Firstly, Google Instant is a new incarnation of Google search that gives on-the-fly suggestive search results based on direct user input as they are typing out their search query. Google is promoting the virtues of Instant by touting its timesaving capabilities. While saving time and making searches faster is certainly an improvement worth praising, I believe that Google Instant is really a response to a different problem.

Google has always struggled to deliver ideal results for novel unique keyword searches. By their own estimate, 20% of all keyword searches fall into the unique keyword search category. That is one-fifth of Google’s users that may not get the most relevant result, and therefore, walk away unhappy.

More than any other issue, I think that is the problem Google Instant was developed to help solve. Notice how Google Instant attempts to auto-complete a query for the user while also generating instant results. This activity is essentially funneling Google users into indexed keyword paradigms for which Google is confident they have already established a high standard of relevance. If this methodology can shave that 20% of unhappy searches down to 5-10%, then Google has overcome a major hurdle to user search satisfaction.

Now if we apply the above to the impact on SEO, you can see how professional search engine optimization will still be key to optimum website performance in the Google indexes. Matt Cutts has already made a video addressing the concerns of the website community and giving his take on why SEO will still play an essential role in future Google Search.

However, I think SEO can go even further than Matt’s suggestions for simply establishing and maintaining structural site integrity. Since Google appears to be settling on a more rigid index range, (per the auto-complete results that appear each time you begin typing a Google query), SEO practitioners can be key roleplayers in identifying keyword opportunities and structures. Bringing this knowledge to bear on the architecture of the website and providing the necessary support through a sustained SEO campaign will be more vital than ever in the future of search marketing.

This marketing technique builds upon knowing what a WordPress blog is. If you’re unfamiliar with WordPress or blogs in general, check out WordPress’s website and the rest of this article will make much more sense.

So now that you know some of the basics of what a WordPress blog is and what a Studio theme/template is for your blog, we can go a little more in-depth about search engine optimization (SEO) marketing for your blog, which is what’s going to drive all that wonderful, free, targeted traffic to your blog.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a big term but the concept is simple. And it’s a great marketing idea for us Realtors or agents to learn if you want free traffic visiting your website or blog.

Let me explain…

You know when you do a Google search for something and a list of website results are returned that match your search term you typed in? There are usually pages and pages of results but you only look at the first 1-2 pages, right?

Well, if you look in the upper search bar, you’ll see the total number of results that Google found, which is usually in the millions. You’d have to go through pages and pages of results to see the millions of website results.

So how do some of these websites owners have the marketing genius to get listed on the first 1-2 pages while the other millions of websites stay at the bottom of the results? SEO marketing!

There are ways to optimize your website so that search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN Bing, etc. rank your website to be most relevant to what the person is searching for. Therefore, you get rewarded with a higher ranking on the results page and get more traffic to your real estate website or blog.

Tons of SEO companies and tech guys try to “game” the search engines so their sites come up as the #1 or #2 result. The problem is that search engines like Google are changing their requirements all the time so it’s almost impossible to artificially get higher rankings.

But of course, there are some foundational ways to get higher rankings and most of them directly relate to the content on your site.

The content on your site, or the text/words, is one of the main aspects search engines scan to evaluate your website. This is why I think blogs are so effective because you are constantly writing new, relevant content for search engines to find.

You can do the same thing with regular static websites but it’s tougher. You’d have to constantly update and add new content, which is much more time consuming and technically difficult than with a WordPress blog. Plus, WordPress is much more user-friendly for “non-techy” Realtors or agents like me.

Here’s where we start to get a little more technical so buckle up…

Within your WordPress blog, there are tools called “plugins” that software developers have made to enhance different aspects of your WordPress blog. They’re incredible for all aspects of your marketing.

Many plugins are free, some cost a little money. They’re easy to install; you just search for the plugin you want, download it and activate it and “Forget about it!” (sorry, that’s my best Italian impression).

For example, I use a plugin called “Contact Form 7″, which automatically creates a contact form on our “Contact Us” page. I don’t have to deal with any programming, coding, HTML or any of that junk. I just download the plugin, adjust the settings and it’s up and running on my WordPress blog. It seems like programmers have thought of a solution like this for anything you can think of. It’s fabulous!

Since most of us web surfers don’t look past the first 1-2 pages of results when searching, we need to get our Realtor or agent blogs up as high as possible on those results pages, right? Of course, that assumes you want free, automated traffic.

