Real estate agents have a love/hate relationship with Google. Can you blame them? Most of their websites end up where the dead bodies are buried (anything other than page one of the search results).
Yet, on those few occasions when an agent can outrank Zillow for a local keyword, Google becomes their best friend.
Sure, the folks at Google want all of us to think that everyone has a fair shot at reaching page one. Get that SEO right or pay for an ad, right?
The truth is, there simply is no level playing field when it comes to “the search giant.”
But that may change in the near future. At least Gary Vee thinks it will, and we rather hope he’s right.
“Alexa has the potential to kill Google,” Vaynerchuk promised in a recent appearance. If Amazon has its way, it just might happen.
At the very least, let’s hope the typical page one real estate website hogs end up kicking it with the dead bodies on page two or beyond.
A couple of weeks ago we looked at the hype surrounding voice search. Our recommendation at the time was that, while there is no rush to dive into it, at least start changing up your SEO to accommodate voice search.
Today, we’re giving you another assignment: consider creating an Alexa real estate skill.
Alexa has mad skills
Alexa has 90,000 skills from which to choose. That may be coming to an end, however, according to Monica Chin at TomsGuide.com.
Think of Alexa skills as apps. When you want Alexa to employ one of these skills, you first need to download it, from either Amazon.com or the Alexa app.
The most popular Alexa skill is setting a timer. The second most popular is asking Alexa to play a song. According to Amazon, other popular skills in 2018 included games and quizzes. Check out all the skills available at Amazon.com.
Naturally, the real estate industry is jumping into the fray with Alexa real estate skill . Voiceter Pro created the “Real Estate” skill, which promises to help you “search for houses to buy or rent in your area.”
The only problem is that, although the folks at Voiceter say it will eventually blanket the nation, for the past two years it has only covered the Albany, NY market.
They’re doing a bit better with “My Home Value,” which helps you determine the value of your home, based on your address. The value supplied is “based on data from Home Junction.”
While the skill is relatively easy to use, I’m not surprised that a data applications company, located in San Diego, CA, vastly undervalued my home. Sort of like the Zillow of Alexa real estate skills.
So, what does this mean for real estate agents?
There are lots of Alexa skills that real estate agents may be interested in using, including many that help with productivity and time management. We’ll cover some of those in a future blog post.
Sometime in the future you will want to create your own, branded Alexa real estate skill . The sooner you do so, the more out in front of the pack you get, the better.
(Speaking of branding, a great slogan can make all the difference in your business. Here’s how to choose the perfect one for you)
You can create it yourself by following online tutorials. Our buddy Dustin Brohm offers a brilliant walk-through on his Massive Agent Podcast website.
As you can imagine, various companies are already jockeying for agent dollars by offering their Alexa skill-creating services. One of these is Agent Neo, and you can find an explainer on their blog here.
We have no idea what these companies are charging but, if you have a techy-type in your family or on your real estate team, we suggest you check out Brohm’s walk-through and try the DIY route first.
“More than 100 million devices with Alexa on board have been sold,” according to TheVerge.com’s Dieter Bohn. Right now, Amazon employs 10,000 people devoted to working solely on Alexa, Steve Rabuchin, Amazon’s vice president of Alexa confirms to Business Insider.
Jeff Bezos is no idiot. To deploy a work-group of this size to work on one aspect of his gargantuan tech dynasty means he believes in the future of voice search. And, if history is any indication, it’s a smart move to pay attention to Bezos’ strongly-held beliefs.
Grab your market area before someone else creates the Alexa real estate skill for it.
Need more marketing ideas? Here are 200 ways to stand out in your business!
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