the easiest “win”.
You may have heard the expression , “always build someone else’s house first”? Similarly, start with a website that will easily achieve your goal of showing up on page one.
When you’ve done it once, you’ll have passed the learning curve, and you can apply your learnings to a more elaborate website – or websites!
You’ll probably be hooked on the quick success of your niche site… don’t say we didn’t warn you!