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Advice for Commercial Real Estate SEO Strategy

by webladder
5 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hi All,

I'm working with a very prominent commercial real estate firm in Florida (not Michael Saunders or Ian Black, but in the same ball park). For 25 years they've relied on phonebook ads and newspaper listings, which brought them major success. Problem is, they need to be brought into the digital era, and that's my job.

The currently have a website, but it's not that great...not optimized at all and not built on a reliable platform with no CMS. My first major move in the copmany is to redesign the website on a much better platform (Wordpress), optimize the website and get involved heavily in social media marketing, including videos, presentations, etc., etc.

I need to know if anyone has some tips or tricks for marketing COMMERICAL real estate or any type of helpful guidance towards the right strategies. Here's here I'm at thus far:
  • Redesign the website in Wordpress CMS
  • List syndication for their properties
  • Craigslist Ads with preformatted HTML
  • Social Media
  • YouTube Marketing
  • Content Marketing (Market reports, eBooks, etc., etc.)

...and that's just on the surface. So, any helpful hints for optimizing commercial properties, keyword research, etc.? Anything CONSTRUCTIVE is appreciated.
#advice #commercial #estate #real #seo #strategy
  • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
    Skip Wordpress. For a sizable firm like this, hire a real web designer that has their own or can code a custom CMS for the client. Probably want something that will integrate MLS listings.

    There are tons of web designers that deal specifically with real estate clients. I would hire one of them instead of fooling around with a CMS like Wordpress. Wordpress is way too bloated and vulnerable to hacking.
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    • Profile picture of the author seifelbadrawy
      Originally Posted by MikeFriedman View Post

      Skip Wordpress. For a sizable firm like this, hire a real web designer that has their own or can code a custom CMS for the client. Probably want something that will integrate MLS listings.

      There are tons of web designers that deal specifically with real estate clients. I would hire one of them instead of fooling around with a CMS like Wordpress. Wordpress is way too bloated and vulnerable to hacking.
      This... MLS listings is your primary focus. For keywords on the website such as "florida homes for sale", the top 10 organic results will all be from real estate listing websites. There is no way to compete against this. I don't recommending linking the website inquiries to a CMS. Real estate websites are used for leads. Nobody purchases a house online via credit card.

      check out, my last project,
      hxxp://www.thegeorgenj.com

      The main objective will be to try to get the potential house buyer to fill in thir name and info. Hence, website will have to be simple, informational, and attractive. Detailed photos of homes is a must. The more photos, the lesser the bounce rates.

      if leads are your main objective, then a gateway page usually is optimal.
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      • Profile picture of the author webladder
        Originally Posted by seifelbadrawy View Post

        This... MLS listings is your primary focus. For keywords on the website such as "florida homes for sale", the top 10 organic results will all be from real estate listing websites. There is no way to compete against this. I don't recommending linking the website inquiries to a CMS. Real estate websites are used for leads. Nobody purchases a house online via credit card.

        check out, my last project,
        hxxp://www.thegeorgenj.com

        The main objective will be to try to get the potential house buyer to fill in thir name and info. Hence, website will have to be simple, informational, and attractive. Detailed photos of homes is a must. The more photos, the lesser the bounce rates.

        if leads are your main objective, then a gateway page usually is optimal.
        I agree with you. Obviously, getting the listings noticed is the top priority. Right now, we're using a multitude of listing sites (LoopNet, MFCRE, MFRMLS) and on the current website, those are integrated via a widget that is installed and then it auto populates the information.

        I want to actually put the listings on the site itself, separate from the MLS integration.

        Also, I'm very concerned with branding their company. The President of the company is very well known locally in the industry, and he is essentially "the business". So, the content marketing aspect of this is more so from a branding perspective then a lead gen perspective, but I know it will serve both purposes.

        Lead generation is the top priority for the website and I really, really like the "gateway" page, but I can imagine some users won't like that.
        Signature
        WEB Ladder Consulting, LLC
        Search Engine Optimization and Consulting
        Local Search Specialists!

        www.webladderconsulting.com
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    • Profile picture of the author webladder
      That's exactly the thing. The brokerage itself is only about 10 people strong, so it's not a huge firm and they only serve the local area. I've found some awesome Wordpress solutions, such as AgentPress, with customized IDX solutions and MLS integration. I've worked with Wordpress for years and am not concerned with security, as any site is vulnerable to attacks; it's more a matter of having the right security walls in place.

      Plus, as their marketing person, I can't hire a web designer because that's part of my job and I have the experience to do it. I think maybe a better route might be to work with a real estate web design consultant and develop a strategy together. Thanks for the input Mike!
      Signature
      WEB Ladder Consulting, LLC
      Search Engine Optimization and Consulting
      Local Search Specialists!

      www.webladderconsulting.com
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      • Profile picture of the author yukon
        Banned
        Originally Posted by webladder View Post

        not concerned with security, as any site is vulnerable to attacks; it's more a matter of having the right security walls in place.
        I agree with that.

        Wordpress isn't a problem it's the masses that don't even know basic HTML/CSS, that's the problem. The majority of people that have WP sites don't know what they're doing, they know how to install a plugin & click a button, that's it.

        As far as WP being bloated, that's mostly a theme problem, the masses want gimmicks that have nothing to do with their goals. It's a catch-22, WP theme developers keep pumping out bloated code because that's what the average theme buyer wants, they don't care about page loading times, bloated javascript, 100+ Google fonts, etc... Later on the bloated theme buyers will think about SEO, by then they're screwed because they just dropped $50 on a theme with 4k lines of code per page & trying to load 10 external javascript files. More is better, lol.

        The bare min. on a Wordpress theme is 2 theme files (index.php & style.css), & can be done in less than 20 lines of code (combined). That theme won't do much, my point is anyone that knows HTML/CSS/PHP can take a bare min. theme file & do whatever they want, it's no different than a simple HTML site.

        BTW, most WP themes that have spam links are hacked before the webmaster ever downloads the free theme/plugin, it's the easiest way for spammers to let webmasters blast links because most WP webmasters will never look at the theme source code, If they did they wouldn't know what they're looking at anyways.

        OP, as far as SEO & since you can code, get your jpg images showing up as a movie thumbnail image in Google SERPs (higher SERP CTR). This takes some work to first setup but you can use a flash image gallery set as a movie on a continuous loop for each set of real estate listing images (per page). The key is to pull all the images, thumbnail images, image URLs from an external xml file. Google will crawl an xml file all day long, they won't crawl regular old flash.

        If you keep the flash image gallery looking very simple (no borders, etc...) the traffic that lands on your page will never know they're looking at flash, looks like a regular old jpg image.

        Here's a quick video overview for flash & external xml files, can't see the video very good but he has a site with more examples (link in video description), a Google search might return better examples.


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