Have you recently received a call from a company promising to get your real estate website to the top of Google? I know what you are thinking, “The top of google? Say what? I want to be on the top of Google…tell me more.” After talking to a few agents this week, I realized that some of you are in the dark as to what it is they are actually doing to get your real estate website to the ‘top of Google’.

When a prospective buyer conducts a search on Google for “South Portland Real Estate” the results page contains two types of listings. There are sponsored listings, which are pay-per-click ads and are highlighted with a yellow background. Then there are organic listings which are the sites that Google deems most worthy of displaying information about the search phrase, “South Portland Real Estate.

The company that is promising to get you to the top of Google, is actually taking your money and buying pay-per-click ads on your behalf, therefore placing your real estate website in the top sponsored section of the search results page. So while your real estate website WILL technically be at the top of Google, it will only be there as long as you keep paying for it to be there.

Is this worth your money? Like most marketing strategies, it depends on your business. Let’s take a look at the pros & cons:

Pros:

1. If your website is not search engine optimized and doesn’t show up in the first few pages of Google, this might be a good idea to get yourself some quick exposure. But should only be used as a short term option as you build your website’s organic rankings.

2. You can create a specific landing page to convert users at a higher rate. For example, if your ad says “Maine Waterfront Property” then you could send those users directly to a page on your site that was about Maine Waterfront Property

Cons:

1. Most people do not click on Sponsored listings, as they feel Google’s organic listings are more trustworthy.

2. Once you run out of money your ad stops, the exposure stops and the traffic stops.

The best thing you can do to build traffic to to your website is make sure that it is search engine optimized and you are continually adding content to it. This will help you climb in the organic search listings, get more traffic and then in turn get more leads.

One Response to “Promises to Get your Website to the Top of Google, Are they a Scam?”

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   Getting your Real Estate to the Top of Google | Thirteen Thirty Marketing Pinged With: @8:50 pm 
   

   [...] out the post I wrote on The Real Estate Learning Group’s blog to see what the Pros & Cons are of using a service like [...]

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