Google explains the change best with:

“Google Search has always been about finding the best results for you. Sometimes that means results from the public web, but sometimes it means your personal content or things shared with you by people you care about. These wonderful people and this rich personal content is currently missing from your search experience. Search is still limited to a universe of webpages created publicly, mostly by people you’ve never met. Today, we’re changing that by bringing your world, rich with people and information, into search.”

Read more: Official Google Blog: Search, plus Your World

While Social Network integration is still very much in it’s infancy, it is quickly becoming the future and we must all watch it unfold to stay ahead of the game. Here are some tips on what to look out for and how to build your Social Network data now:

1. Google+ will obviously align with Google’s search while Facebook results will be pushed farther down the rankings. The vice versa will occur with Microsoft’s Facebook-aligned search engine Bing. This will make it important for people to have multiple Social Network accounts so they can achieve high rankings on each search engine – and, in turn, reach the most amount of people possible.
2. Start posting relevant content now! It will take time for Social Search to mature and you’ll want to be on the frontlines when it does. Start thinking about how to make your Social Network postings and shares more relevant to the search results you’d like them associated with. Also, the greater amount of content on your Social Networks the better.
3. Social Search is going to level the playing field by allowing you to leapfrog SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Today, you must compete with highly paid and resourced SEO experts to rank high on the SERP (Search Engine Results Page). In the near future, instead of writing articles that have to work their way up to the front page in traditional search, you can instead have your content displayed at the top of the SERP using your preferred Social Network. Keep writing great, focused and relevant content and sharing those articles and posts on Social Networks. The content you contribute will ultimately end up being displayed, allowing other people to find your content and connect with you.

As Social Search matures, Real Estate Rainmaker will keep you in the loop with the latest important updates. Stay tuned!

Introducing RAINMAKER SOCIAL, the one-of-a-kind collection of tools to enhance your RAINMAKER MEGA SITE and bring it into the Social Age. Social Media and “social search” have arrived. And, the future is now. Here’s why:

• “Inbound links are a good measure of authority, but they are slow. In a social media world, a relevant piece of content on a subject could become outdated in minutes.” – RAINMAKER SOCIAL users love the easy-to-use share tools in the new system compared to the out-dated (and slower) inbound links. With the share tools, you can constantly share content and stay relevant without the wait!
• “Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Twitter are battling over the future of search. It is clear to all of these internet giants that social search is the future.” – These companies basically decide what user’s search. As they enhance Social Search, we all will be taken along for the ride too. That’s why it’s important for RAINMAKER SOCIAL users to hop on the bandwagon now so you get an early start on the future ahead of your competition.
• “Google+ is the fastest growing social network ever.” Google+ is not important – not yet — in the inherent contact database sense like Facebook. However, going forward Google will be using Google+ as its main source of social search data. Because Google is the #1 search engine in the world (no surprise there!) that makes Google+ an important tool in Google’s Social Search Rankings. Bottom line: Social search is coming on fast. Ride the wave…don’t get drowned by it.
• “Facebook’s current share of the search engine market is miniscule… why does Facebook not have at least a negligible portion of the search market? Simple: Private data. … The limitations of private data make Facebook a weak search engine and subsequently resulted in very little usage.” – This however has changed recently with the inclusion of the ability to select your own privacy settings with each individual post. RAINMAKER SOCIAL users are now sharing via the PUBLIC option that is now included. Use this public option as much as possible and you will build a pool of data and results that optimize your chances of being found through Facebook search.
• “Social search is really about more personalized search engine results.” – Search in the future will be personalized. That’s why RAINMAKER SOCIAL users are building their personal search network today.

Don’t miss out on the future. Check out www.RainmakerSocial.com for more information and order today to get a jump on your competition!

For more about integrating search and social marketing read this excellent, free whitepaper: www.hubspot.com/internet-marketing-whitepapers/

Jesse Hickman

This article on the “Five Important Trends for Every Business in 2011” from Mike Phillips at Website Magazine got my attention.

All of the trends he mentioned — with the exception of Groupon and expanding your business model (what else are you going to sell to home buyers and sellers?!) — are things to keep top of mind this year:

• security of data — yours and that of your clients;
• mobile marketing’s steadily increasing foothold; and
• internet search remains the secret to success.

What trends do you see mentioned for 2011 that you believe are a good fit for the real estate business?

Never fear, Google still ranks #1 with 970 million unique visitors that same month and Microsoft is #2 with 869 million.

Facebook is  a hugely popular site, attracting more and more visits on an on-going basis.  It’s where advertising is moving to get some of these visitors’ attention.  Are you advertising on Facebook yet?

