‘Unfiltered’: How to boost your online presence — for free 

Editor's note: The Real Estate Insiders Unfiltered podcast explores the people and forces that shape the real estate industry. Check out our top takeaways and watch the latest episode from NextHome co-CEOs James Dwiggins and Keith Robinson.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed in the Real Estate Insiders podcast belong solely to the podcast creators and guests.

On this episode of Real Estate Insiders Unfiltered, online branding pro Scott Vancea explains why agents and brokerage leaders should focus less on the latest technology and more on the basic tools that can really move their businesses forward.

"There's too much real estate tech," says Vancea, co-founder of Optimize5, a company that helps businesses of all sizes improve their online presence. 

Sure, take advantage of tools to improve efficiency, but realize that automation can only get you so far: "You actually have to do that piece that really good real estate agents do, which is get belly to belly, in front of people. Or, you know, send them a real message about them."

And how can you get in front of people? It's all about Google.  

The biggest business mistake? Not thinking beyond referrals, Vancea said. "A great prolific real estate agent who's been at it for 30 years and built this great sphere of influence is losing business to the new buck on the scene who's got a Google Business profile with 150 reviews that shows the best of them."

In short? "The biggest mistake is just not optimizing your online profile."

Think like a client: "Put all of the tech aside for a moment and do this very simple exercise, which is what all consumers will do," Vancea said — and that's "Google yourself."

"What shows up? Are they looking at the left hand side of the page and finding Zillow, or are they just seeing what should be your headshot and all of your reviews? That's right there. It's staring you in the face. Get more of those reviews."

What about Zillow? How about blogs and social media? Agents need to show up on Zillow, but "people don't go to Zillow looking for Realtors," Vancea said. "People go to Zillow looking for real estate." 

A blog isn't the best way to get noticed either.

"Every Realtor has been told for 20 years to write a blog," Vancea said, but chances are, that content isn't going to rank highly when users search for agents online. The same goes for social media. Keep your contact info current, but for most agents, LinkedIn and Facebook aren't big lead generators.

So what should you be doing? Enhancing your Google Business profile. Agents jump between brokerages, so keep that info accurate and clean — not only for clients, but for search engines. 

After that, it comes back to reviews.

"Google reads the content of the Google review and uses it for ranking," he noted. "So get those Google reviews, not just because of the number of the reviews or the recency of the reviews or the star rating, but the content — that is your content — and you can let your customers write the content for you."

"That's what they need to focus on. And that's free. That's the craziest part about it all. It's free."

What about AI and all the shiny new tech? With the rapid advancements in AI and other real estate technology, brokerage leaders have a sea of options to choose from. "They're thinking, well, I need to put AI into my stuff." But do they? Vancea contends that "all the free stuff is the slickest stuff right now." 

Brokers, he argues, should answer this question instead: "What's free and organic that your folks aren't doing now?"