Why Realtors Need to Be Found in the Top 10 Google Results

Way back when I moved to Sacramento to sell real estate, I was not found in the top 10 Google results. At that time, Google had only been around for a few years and still competed with Yahoo and other search engines. The internet was moving out of its infancy into main stream. Also, unlike many Realtors, I got my first dial-up baud modem in 1991, so that world was not frightening to me.

However, when I received an opportunity to write real estate articles for a well known internet company 13 years ago, I jumped at the chance. Didn’t matter that I had moved to Sacramento in 2002 and was starting from scratch again to build a real estate business. My real estate business ate up almost 100% of my time, but I still managed to set aside time to write 3 to 5 articles a week about home buying and home selling.

The company I worked for, About.com, was owned by The New York Times, and had been in the SEO business for years under several different names. Today it is Dot Dash and the homebuying vertical is under The Balance. They taught me how to do my own SEO, such as limiting the character length of meta titles, repeating keywords 2 to 3 times, how to write meta descriptions, how to capture the benefits of crosslinking, in short, how to be found in the top 10 Google results.

We are not talking about linking farms or anything nefarious. Just solid content about real estate, entertaining and informative articles, tweaked with a bit of search engine optimization. Google was the future. Regardless, I knew this: if your business wasn’t easily found on Google, it doesn’t exist in the online world.

I recall several incidents in my office that happened right after the second market crash in 2008. In one case, an agent accosted me in the hallway and demanded to know why in the world would I ever work on short sales when they were so awful. Um, because that’s where the business was? Another agent in the office asked me to show her how I am found in the top 10 Google results.

Easy, I brought up Google in Internet Explorer. Typed in a common search term like “East Sacramento real estate agent.” There was my name and website link in the top 10 results. The agent spun around in her chair and angrily cried out, “But that’s not fair! I’ve worked in East Sacramento all of my life.”

Because life isn’t fair, Corrine. There are no rewards for sheer existence.

Few agents wanted to hear that they needed their own website or to blog. Some agents said they did not want to work with any persons who found them online because the clients were not properly referred by an individual they knew. Others simply scoffed at the notion that buyers and sellers would search for a Sacramento Realtor online.

Hard to believe that was 13 years ago. Seems like a lifetime.

Today, I am found all over the internet. Cannot think of any real estate website where you won’t find my profile. My articles on The Balance bring me a lot of business. As a result, my personal real estate business doubled and doubled, which then brought even more recognition. I still write a blog every day. And I am a wizard at generating easily found long tail search terms.

Fortunately, I also possess the experience, skills and knowledge to back up my web presence. Not every agent does. If you’d like to hire a Sacramento Realtor with over 40 years of experience and the ability to take your home buying or selling experience to the next level, call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.

That pink hibiscus is a rare bloom on our pale yellow hibiscus tree, which is 28 years old, at our vacation home in Hawaii.