This is going to be a little tough to picture if you haven’t seen or used a WordPress blog but we’ll try it anyway. When you write a post for your blog, you’ll be writing a Title, a Description and the actual Content (or Body) of your blog post.

The title you write will show up on the search engine results page. Go ahead and do a search on Google right now so you know what I’m talking about. See that blue colored “headline” for all the results? That’s the title. Just like any other marketing piece, the title or headline is vital to catch your prospects attention. So put extra effort into this part.

Underneath that title will be your description, which will tell the surfer what your post is all about, in a nutshell. See it? It’s usually about 2 sentences long, right under the blue colored title.

The content of your blog post won’t show up on the search results page but search engines will still be scouring that content with their little robots.

Now, there are certain “keywords” that people commonly search with, like “Seattle real estate” or “real estate jobs”. Search engines want to see good keywords in your title, description and blog post content.

Anyway, I hope this marketing idea wasn’t too hard to follow along with. If you’re a “techy” you’re probably saying, “Dude, give me a break. I already know this stuff.” And the rest of you are thinking, “Blog what? Search eng… huh?” In either case, this is a great marketing tool to use and learn more about.

Now go close some deals!

Here are what I consider to be some of the highlight points from the interview in note form:

• The number of pages crawled by Google is proportional to the Google PageRank of the website and its pages.
• PageRank decays as it moves deeper into pages.
• Minimize shared bandwidth to avoid failed crawled attempts due to host load limits.
• Duplicate content is merged into a single unit, not dropped or ignored completely.
• Avoid using Session IDs when possible.
• There is some PageRank loss in using a 301 redirect.
• The rel=canonical tag is okay to use with frequency and recommended when no 301 redirect is possible
• A blocked URL in a robots.txt is still indexed by Google
• Cutts recommends just letting Google crawl a website and sift out the duplicate or extraneous content. Excessive use of the robots.txt is unnecessary.
• PageRank sculpting is not necessary if a site’s architecture is sound.
• PageRank sculpting is being reduced in importance because Google wants search engines and users to see the same website linkage and have a similar experience when navigating the website.
• Be sure to use NoFollow links for ads on your website. Google does not want website advertisements effecting search engine rankings.
• Google has new link spam tools and technology that they will be implementing.

Of course, much of the information above is already known by most SEO professionals or was long suspected to be the case, but it’s always good to get an official word from Google itself on these matters.

If you know your target market you will be able to figure out what they really want to find on your Realtor website. You should know everything about their likes and dislikes. You should know their “hot buttons.” You should know what they want.

Tip #1:

Do Not Have the Same Type of Website as Other Realtors Have. You want to stand out, don’t you? You can add links to MLS or property databases without putting all that on your website.

Tip #2:

You have to offer information that other Realtors do not have on their websites. To figure this out, you have to know what other Realtors have on their websites. You can research it, or get somebody to help you.

Tip #3:

Look at all the websites of Realtors in your area. Make a note of what they have in the way of information and resources.

Then think: what DON’T my competitors have that my target market would really like?

This could be your key to success.

Tip #4:

Do a Google search for Realtor websites in other parts of the country (or other countries). You may get some great ideas nobody else has in your market area.

For example, I went to an English website where they had actual sales prices of recent closings. That was interesting, because I’d never seen that, and it was information I really wanted.

You could do that within your own zip code or target market, if you don’t already. Be unique. What other ideas can you think of?

This recent Google Webmaster video answers the question of how Google evaluates social media links.

The following points are what I consider to be the highlights from the video:

• Google doesn’t treat social media links any differently than it treats links from any other website
• Website reputation, and here Cutts specifically mentioned Google PageRank, plays a vital role in evaluating the source of the link
• Facebook and Twitter profile information must be public for Google to index any of the information
• Contrary to popular belief, links from social media websites, as well as .gov and .edu domains, do not receive any special weight beyond the normal ranking factors that apply to all pages and links

All in all, some really good information to keep in mind when link building with social media websites.

The idea that “the user should come first” when making decisions about site layout and content is so often stated that it can sound like an empty platitude. However, the message needs to ring true and really hit home. If you want your website to last, if you really want your website business to grow, then design your real estate website for people and do your best to make their user experience a happy one.

Of course, we have heard this mantra countless times and I can already see readers nodding more out of fatigue than approval. However, the sentiment really does need to be taken seriously. Why? The answer is because the future of the web is constantly evolving around the user experience. Attend to that experience and you will establish an edge that will keep your website on the forefront of your market.

