Google Places Optimization for Real Estate Marketing
I’m sure you are aware that over 90% of today’s home buyers and sellers start their research on the Internet. Here is a quick recap of the number of monthly searches for Louisville real estate related terms.
As you can see above, there are thousands of people each month looking for real estate related information. With the Internet growing every day, these figures will only get bigger in the future.
The question that you must ask yourself now is what am I doing to get in front of these people?
If you are not marketing online then you are missing out on a huge opportunity.
This is where Google places comes into play. Google places used to be called Google maps. If you have ever entered a search term and included a local modifier such as your city (Louisville) you most likely have seen Google places search results.
If you go to Google now and enter “Mortgage Rates Louisville KY” you can see what I’m talking about.
As you can see, there are seven companies with phone numbers listed directly at the top of the page above the standard search results. These seven listings are Google places pages.
As you can see, we currently hold the number one spot for this term as well as many other terms.
Google places is a free service that Google offers to local businesses. It allows local businesses (even those without a website) to be listed on Google. The best part about Google places is that Google displays the places pages directly at the top of the page above all other search results.
Another large benefit is that Google places optimization allows you to rank much faster than you could with standard search engine optimization. When I started our mortgage campaigns a few months ago we were on the first page for some keywords within weeks, and now we are either first or on the first page for all of the terms that we are targeting.
These rankings do not come without any effort, but the strategies are simple, and could easily be completed yourself, or outsourced very inexpensively.
I hope you can see the value of Google place Optimization. I will be bringing you additional online marketing tips as well as Google places optimization strategies in the future.
My goal is to be a continuous resource of usable strategies, links, tools, and marketing help. If there’s any subject you’d like to see covered in a future issue of Real Estate Marketing Online, or if you would like to sit down for an online marketing analysis and strategy session then please contact me using the information below.