Thread: Google is lost

but they are fixing overdue problems. The real estate filter is really annoying.

Mike, any chance you can explain how this real estate filter works? I've heard many people who are in the real estate industry comment about a Google filter..

Why would they single out the RE industry?

Just wondered!

Darren

Real Estate is a so-called "money word". The theory behind this is that the harder it is to optimize a realtor web site, the more realtors will sign up for AdWords. Google tries to maximize revenues through Adwords and Adsense.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is Yahoo/Overture. It's easier to optimize for real estate, but PPC advertising is 4-5 times the maximum bid of Adwords max bids in most markets.

You can defeat the filter through brute force with a ton of links from relevant sites with proper anchor text.

You can also set up a satellite site that talks about real estate but does not actually sell real estate. Sorry, I can't give out specifics on how this is accomplished - I'm still in the experimental stage. It's tricky, but promising.

Study the types of sites (other than actual realtor sites) that show up in the top SERP's in G in your market and you will see what I mean.

Originally Posted by darren

Mike, any chance you can explain how this real estate filter works? I've heard many people who are in the real estate industry comment about a Google filter..

Why would they single out the RE industry?

Just wondered!

Darren

It's really sad but over the last 2-3 yrs realtors have more than any other industry of webmasters taken measurements to get ranked that have upset Google and made them decide that they rather reward web sites which have been around without being reported or anything like that.


There are ways to beat the filter ... e.g. have a new RE site and get a dmoz, Yahoo! directory and maybe JoeAnt listing before any other links come in.

I have seen it done before.

Google wants to only cover their bases. When they feel like you're legit, they will love you.

I could talk forever about examples how real estate webmasters have abused the algos in the last few years but I am trying to make an impact and educate those heading in the wrong direction.


Mike

With only real revenue coming to google is through adwords. Real estate as HHI Golf Guy mentioned is a money word. Google is just looking to capitalize on Realtors because of the increased opportunities from consumers finding their real estate agents on the internet. I am also one of those believers that google has put into place several added filters that it doesnt for other industries.

This is another good reason I see MSN taking a major portion of the market share in the search engine wars. MS doesnt need any income to survive as a company from the sponsored advertising, whereas google if it doesnt generate this income their company will no longer exsist.

The one most important factor I have seen in Google in relation to their algo for real estate sites is that the age of the website is probably the most important factor, evem more so than BLs.

Sorry Wayne but I love G. The majority of our traffic comes from them. I do think that they have tightened the reins on real estate in general, but only because of certain webmasters abusing the rules. The new msn is also sending us a lot of clients, although I think they had better results a month ago. The great thing about competition is that it breeds excellence. As a consumer, its a win - win situation.

I can appreciate that Charles, but even if I was # 1 or # 2 in google my opinion would still be the same. I dont think google can hang on the ward off MSN. The results in google are not as relevant as MSN or even yahoo for that matter. Real estate being a money word for google has motive to try and drive more and more Realtors to their adwords.

We have also found that we get a better conversion from MSN and Yahoo than google. In the month of Feb as an example we received thousands of leads and over 400k homeviews from our sites. Google is going to lose a large share IMHO of their real estate search market. With the new ads being released by MSN during the super bowl, I believe that this will drive a large amount of traffic to MSN and if consumers are finding what they are searching for Google is in trouble.

Also lets not forget about all the releases that MSN has coming up that they will tie all this into their search engine. Bill Gates is no dummy, if he wants the number 1 postion, he will take it and I dont believe that there is anything google can do about it.

I have personally been switching from Google to MSN for my own searches. My hands automatically go for "Google" & I'm trying to re-train them to type MSN in my address bar. I sometimes type faster than I think!

If I were a potential home buyer or seller & started my search in Google I'd be very confused. I might end up signing up with Homegain who would then sell my info to a local agent.

If I searched in MSN I'd probably find a good agent immediately.

Haha . .. I am the same way ... still googling ..

You'd be really confused if you looked at MSN's results today. I did a search for Las Vegas real estate to check my ranking and I got a french riviera site and a miami realtor in the top ten results. Not to mention the national commerical real estate that was also listed. They need to get rid of whatever filter they just put in, it obviously isn't working.