How Come My Own Listings Don't Show Up On Google On My Own Site?
We have received several emails this week with this question from agents and brokers.
This is a great question with the answer being relative to each particular situation.
This is a tough question to answer if you can not also add details about your website and what you are doing with your listings to get them to show up on page one on Google.
You can not simply add your listing to your website and somehow magically your website with that listing suddenly appear on page one. SEO does not work like that. Also, you most likely are NOT manually adding your listing to your website.
First, I would like to start off by addressing a couple of things that need to be taken into consideration.
As far as listing exposure goes- the more the better. So at the end of the day it does not always matter if it is you or someone else that is on page one with your listing. The sellers don't care. They just want their listings on page one – which they are if you do an address search – IF- you have syndicated your listing.
But if you are using YOUR listings on page one to GET MORE LISTINGS- it does matter. Using the evidence that your website shows up on page one on Google in your listing toolbox works in getting more listings.
With the onset of tough competitors in the internet space- the big ZTRs- it becomes even tougher to get to the top of page one for the listing address.
In most cases, it is not worth the effort, the time and the money you would have to invest to compete against the big boys for your own listing addresses because by the time you do all that, your listing most likely will be sold.
You have to weigh ego versus highest and best use of time and resources.
There are WAY better keywords to go after that you CAN rank on page one with your listings for that buyers actually are typing into the search box, ( that is a different subject). In fact, with the right SEO steps you can dominate 7 out of 10 spaces on page one on Google for keywords that sellers type in to search for an agent to list their home.
Right now, we will focus on the question on why your website does not show up for listing address on page one.
The first and most important factor in Google's algorithm is “AUTHORITY”. It works to find what it considers based on programming metrics and rules what is the website with the most authority for any given keyword phrase.
What creates “Authority”? TRAFFIC.
Traffic is the main measurement that the algorithm uses to determine authority.
So you then ask yourself: for my listing address- who gets more traffic to their website, the BIG Z or little ol' me?
The next factor that Google looks at is the popularity contest.
He who has the most links wins that contest if those links are quality and/or social.
In both of those 2 categories the majority of real estate websites don't hold a candle to the big boys who now control those top spots for listing addresses.
The linking campaigns that I know of that consist of quality links can not be bought by the hundreds like the old days. Most of the time, manual linking campaigns are the only ones trustworthy enough to deploy with your site. Those are expensive.
How does Google determine which site is more popular than another? LINKS
Check your competitors to see how many links they have compared to you and what is the trust factor of those links? How relevant are those links?
Then there is the issue of WHO owns your listing as far as the search engines like Google go.
If you did not follow the steps in Listing Experts Academy's Listing Syndication module– you most likely do not own your own listing data according to the search engines.
When Google picks up the data of your listing- they don't see that you are the listing agent- that is not even a part of their algorithm. Their programming determines who owns that data through original posting on the internet. He who put it there first which is actually determined by who is indexed first is considered the original content provider.
If you simply go through the motions of adding your listing to your MLS and then auto syndicate your listing- guess what- you just gave up your online ownership of your data. That will NOT help you with your SEO. You are depending on your IDX to pull in that feed from the MLS to your website. SO your listing is REALLY NOT on your website!
Unless you have blogged about your listing with photos and video and placed that on your website, you do not own any info about your listing according to the search engines.
Now, there are some places where you can have placement of your listing on page one on platforms that have proven to be very powerful and have a lot of traffic and are NOT the big ZTRs. Realbird is one of the them. ActiveRain is another one. YouTube is yet another one.
If you are looking to attract more buyer leads from your listings- be sure to do your keyword research to find other ways besides just the address of your listing. After all, not many buyers actually know the address of your listing when they search for a home.
In my opinion it is best to be ranking for the following in this order:
1. Brand ( not your brokers unless you are the broker)
2. Keyword phrases that sellers search for
3. Neighborhoods – market reports, etc.
4. Avatar centric keywords
There is much to do in all 4 of those areas. If you are a Listing Experts Academy member make sure you know who your avatar is, retake the modules on speaking and discovering your avatar. This is where most agents fall short in having a real dialogue online with the ideal customer.
There are over 35 steps to properly syndicating your listings. To find out more…
Check out Listing Experts Academy.