Florida update and real estate

Those is the web marketing industry refer to Google's index updates (also know as Google dances) by name. In November of last year the big update with Google was called Florida. Unlike most updates where Google's results show development and improvement, the Florida update has filtered out of existence many excellent resources. The main filtering seems to happen on terms, which are commercial or where many would pay for Adwords. These are called money terms. The following example was pointed out by the people at Winnipeg Real Estate Search, who were once top on Google, gave the following example...

If you a search on Google for example for "Winnipeg real estate" (without quotes), you get a long list of sites that are directories rather than agent web sites. Up until recently you could use the following trick to see the real results, as they should be, you could do the following search "Winnipeg real estate -ghghghgh -ffffff" (without quotes). The minus sign tells the search engine to look for pages that contain the search phrase but do not include what appears after the minus sign. Well, if you use random characters as I have, it is very unlikely that any site would have this term on its pages, so there should be no effect. However, you would have noticed very different results, and actually the number of results is greater. The first search produced 26,200 results and the second search with the double minus showed 89,400 results. Approximately 50,000 pages were filtered out. This double minus works because it fools the search engine into not using its filters.
There are a lot of theories as to why Google has updated this way. There are the conspiracy theories that suggest that the timing near Christmas will force eMerchants to spend on Adwords. Others suggest that they are trying to make on page factors less relevant, therefore, page rank would become more important. It would force site owners to make a choice between marketing for Google based on page rank factors (links and anchor text) or to market using on page factors (text, title, font sizes) which other search engines like Inktomi, Fast, and AltaVista use. Google suggests that they are trying to make the search results more relevant to users. They suggest when people search they are not looking to purchase they are only looking for information on that product. With the current results, even finding information on a product is difficult.
The new Google algorithm seems to determine if a page is over-optimized for a particular keyword phrase then removes the site, if this is the case. This would happen if the exact phrase is used too many times on the same page. Also, I believe it employs Google’s newest technology of local rank. Local rank is used to determine where a site’s links are coming from. Using local rank sites on the same server or IP would not be counted towards the ranking of a site. The local rank factor would make it difficult for those who attempt to use multiple site ownerships to artificially boost a site’s ranking. Another theory suggests Google has developed a dictionary look-up, which is used to filter results. This last theory is very likely. Dictionary look-ups are fairly trivial to set up, and Google has shown in the past that it uses a dictionary look-up, when searchers use an incorrect spelling.
However, the current theory is that Google is using a Hilltop algorithm which favors directories over the actual sites the directories point to. The current search results seem to support this theory.

New age real estate marketing

The Internet marks a new age for real estate. In some ways it is now easier then ever to market one's services. However, the competition on the web is fierce. So let's ask the experts how they manage to stay on top while so many others get lost in the shuffle. San Jose real estate agents is the #1 Yahoo for "San Jose real estate". I asked them how they did it.
Here is summary of what they told me. "Many agents focus on promoting themselves instead of promoting their area. We focus on becoming an expert for the market we serve. The old Google adage is, 'content is king' still holds true. People need to feel like they can get useful information about your area. We focused on providing information about everything San Jose and everything real estate..."

New York Real Estate Minute

On Thursday like so many hardcore couch potatoes, I spent the evening watching the newest Apprentice. Donald Trump was back, though we are still looking for his hair, and the show looks like it is going to be even better than ever. Donald Trump's fame comes from his success in the New York City real estate market.

The NYC market is unlike any other market in the US. Agents in Manhattan generally don't share listings and cherish the ones they have. Finding homes for sale is no easy task and it is not like buyers are welcomed with open arms. It is a strong sellers market and getting a new home can depend on who you know. One such mover and shaker is Holly Slocum (VP of Insignia Douglas Elliman Downtown) and of the site New York City real estate fame. Her site breaks down the market and shows where the hot markets lie and how much these markets will hurt your pocketbook. In Manhattan Holly says "the average price of a home is $1.04 million." However, more affordable homes can be found in Brooklyn and The Bronx. For those who prefer to live outside of New York City, the bedroom community of Westchester is becoming popular. Though this is becoming increasely reflexed in the prices.

Real Estate in North America in September

The real estate market in August and September have been surprisingly slow. It is normal that as the summer heats up the real estate market cools. This summer it would be expeccted that the historical low interest rates would help keep the market hot. However, a spokesman from Virtually Toronto Real Estate says "... the number of requests for home purchases is about the same as last year or even slower. Though I expect things should pick up in the fall." He went on the explain that this year the Internet has played a bigger role in terms of finding new clients. Traditional avenues for getting clients like cold calling, flyers, TV or radio ads are becoming less common and Realtors are relying on the Internet because frankly this is where their clients are doing their home related searches. However, because the Internet is seen as a more important avenue seasons changes that affect Internet traffic also effect the real estate market. During the summer months Internet traffic generally dwindles. To make things even worse Google which has been a major source of traffic to most real estate agents is now filtering out commercial real estate sites. It is difficult for clients to find agents through Google and this as added to the slow down. The Google topic will be talked about in detail in later issues...

So what do Realtors do when everyelse slows down. Many are using the time to rebuild their core business and diversifying their avenues of marketing. May be sky writers will be the next big thing.