Tag Archive for: real estate wordpress themes

When it comes to appearing on the front page of Google (or Bing) the value of real estate WordPress themes is critical.

Here are the strategies to consider.

Some people may scoff at the value of ranking naturally on Google when a home buyer conducts a search (referred to as Organic Listings).

They might say, “Oh, that’s no big deal. I can just pay a few dollars for pay per click advertising and make my way right up to page one, no problem.”

Yet, there are issues with that way of thinking.

For one, a real estate broker or agent has to pay for that click. And as most people are finding out when buying the most desirable keywords, eg “homes for sale in (your town),” those clicks ain’t cheap.

This is why Google is a bazillion-dollar company that has literally ripped ad dollars right out of the pockets of all those local newspapers that used to dominate real estate marketing for so long.

In fact, according to a survey by the National Association of Realtors, only 1% of homeowners look at newspapers for properties. More than 50% look to the Internet and as know, about 90% of them use search.

And as you know, nowadays they can look at Google from their smartphone, their iPhone, their tablet, their laptop and even their watch.

Folks, this is where the action is. This is the battlefield for all those consumers. This is where the fish are swimming.

So how are you taking participating in this arena?

Pay per click ads? Sure, they work. They can also get you to the front page of Google the next day.

However, you seriously should consider a strategy to increase your organic rankings as well.

Why? Because research has shown that organic rankings deliver solid results.

In one study, it was shown that organic results were more than eight times more likely to be clicked than pay per click ads.

There are two reasons for this.

1. Credibility – Google ranks a website based on a number of factors. Those factors include content, site speed, links to the site, relevance, etc. So when a real estate broker ranks high on Page One for certain search terms, many consumers know that this company must be a reliable source of the answers they are querying about.

That high ranking is a seal of approval from Google.

(To be real, Google’s search algorithms are not 100% reliable. That’s why many times you will see some dumb results for certain searches. In addition, there are still a bunch of what are referred to as “black hat” practitioners who try to manipulate rankings using strategies that Google has deemed to be in violation of their terms. Generally, those people make it to Page One rather quickly, but they generally don’t stay there. Google literally has an army of programmers sniffing out sites that try to game the system illegitimately).

2. Consumers Now Know the Difference Between Organic and PPC – one issue in the early days of the web, including Google’s early days, was that it was difficult to determine which websites showed up in the natural organic rankings and which websites showed up based on the dollars they were paying per click.

Many a consumer dug into the rabbit hole of a pay per click advertisement thinking it was a natural ranking, only to find out the website was sketchy and trying all sorts of ways to manipulate them, like trying to capture their contact information for example. Many lead generation sites, that don’t actually offer a product or service but sell lead information, practice this strategy.

Google’s motto is “Do No Harm.” So they have gotten better at identifying their paid listings as paid. This is admirable since they are a public company beholden to shareholders.

In addition, consumers over the years have gotten better at identifying which listings are organically ranked and which ones are advertisements.

Here’s the point. Every real estate broker and agent should have some sort of organic strategy. That’s where a lot of the treasure is buried.

Real estate WordPress themes give you an edge

In this day and age, if you are going to be serious about organic rankings, you really should have a web platform that is one of the most popular and effective platforms for Google rankings.

That platform is WordPress.

WordPress was started as a simple way for bloggers to blog, and get their blogs to appear for web searches. It became so popular in fact, that the developers of WordPress created a version for business websites.

This is how the marketplace reacted. Just like everybody and their brother started working on apps once the iPhone was released, much of the same happened to WordPress.

Unlike the iPhone, WordPress is an open platform. That means developers are free to develop products for this platform. And they did. There are now thousands of themes and plugins for business people to choose from.

Many of them are excellent and can help you create a fantastic site without any custom coding and long time delays. But some are schlocky and poorly coded.

Home Junction is one of the reliable developers of real estate WordPress themes. The company didn’t start overnight and has a long track record of developing websites specifically for Realtors.

Brokers and agents can choose from real estate WordPress themes that really make home photos pop and provide easy navigation for visitors to find the information they want.

In addition, Home Junction has developed a slate of real estate-related plugins that can equip an agent with an incredible array of real estate market data, maps, home sale charts, boundaries and other features, all integrated into an MLS listing with their proprietary IDX applications.

WordPress coding is Google-friendly

Which brings us back to organic listings on Google.

If you are going to be serious about organic rankings, get out of that clunky old website.

Get into a website with the most user-friendly, search engine friendly design that makes it easy for a broker or agent to add keywords and content that they want to rank for on Google.

Sure, we get it. Perhaps you will never be able to rank in the top three for this keyword phrase “homes for sale in (my market).”

But with real estate WordPress themes, you have the ability to try different ranking strategies. With the right mix of keywords and content, perhaps you can rank in the top three spaces for “homes for sale in XYZ subdivision” which you are farming.

Or “equestrian homes for sales in (my market).”

The volume of search for those keywords might not be that high. But luckily, you are not selling wind chimes to these web searchers, you are selling homes in the range of $500,000 plus or minus. Just a few inquiries every month can yield incredibly big results.

We’re not dissing pay per click. Go ahead and buy that keyword phrase “equestrian homes for sale in (my market).”

But studies show you will do better with organic.

So don’t ignore organic, embrace it. In some form.

You can easily be on your way with one of the most Google-optimized content management systems in the world. With a site created specifically for marketing properties – a real estate WordPress themes from Home Junction.