What prompted me to write this article were some interviews I read on the Business Week website. Business Week did a short series of interviews with 5 of the major players at Google; Amit Singhal, Eric Schmidt, Udi Manber, Scott Huffman and Matt Cutts. Each of these individuals play pivotal roles in development and innovation with the company.

While each individual has a different role in the company, the primary purpose was the same for all. All were working to better understand the psychology of the web user and to create the best possible experience for them.

Amit Singhal’s efforts are directed at improving the user interface and constantly running experiments to test innovations. Eric Schmidt favors data openness “because we think that works best for the users.” Udi Manber has a special litmus test for his team when he says the “main measure is whether we help people and give them what they need.”

“We try to measure every possible which way we can think of how good is Google, how good are our search results, how well are they serving our users.” That is from the mouth of Scott Huffman.

And then there is Matt Cutts who defended Google’s methodology in his interview “because I feel like we wake up every day and work really, really hard to return the best-quality search results, and we’re fighting every day to do the best thing for our users.”

Now many webmasters are constantly spinning their wheels to rank for this and rank for that. They are watching the metrics, tracking the numbers, counting the leads they receive one by one. This is all well and good. Honestly, it is. But this pursuit should never lose sight of what is really important, the end user experience.

Yes, the statement “build websites for people, not search engines” does sound like an empty platitude these days. But in my opinion, it is a proverb that should not be taken lightly. If the seriousness with which Google takes the user experience is any indication, the future of the Internet is not simply in the next big app, marketing buzz trip, or other short-lived fad. Rather, the future is in the user and how they interact with the information and tools available to them.

Do you know your users as well as you should? Does your website give them what they need? Those two questions are a good starting point for delving into the psychology of your website visitors. Keep producing that website content for people, not search engines. And always keep in mind that the user comes first.

Web Pro News also did another excellent interview with Google SEO Engineer Matt Cutts. The main topics discussed in the interview provided some more information on the launch of Google Caffeine as well as some recommendations on optimizing for website speed.

While Cutts didn’t state that faster page performance will be a new ranking factor for websites, he did mention that it is under consideration. Keep in mind that Google is always looking to improve the end-user experience and fast site performance definitely fits that bill. After all, nobody likes waiting around for pages to load.

Here is a short list of some of the tools that Cutts recommended for website speed evaluation:

• Google Code – Excellent resource for articles and tools on improving website performance.
• Web Page Test – Another tool for testing website performance.
• Google Closure Tools – Library of fast performing scripts and templates, as well as a compiler for crunching bloated code.

Improving site performance is not only recommended for the sake of your website visitors, but it can only help prepare your website for a future where Google may consider speed a ranking factor.

Many search engine professionals have had the opportunity to test and play with the Google Caffeine sandbox for the last several months. But the sandbox has closed shop, which usually is a sure-fire sign that a new launch is right around the corner.

In a video conducted with Matt Cutts back in August, WebProNews got some of the skinny on the new Caffeine changes.

The long and short of the interview is that Caffeine marks a major “rewrite of [Google's] entire indexing system.” Cutts stated that end-users should not to be alarmed since they won’t notice much of a change. Most of the updates are going into the product under the hood for “more flexibility and power” in handling content.

The content posing the biggest challenge, of course, is all of the real-time material and media generated in the social space. Google Caffeine will be better wired to handle all of the Web 2.0 content like blogs, tweets, and bookmarks.

While the recipe for a good keyword strategy is unique on a case by case basis, Google provides a keyword research tool that can help make some effective determinations. The tool is called Google Insights for Search and it has made it into my repertoire of tools I use to compile data for making keyword decisions.

Using the tool is a fairly straightforward. Enter the search terms of interest, in this case, the geographically relevant phrases being considered (i.e. phoenix real estate, scottsdale real estate, chandler real estate and mesa real estate). Filter your results as desired; in this example the filter is set to Web Search – United States – Arizona – Last 12 Months. Press “Go” and Google Insights generates a chart of the keyword usage and also provides some related keyword stats.

A quick review of the stats show us that Phoenix is the most popular area, with Scottsdale, Mesa and Chandler performing behind it in that order. The graph also shows searches for these areas trending downward, especially “scottsdale real estate” whose search interest has recently dropped to the levels of Mesa and Chandler.

One other key finding is that the related search phrase “real estate listings” is up 170 percent over the past year. This is valuable information to consider when crafting a keyword strategy for a Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaign or On-Page SEO.