Well, somebody might have said that, but they’re likely to be out of business. In this digital age, SEO can be almost as important as the service itself when it comes to property management – or any business for that matter.

What is SEO?

SEO is an acronym for Search Engine Optimization. When Internet users type a phrase into their chosen search engine (Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.), that search engine will read all of the information on the Internet and throw up all pages relating to that phrase or word in order of pages that are most relevant/useful.

Any business that has a website (and all businesses should) needs to increase its chances of showing up on the first page of results by optimizing their websites for the search engines; hence, SEO.

Why Should Property Management Businesses Be Bothered?

According to ETC NewMedia TrendWatch demographic; 76.9% of the U.S. population use the Internet for Web, search, and email in 2013 and this number is set to rise by approximately 2% over the next four years. With over three quarters of the population using search engines to find out about pretty much everything, placing yourself in those users’ line of sight is extremely beneficial.

SEO Basics

The thing to remember about SEO is that the search engines themselves are companies providing a service and they, too, want to be the best of the best. This means that they only want to give the best results to Internet users. The best results are pages that contain useful and correct information. Over the course of time, search engines have tweaked their systems in order to weed out companies that are producing Web pages that have little or no use to people, simply to get people to their website in the hope that they’d buy something. This is why SEO tactics will look at a combination of the following:

Is the page useful?
– Keywords: The phrases that people type into search engines. If you’re looking for a property inspection app for example, you might type “property inspection software” or “property inspection app” into the search engine. Companies trying to rank for those keywords should use them within the text of the website.
– Quality Content: In the old days, simply repeating the phrase “SEO for property management” might have fooled the search engines into taking the reader to the site. But the reader wouldn’t have stayed long after they found out that there was no real information there. Today, the quality of content will directly affect the ranking of the page. If somebody looks for information on “how to use SEO for property management,” Google will only display pages that actually explain how to use SEO for property management.

Is the information correct?
– Backlinks: Search engines like it when other authoritative organizations agree with what you’re saying or if you can back your articles up with facts and figures. The best way to prove this is by adding links to different sites you might have used for researching your article. Better still is to have a well-known and respected site within property management to link back to your own site.

Doesn’t SEO Only Work for Large Companies?

While it might have been true in the past that the first page of Google was filled only with huge international companies, the search engine monster has tweaked its algorithms so that businesses of all sizes can use SEO to target their particular demographic. This is especially useful for property management businesses because of the geographical aspect of the business.

Google now takes into account the whereabouts of the user and will throw up results for businesses that are local to them. If property managers also use long tail keywords such as “property managers in (city),” they can instantly reduce the amount of competition they face for rankings – especially if they’ve stuck to the other rules of good SEO. And it’s not only Google. All of the search engines are at it. Local businesses are turning up more and more in search results, so it’s worthwhile thinking about how to make use of that little nugget.

If you haven’t already thought about SEO for your website, then now is the time. SEO rules are forever evolving and they can be scary, but to ignore the opportunity to reach out to three quarters of the population just wouldn’t be worth thinking about. Would it?