Today we released the August 2024 core update. It continues our work to improve the quality of our search results by showing more content that people find genuinely useful and less content that feels like it was made just to perform well on Search.https://t.co/T6Qt0JUoWt

— Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) August 15, 2024

Real estate brokerages and prop-tech partners should stay on top of these changes as they are crucial for maintaining online visibility and attracting potential customers. This is especially true as Search AI becomes the standard in search by consumers. Let’s dive into what this update means for our industry.

The Essence of the Update

Google announced on August 15, 2024, a new Search core update to prioritize authentic useful and relevant content for customers. A goal for Google has been to improve search results, especially since the “Helpful Content Update” was released in September 2023.

What does this mean for the real estate sector?

It means a stronger emphasis is placed on high-quality, informative content that truly serves homebuyers, sellers, and investors.

Google is looking to surface content that offers real value, not just pages optimized for search engines.

Key Impacts on Real Estate Websites

The update has several implications for real estate and prop-tech websites. First and foremost, I have seen a renewed focus on content quality.

Google is now better at distinguishing between in-depth, helpful property descriptions and generic, templated listings. This means your property, community, neighborhood, and blog article pages need to go beyond basic specs and offer rich, informative content that answers consumers’ questions.

Another significant element of this update is the emphasis on user experience, particularly on mobile devices. This is why when I have my product management hat on, the focus is always “mobile first” UX/UI.

With more consumers starting their search on smartphones, having a fast, mobile-friendly website is more critical than ever. If your site loads quickly and is easy to navigate on mobile, you’re more likely to see improved rankings.

Interestingly, the update also aims to level the playing field between larger real estate portals and smaller, independent brokerages. This could be good news for local brokerages who provide valuable, area-specific content that larger competitors can’t match.

WAV Group has maintained this as a fact for years. Local knowledge, or the unique insights and information about a specific area that only a local expert can provide, is the gold. You just need to find it and use it to your advantage in your content and marketing strategies.

Observed Trends in the Real Estate SEO

Since the update rolled out, we’ve seen some notable trends in the real estate digital space. Some property websites have experienced fluctuations in their search rankings. A recent poll by Search Engine Roundtable showed that about 44% of websites across various industries saw a decrease in rankings or traffic, while 27% saw an increase.

In the real estate sector, we’ve noticed that sites offering comprehensive neighborhood guides, detailed market analyses, and helpful resources for first-time homebuyers tend to be performing well. Sites that are not well managed or maintained have seen organic search from from 11% to 22% year over year.

The monitoring of the core update will continue for weeks or even months as Google continues its rollout.

Strategies for Real Estate and PropTech Firms

To adapt to these changes, real estate brokerages and proptech companies should focus on several key areas:

1. Improve the content quality! If you haven’t, it is time to invest in creating detailed, informative content about properties, neighborhoods, and the home buying/selling process. Think beyond basic information and offer insights that help your customers in your market.
2. Showcase your local expertise. Your local knowledge can curate content that highlights neighborhood features, local market trends, and community information that national portals can’t match. Leverage dynamic content to keep the information fresh.
3. Ensure your website is fast, mobile-friendly, and easy to navigate. Improve features like virtual tours, floor plans, interactive maps, and easy-to-use search functions that enhance the home-buying and selling experience.
4. Your team must utilize tools like Google Search Console to monitor your site’s performance. Pay attention to which types of content are performing well and adjust your strategy accordingly.
5. Video and visual content continue to be very important in terms of quality. With the increasing importance of visual content in real estate, consider incorporating more high-quality images, videos, and virtual tours into your listings and website.

The Bigger Picture for Real Estate SEO & Digital Marketing

The August 2024 Core Update by Google Search reinforces the importance of providing authentic value to your audience. In the competitive real estate market, this means going beyond simply listing properties. Your digital presence should position you as a trusted advisor in the home-buying or selling process.

For prop-tech firms, the update highlights the need to articulate how your technology improves the real estate experience. Focus on creating content that showcases real-world usage of your product and the benefits of your solutions.

Remember, these updates are Google’s ongoing strategy to improve search results. That includes Generative Search AI is utilized and will become a standard for search. Employing and maintaining excellent SEO best practices will continue as a mainstay in your digital marketing task list.

