Real Estate Marketing and Keyword Meta Tags

I cannot tell you how many times a week that I get a phone call from a client or a potential real estate client whom asks about keyword meta tags.

Now, I must say in case you do not know, the meta keyword died a decade ago. Well at least it seems like it was that long. It was a wonderful way to stuff keywords into your page. It died about the same time as the alt tag died as a useful way to get the engine to recognize you as an authority for a phrase.

Yet, the myth lives on.

So about a week ago I read an interesting article about a study about the human need to bias oneself towards that which is false.

Some of the more interesting takes were that we all :

What We Can Easily Remember is Perceived As Truth
So as marketers we must "hammer" our message in a sea of other messages. Otherwise risk being irrelevant in the marketplace. This rule shows how biased we are to convenience. Because the other side of this is " Because I cannot remember it, it must not be true". I

We are Not too Good at Remembering Sources
This fits in with the first rule. Since that which is remembered is truthful, we only will think something is truthful if it is recent. Also the report found that hearing the same thing over and over again from one source can be the same as hearing it over and over again from various sources. This works well for marketers as you can say something so many times that it becomes self evident. Like the keyword tag myth. The Hitler line tell a lie long enough and before long it is self evident.Or was that Chamberlain that said that?;-)

Negations don't work
Someone accuses you of something false. You prove it wrong. That is negation. People forget the "falseness" of the allegation. This is used all the time in politics. Someone is accused of something that spins out of control and at some point, even if over time the person can prove innocence, it is too late they are forever tarnished.

Kalehoff over at Online Spin posits:
This "forces a question with ethical implications: Should we market and communicate to fellow humans as logical, intelligent beings, or as irrational and emotional mental sponges that often fail to grasp reality? "

The original article about the study.

Comments

[eglenn]

Hi, do you think that Floor Plans help sell properties? Or just a waist of time?
thanks

[SEO]

Umm...., yes Mr. floor Plan maker. ;-)
But I think you could offer much more on that subject.

[Atlanta New Home]

Although meta tags have died the use of the keywords within these meta tags are more important than ever.

With the ever-growing use of search engines having the right keywords associated with your site is a MUST!

[Coach Tim SEO]

So are you saying to keep using the meta keyword tag specifically because there are second tier search engines who might still use them?

Personally, I think that traffic is so low I would't worry about it.

But thats me.

[Sugar Loaf Real Estate]

Great post. Keep up the good reads.

[REBlogGirl]

Oh, the myth of the keyword meta data... whats that old saying, when the truth is boring, print the legend. In any case, the meta keyword is a complex issue as Yahoo still does use the relevancy of keyword to content as a measurement of content quality. So, you do need to include the tag, but it isn't near as important as title tags, exact domain name matches, SE friendly urls and overall quality keyword rich writing. Best resource for info on this topic can be found at SEOmoz by searching for Search Ranking Factors.