The Little Website That Could, part two.
Last time we checked, our hero had spent time, money and energy on his real estate website, www.MankatoHomesOnline.com , but really, there was little chance for a new website of getting out from the shadow of Mankato real estate's electronic Goliath of a website run by one of the largest brokers around. Most search phrases you might think of to search for a Mankato home for sale generate results with the Goliath site organically in first place, on many of the major search engines. Dang. What to do?
Contacted by a company that works with Google, our hero paid to have his site show up on the first page as a sponsored ad site for some of the most common search phrases a buyer might use if looking for Mankato real estate. This helped, as the ad appeared 24/7, and wasn't pay per click, thank God, because if it was, as soon as I ran out of money, my ad would stop appearing.
Time passed, and our hero bided his timei, updating pages, creating more unique content, and getting rid of the pages that repeat content from other sites. Slowly, slowly, search results became more impressive.
Finally, one day, the premier search phrase "Mankato real estate" brought first page results on Google. That had been a goal for a long, long, time, as the Little Website That Could was always just around the corner in eleventh or twelfth place. More time has gone by, and now the site pulls a solid 7th place, and always on the first page. Better results on different engines and different phrases, generally, and we beat the Goliath site hands down for some phrases. No more sponsored ad costs. Not for this site anyway!
There's still more work to do to keep improving search results, but getting listings in front of buyers looking for Mankato homes and Mankato real estate, always the hardest job of a listing agent, is now a reality. And this story doesn't even mention Realtor.com and associated websites...
Call if you have questions or want to talk internet marketing.
Jim Scheller
www.MankatoHomesOnline.com