The challenge is consistently focusing on valuable, user-centric content and experiences (Google’s Helpful Content Update). When you do, you’ll be well-positioned to weather future updates and maintain strong online visibility.

The key to success remains the same — understand your clients’ needs, provide genuine value, and leverage technology to enhance the real estate experience.

By doing so, you’ll not only improve your search rankings but also build lasting relationships with your clients in the digital age.

WAV Group has been helping firms with their digital marketing strategies for years. Contact David Gumpper to discuss your challenges or needs.

The post Where is Real Estate SEO Going After August 2024 Core Update on Google Search? appeared first on WAV Group Consulting.

As the dust settles from this landmark case, real estate brokerages must adapt their online strategies to maintain visibility and competitiveness in an increasingly dynamic search environment that is more intertwined with AI than ever.

A Giant Under Scrutiny

A huge tech company that’s so dominant that its name becomes switchable with the act of searching — Google it!!!!
This is the world Google has created, but the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) argues that this market dominance is not simply a product of innovation.

Instead, the DOJ accuses Google of maintaining an illegal monopoly in the internet search market through various mechanisms.
These mechanisms continues to elevate Google as the default search engine on popular devices and platforms, effectively sidelining competitors like Microsoft’s Bing and DuckDuckGo.

The courts ruling says Google monopolistic behvaor allowed it to control approximately 90% of the U.S. search engine market, leading to allegations of stifled competition and harm to both consumers and advertisers.

Source: StatCounter Global Stats – Search Engine Market Share

Court Ruling and Its Far-Reaching Implications

On a pivotal day earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta delivered a verdict that reverberated across the tech world. With conviction and clarity, the judge ruled that Google had violated antitrust laws, affirming its monopolistic position in both the general search services and general search text advertising markets.

This ruling determined that Google’s practices resulted in inflated competitive prices for search advertising, enabling the company to generate its monopolistic profits.

This decision is seen as a landmark case in the digital era, potentially influencing other antitrust cases against major tech companies. It underscores the U.S. government’s efforts to regulate big tech’s power, with Attorney General Merrick B. Garland hailing it as “a historic win for the American people.”

Google, however, has announced its intention to appeal, arguing that its success is due to the quality of its search engine rather than anti-competitive practices.

DOJ’s Key Unveiling of the Mechanisms To Monopoly

The DOJ’s case against Google was built on several key pieces of evidence that demonstrated the company’s monopolistic practices.

The first were the exclusionary agreements with device manufacturers, wireless carriers, and web browser companies were presented as a primary mechanism for maintaining Google’s dominance. These agreements covered approximately 60% of all search queries in the U.S., effectively blocking competitors from gaining significant market share.

Financial evidence showed Google’s substantial investment in securing its position, spending $26.3 billion in 2021 alone on default search engine deals.
Testimonies from rival executives, including Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella, highlighted how these practices hindered competitors like Bing and DuckDuckGo from gaining traction.

The DOJ also argued that Google’s monopoly led to consumer and advertiser harm through limited choices and higher advertising prices.

Navigating New Waters of Real Estate SEO

For real estate websites, the antitrust ruling against Google could significantly alter the SEO landscape. With potential changes to search algorithms and advertising models, brokerages may face increased competition and the need for more robust SEO strategies. This shift could necessitate:

• Brokerages to diversify their sources of traffic beyond Google
• Improved focus on organic traffic and quality of content
• Reevaluation of pay-per-click (PPC) strategies
• Greater emphasis on local SEO and mobile optimization
• Exploration of alternative platforms like social media for property marketing
• Broaden accessibility features in improving the overall experience of a brokerages digital assets.

To maintain visibility in an increasingly competitive search environment, real estate leaders and their marketing partners must stay informed about algorithm updates and adapt their digital strategies accordingly.

OpenAI’s Search API Is A New Frontier in Search Technology

In the evolving landscape of search technology, OpenAI’s Search API emerges as a groundbreaking tool. This API leverages advanced AI models to provide powerful search capabilities, enabling developers to integrate sophisticated search features into their applications. Unlike traditional search engines, OpenAI’s Search API can understand context and nuances in queries, offering more relevant and precise results.

For real estate professionals, this means the potential to enhance the consumer’s experience on their platforms. By enhancing search with intuitive and precise features, we strive to make finding what consumers need for effortless and accurate results.
By utilizing OpenAI’s Search API, real estate websites can offer users a more personalized search experience, potentially increasing engagement and conversion rates.

