Dear Google: Please Get Your Sh*t Together

Message to Google (See Above*)

Don't be evil.

--Google corporate motto

I suppose it's the blogging equivalent of losing an election to a deceased opponent, or "none of the above" on a ballot.

What am I talking about?

Routinely being buried on Google's search engine rankings by dozens of other Twin Cities real estate blogs.

That's quite an accomplishment, given that there aren't dozens of such blogs; charitably defined (see next), I come up with no more than 8-10 real estate blogs locally (including some truly excellent ones, by the likes of Aaron Dickinson and Teresa Boardman).

What constitutes a "genuine Twin Cities real estate blog?"

My three criteria are: 1) regular posts -- if not daily, at least multiple times weekly; 2) original (vs. "borrowed" or syndicated) content, with a consistent point of view; that 3) regularly discusses and analyzes the local (Twin Cities) and national housing market(s), respectively.

Bone to Pick

So, if you search "Twin Cities real estate blog" on Google this morning, what will you find?

Here's a (partial) roll call of putative Twin Cities real estate blogs that currently out-rank "City Lakes" (which, for the record, pops up 17th in response to the query, "Twin Cities real estate blog"):

--"Living Twin Cities" (#9): last three posts are Oct. 5, Aug. 11, and July 20 (less content than I've posted this weekend).

--Pete Aplikowski's Real Estate Blog (#7), featuring all of three posts in October, and none yet in November.

The blog's solitary September post largely consisted of this zinger:

If you know anyone who needs help renting their property, please let me know. Sometimes it makes more sense than selling it given the current market conditions. I can handle all the details, showing property, drafting lease, etc.. The fees for this are very minimal compared to selling.

--"Minneapolis Real Estate Blog" (#5): Visit this one and you'll see that the author abandoned the blog in favor of a new-and-improved one last April; the post prior to that is from July.

July, 2009.

Search Engine (Dis)Optimization

Honestly, I'm delighted that anyone reads my blog.

And I certainly wouldn't expect every Realtor-blogger out there to generate original, quality content on a daily basis.

Or for Realtors to blog at all.

But that hardly explains getting lapped by less active (or defunct!) local realtor blogs.

So what does (explain it)?

Pay-for-Play

I'll leave the search engine algorithms to Google's quants, but you'd certainly suspect one (or a combination) of these explanations: 1) Google searches can be gamed; 2) Google searches aren't so smart after all; 3) they're bought and paid for.

Can you say, "pay-for-play?" (or more to the point, "Google Adwords").

If it's #3, how about ditching the false piety (see, corporate motto) and providing disclosure to that effect ("our search results are dictated by corporate sponsors")?

And to think, all this from the search engine not owned by Microsoft (don't even get me started on "Bing").

*The graphic above shows the number of visitors and page views for City Lakes Real Estate from Sept. 15-23.

The "spike" (statistical middle finger) was Monday, Sept. 20, when my post on Elizabeth Warren ("The Wall Street Journal Whiffs on Warren") got picked up nationally.

Bing, 'Bot's & Blog Rankings

Bing vs. Google: No Pay, No Play

It is a bit of an understatement to say that this blog's rank on Technorati, one of the third-party sites that track such things, has bounced around.

In the almost two years that I've been blogging (yeah, it's a verb), Technorati has ranked City Lakes Real Estate Blog somewhere between the high 400's (as in thousand), and and 1.7 million.

Until now.

I checked the other day, and this blog now ranks just over 24,000 worldwide (thanks, regular readers!).

You'd guess that has something to do with my stellar posts (IMHO); as I wrote last month, there are now more than 50(!) posts from this blog that rank (or did) in Google's "top ten" hits, worldwide ("City Lakes Hits").

However, over on Microsoft's search engine, Bing, this blog -- and presumably, many others like it -- don't exist.

What gives?

Bing vs. Google

Bing's rankings are for sale; Google's aren't (or at least, less so).

To take just one example, my post titled "How Big a Premium for Small Lakefront" currently ranks #1 worldwide on Google.

Type in "lakefront premium" on Bing and what do you get?

Literally thousands of (paid-for) hits for lakefront properties for sale. Meanwhile, I stopped searching for City Lakes Real Estate . . . ten screens in (10 posts per).

The blogs touting lakefront properties for sale are both buying key words directly from Bing, and in many cases, using sophisticated software called "bots" to attract the search engines' attention and drive up their placement.

P.S.: the other way I know this blog's rank is climbing is that I'm getting more and more unsolicited email from SEO ("search engine optimization") consultants promising to put me on Google's home page.

Thanks, guys, I'm already on it!

Blog Rankings

The Twin Cities' 40th Best RE Blog? Really??

Run a Google search on "Twin Cities' best real estate blog" and what do you find?

Not this blog.

At least, not in the top 25 hits ("City Lakes Real Estate" was actually 40th as of this morning -- at least before this post pushed it up several notches).

Instead, you'll find a (mostly) motley collection of stale blogs, non-blogs, and completely inactive blogs.

Case in point: according to Google, the 19th-highest rated Twin Cities real estate blog is something called "Broker Eric Kodner's Twin Cities Real Estate Blog."

Last post (out of less than ten total)? February, 2009. That's how many fresh, topical posts (if I say so myself) there have been on this blog in the last week.

Dear Reader: Any Suggestions?

Nothing against Mr. Kodner, but it's hard to compare his blog with one that's been mentioned or quoted in The New York Times, realclearmarkets.com, Star Tribune, Pioneer Press, etc. numerous times the last year.

[Sorry, had to get that off my chest -- can you say, "Google" and "pay-for-play"??]

P.S.: to be fair, included in the top Google hits are some excellent local real estate blogs, including Teresa Boardman's St. Paul Real Estate blog and Alex Stenback's Behind the Mortgage.

P.P.S.: if you regularly read this blog, and have a suggestion on how to remedy this problem -- at least one that doesn't involve my paying buckets of money to Google -- please feel free to call (612-925-7701) or email me at rosskaplan@edinarealty.com. Thanks!