Long Tail Keywords to Snag Focused Buyers

After my meeting with Zillow, a more valuable meeting may have taken place downstairs after our final handshake with the generous Zillow staff.  I had a discussion with Geordie Romer of Windermere about how dominating specific obscure neighborhoods could produce hotter leads than a normal generalized campaign.  He told me something profound that inspired me to really step up my marketing campaign.  He said that people searching on Google for more specific things are further along in the buying process.  Basically, someone searching for “Seattle condos” may be serious or may just be a looky-loo but someone searching for “Millennium on Capital Hill” knows EXACTLY where they want to live, they are just waiting for the right deal to come up.

Content is king – If you have a blog, why not write a blog about some local condo buildings or neighborhoods you have intimate familiarity with?  Spice it up with some keyword phrases that you think people would use to find that building.  Add in some fun extras like Walkscore if applicable even.  Perhaps you want to get REALLY serious about this one neighborhood or building.  Start a new, separate blog that is focused only on this area.  Get a URL that is peppered with keywords as well but don’t get too silly because more isn’t always better.

Buy your way to the top – If you don’t have the time, skills, content, etc to pump up your SEO to the top of your tier, why not buy your spot via google adwords.  This is how the big boys play it but you don’t need the big budgets they have.  Use the keyword sandbox to find your long tail keywords.  Say that you want to sell in Beverly Hills.  You may first think about buying the keyword, “Beverly Hills real estate”.  That’s fine but you’ll pay an arm and a leg for it.  There were almost 15,000 hits on that phrase in April.  How about something like “Beverly Hills condos” though?  That has under 3,000 hits.  Better yet, snag a couple others like “Sunset blvd condos” etc.  The more obscure the phrase, the easier it will be to dominate it with less money.

Don’t bait and switch – The best-picked adword campaign in the world cannot save you if you don’t have a way to close ‘em.  Send them somewhere they would want to go.  Otherwise, you’ll just get a bounce and that will do nothing but make you poor quicker.   Don’t forget to track your results with google analytics.

Peyman Aleagha has even more ideas on how to use this strategy but I suggest starting small and tracking your efforts before you go nuts on this.