Web savvy agents know that THE place to be is on the first page of a Google search. The best way by far is through organic placement. Organic placement is a natural rise through the ranks as a result of indexed content. By way of example, if you perform a Google search for “West Springfield Virginia” out of 4.7 million results, my old site is number 2, that’s really good. Maybe it’s foolish but I wanted something different. I work regularly all over Northern Virginia and Maryland but it isn’t wise to select EntireDCAreaRealEstate.com, trust me, that’s too vague. It’s important to be a little more geographically specific when selecting a url but I always felt WestSpringfieldVirginiaHomes.com was too specific. I’ve selected FairfaxCountyVirginiaHomes.com and I’m trying to get better placement every day. People who write consistent content, get better placement. Do I only work in Fairfax County Virginia? Of course not. I list and sell regularly in several Maryland counties and all over Northern Virginia.

Why am I writing a post about organic search engine placement… because I wanted to share information about the ways to “cheat”. It’s not really cheating or even bad but agents and companies can pay per click and get right on top of the list. In the past, I’ve paid for clicks and also paid companies for “leads” but time after time I ended up disappointed with the results. People are generally smarter than to blindly “sign up” before being able to access listing information. Most people I would work with when running into that obstacle simply move onto the next web site.

On this site you may freely look up any home for sale without registration, regardless of who the listing Broker is. The only time you would ever have to “sign up” for anything is if you requested something directly from me so that I would know where to send it. If you do share your private information with me, I am the only one who will have it. Your information will remain private.
What has inspired me to write this particular post is a sales call I got tonight. The sales agent was practically giving me first page Burke home search results for $79/month with no commitment and a $15 one time set up fee. She was going to give me the first month free so for $15 I could have a free month of unlimited first page “purchased” reults on Google. I declined her offer and I had two thoughts. The pricing for this kind of service has PLUMMETED. When I used to purchase “leads” I paid as much as $79 per lead. Now that’s price for unlimited clicks. My second thought was to wonder… who are the agents that this deal would appeal to. Agents who are new to the business  who don’t know how else to get started? The huge and dreaded MEGA-teams who do fine as long as a percentage of their business goes to settlement? – It should go without saying that if I become a huge mega-team, I retract that last statement

When you perform a search, visit the organic results (even though my current site isn’t where my old web site is yet) and steer clear of the ads. Anyone can buy ads. Find someone you have confidence in or think that you could have confidence in. Find a real person.