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I see it to. But at least for my area Google throws in some useful directory links below the wunderground one, which dominates holding the #1 spot, unlike AV. ;)
1. Here is what I'm seeing search for (anycity real estate) you will find that the name of the city or real estate is in their domain name and or their directory structure. I don’t know if this has anything to do with it or not. But I am starting to create other websites with mycity and real estate as directories.
2. Also search (anycity real estate agent) and look closely at the results. You will find something interesting...also make sure you go past the first page.
3. Now here is what I don’t understand – I need help understand this one – when I type in allintex:mycity real estate (all of the old rankings come back) prior to the Florida update. I am was ranked #350 prior to Florida but when I type in allintext: mycity real estate I am now ranked #8. Can we tell end users to use the allintext with their search results, I like those results! I don’t understand – can someone explain this?
Also before the update, the results turned up the same when you reversed the keyword “mycity real estate” “real estate mycity” now they are completely different.
Also one of my competitors is ranked at #2 which they weren’t before the update(they were ranked #15). They are listed in OPD. They have a very basic old html page...with no headers and the first paragraph is all in bold with no text links in the message.
I don’t know...I am sort of not wanting to mess with my site now, I just thing I am going to wait until the first of the year to see what happens. I don’t think google is done messing things up…plus it’s like a dog chasing his tail – trying to keep up with google..I think I am going to be patient on my main site and start creating other rich text sites.
I am seeing a few agent sites creep back in.
I love Google - but it just looks like they have stripped agent/broker sites and are scrambling for SOMETHING to put in the results.
It doesn't look that way at all to me. It looks to me like Google changed the algo, and agent/broker sites are what the military euphemistically calls "collateral damage". Exactly what they changed I dunno. I think Brett may have been on to something when he suggested that semantic analysis is now part of the algo. One theory I am toying with is that Google is limiting this to keywords and areas that are heavily spammed. If so, this is why many sites have been spared the axe. If a page looks heavily SEOed for "furry magenta penguins", the algo just disregards this because this is such a non-competitive SERP.
Agreed, but I think they have a bug related to the amount of data required before they can make assumptions about content.
Notice how no small sites (low page numbers) get top places for the "city real estate" term? I haven't seen one yet with less than 100 pages located at the domain.
I also believe this is why we are seeing a lot of sub-domains appearing high in SERPs (apart from all the cross linking). Big seems to be beautiful, relevant seems to have taken second chair in this algo/filter.
>One theory I am toying with is that Google is limiting this to keywords and areas that are heavily spammed.
It is tricky to differentiate between heavily spammed and commercial......they tend to correlate for obvious reasons ;) I would favor the targeting of certain specific commercial terms, otherwise real estate sites should be hit for more terms than they currently are.
The competitive site mooredb mentioned above is an excellent example of a site that is heavily "SEO'ed", is a mom and pop type/style site, yet still does just fine for its primary term.....only reason I can see is the depth of content (number of pages indexed).
Another good example of a survivor is in Sarasota, this time Google's algo worked......and the only reason I can come up with is that there was sufficient content for the Applied Semantic CIRCA algo to understand which way is really up.
Therefore my theory is that you need a lot of themed pages to survive, or Google needs to have another think about how many pages it needs for the AS filter to work properly;)
<irony>
For months/years speculation about Google's ability to theme sites has been prevalent. Now it seems to be "in play" it has caused the biggest uproar in recent history of SE manipulation :)
</irony>
I've been hanging on for dear life with no direct competitors around. Now on -in, I am apparently nuked for 'real estate' terms; I'm perplexed that other commercial industries are making pre-Florida comebacks, but it looks even worse for this industry. Still, this must be a good sign that some commercial terms are returning.
Keeping the faith.
Is it just sheer size?
I have seen mom and pop sites that were pretty large - several hundred pages - dissapear totally. These were not spammy or over optimised sites in any sense - organised in a directory style.
The only information on the page is an online form that I may fill out to request further information ...
BTW: No. 2 on the is the local cat of the ODP - at least there are some more choices.
Its not just real estate websites that have been specifically targeted by Google. Money transfer services websites have also been savagely hit, including non-commercial consumer information sites about that industry.
I hesitate to go into more detail for 2 reasons:
1. Should this post really be the first posting in a new thread, as it is not really about real estate?
2. How does someone talk about an area of the web being hit by a Google specific subject filter, without falling foul of the forum rules about not being too specific?
This is not mere rhetorical musing on my part. I have plenty of information about the filter affecting sites like mine in the money transfer subject area. It is a very popular subject area as the pulbically available stats of searches per month attest.
Any advice would be welcome
It does not surprise me in the least that Google cast a curse upon all of us.
Have seen a TON OF JUNK myself in the market, glad its gone. Problem is, so are the REALLY GOOD, CLEAN, FAIR realtor sites.
I still think this is unfair and await the next google update to PROPERLY filter the junk realtor sites out, and let the good content, fair sites back in. I mean, these ladies (and men) have kids to feed, school supplies to purchase, houses to pay for, etc. etc. Yes they can do PPC, but why? Then Google wins, if infact "financials" are the reason.
But again, the end user, that wants to find an agent in a town they are interested in moving to, CANT DO IT! At least not on Google..
P.S. MSN Traffic on one of our realtor sites is actually UP over previous months by 200 hits. (position has held #3 for this search term for 6 months) This tells me that people are probably searching on google, seeing the crap results, then trying the next best thing. (or is it the next best thing?) Food for thought...
