Real estate brokers and agents seeking increased online traffic, prospects, sales and profits find themselves using real estate search engine optimization experts to achieve their real estate website marketing goals. Like other areas of consultative services, SEO clients ultimately focus on cost. In today’s recessionary market, you to want to reap the benefits associated with top search engine rankings while paying the lowest cost.
A strong word of caution about your SEO costs.
No two real estate search engine optimization experts or companies are the same. How they implement, diagnose and execute real estate website marketing will vary greatly — as will the results. If it was easy to obtain top real estate search engine optimization in Google and other search engines, anyone could easily implement those changes. It takes time, energy and knowledge to gain long-term results…but the payoff can be enormous!
Is real estate website marketing easy?
Without Page 1 ranking your real estate website marketing results will be weak. Google has over 200 different factors it considers when determining which website will get Page 1 ranking for every specified keyword. To achieve optimal SEO performance you cannot eliminate or neglect any of these influences. It is especially critical to hire a SEO company utilizing ethical (white hat) SEO best practices or you could do more harm than good to your online real estate marketing. Authentic search engine results take time – watch out for SEO scammers promising instant page rank.
Real Estate Search Engine Optimization – Dissecting Costs.
To compare SEO services you need to completely understand what each real estate search engine optimization expert is going to do for the cost. If all necessary components involved in achieving top search ranking for relevant and targeted keywords are not part of the services included in your SEO costs, the time to achieve website popularity will take longer and ultimately you may not gain the results that come with a superior online presence.
In 2007 Rand Fish of SEOMoz wrote about the wide range of costs from a variety of SEO companies. To summarize, ongoing monthly SEO costs will range from $2,500 on the low-end, $7,500 for mid-tier SEO companies, and $20,000+ on the high-end. While the scope of a real estate website marketing project needs to be taken into consideration, these numbers illustrate the challenge website owners face when searching for real estate search engine optimization services. Why pay $20,000 or more when someone else is willing to do the job for $2,500?
Real estate website marketing – Too important to get wrong.
You get what you pay for with real estate search engine optimization, and the market is crowded with search engine optimization companies vying for your online marketing dollars. This makes determining the right SEO consultant challenging. Here are a few questions to ask yourself about real estate search engine optimization costs:
- Is it reasonable to think your results will vary when choosing the low-end, mid-range or high-end for real estate website marketing?
- How fast do you want to see results? Do you think the timeframe may differ between the three SEO experts?
- Do you think the quality of service will differ between the three?
- Do you think the mid-range or high-end real estate search engine optimization services might be all-inclusive?
- Do you think it matters who you work with?
Real estate search engine optimization is a skill that is honed with years of experience.
Some real estate search engine optimization best practices can be automated. Today SEO tasks such as link building, content writing, site submissions, competitor analysis, etc. can all be done with software. While occasionally using technologies to reduce time and cost can be effective, there is no replacement for personal evaluation, recommendations and implementation of SEO best practices. The advanced skill set provided by an experienced and proven real estate website marketing consultant who understands the effects of a comprehensive campaign will instinctively drive a successful SEO project.
Advice to help you dissect real estate search engine optimization costs.
What precautions can you take to ensure you make an informed decision while evaluating a variety of experts and costs? Find out if they provide you a monthly detailed progress report including reliable data necessary to quantify your SEO results. Keyword ranking updates, website traffic changes, social media monitoring and a whole host of other measurable data is critical to monitoring your progress. Assuming they have been granted permission from their existing clients, are they willing to reveal these reports to you? A reliable real estate search engine optimization expert wants to share these facts because it demonstrates their value.
Comparing real estate search engine optimization costs.
The extreme range of real estate search engine optimization costs can be over whelming especially when you are not knowledgeable in the field of search engine optimization. Coupled with the fact the expert probably wants your business, you need to be cautious about their promises. Weeding through the good and bad is a daunting decision especially when budgets and time are at stake.
PCMS Consulting, a real estate consulting company will evaluate your SEO proposals and help you dissect them so you can feel confident you choose the company who will provide you with services that maximize your results while paying reasonable monthly costs.
This article reprinted with permission from PCMS Consulting. The original can be found here.