As the digital world continues to evolve, the integration of AI technologies like OpenAI’s Search API represents a promising avenue for innovation and competitiveness in the real estate industry and beyond.

The post Google Lost Anti-Trust Case – Search Monopoly appeared first on WAV Group Consulting.

Real AI is a 100% human-created weekly roundup of all things AI in real estate and emerging AI innovations in other sectors likely to impact real estate, posting weekly.

AI ads are coming

My first journalism boss was the late, great Jeffery Weiss, managing editor at the Miami Hurricane, our University of Miami newspaper that was printed at the Miami Herald back in the day.

Jeffery had two signs on his desk – a desk that was stacked with piles of papers a foot high covering the entire top of his workspace. The first sign read: “The sign of an organized desk is the sign of a deceased mind.” How appropriate. The other one said “TANSTAAFL!,” which stood for “Their Ain’t No Such Thing as a Free Lunch.”

The principal of TANSTAAFL is a mainstay in our lives, including our tech-enabled ones. Remember when Google had no advertising? Now it’s the largest advertising outlet in the world. We gave up DVDs for the convenience of streaming and now even paid streaming services like Amazon Prime are pegging on advertising unless you “upgrade” and pay even more.

Early pro-level AI has been, like streaming, funded by a monthly subscription-based revenue model and pay-as-you play. As a result, it’s essentially has been ad-free. That’s about to change.

Today, when you do a Google search, you are likely to see Generative AI results at the top of the page, or at least an option to invoke it. No ads are displayed and on our browsers, we are seeing Gen AI results top paid-for “Sponsored” results.

The Chatbots – right now, all the major ones also are ad free. But how long do you think that’s going to last? Not long, because the ad giants are already circling and ready to drive a new source of revenue for cash-starving tech that is empowered by AI.

Earlier this week, Axios reported, “Google doesn’t have ads in Gemini today, but CEO Sundar Pichai has said Google is looking to see where ads could fit.” A new startup, Adzedek, is pushing ads within custom GPT apps. OpenAI isn’t getting a cut – yet.

So, how long will it be before all types of Chatbots start serving us ads? And not just any ads, but like an Amazon search, Chatbot ads will seem to understand what you want before you even realize you want it.  Just when you were excited that “cookies” are going away, Madison Avenue finds another way to get its hooks into the content we consume.

Everybody likes Pi, right? Say hi to Pi.ai

There’s another new generative AI chatbot to add to your growing list. Meet Pi by Inflection – already claiming to be as swift as ChatGPT-4. It’s quickly emerging as another rival in the space, topping a million daily users. That pales to the reported 100 million daily users that ChatGPT claims, but right now, Pi is free.

Do we really need another chatbot? It turns out that each chatbot has different strengths and weaknesses. So, the answer depends on what you need your Chatbot to do.

Our take is that ChatGPT (Microsoft-backed) is still the champ because of its utility: it does a lot of different things incredibly well. Because Gemini is by Google, it does a much better job providing more timely and current information behind its responses. We find Claude (Amazon-backed) has improved enormously when it comes to writing assistance.

The buzz around Pi is that its super-strengths are related more to math, science, and coding. From our quick trails, we can tell you that it’s not ready to be a writing assistant, as its writing skills are basic at best. Venture Beat reports that Pi’s performance “nearly matches OpenAI’s GPT-4 model, especially across STEM subjects.”

The one advantage Pi has over all the others: it’s incredibly polite, even personable. In our first interaction, we were greeted with “Hey there, great to meet you,” and added “How’s your day going?” Last week, we wrote about research that suggested it pays to be polite to your chatbot. Pi turns the table, as this is a chatbot being polite to you.

Don’t expect Pi to go away anytime soon. Pi’s backing includes an all-star cast: Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt is a major investor in Pi along with Microsoft founder Bill Gates and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman. Keep in mind that Schmidt is also a major investor in Anthropic (Claude), DeepMind (bought by Google) and 50+ other AI firms, reports say.

