In the world of digital marketing, creative messaging can quickly be tweaked and replaced, or selected media environments re-looked. This is a best-practice benchmark SEO study of Real Estate Times for online marketers. As real estate agents comment about property – Location, location, location! It applies to digital marketing also. We first did our homework by crawling through social networks, news sites, global realty portals and blogs where Real Estate Times (or similar brands) was a topic of discussion and tested for many new ideas. Came to know and understood their target market, and positioned the brand in the environments they frequent.

The SEO process began with a strategy as it is crucial to know and understand the objective. For establishing a presence on search engines and attract buyers and sellers to Real Estate Times, we have used both Pay Per Click-through (PPC) and Search Engine Optimization. Tasks involved were Online media advertising campaigns, paid search, lead generation, email marketing, refer-a-friend campaigns to name just a few tools and channels. Most importantly we have trained their specialist real estate editors to become SEO and quality content savvy.

Using PPC we have established accounts on Google Adwords and Yahoo SM and optimized campaigns for placing on the Search Engines Results Pages (SERPs). As PPC is performance based; they only pays for visitors if they click on link, as it is displayed on the Search Results Page (SERP). We controlled which SERPs Real Estate Times link/ad shows up on by bidding on right key phrases, for example “real estate”, “real estate in gurgaon”, etc.

By SEO reverse engineering, we made adjustments to make it attractive to the search engines and get listed as high as possible for search terms. On-page adjustment by incorporating key phrases within the web site in the right areas like the title and heading. Off-page adjustments were mainly for getting other sites to link to Real Estate Times so it is perceived as popular to the search engine.

Another important part of research was determining which search terms do people enter into the search engines to find residential or commercial estate in India? This help us to bid on terms using PPC and include those terms/phrases within Real Estate Times using SEO techniques. Keyword Research is an important prerequisite to a successful Search Engine Marketing campaign.

Selecting Engines: Top four Search Engines account for 93% of all search queries. They are Google, Yahoo, MSN and AOL. With the exception of industry specific portal/search engines our focus was on these four SEs. Remember, Search Engine market is complex and often overlapping.

We found that on average between 9 to 10 lakh searchers enter the search term “real estate” in Overture alone – around 3 million queries per month! We have lots of people looking for real estate on the Internet. Other terms besides real estate, are new homes, new construction, real estate for sale by owner, etc..We have used both Overture and Wordtracker to find the top search terms and also checked the web logs of Real Estate Times.

The hardest category to determine is local listings as all real estate is local. We focused on local results for PPC; the click-through rates are generally cheaper. Designed SEO around local geography, with less competition and constantly analyze site logs for new search phrases. PR is another vital component of our online strategy for increasing Online Real Estate presence while building authority through better online exposure for Real Estate Times.

We at SEO trends, specialise in real estate websites and real estate SEO for lead generation and increasing property sales with Real Estate Web Designers. Our clients include real estate agents, brokers, builders, news portals, etc..