To say that keyword research is the most important real estate marketing idea is an understatement. Keyword research is the cornerstone of search engine optimization (SEO), in fact, it is important to do keyword research before you choose a domain, develop the site concept, or write a word of content. It is an art form that combines intuition, creativity, and persistence.
The first step in search engine optimization is to write down all of the keywords that you think people are typing into the search engines to find websites just like yours.
For example, let’s say you are a real estate agent in San Francisco, CA and you are just getting started – write down what you think the keywords might be…
- San Francisco real estate agent
- Real estate agent in San Francisco
- Homes for sale in San Francisco
- Houses for sale in San Francisco
Now, lets go to the Google Keyword Tool page and check ‘demand’ and ‘competition’ of our keywords:
- Sign in to your Gmail account
- Go to the Google Keyword Tool
- Type in a keyword
- Check the box next – “Only show ideas closely related to my search terms”
- Click on the Search Bar
- Double Click on the Competition tab
- Document the Global Monthly Searches
- Now click on the keyword, this action takes you to the first page of Google for that keyword and document the About […] results number, this is the number of competitor pages.
|
Keywords |
Global monthly searches | Competitor Pages |
| San Francisco real estate agent | 1300 | 24,300,000 |
| San Francisco Bernal Heights | 1600 | 587,000 |
| Presidio Heights San Francisco | 260 | 248,000 |
| SF Properties | 1300 | 122,000,000 |
| San Francisco investment | 5400 | 161,000,000 |
| Real estate market bay area | 1000 | 9,370,000 |
| Houses for sale San Francisco Ca | 1000 | 2,730,000 |
| houses for sale san francisco | 8100 | 4,790,000 |
| houses for sale san francisco bay area | 390 | 1,020,000 |
| San francisco realtors*** | 40,500 | 4,770,000 |
| San francisco foreclosures | 2400 | 8,750,000 |
| San francisco short sales | 590 | 5,190,000 |
| Foreclosures ca | 33,100 | 16,400,000 |
| Bay view homes for sale | 1300 | 4,600,000 |
| San Francisco Victorian houses*** | 1600 | 201,000 |
| Victorian homes for sale in san Francisco | 119 | 987,000 |
As you can see the numbers are all over the board, and this is only a small sampling of the data that was found. But what you are looking for is:
A) At least 1000 Global monthly searches
B) If possible under 100,000 Competitor pages.
The most promising keywords here are;
A) San Francisco Victorian Houses
B) San Francisco Realtors
If this was my project I would be looking for ways to use those keywords as part of my search engine optimization strategy; in the domain, the website title, descriptive sentence and in the content. And, if the domain is available – Buy IT! In fact, I would develop the entire website around those two keywords…just think of the possibilities.
