For the past few years, many have watched the landscape of the Real Estate business change drastically.  It has been transforming from a closed data system that only those with access to the MLS had the keys to unlock, to an open system where most listings can be found just about anywhere by anyone.  Buyers can now find listings on sites such such as Trulia, Zillow, and yes, Google Maps, without having to unlock those doors to the MLS data.  I have felt for a long time now that Google had the data and many of the pieces in place to be a huge player in the Real Estate space.  Some recent announcements this year point even more towards that.

Improving Real Estate Search On Google Maps

On July 6th, 2009, Google announced that real estate listings would now display within a map with a one-box that would take you to real estate listings when users search for property related queries.

Google Retires The “One at a Time” Feature

On July 30th, 2009, Google announced that they would no longer allow manually entered single listings.  Maybe I read into it wrong, but at the time of the announcement I translated that into Google wanting to target the large data providers.

Place Pages for Google Maps

In September, 2009, Google launched Place Pages.  There are Place Pages for businesses, points of interest, transit stations, neighborhoods, landmarks, and cities all over the world.

More Real Estate in Google Maps

On October 29th, Google announced some changes to Google Maps that would make it easier for you to find listings. “First of all, we’ve made it easier to find real estate listings. Now, you can simply select “Real Estate” from the ‘More’ button on the top right of any Google Map to discover listings.”

Integration of real estate listings with Place Pages

On November 19th, Google mentioned the integration of real estate listings with Place Pages, saying “Now clicking the “more info” link next to a listing takes you to a faster, easier-to-read page that gives you all of the information we have about a listing: photos, inspection times, videos, details, a Street View preview and nearby public transit information if available, allowing you to quickly find the listing you want and click through to the sources of the listing.”

Google to Acquire Yelp?

On December 17th, 2009, rumors were flying around that Google was in discussions to acquire Yelp.  Acquiring Yelp, in my opinion, would allow Google to enhance its real estate portal with ratings and other localized information.

Google to Acquire Trulia?

On December 18th, 2009, rumors surfaced that Google is in discussions to acquire Trulia.  “According to sources close to the situation, along with its pending bid for Yelp, Google has been in on-again, off-again acquisition talks with Trulia”.

Is it just me here or does this look like a pattern? I personally feel that if Google purchases Yelp and Trulia, this will be another game changer in the Real Estate space.  What will this do to the MLS?  Will the many MLS’s be as important or will Google eventually be the main source for real estate search and data?  After all, the MLS’s don’t have all the listing data.  They don’t have FSBO listings, foreclosures, or other listings from Agents that don’t belong to the MLS.

I must admit when I first starting hearing about real time search, I was a little nervous. The first thing that came to mind was, “This is going to be an easy way for spammers to blast us with their junk”. However, I convinced myself that the big search engines like Google and Bing would have things in place to filter this stuff out. I was right and I was wrong. I was right to fear that real time search would open up some bad stuff. I was wrong to think that the search engines would stop it.

Rae Hoffman, CEO and Co-Founder of Outspoken Media, began playing with the new feature and discovered some alarming results.  Watch this video and you will see that this is a major issue.  The thing that scares me the most is when Rae touched on safety concerns for children online.  Please spread this video so it gets the attention of the search engines and hopefully they either remove the Twitter real time stream or they fix/filter the junk.

See my other posts about similar topics

• Are You Ready For Google Search Changes
• Google Search Sidebar
• Twitter is Important For SEO
• This is for all of those long-tail SEO skeptics
• Have you seen Google’s new search options?

I have written in the past about the importance of having videos, blogs, etc. in your marketing plan.  With the news today that Google is testing a new Google search sidebar, I am even more convinced.  Why?

This new sidebar will be placed as a permanent fixture in the Google search engine.  This means more people will click these options.  If someone is doing an organic search for your niche, Google is making it even easier for them to search other verticals such as videos and blogs.

So how can you prepare for this?

• Create videos around your niche and post those videos to YouTube and other popular video portals.
• Optimize your images (image name, alt tag) for the page you place them in.
• If you don’t already have a blog, it’s time to get one.  Focus your blog around your niche.
• Submit press releases for product launches or announcements.
• Participate in industry specific forums.  Don’t spam, but participate.

With today’s announcement of the Google-Twitter search deal and the Bing- Twitter search deal, it is more evident than ever that Twitter should be an important part of your SEO strategy.  Why?

Well, if Twitter results are going to appear in Google and Bing search results, don’t you think it’s a good idea you get your important information on Twitter?  Google is going to pull in what people have tweeted on Twitter. For example, if you search for “online advertising” in Google, you may see some tweets in the Google search results that relate to this search, and possibly even some of this http://search.twitter.com/search?q=online+advertising integrated into the Google search results themselves.

It will be interesting to see how Google displays the tweets in their search results. Will they display them within their regular search or will it be a side option? I have concerns about spam issues. The spammers know how to hijack all the Twitter trending topics with their spam links. I hope Google has a good way to filter this stuff out.

So for all those who argued Twitter has no importance for SEO – think again.

Google+Twitter = important for SEO.
Bing+Twitter = important for SEO.

Welcome to “real time” search!