To look at Facebook historically, their swift rise in traffic is evidenced by their overtaking the following sites:

• MySpace,  April 2008
• Amazon, August 2008
• eBay, January 2009
• AOL, February 2009
• Wikipedia, August 2009
• Yahoo, November 2010

Facebook is beyond a fad.  If you aren’t on Facebook and your business isn’t on Facebook, you’re leaving lots and lots of potential business behind.

If Facebook were to take over Microsoft or even Google’s top spot in terms of unique monthly visitors, when do you think that will happen?

Last month, Google introduced a new feature called “Instant Previews” which allows searchers to visually see their search results without clicking through to the link.  Through internal testing by Google, users of Instant Previews indicated that they were 5% more satisfied with their results than those not using Instant Previews.  You can always review your search results visually, saving time and effort, and only clicking on those sites that look promising to your goals.

As this type of visual search becomes more common, accepted and expected, it will now be imperative to have a visually appealing landing page that entices searchers to click on that result.

Have you tried Google Instant Previews yet?

There are many paid services out there to track what’s said about you online. However, there are a lot of free services you can use to track your name, company name, keywords, even your competitors in the social media and web world. Here’s a short list of available options. Explore them to see if you learn anything you didn’t see online on your own.

• GoogleAlerts – “Monitor the Web for interesting new content.”
• Giga Alert – similar to Google Alerts.
• Technorati – this site allows you to monitor the entire blogosphere.
• Boardreader – forums and other online board postings can be monitored.
• Twitter Search – a way to search what is being said on Twitter at any time.
• Trackur – a free option to search for terms online.
• MonitorThis – search for entries in 26 different search engines.
• Social Media FireHose – tracking of information on social media sites more broadly than Google Alerts.

No matter what you use to track what’s being said about you — or a topic that is important to you or your clients — the important thing is to be aware of what is being said.  What is your reputation like?  What direction is a topic going?  By monitoring this information, you will know and can stay on top of your reputation and topics that are important to home buyers and sellers.

Which ones do you use and what have you found that you wouldn’t have otherwise?

Use those specific terms in your natural search strategy and paid search bidding strategy to get more of your market.

If a neighborhood goes by a certain name that isn’t often included on maps, but is well-known by the local population, you can be sure that home buyers familiar with that area are searching for home using that term for the location.

If a ranch-style home has a certain name in your area or if a house located by a certain natural feature gets referred to as “an X house” you’ve got another valuable terms on your hands that you know others are using in their online searches and conversations.

If there are terms that investors use in your area for multi-unit properties or prime investment parcels, be sure to take that term and run with it in your search marketing.

Keep your eyes and ears open.  Listen and read what terms home buyers and sellers use with you when they discuss buying or selling a home.  It may not be a term you use or have even ever heard before, but if you start noticing the term crop up more, do a little research searching on it and see what you come up with!  It could be the next hot new term to find you more business online!

Let us know if you have snagged some good terms that result in more online hits.  (You don’t have to share the exact term(s), just let us know if the strategy is working for you!)

This excellent article entitled “Top 10 SEO Content Writing Tips Everyone Should Know” from Wordtracker is a great refresher of what you can do to make sure your online content is search engine optimized.

The key takeaway is something we’ve said time and again — stay on topic.

Let us know your top SEO (search engine optimization) tips.

Search has come a long way.  And the big question is, how do you keep you page ranked well in the search engines?

There is no magical, instantaneous formula, but one thing to practice when working on your website or blog is to simply write for your readers — home buyers and sellers.  Don’t write for the computer algorithms (that change regularly) that figure out your search ranking.

After you’ve carefully crafted your web page content, ensure that titles to pages and URL addresses contain more keywords and less “gibberish.”  You’ve probably seen a web page URL that goes on like this:

www.site124.com/XH*&YHJuh121_78129dsfijsdB

Ask your web designers to ensure that your web page URLs are more user friendly as well as search engine friendly, containing real words — and keywords — most often.

What tips and tricks have you found to keep your web page ranking high?

Everyone is familiar with the big standards in online advertising — Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL.  However there are a lot more options available that can drive traffic to your online website, blog, microsite, Facebook profile or Twitter feed.

If you are target marketing a certain segment, you can find exactly the right advertising network that specializes in that niche — or attracts those with that interest or characteristics.  And, the benefit of pinpointing a specific group of home buyers and sellers is that your advertising is likely to be more successful!

Let us know if you’ve used any advertisers outside the big four and what your experience has been.  Perhaps you can add to this extensive list with your favorites to find new home buyers and sellers?