Real Estate Agent, Brokerage and Mortgage Blogs

Interesting that an affiliate of Overstock has been attempting to negotiate with me for linkage from my site, to help promote a start up.  The page they set up was set up to look like a feed, but was obviously not and was not compliant with MLS regulations in that they did not disclose the listing agent information, nor are they authorized to take this information.  They took specific listings of mineand several others and scraped them from Vflyer and another source.  They also picked wisely, listings that were sending an inordinate amount of traffic.  I guess they decided that they were going to get that juice one way or the other.  They also went into the text of the listings and inserted links to Overstock product pages.   

Its getting very interesting out there.  Like a feeding frenzy.  Its a race to the top and the big boys are all competing.  While they need us and our product, they will run us over and leave us on the road as roadkill, with no regard.  It is a race to the finish and winning is all that matters. 

About 6 weeks ago I went through my site with a tool and detected and eliminated all links to Trulia, Zillow, Realtor, etc...  By the next day they had dropped several positions on the engines in my market.  Imagine what would happen if everybody dumped their links to them!  I took it a step further.  Realizing that many Realtors do not read the internet and have no clue, I sent an email to all of the Realtors in my market who have any placement on the engines and attempted to explain in plain English what the effect of linking to these sites was and why they should unlink to them.  I suggest you all do the same.

We may not be able to combat the brokers selling out the broker load to these monsters but we can put a dent in their game.  Stop contributing your keywords to them when you are on their sites. Stop linking to them.  Dismantle any existing links on your sites.

Next we need to educate the brokers on why they cut really bad deals with these companies.

As much as we all complain about NAR, what Overstock is doing is against all rules set out by NAR.  Perhaps we should start to push NAR to litiage against these big-boy sites.  Until someone or some agency sues them, they'll keep trying to push the envelope.  Cease and Desist works well.  I think it's time to go for it.  I have gone through my site and removed links to the big sites.  I haven't written much about any of them, and don't link to them for that reason.

Mary, should we all stop commenting on Trulia Voices and Zillow?  Would that help us and hurt them? 

It will definately be interesting to see how Trulia spins this.  Especially with the "trulia pro" release. And c'mon, even with Trulia pro you have a nofollow tag on your url.  Give me a break

Mary - Have you talked to Rudy yet about this? 

Mary,

I think you're being particularly unfair towards Zillow. Here are a few facts that I hope you would consider going forward ...

1) Zillow was not built on Realtors' content

Many RE sites are just playing the listings arbitrage game and add no value but that critique does not apply to Zillow. More than 4 million RE consumers were visiting Zillow.com each month BEFORE a single listing was ever posted on the site. Zillow built its audience on the back of its own proprietary content (namely Zestimate values etc.) and only after attracting a large audience did we turn around and give agents free access to the buyers and sellers on our site. This accusation certainly does not apply to Zillow. I'd apreciate it if you would consider correcting your post on this issue.

2) Zillow doesn't deserve SEO-revenge

Zillow does not employ sneaky tactics, like cloaking, that would abuse our partnerships for SEO purposes. Zillow is in fact the exception to the rule when it comes to helping our listing partners achieve their SEO objectives. On Zillow, agents receive full SEO credit for their listings (via followed links.) Listing on Zillow should improve your page rank (as long as you provide us a useful link to your listing.)

I hope you'd agree that it's unfair to drag Zillow into any vendetta against the sites that are undermining their partners' SEO efforts.

3) Zillow is not a competitor

Zillow is a media company, we don't broker RE transactions. And as I pointed out in #2, Zillow is one of the few RE media companies that has chosen not to use competitive tactics to outrank our broker partners in the SERPS.

4) Your advice, if followed, will break the web.

As my mom always used to say, "if they jump into the fire, does that mean you do too?"

The nofollow tag was never intended to be used in an anti-social way. I understand that some sites have set a very low bar for partnership and publishing by employing sneaky SEO tactics but I disagree with you that the apropriate response is to sink to their level. If everyone followed your advice, Google would literally not work and at that point, all the page rank you've acrued by sculpting would be worthless. Give it some thought.

<blockquote>If you are concerned about Trulia, Zillow or any other number of monster sites ranking above you in your area, DON'T LINK TO THEM.</blockquote>

Well said.  This is the message that we hope agents take away.

A successful speculator is "a man who observes the future and acts before it occurs". Acting swiftly in the market is important.

I am guilty of a little tv/movie gossip watching, so I am excited to visit back again for a little real estate net gossip.  RSSPieces is a great blog site and I appreciate the tips and webinars put out there! 

Erik -- http://www.BlogAboutOrlando.com