If you are an experienced web REALTOR®, you may have noticed that it is not as easy to maintain high search engine placement as it used to be, especially if you are in a "web-busy" area. Well, it is just going to get harder. More and more Realtors are going on-line and a million other pages are added to the web each day. Just the sheer number of new pages makes it harder to get found, but the main problem for individual Realtors, especially in larger communities, is that search engines are changing how they search.

In the past, the pages returned by popular search engines contained the query word or phrase in the text or meta-tags of the page. Certain criteria made a web page come up higher in the search engine results. Simply put, if the word appears early on in the document (or higher on the web page) it returns a higher result. Another example is if the word or phrase is repeated more than once.

As the number of web pages continues to swell, this method of searching is becoming more and more unreliable. Responses to searches often have no bearing at all to the initial query and many pages get ignored. Adding to the problem is that many web site developers attempt to "spam" the indexes in various ways.

As a result, searches based solely on text, keywords, or meta-tags are becoming obsolete. The web has simply become too big and search engines are adapting to this changing reality. They are adapting in three major ways and the adaptations are already being put into place.

Search via Hyper-Links

One solution is that search engines are turning to the organization of the web in order to deliver more accurate search results. You see, the web is organized into many groups of "cyber-communities," through hyper-links. Links are a text or graphic on a web page that, when clicked on, send a web visitor to another web site. The web sites are usually related in subject matter.

By analyzing a web's links, search engines can determine with greater reliability if a web site is actually related to the search inquiry. This analysis is basically done in two steps. First, the search engine does a traditional search for web pages containing the query word or phrase. Then the search engine counts the number of links to and from other web pages containing the same word or phrase. The higher the number, the higher the "confidence level" that the page or site fits the search request.

IBM's new "Clever" search engine (not yet released) puts web sites into two categories, "hubs" and "authorities," and assigns scores in each category. It doesn't just count incoming or outgoing links, but assigns more value to those links between sites with higher scores. Some sites will score high in both categories. Links from and to higher scoring "hubs" and "authorities" will enhance search engine placement.

To give you a value of Clever, when searching for "Thailand, tourism" on Infoseek returns almost three million responses. Clever returns thirty pages on the same search, according to "From IBM, A Better Searching Tool," by Dave Murphy.

Infoseek has already added link popularity into its search algorithms. Google does the same thing. IBM's "Clever" search engine is still under development. Once it gets released, it will have the marketing power of "Big Blue" behind it, and IBM is no longer a slumbering giant.

Search by Choice

When a search engine returns results to a query, many of the listed web sites have nothing to do with the initial search. As a result, web surfers do not usually click on those results. When they click on them mistakenly, they don't spend much time on the site, hitting the "back" button and returning to the search page. Some popular search engines have begun to take this into account in revising their search engine results. Sites that get clicked on move higher in the search engine rankings and sites that web visitors spend little or no time on move lower.

A company called "Direct Hit" is measuring these results and some major search engines have contracted with Direct Hit to add the feature to their search functions. Among them are HotBot, AOL, Sherlock (from Apple), and LookSmart.

Search by Directory

If that was not enough, directories are becoming more and more popular. If you are familiar with Yahoo, you are familiar with directories. Yahoo's major emphasis has always been on their directory and is probably the major reason for their success. Infoseek and Lycos have added directories. Now Alta Vista and HotBot have added the LookSmart directory to their web sites. The major reason for the renewed success of directories is because web surfers are becoming more and more disillusioned with search engine results, mostly because they search too broadly. Directories automatically place them in the correct category.

The Affect on Real Estate

It used to be that large generic real estate web sites had a harder time pulling high results on search engines. Local sites had an edge because web surfers usually search for real estate geographically. You may have already noticed that "directory" sites have begun creeping higher and higher into your local search engine results. Look for this trend to continue as link popularity grows in importance as search engine criteria. If your Realtor web site comes up in the first three pages of a local real estate search, you are doing fine. If it does not, you need to take action.

The solution for Realtors, as this trend continues, is to get listed with as many directories as possible. The major ones such as Yahoo and LookSmart are very important, but so are sites such as IRED, Realty Times, RealEstateABC, and others.

Published: June 10, 1999

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Editor's Note: This article reflects the opinions of Terry Light only and not necessarily the views of this or any other publication, organization or Website owner.