AI Fast Facts

1. 22% of tech firms are aggressively pursuing the integration of AI across a wide variety of technology products and business workflows – CompTIA IT Industry Outlook
2. Almost half (47%) of businesses surveyed are already utilizing AI tools in the form of digital personal assistants – Forbes Advisor
3. Three in 10 IT professionals say their colleagues are using AI and automation tools to save time – IBM
4. 80% of marketers already had chatbots as part of their customer experience strategy – Semrush
5. 51% of businesses are turning to AI to help with cybersecurity and fraud management – Forbes Advisor

Source: CompTIA

AI Headlines – Take 5

This Virus Steals Your Data from Generative AI Tools | 3/5/24 AI Business
Researchers created Morris II – a Generative AI malware – to show how easy it is to infect AI models.

How AI Can Streamline the Real Estate Business | 3/4/24 Built In
Real estate firms are adopting AI solutions to simplify operations.

AI Might Kill the “Starchitect”—But Make Real Estate More Sustainable | 2/29/24 New York Tech News
Opinion piece: days of star architects are numbered because of Generative AI.

Real Estate Blunder: Agent’s AI Chatbot Gaffe Exposes Copy-Paste Error in $900 Rental Listing | 3/6/24 BNN Breaking
This blooper serves as a cautionary tale in the pitfalls of AI integration.

AI Helps Cut Costs, Aids in Fraud Detection in the Multifamily Space | 3/4/24 REALTOR Magazine
AI is being adopted by owners and managers to prevent rental fraud.

Quote of the Week

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Content suggestions welcomed: email korey@wavgroup.com.

The post Real AI: AI ads are coming, Say hi to Pi, facts, headlines and an AI Quote of the Week appeared first on WAV Group Consulting.

Real AI is a 100% human-created weekly roundup of all things AI in real estate and emerging AI innovations in other sectors likely to impact real estate, posting a new edition every Friday.

ChatGPT is adding a memory feature

OpenAI revealed this week that it is testing a new memory feature for ChatGPT. The goal is a more personalized and valuable experience without providing expert prompts for ChatGPT to remember any previous prompts or stay within the same prompt set.

A key new feature of this potentially potent addition is that you can control what ChatGPT remembers. You will be able to tell it what to remember, ask it what it remembers, and tell it to forget things it remembers conversationally or in settings: Settings > Personalization > Memory.

You can view the memories and delete specific memories or clear its memory cache.

You also will be able to turn off memory collection, so it won’t create new or use existing memories, according to OpenAI. One caveat: deleting the chat does not erase the memory; you must delete the memory separately.

This new feature will be handy for anyone using ChatGPT to write or think in a particular person’s style. OpenAI offers a few other examples:

• You’ve explained that you prefer meeting notes to have headlines, bullets, and action items summarized at the bottom. ChatGPT remembers your formatting style and recaps future meetings this way.
• You’ve told ChatGPT you own a neighborhood coffee shop. When brainstorming messaging for a social post celebrating a new location, ChatGPT knows where to start.
• You mention that you have a toddler and that she loves jellyfish. When you ask ChatGPT to help create her birthday card, it suggests a jellyfish wearing a party hat.
• As a kindergarten teacher with 25 students, you prefer 50-minute lessons with follow-up activities. ChatGPT remembers this when helping you create lesson plans.

Again, the new memory capability that ChatGPT is adding is being tested. OpenAI announced, “We are rolling out to a small portion of ChatGPT free and Plus users this week to learn how useful it is. We will share plans for broader rollout soon.”

One of the best parts of this new capability is that its memory (unlike ours) will improve over time: the more you use it, the better it will get. Over time, you’ll notice it more and more.

Again, this is another ChatGPT leap forward in its product personalization movement.

Next week: A look at Sora, OpenAI’s new text-to-video tool, in very limited release.

Trying Perplexity.ai

Staying on the personalization trend in AI, Perplexity.ai is worth a try. Dubbed a “conversational search engine,” like ChatGPT, Claude.ai, or Gemini, it answers queries in natural language predictive text.

But it focuses on helping you find through search by simply asking a question. It returns fully sourced answers.

Perhaps its coolest feature is how it sources – embedding a footnote with an active link inside its answers. Most importantly, the sources were accurate, the links worked, and the information was current. Accurate sources and matching links are still hit-and-miss in the top AI tools, and most don’t do very well with the most recent events.

