Just before the Thanksgiving holidays, one of the Internet's top three search engines changed its algorithms, the search criteria by which its engine "spiders" peruse websites and select them for results pages. Results are based on websites' relevancy to search keywords.

While changing algorithms isn't usually news, it makes a difference if a large class of hopefuls like Realtors get bumped from the Top 10 search results.

Relevancy is determined by how many people "search or link to it," says Bambi Francisco, a correspondent for CBSMarketwatch.

For example, the words "homes" and "real estate" may appear similar, but they deliver different results when combined with a city, like "Dallas homes" or "Dallas real estate."

That's why Realtors and their search engine placement firms have made a merry game of trying to imbed their websites with real estate-related text that use such keywords as metatags to attract the spiders. The lucky agents and brokers who choose the right words, among other search criteria, consistently rank in the Top 10 or first page results, but now, according to the results of a new survey, few brokers and agents will fare so well, suggests Peter Conti, spokesperson for Borrell Associates, Inc., a media strategist/analyst.

It's anyone's guess what the new algorithms are based upon. Instead of basing relevancy on how many people link to a site, it might be based on how many links are on the site to other relevant searches.

Another theory is that Google has sharpened its definition of relevancy. When a consumer searches for "homes" they aren't looking for an agent. The results could be lifting more sites to the Top 10 that are about properties.

"In the spring and the winter of 2002," explains Conti, "we typed in the city name and the word "real estate" and the city name and "homes," and then we tracked the top 10 returns for each search engine (Google, MSN, Yahoo!) for about 20 cities."

When Google changed its algorithms, Borrell Associates broke out Google and ran some comparisons from its survey conducted a year ago.

Across cities large enough to return pages of results such as Spokane, Dallas, Detroit, Memphis and Sacramento, Borrell Associates found that in all three search engines (Google, MSN, and Yahoo!) real estate brokers and agents were in the Top 10 results about 32 percent of the time. In the week of December 1st, when Borrell ran a search just on Google for the same cities, Realtors "dropped off the earth," says Conti.

Last year, Realtors were in the Top 10 Google results 29 percent of the time, or three out of ten. Realtors dropped to nine percent, or one out of ten.

So who's getting the choice Top 10 positions instead?

According to Borrell, real estate-related websites with lots of links are edging Realtors out, namely Realtor.com and newspaper sites.

Newspaper sites appear to have lost little position, says Conti, from last year where their results dropped from 16 percent Top 10 positions to 12 percent.

While he hasn't yet run a similar result for Realtor.com, Conti recalls that Realtor.com was in the Top 10 "about one-third of the time."

The only city where rankings stayed close to the same, says Conti, was Spokane, where John L. Scott and Windemere real estate stayed about the same under the keyword "real estate." But with the keyword "homes," there were no Realtors in the Top 10, although Realtor.com made it in.

A search of "memphis homes" showed not one Realtor in the Top 10, says Conti, but Realtor.com was number one. Number two was the real estate section of the city's newspaper, The Commercial Appeal.

So what are Realtor.com and newspapers suddenly doing right and brokers and agents doing wrong? It's more what they have in common -- newspapers and Realtor.com have lots of links to other related sites that raises their relevancy to the search spiders' algorithms.

"A broker or agent isn't likely to have lots of links to other brokers and agents," says Conti. "And now to get placement, brokers and agents may have to pay for a sponsored link or bid for higher placement in the sponsored link section."

Being listed in search engines is important to Realtors. According to Borrell Associates' survey of real estate consumer behavior, 53 percent of consumers said they used a search engine to locate a real estate site.

Published: December 8, 2003

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Blanche Evans is the award-winning senior editor of Realty Times, the Internet's leading independent real estate news service. She is featured daily on the Realty Times Video Network in the "Realty Viewpoint" segment. Blanche has been named one of the "25 Most Influential People In Real Estate" by REALTOR Magazine, and has been twice recognized as a "notable." In 2005, she was named "Top Reporter Covering the NAR" by Delahaye-Bacon's. Blanche is a renowned author of five real estate books. Her newest, Bubbles, Booms and Busts: Make Money In Any Real Estate Market, McGraw-Hill, was rave-reviewed by The New York Times. She was also selected from hundreds of real estate experts to contribute to Donald Trump's book, Trump: The Best Real Estate Advice I Ever Received: 100 Top Experts Share Their Strategies, Rutledge Hill Press, and is featured on page 68. Order Now Review - Honors In 2006, Blanche was selected among scores of candidates to author two consumer real estate guidebooks for the National Association of Realtors: The NAR Guide to Home Buying, and The NAR Guide to Home Selling, Wiley & Sons. She is currently planning two new books for the NAR and its members.       Known for her keen insight into real estate industry issues and for her ability to make complex subjects easy to understand, Blanche is a sought-after keynote and continuing education speaker. Real estate organizations from MLSs, to brokerages, to franchisors, to associations hire her to provide up-to-the-minute analysis of real estate industry news and advice on how to improve revenues. Her passionate delivery, peppered with stinging wit, is a huge hit with audiences and fans. Don Klein, CEO Greater Nashville Association of Realtors, Blanche Evans, Richard Courtney, president 2007, GRAR "The GNAR membership meeting last week featured Blanche Evans as the keynote speaker. Her comments and insights resonated extremely well with those in attendance and we have had many requests for copies of her PowerPoint Presentation. She was a terrific part of the membership meeting and convention program!" - Don Klein, CEO Greater Nashville Association of Realtors Coverage from WSMV, Nashville - 8-14-2007 That Interview Guy - Get Inside The Head Of Today's Generation 2007 AE Institute Session - To purchase 2006 AE Institute Session - Parts 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 HouseValues Mastermind call - Parts 1 2 Blanche's fireside chat with Jeremy Conaway, HAR - Click here. To contact Blanche, email her at . For more articles by Blanche, click here.