Most real estate agents are continually vying for that top spot on Google. After all, the right search term can send thousands of visitors to your site. The reality is that there are usually hundreds of thousands (and more likely millions) of other pages competing for only a handful of slots on the first page. But the good news is that Google’s new “Universal Search” combined with a little bit of creative thinking may be just the formula to capture Google’s most sought after piece of real estate.

What Is Universal Search?

Google has always been the resource to find web pages about a particular keyword. But they soon realized that people wanted more than just web pages when searching. That’s where Universal Search comes in. Back in May of 2007 Google began incorporating images, video, and news into the search results page. You can see from the graphic below that a search for iPhone on Google shows results for Web pages, News Stories and Videos.

What about Real Estate?

So how does this relate to the real estate industry? There are two key places for a real estate agent to take advantage of Universal Search.

1. Google Base (aka Google Housing Search): If you search for Sheridan Wy Real Estate in Google, you will see a link that says “Find results for Sheridan WY Real Estate in housing search” (see graphic below). By having your listings appear in the Housing Search, you can attract more buyers and expose your listing to more eyeballs – thus making your sellers much happier! The good news is that it’s very easy to include your listings on Google’s Housing Search as well as other places like Trulia, Oodle, and more. Simply use a listing syndication site like Postlets or V-flyer.com.
   
2. Google Local: One recent change that Google has implemented is the way they display their local results. Any time Google “thinks” a search is related to a local area; it will pull from Google Local and display this information at the top of the search results page (see below).
   

   While some areas such as Raleigh Real Estate are pretty competitive, there are also areas that are still wide open for that coveted top position. For example, in the Sheridan Wyoming area, there is only one agent who has taken advantage of Google Local, as a result, when you search for sheridan wy real estate agent, Century 21 BHJ has the Google Local spot all to themselves. Even though they are not the top position in the organic search results, their Google Local listing appears above all other results, and here is the best part – it doesn’t cost them a dime!

   

   So how do you take advantage of this prime piece of search engine real estate? Simply go to the Google Local Business Center and add your information. While Google hasn’t come out and said what the secret is to getting to the top of the local results, there are a few tips for local optimization that can help push you to the top. Just visit the Dakno Real Estate Blog for the tips.

More than Just Google

Google isn’t the only game in town blending video, images and more into search results. Yahoo and Ask also have their own version. You can take advantage of Yahoo’s local results by submitting to their Local Directory. In fact, there are dozens of places to submit to local portals.

Get Creative with Your Search Engine Optimization

Remember, Universal Search can show results for videos, images, news, maps, books, websites and more. In other words, the answer to breaking through the keyword glass ceiling may be hidden in more than the content on your website. So get creative with your optimization plan. If you are having trouble getting to the top spot for that coveted keyword, try a different approach. Create a video, write a press release, or post a blog article. It just might be the trigger that pushes you to the top!

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