For example, we asked the free version of Perplexity.ai to tell us what it knows about something very current: the 2024 Delta Media Real Estate Leadership Survey. It provided an extensive answer, citing nearly two dozen sources. Below is an example of how it uses a citation from one of the bullet points in its answer:

• AI adoption in real estate is widespread, with 75% of brokerages already using the technology and nearly 80% reporting that their agents have adopted AI tools. Despite this rapid integration, there remains persistent anxiety over the adequacy of safeguards to manage the risks associated with AI. ^{2 5}

The free model uses ChatGPT 3.5 and then fuses it with its own LLM or large language model. It also allows the user to save their conversations. Furthermore, it features a switch to turn on “Copilot,” a mode that will enable you to refine your queries, often prompted by follow-up questions from the AI.

Perplexity Pro, which we have yet to test, allows over 300 Copilot queries a day, which again, handles more complex prompts, more thorough research, and, as a result, provides more accurate answers.

The most remarkable feature: You get to pick the underlying AI model to use, including ChatGPT-4, Claude 2.1, or Gemini, and you can switch between these to see which one provides the better answer.

It also supports file uploads that can be read by Claude 2.1 and ChatGPT-4.

Again, give it a try and share your feedback with korey@wavgroup.com.

AI Five Fast Facts

1. Research shows that members of Gen Z —”Zoomers” — are more likely to want to learn AI skills than Boomers (1.6x) or Gen X (1.1x) – LinkedIn
2. Around one-third of this year’s graduating college seniors — and more than half of tech majors — say they plan to use GenAI in their careers – Handshake
3. 57% of Gen Zers and 62% of Millennials surveyed said they were more excited about the potential benefits of AI than they were worried about the risks – Axios
4. About 50% of graduating college students stated they plan to build their skill set in light of the emergence of generative AI – Handshake
5. LinkedIn has seen an average increase of 75% each month in members worldwide, adding terms like “GAI,” “ChatGPT,” “Prompt Engineering” and “Prompt Crafting” to their profiles in 2023 – LinkedIn

Sources: Axios and Handshake

AI Headlines Take 5

What’s Wrong With This Rental Listing? The Furniture Is AI. | 2/12/24 Vice
Shady real estate agents and landlords are using AI staging to make subpar rental listings look better.

AI Could Kill Cold Calling | 2/14/24 Propmodo
AI is helping agents enhance their client list, but is it at the cost of engagement and efficiency?

Family Office Investing Requires Mounds of Paperwork. AI Is Going to Help | 2/13/24 Barron’s
AI will make manual paperwork a thing of the past and maximize the time to analyze the gathered data.

AI’s Co-Pilot Role Could Increase Employment In The Real Estate Sector | 2/15/24 Times Property
AI is creating new roles in real estate such as AI trainers, system designers, data technicians, and so forth.

AI and Automation: The New Weapons in Southern California’s Slumping Real Estate Market | 2/14/24 BNN Breaking
Southern California real estate agents are becoming more dependent on AI and automation to break the market slump.

Quote of the Week

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Content suggestions welcomed: email korey@wavgroup.com.

The post Real AI: ChatGPT adds memory, Trying Perplexity.ai, facts, headlines and a Quote of the Week from Google appeared first on WAV Group Consulting.

Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) has been introduced as a ‘beta’ using generative AI. I have been closely monitoring this new search experience over the last few months, and I believe it can potentially transform the user search experience.

Google’s newest AI technology, released in May 2023, may have an overall impact on how we perform Search Engine Optimization (SEO). As a real estate marketing professional, it’s crucial to comprehend these changes and how they could influence your digital strategy due to the ever-changing digital landscape.

A Brief Overview of Google SGE

SGE is designed to provide more context to its search results, making it easier for users to find relevant content and immediate answers to questions. For example, as outlined in Google’s “A new way to search with generative AI,” people will be able to do the following:

Ask entirely new types of questions that you never thought Search could answer.

Quickly get the lay of the land on a topic, with links to relevant results to explore further.

Ask follow-up questions naturally in a new conversational mode.

And get more done quickly, like generating creative ideas and drafts right in Search.

The outcome showcases two features that illustrate this new technology. First, AI-generated snapshots emerge at the top of search results that offer a quick overview of the topic, answering specific questions and presenting essential information.

For example, if a user searched for a home with a kitchen with specific amenities such as a gas stove, SGE could provide a snapshot comparing different properties, highlighting their kitchen amenities that have a gas stove (see image).

The second feature is introducing a new vertical experience for specific items. This feature provides a comprehensive overview of products, including descriptions, reviews, ratings, prices, and images.

