Real Estate Forums

SEOWolf · 11-19-2007, 09:34 AM

There has been much “wringing of hands and mashing of teeth” lately over the most recent Google PR update.

A good many real estate websites recently lost PageRank.

I believe this was in part to reciprocal links being devaluated and many real estate sites dropping their link pages altogether.

Personally I believe devaluation of REALTOR® to REALTOR® links is a good thing. Let’s be honest here. The REALTOR® state link pages were used primarily to manipulate the SERPs.

Favorable rankings in the Search Engines should be determined on how good your real estate website is, not how much time you devote to trading or buying links.

That said this thread is NOT about the value of reciprocal links. It is about how PR affects rankings in the SERPs.

I have always cared little about PR and a hell of a lot about rankings. There are many examples I can use of real estate websites that are ranking well in extremely competitive markets with very low PR. The #1 site for the keyword phrase “Phoenix Real Estate” has a PR of 3!!!

Let’s break it down “Barney Style”:

PR stands for PageRank, not search engine rank.
PR comes from the number of back links you have to your site.
Sales come from the number you are ranked in the search engines not how high your PR is.

Get it? Great! Then let’s spend more time writing useful content for our visitors.

~VegasMack

DEUCE · 11-19-2007, 10:45 AM

I went from PR4 to PR3 and have not lost any rankings as far as I can see - still #3 for 'chicago real estate'.

Brian

SEOWolf · 11-19-2007, 10:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DEUCE

I went from PR4 to PR3 and have not lost any rankings as far as I can see - still #3 for 'chicago real estate'.

Brian

That is awesome Brian. And we all know that Chicago is a VERY competitive market.

Thanks for sharing!!

~VegasMack

HHI Golf Guy · 11-19-2007, 03:12 PM

It's also important to remember that PR calculations are dynamic. As the web grows, a site that was a PR4 last time out may be only a PR3 this time.

Not only that, but the sources of the PR passed to your own site may have been devalued for link buying or other reasons.

As stated above, only rankings matter.

Mert · 11-19-2007, 10:27 PM

It is my strongest belief that PR has nothing to do with SERPS (p.s. Brian is my friend) in terms of Chicago Real Estate keyword. High PR is only absolutely necessary for sites that have a large amount of pages to have a high PR. For smaller real estate sites, the mainly upheld route is calling your site Chicago real estate (giving Brian's example) in 1000 anchor texts pointing to your site.

I am currently very very happy that my site is a pr4 rather than a pr3 as my site is considerably larger than Brian's (even though we serve the same market) as my website carries considerably larger amount of pages which also equals to more long tail traffic (which is only true if your site has a larger PR (even larger than what I got).

P.S. I am not trying to steal Brian's thunder as his accomplishment is also great.

DEUCE · 11-20-2007, 09:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mert

my website carries considerably larger amount of pages

How many pages?

Compete - SnapShot of illinoisrealestate.com, falconliving.com - looks like ole' IllinoisRealEstate.com has the edge this month...

Mert · 11-20-2007, 12:28 PM

How dare you pass your highness. My wrath shall be swift

NealRM · 11-21-2007, 07:42 AM

Mert, Deuce,
Traffic wise, how do you two compair with other real estate sites in chicago? I looked at the Compete link and was wondering if your sites are above average.

Bigtoe · 11-21-2007, 09:54 AM

#3 and #9 out of 16,000,000 returns. I am in the presence of greatness. Makes my accopmlishments look paltry by comparison. At least its warmer here.

Mert · 11-21-2007, 04:02 PM

#1 guy greatchicagorealestate has 3100 visitors 600 more than me. Never focus yourself on one single keyword I mean I get the fact that Outer Banks are beautiful in North Carolina but the word Banks is plural which means there are a lot of subdivisions, school districts, communities and property type keywords, new home builder keywords you should care about.