Real Estate Listing Search sites many times operate with dropdown price searching. For example many sites will have something like:
Minimum 100,000, 120,000 and on and on with different options then a Maximum 100,000, 120,000…………200,000, 220,000 etc.
other sites like the new Realtor.com have open fields where a consumer will enter their own target $$ figures for both low and high.
PRICING FOR SEO
Most Realtors at least in our MLS, price with the old MLS book mentality will use prices like $149,900. When I see that in our office listings I meet with that agent and tell them the importance of pricing that listing at $150,000, and most importantly how to explain it to their seller.
WHY?
Well lets go through a typical consumer search on a real estate search site.
A consumer we will call Jim goes to Realtor.com and or a site with a dropdown selection and enters something like $100,000 to $150,000 or $150,000 to $170,000. Now a site like the new Realtor.com by default organizes the results from Low to High meaning that if you priced your listing at 150,000 your listing will show up at the end of that search….most likely on the last page. However, it will show up just as $149,000 would, but many times consumers will look at the first results of a search and the end results most carefully!
Heres is the Added Traffic by pricing that same listing at $150,000 rather than $149,900
If that same consumer did a search from $150,000 to $200,000 then your listing will also show up but this time in the first part of the search results and many times on the very first page. The first page of results as we all know is valuable Search Engine Real Estate.
Now here is the important thing to remember and think about…..if the agent had priced at $149,900 their listing most likely will NEVER fall on the first page of a Real Estate Search sites results. It is consumer “habit” to enter even dollar #’s on these real estate search sites, and many other sites still operate with “pre-selected” dropdown $ figures for minimum and maximum. Pricing at the $150,000 point would get you more first page results and more impressions than pricing at $149,900.
So it is something to think about when pricing for SEO. Further by explaining it to your seller you show a commanding knowledge of how online real estate marketing works and how best to use it to garner more “views” to their home.
My advice is to look carefully at the Real Estate Search Sites that grab most of the traffic in your area including ALL the IDX sites of competitors and make a quick Excel spreadsheet of those with “dropdowns”. You will see some price points that will get you the most FIRST PAGE results and most importantly more total impressions on those sites. You can also use the spreadsheet in your presentation to the seller on where best to price their home, and sway them away from their 999 thought process :).
Mark Passerby
PovVideotours.com
HDhat Search Engine Optimization for Real Estate (SEO) full motion video, Pricing right, real estate video tours, SEO, video tours, virtual tours