Google does claim that it assures us it will display reliable and current information in these features while giving importance to quality and responsible AI usage.

The Impact of Google SGE on Real Estate SEO

The Possible Benefits

SGE delivers an enhanced user experience. For example, SGE’s AI-powered snapshots and vertical experiences could offer a more detailed and comprehensive overview of properties and other real estate information. I believe SGE has the potential to greatly enhance user engagement and satisfaction. By providing users with a wealth of information at a glance, it has the ability to expedite their decision-making process.

Improve information accuracy through better AI technology. Google’s promise of quality and accuracy could result in more reliable and up-to-date information about properties in their search results. This can enhance the credibility of real estate listings and foster trust among potential buyers or renters.

The Potential Challenges

Possible reduction of organic and paid website traffic to branded sites. Due to their prominence, AI-powered snapshots could push traditional website links further down in search results. 

This could lead to decreased website traffic, translating into fewer leads for brokerages and agents. My initial guess would be a 20 to 30% decrease in traffic. As website traffic often forms a crucial part of lead generation in real estate, this could pose significant challenges.

Another significant challenge is how to monetize or promote core or ancillary services. The SGE vertical experiences bypass traditional property review websites and affiliate links, potentially affecting the revenue streams of those relying on these methods. 

Put simply, when property information, reviews, and prices are easily accessible in search results, users may be less inclined to visit real estate websites. This can have a direct impact on their revenue from ads, affiliate marketing, and other related services.

Strategies for Adapting SEO Practices in Light of Google SGE

Despite these challenges, these are some of my thoughts on ways real estate marketing professionals can adapt their SEO strategies to leverage the changes brought about by SGE.

Focus on high-quality content

 With SGE possibly delivering AI-generated snapshots of real estate information, creating specific and authoritative content relevant to buyers and sellers becomes even more crucial. Creating high-quality content, such as in-depth information or unique insights about a property or neighborhood, can still attract users who wish to dive deeper into a topic. In addition, if accomplished with consistency, it allows Google to recognize your website as the “topical authority” on a subject.

Optimize for featured snippets

SGE uses snippets of information to provide quick answers. Therefore, structuring content that directly answers common user questions can increase the chances of your content being featured. This requires the utilization of headings, lists, and succinct paragraphs to make it easy for search engines to pull relevant information.

I believe this is going to be a very important strategy based on the last two months of Google Search updates, which were labeled as ‘Helpful Content’ updates.

Leverage structured data! 

This is an area where real estate SEO experts keep missing the mark by doing only the basic implementation of structured data. 

Implementing structured data markup (Schema.org) on your website can provide additional context and information about your content. We discussed this in a previous article, “3 SEO Real Estate Web Strategies.” This approach assists search engines in understanding and presenting your content more effectively.

Build a strong brand presence

Another way to remain competitive in the eyes of consumers is to build a strong brand presence. Real estate marketing professionals can build a strong brand using a shotgun (omnichannel) approach to distribute the brand message and engage with buyers and sellers using the latest tools on social media platforms. 

For example, creating YouTube shorts, Instagram Stories, TicTok, and Facebook Reels from full-length videos. Yes, there are AI tools available to easily craft and distribute this content. It seems brokerages tend to stay away from this strategy, which is a shame. People are generating tons of revenue through this media.

Monitor and adapt to changes in website performance

Finally, organizations should scrutinize and adjust changes in website performance. Real estate marketing professionals can improve website performance and remain competitive by tracking website analytics and adjusting as needed.

Incorporate AI in its property search

It’s a good idea to have frank discussions with your website partners about utilizing AI tools to improve the property search user experience. If they are not, call me, David Gumpper. There are many such tools available.

In Conclusion

Using Google’s Search Generative Experience has advantages and disadvantages for real estate. On the one hand, it offers users a convenient way to view properties and obtain reliable information. However, on the other hand, it can lead to reduced website traffic and limited control over information.

Important Note:

Google SGE is currently featured as an experiment in the Search Labs. While it’s not widely released, you can access it through the Chrome desktop and Google App on Android and iOS.

Search alone generated 57% of Alphabet’s 2022 revenue, which amounts to $162B. So you have to believe Google will smartly implement SGE to allow the search service to continue to grow revenue. So you need to keep up your SEO tool belt tight and ready to work.

