Real Estate 101
I can tell you that there is one type of site that is becoming increasingly difficult to list: local real estate agents.
We treat real estate agents differently than we do a lot of businesses, and much of that treatment is a result of historical directory abuse by agents. As a result, real estate agents are entitled to consideration of a single listing in the locality where they physically have their office. We do not give real estate agents listings within Business/ only within Regional/.
The challenge facing real estate agents comes down to one thing: unique content. It seems that the vast majority of real estate agents are signing up with one or more of the companies that have a selection of pre-defined site. We call them templates.
Now we are not opposed to the use of templates, nor do we reject a site out of hand because it uses a template. That is a business decision that is not our place to challenge or penalize. But, the use of a template does not guarantee automatic inclusion in the directory – in fact, the opposite is nearly true. When we review a real estate site that is using a template, we are searching for unique content beyond that agent's name and address.
We expect to find things such as the agent's own listings, or a featured property that tells why it is featured, or a complete bio that really talks about what this particular agent brings to the table. Instead we see canned biographies that have seven words changed from the last one we saw, or recycled agent photos. Yes, we have seen the same agent's photo on multiple sites. We see sites with no listings, or no featured properties. Think of it this way: every real estate agent site has a link to the local MLS (so that is not unique) links to the same pages about schools (so that is not unique), links to the same area attractions (so that is not unique), and so on. Links, unless they are exceptionally well organized and offer the visitor something that no other set of links offers, are pretty well not unique.
So if an agent is using a template, we pretty well know the areas that are completely lacking in unique content, and those where unique content might be found. Just before writing this I reviewed seven real estate agent sites in one state. Every single one used the exact same bio (changed to have their individual name), not a one of them had a listing, only one of them had a featured property, none of them had any degree of unique content. It was as if each agent signed up for a website, paid their money, gave their name and address, and went merrily upon their way, content in the knowledge that they had a website. Only none of them got listed, because none of their websites really offered anything to the surfers, and that is who we care about.
I've had real estate agents, in this forum, tell me that the reason they don't do unique content, is because it is hard to do.
That, dear reader, is why we put such a premium on it.