What Search Phrases are Worthwhile?

Not a week goes by but some client or prospect calls and says something like "How come I'm not on the first page of the search engines like my competition?".

This is how the subsequent converstation generally goes:

Me: "What's the search phrase you're talking about?"

Them: (Something like) "Why 'real estate broker in Upper South Forest Greens' where we do business".

Me: "Do you realize that in the last three months there have only been seven searches using that phrase on all of the search engines in the world? And, moreover, the only people who have searched that way are you and your competitors"

The point is this: There are very very few search phrases that are used a great deal by buyers and sellers and there is tremendous comptetition for those few phrases that might be of real value.

For instance, suppose you are an agent in Carlsbad, California which is in San Diego County. What are the main searches used by prospects wanting more information in your specific area? Here are the most used in order of their ranking:

san diego real estate

real estate san diego

carlsbad real estate

real estate carlsbad

So let's see what the competition is for those phrases.

"san diego real estate" (in quotes so that it will narrow the search to that exact phrase) shows 2,930,000 web pages have that phrase and are competing for first position.

"real estate san diego" 2,980,000 competing. Wordtracker predicts 194 searches per day for that phrase. EVEN IF by some magical process you found your site on the first page for that search you would be competing (on google alone) with about 17 other sites to get a browser to click on your link. If you got your fair share of click throughs that would mean a maximum of about 11 visits to your site per day or 330 per month. On the average that would result in about 4-6 inquiries.

"carlsbad real estate" 1,250,000 competing. Wordtracker predicts 14 searches per day for ALL search engines. Using the same math as before that would translate to about 25 visitors per month and result in one inquiry.

"real estate broker in carlsbad" has 1,250,000 competing. Wordtracker predicts NO searches per day.

However, that doesn't mean you can't get a share of the prospects that go to the search engines to find an agent or broker to help them buy or sell property. Just don't waste your time on search phrases that are not reachable.  There are plenty of phrases that you can compte for successfully, but it takes research and thought and time and money.  The results can be worth it after all.