In summing up, real estate marketing professionals can adapt to these changes by:

• Creating high-quality content
• Optimizing for featured snippets
• Leveraging structured data
• Improving user experience
• Building a solid brand presence
• Monitoring and adapting to changes in website performance. 

By implementing these strategies, real estate professionals can remain competitive in the industry and succeed in the age of AI-powered search.

If you want more insight into SEO practices and an understanding of the future of AI, contact David Gumpper of the WAV Group.

The post Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) – Implications for Real Estate SEO appeared first on WAV Group Consulting.

However, simply having a website isn’t enough – you need to ensure that your site is optimized for search engines to attract more visitors. Yes, search engine optimization is still alive and continues to grow as it evolves in providing answers to people’s questions.

In this blog post, we will discuss three SEO strategies to help improve your website’s positioning in search engines and generate more readers and leads!

Content, Content, Content

The first is that the search engine’s artificial intelligence will play a prominent role in SEO rankings, especially Google. Most SEO experts focus on Google because of their search and Chrome web browser market shares. In the United States, Google maintains a 92% market share in search and averages around 63% market share of people using Chrome as a web browser. The other major search engines are Bing and Yahoo, which hold a combined market share of around 10%.

A search engine’s AI focuses on capturing consumer behavior metrics for ranking factors. This means that click-through rate, time people spend on a page, and other overall website metrics influence how the AI prioritizes content.

Therefore, when reevaluating SEO strategy, crafting well-organized and quality, engaging content is critical to success. What is essential to the readers of your content is also crucial to the search engine’s AI for ranking. This is where custom content on the property search result pages for neighborhoods and listing detail pages can improve SEO.

Guidelines for content creation are included in the E-A-T principle. Google defines E-A-T for expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. An approach that is excellent to use in evaluating the quality of content. A few guidelines to use when developing content with E-A-T in mind are:

• Does the content contain authentic information, reporting, research, or analysis?
• Is the content written by an expert demonstrating their knowledge about the subject?
• Is the content written very well, or is it sloppy?
• Are the facts in the content easily verifiable?
• Content writers who follow these simple guidelines achieve the desired results to improve search engine rankings.

Additionally, as AI continues to drive rankings, it impacts search results. As a result, it is possible that when submitting a search, a page may be #2, and when performing a subsequent search, the same page may be #5. Therefore, AI will adjust its page ranking based on the events at the time of a search.

Structured Data as a SEO Strategy

The second SEO strategy is to focus on optimizing your website with structured data. Most people are familiar with the concept of structured data, even if they don’t realize it. Structured data is simply information that is organized in a predefined way. This can include things like open houses, homes for sale, and site structure.

By adding structured data to your site, you are essentially providing a map for search engines to follow. This makes it easier for them to index your content and display it in search results. In addition, structured data can also help you improve your click-through rate by making your listings more relevant and user-friendly.

However, there is a catch. Don’t overuse structured data or resort to black-hat methods. Google just takes advantage of specific structured data, which must be implemented correctly for the content’s trustworthiness to be confirmed.

As you can see, structured data is an integral part of SEO. If you want your site to be successful, make sure you take advantage of this powerful tool.

Accessibility

Lastly, one of the benefits of SEO is that it can help improve the accessibility of a site. Optimizing the website for Google search can also help make it more accessible for people with disabilities who use screen readers and other assistive technologies.

According to WCAG 2.1, one of the success criteria for accessibility is that “webpages can be parsed unambiguously by software.” This means that screen readers and other assistive technologies should be able to interpret the content on a webpage without any ambiguity. However, many websites are not well-optimized for SEO, so it can be difficult or impossible for these technologies to parse. Therefore, improving the SEO of a website can also help to enhance its accessibility.

If you implement these three SEO strategies, you will be well on your way to improving your website’s ranking in search engines and generating more leads! The last thing you want to do is to ignore or think SEO is not a practical part of a marketing strategy.

What other SEO strategies have you used to improve your website’s ranking? Please share your tips with us in the comments below! And if you’re looking for more help, contact the WAV Group. WAV Group explicitly focuses its SEO strategies on the real estate industry.

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We carefully analyzed all area search keyword traffic using a combination of searches that include Neilson, ComScore, Google Analytics, and Hitwise. You can ignore any site data from a third party that is free (i.e. Quantcast and other free services are way off).

