This is the third article in a series on the value of SEO (read Part 1 and Part 2). Today, we're continuing the series with the second of three case studies that explores how top performing brokers leverage SEO for success in real estate.

LIV Real Estate

Sheldon Johnston – Broker/Owner
Sara Mac Lennan – Director of Marketing
Edmonton, AB
http://www.edmontonrealestate.pro
http://www.livrealestate.ca

This Edmonton, Alberta company was founded in 1975 by Ken Johnston as a small family owned and operated real estate firm. By 1985, the brokerage had grown to become one of the largest independent real estate brokerages in Edmonton.

In 1993, headed by Ken's son Sheldon Johnston, the firm joined an international franchise, a relationship that lasted nearly 20 years. In 2005, Sara MacLennan joined the team to establish the brokerage's online marketing and is now the firm's marketing director. In 2012, the franchised brand was no longer a good fit for the personality of the brokerage. So Sheldon and Sara repositioned the firm, developed its brand strategy, and created its new identity: Liv Real Estate.

People Are The Brand

Sheldon and Sara love living in Edmonton and feel one of the reasons Liv Real Estate is so successful is because they truly embrace the great changes they see in their city. They feel that energy and spirit is very similar to their company. Sara explained, "The way I see it, every person in our company is an extension of our brand. We recruit agents that share the same values and come to work with the same energy and enthusiasm that Sheldon and I have. It's contagious."

When I visited the Liv Real Estate website, I actually commented to Sara on their agents and the fact that the team looks so energized and happy. You can definitely feel the vibe on their website, which is a great marketing tool.

Marketing and SEO

In speaking with Sara, I asked her if she could talk a bit about what it takes to create and keep a successful SEO program. I noted how many people feel frustrated by the presence of the big real estate portals in search rankings and asked her how they have been successful.

Sara noted, "Everyone wants to get to the top of the search engines, but what they probably don't realize is that it costs just as much or more to stay there, as it does to get there. Competition just keeps increasing and for the big keywords it's nearly impossible for an individual agent to do it. Most of the brokerages or teams that are at the top have someone in their brokerage like me that manages their marketing, technology and partners. It's becoming more and more complicated all the time and keeping track of it all is a full time job."

Sara went on to say that in 2005 she was able to get their brokerage to the top of the search engine searches for the big keywords in their marketplace, like "Edmonton real estate" and "Edmonton homes for sale" pretty much just through consistent blogging. Sara went on to recommend, "Focus on the long tail, write quality content, have great functionality, and the leads will come. The most important thing is what you do with them and getting them at the right time."

Sara explained that it's not just a high site ranking that is important; it's more important to get leads at the right time in the buyer process. She explained, "Think about it this way, when someone searches for 'San Francisco homes for sale,' they've probably just started house hunting. When they search for 'Nob Hill homes for sale,' they've decided they want to live in Nob Hill and they're much closer to buying. That's a great time for them to find your website and have an excellent experience working with you. We are looking for buyers at that point in their buying cycle."

Sara says that what doesn't matter is if Zillow or another third party has a higher site ranking if you are getting tons of quality leads and these leads are closer to the buying decision.

Communicate Involvement

Liv Real Estate is also actively involved in the community and donates a portion of every single sale to their charity, Hope Mission, which is dedicated to helping the homeless. "Helping the homeless, is a natural for Liv Real Estate," explained Sheldon. "It is totally aligned with our real estate vocation, helping Edmonton, and provides a very important service to those in need."

Leverage Social Media

Sheldon and Sara noted they use social media very heavily and have created a very well read blog at edmontonrealestateblog.com. The first, which they started in 2005, gets tons of viewers and has great authority on Google. They use that site to provide great tips on buying and selling, along with market stats and their own views on the marketplace. On the other blog, they focus more on fun community information and mainly target buyers.

All blog posts are then shared via their Facebook page, Google+ and Twitter.

They also have a great YouTube channel, which is linked on the home page of their website which has tremendous traffic. Sara reports that their channel has about 150,000 views to date!

Stay tuned for our final case study next week!

More Articles in this Series

• Introduction and SEO Tips
• Case Study: Ashton Real Estate Group
• Case Study: Justin Havre & Associates