Where to find a trusted, SEO strategist for real estate company web site?

[LinkMoser]

I addition to running a small web development company and thus having some background to SEO/inbound marketing, I also own a real estate web site at www.nhfinehomes.com. Last year, I had the site recoded with many SEO improvements in mind. The result was a significant boost in traffic/leads and more pages being indexed. One of the challenge with real estate sites is that all my competitors have the same content (house listings) via the IDX feed so the challenge is to try to shape the pages to be a little different.

My question is where do I go from here? I'm not sure where to best focus my efforts for maximum improvement. My biggest competitor has tons more links, some of which are just not realistic for a small firm like mine. Is content creation the next step to push out on a Wordpress blog with better internal linking? In Google Analytics, I see tons of keyword phrases that I have low rankings for and wonder if some optimized content could help boost those?

What I would like to find is a TRUSTED, proven consultant with PROVEN real estate SEO experience that could take a look at my site, my competition and honestly tell me what it would take to improve so I can better determine how big a nut this is to crack. I am okay with doing most of the work and have my programmer who can help with some of the technical. I just don't want to take stabs in the dark and waste resources on ineffective or worst, potentially damaging results.

So anyone here know where I can find such a strategist?

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[LinkMoser]

Can anyone recommend or offer to assist me with this project? I'm understand the model Darin has proposed and would like to find that 30,000 ft specialist who can review my site, analytics, Google Webmaster and offer a priority list for any on page changes and then get a proven link building specialist involved. Makes sense to me but still would like a more experienced SEO driving the charge vs. me guessing what to do next.

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[LinkMoser]

Thanks Darin. I would be grateful for any back link resources you are willing to share. Yes, the site does rank on the first page for several key terms. Looking at my analytics I can see where the traffic comes from. I am hoping to find an SEO strategist with my know how than me to look at my site, the links, the competition, the rankings and offer advice on where I could work to improve first. Is it back links, content, internal linking, social media, etc? My #1 competitor did everything right about six years ago and has become the fastest growing NH real estate company solely because of the traffic and leads from their organic rankings in Google. I realize it isn't realistic to think I could 'beat' them but I want to know what it would take to increase my traffic to the next level. I know how much of an influx you get when you work up the ranks collectively.

[DarinPirkey]

Your site ranks pretty well and you are in the Google knowledge graph too.  I show you as #7 for "homes in New Hampshire".

I like to hire multiple SEOs for this kind of work:

A Technical Specialist (on-page) you can pay them some decent money

An off-page specialist (backlinks) you can pay them much less. (oDesk, Elance, etc)

Here is what I would do for the backlinks, you can go to oDesk and get guys for 3.33/ an hour for backlinks, give a few guys 10 hours a week for two weeks and see how they do.  Give them a doc to put the links into so you can check them out.  Pick the one or two that do a really good job and have the disburse new links to multiple pages on your site.

For the technical specialist, I would recommend not necessarily picking someone in the top of Google as a measurement of how good they are.  Google "seo" and you'll see that seomoz isn't on the first page (except for video) and I can tell you they have some of the best tools.

Anyway, you can find some good technical specialist on oDesk too.  You'll pay them anywhere between $15/hour and $25/hour or so (They won't need as much time per week as a back link guy so the money won't be too pricey).  If you find a few, like we mentioned before, send us their profiles and we'll look them over.  I can recommend a few back link guys who are excellent.

[LinkMoser]

Thanks guys. I did look into some of the 'real estate seo' options on the first page. Several looked like they offered tall promises but we'll see how they reply. I can understand both sides of the equation (client vs. SEO) but as the client, many of these SEO's seem to want BIG, BIG bucks upfront and expect the client to take all the risk with no proof that they can deliver. I have tried the eLance, Odesk options in the past and not had the best luck. I am protective of my current rankings and know what can happen when a hack SEO is turned loose. While some past experience with the real estate vertical would surely help, I don't think it's required if an SEO is honest, has a vested interest to assist their client and knows their stuff.

[DarinPirkey]

Marcus Miller has some really good points.  The long tail is a great place to start and will help your overall strategy.

Here is a video by Rand on some questions to ask an SEO when you are looking to hire them.

Here is a post by Rand on the same topic.  At the bottom of the post it has the answers to the questions.

Beyond that, I personally am a stickler for reporting.  If they are building back links it needs to be in doc so I can monitor the quality of them. (You don't have to do this forever but especially when they first start)  If they have SEOmoz (or other tools) you need to have that report sent to you so you can see the progress of them.  If they've done other sites for real estate then you should ask to see them (I sign non disclosure agreements with my companies so some won't be able to show you all of their work)

Like Marcus said, if you find someone we'll check their work out for you to give you some guidance.  Key is to be patient and find a good fit for you.

[Marcus_Miller]

Hey Link

I have come across the IDX feed previously and it is a tricky one as you are by default working with content that is already listed on many other sites.

I did a quick google and found a few 'real estate seo' consultants so it may be worth checking these guys out first as they will know your industry and may have a head start on any other consultant who is looking at it from a general perspective. If there are verticals and places you should be listed, not to say any other SEO would not find them, but these guys should have the inside scoop so I would look at that first.

How to tell if they are any good? Well, see what other work they have done. See who they work for, check the links out to the sites they have promoted and see if you can find anything fishy. Heck, post a few candidates up on here and I am sure people will feed back and you may even find they have an SEOMoz account (which would be a good sign).

If you have big competition, a long tail content strategy can be rewarding long term and if you can own the long tail, that can work well and all feeds into owning the bigger terms over time.

Great name by the way, really, you should consider becoming a full time SEO with that name!

Cheers

Marcus