Google Yourself – Controlling Your Online Presence
Summary
Are you controlling the online conversation about your value, or are you leaving it to Google? Because people ARE Googling you before they meet you.
1) Google Yourself.
2) Click every link about you on Page 1 of Google.
3) Rate Yourself on a Scale of 1-10 for how good each site makes you look.
4) Figure out how to control what people learn about you online that communicates your message to prospects.
Full transcript
They, my friend, are going to Google you. They’re going to check you out online. In fact, they say that 96% of consumers, before they make an online purchase, 96% of consumers check the reviews of a product, before they purchase it.
Hey there, it’s Kevin Ward, the founder of YESMasters Real Estate Success Training and the creator of The Real Estate Vortex.
Have you Googled yourself lately? This is a crazy question, but I think it is so important. One of things a lot of real estate agents do not realize is that, whenever you set an appointment with a prospect, and you meet somebody, and you set an appointment with them, they don’t know you before. They don’t know who you are. Before you meet with them, before they let you come over for a listing presentation, before they’re going to do a buyer consultation to go look at houses with you, they, my friend, are going to Google you. They’re going to check you out online.
In fact, they say that 96% of consumers, before they make an online purchase, 96% of consumers check the reviews of a product before they purchase it. That’s for online shoppers, but you know that’s also true, today, of people, in general, who are looking to make a move. Now, we know that over 90%, and I can’t remember the exact number, but well over 90%, like 95% of all home buyers start their search for a home on the internet. What’s the message? They’re going online to find what they want.
Well, if they’re looking at selling their house, and they don’t already have an agent, and they’re talking to you, and they’re interviewing you, they want to know. Just like they want to know before they buy a new hair dryer, is this hair dryer got good reviews or not? They want to know if you got good reviews or not. They want to check you out. What are they going to do? They’re going to go to Mr. Googs and they are going to Google you.
Today, I want to just challenge you to do a Google checkup. That is, I want to challenge you to get on your computer, get to a browser that clears off all the cookies and stuff of what you’ve put in on yourself, and so forth. Go to a clean browser, and Google yourself, and see what comes up.
Now, I’m going to tell you a couple things that you want to look for. Number one, when you Google yourself, because you are in your market, the first thing is, are you set up on Google Businesses, so that on the right hand side of your screen, you should come up as a real estate agent. Your business profile should come up with your address, your website, phone number, your picture, and all of that should come up on your Google profile, if you’ve got a Google Businesses profile set up. If you don’t have that set up, then you’re not showing up. In fact, what may be showing up, if anything, is your company’s profile. Look, if somebody’s checking you out, you don’t want them calling your office. You don’t want them calling somebody else. Number one, use your Google Business profile setup correctly. That’s the first thing to look for.
The second thing is, just to look and see how you show up on Google. Here’s what I want you to do. You take every single listing that comes up on that first page, and it’s going to be Realtor.com, and Zillow, and Trulia, and Homes.com, or whatever it is, and maybe your company website, like Remax.com, or Kellerwilliams.com, or Berkshire Hathaway, or Caldwell Banker, or [inaudible 00:03:26], or whatever company it is that you’re with, however it comes up, you want to know.
Now, your website may come up, it may not come up, on the first page. Do you even know? Does it matter? Yes, it matters. Here’s the reason it matters is, who is controlling the online conversation about you? In other words, when people check you out online, who’s controlling the narrative? The answer is, you should be controlling the narrative, not Google. Unless you have a strategy, unless you know what’s out there and have a strategy for effecting it, Google controls the narrative of what’s showing up about you. It may be good, it may be neutral, and it may be bad. Chances are it’s neutral, which means they can find you, there’s nothing about you that look different than any other real estate agent out there.
Here’s what I want you to do. Here’s the Google checkup. One, does your business page show up? Number two is click every link about you that shows up on page one of Google, and go and follow it, and see how you show up, how you look. The question is, if I was a home seller, if I was a buyer, if I was a motivated person looking for a great real estate agent, by looking at what I found on page one of Google, would I be going, “Huh, nothing special there.”? Would I being going, “This agent doesn’t even look like they exist.”? Would I be going, “Not bad, but nothing different.”? Would they be going, “Wow. I need to talk to that agent. That’s my agent right there. That’s the one I need to talk to. That is awesome. I want to know more about that. That is got me.” How do you show up on Google?
Now, this is not even an SEO conversation. It’s first to say, what do you have right now online that, when people come search for you, they see? Click on Zillow. Then, you go, “Man, I’ve got an awesome Zillow profile. I’ve got 17 reviews, or 117 reviews, it’s awesome.” They click on Realtor.com, and you’ve got nothing, or Trulia, or one of the other ones that show up on … Yelp, they click on you, and there’s nothing there. You’ve got to be aware of that. You just have to be aware, and then, once you’re aware, you can start working on the different strategies.
Now, here is what I believe, and what I think is so important. Most people are going to check you out online. They’re going to check you out online, because they want to get to know who you are, so that they feel confident in you. I would rather me control narrative than let them control the narrative. I’d rather me control the narrative than let Google control the narrative. How do you do that? By having an online presence, preferably through your own website, that, once they get there, it tells them enough about you, and how special you are, and who you are, that they don’t feel the need to go check you out on all these other websites. Now, that’s the ideal thing.
The stuff that I train at the Real Estate Vortex Training Camp and the Real Estate Vortex is, how do you create an online presence that’s so compelling that, when people see you, whether they find you by Google, or whether they find you because of some of your lead generation strategies that bring them to you online, that you control the journey? You control the experience about you. You control the narrative of who you are online, so that, when they get there, they’re going, “That’s my agent right there. That’s who I need to talk to. Look at that. Wow.” That is the secret. The first thing is you’ve got to figure out what’s there.
If you’ve got more questions or more things on it, then you got to go to the next step. If you liked the video, make sure you give it a post, a thumbs up. If you have questions or comments about, “Okay, what do I do next?” Make sure you post those down below. If you really want to master your online presence and your online conversation, come join me at the Real Estate Vortex. Go to realestatevortex.com, register. It’s coming up. It’s going to be awesome. It will help you get control of people’s … What they see about you when they come online, you want to be control of it, so they’re going, “That’s my agent.” People are literally coming to you. They’re not going, check you out on Google, and going, “Nothing special there,” and moving on. I want them to come. I want to find you. I want to stay with you, because you’re the best. That’s the way you do it. Google yourself. Let me know what you find.