Too often, firms look too closely at their Google Analytics. Google Analytics can only tell you what is happening on your site. Nielson, ComScore, and Hitwise give you a vision into the size of the online audience in your Demographic Market Area or DMA. They provide you with competitive matrix against your category competitors. These competitive sites include your brokerage competitors, national sites, and MLS consumer sites. They give you a look at the whole picture, not just your website stats.

When you understand the total size of your consumer audience, you can review your share of consumer audience. You can understand your demographic audience vs. competitor sites. Armed with this information, you can develop your web strategy to be very focused and very targeted in your local audience. You can map your progress against competitors, and make sure that your strategy is working.

To create your success, you will need a combination of SEO strategy, content strategy, social media strategy and search Marketing. Most firms fail by not having a good balance between these. It is very easy to be boring online, and the minute you are too promotional, you become spammy.  The last thing you want is for your real estate brand to be viewed by the consumer in the category of a belly-fat ad.

Veteran online marketers, Prem Luthra and April Elgas are launching a new media network in partnership with This Old House. It offers super compelling content that can compliment a broker’s own content development. Brokers are doing well if they create one well-produced video per month (a.k.a – not something shot on a cell phone – a real, well edited video that you have invested $5k into). But firms should be pushing out a post every day on social media. This Old House has a huge repository of good stuff that brokers can publish on their website under a free license.

Leading with great content, your firm will develop great SEO. Remember, publishers like Realtor.com, Homes.com and Zillow are pushing out 5 or 6 pieces of content every day. If you want to tangle with that in your local market, you need to have a plan and a partner.

Brokerages could also consider an online ad strategy for Facebook, Google, and MSN. Facebook drives volume, Google provides reach, MSN attracts the best traffic. Optimize this program and you will be able to drive a cost per lead down below $10 (vs. portal marketing lead programs that cost somewhere around $35 per lead). Be careful here! If you do not know what you are doing, you will burn a lot of money and get very little back. Buying online advertising is a science. It takes experience.

An often neglected practice is promotion of your mobile app. If you are using the HomeSnap app or any other app, it is important that you try to drive conversions.  The percentage of conversions from consumers that have downloaded your app is #1 for all conversions across the brokerage. If consumers are using your mobile app, you have them sold.

Sources-
seoconsultantbanglore.in

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With the advent of mobile search and the consumer awareness of long tail search, the goal of SEO strategies by portals expanded to include property address. Again, four or five years ago, if you searched for a property by address, and that property was for sale, you would normally see a variety of broker websites with property detail pages appear in search. Today, Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com and Homes.com dominate the long tail SEO for property address search in most markets. Brokers align themselves with the portals in various ways, including premium advertising products to redirect that consumer back to the brokerage.

When you look at the traffic to broker websites today – and how consumers use them – beyond property search, the most popular area of the website is the agent directory and agent detail pages. Property pages dominate, but the agent pages are a clear second place. From there, any other content on the site, including blog content, is less material.

Brokers are about to lose the search battle for agent name, and soon, broker name.

In 2013, WAV Group detected an interesting trend emerging. The efforts in 2011 and 2012 by portals to get agents to complete their profiles on portal sites began to pay off. The agent detail pages for portals began to appear on the first page of Google search for agent name. Google a few of your agent names and you will see what I am referring to. No doubt, if an agent wants to enhance their leads on their own listing, they absolutely must complete their agent profile page on portal websites. The ridiculous trade-off (conundrum) is that completing the agent profile serves the portal’s goal of enhancing their ability to drive more traffic to their site rather than the agent or broker website from search engines.

In 2014, brokers should budget to begin buying advertising products from portals that are not property centric – but agent or broker profile centric. Based upon recent developments with Realtor.com, I doubt that they will have the stomach to productize this, but I would expect others to take a stab at it. In many ways, Zillow is out front on this effort with their products that include Buyer’s Agent List, Branding in Your Area, Your Photo on Listings, and Premier Agent Websites. There is an agent testimonials page that speaks to the effectiveness of this program: http://www.zillow.com/advertising/Testimonials.htm

In my opinion, the discussion about agent ratings is a really a discussion about the content on the agent detail pages that will allow portals to outperform broker websites at producing content that is engaging to the consumer and differentiated from the poorly curated agent information on broker and franchise websites today.

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