Digital Assets and Real Estate Transactions

By Nathan Janitz, Natual Search Supervisor, Content Solutions

What to Keep in Mind When Dealing with Real Estate Transactions and How they Affect Local Search Engine Optimization and Digital Marketing Efforts

Background:

Real Estate transactions are complicated, as anyone in the business will testify. With inspections, complicated tax structures and financing deals, legal teams structure deals to account for every brick, parking spot, and even the use or ownership of the properties identity and associated marketing material; they don’t often account for past digital marketing efforts.

If a property has a dedicated website (i.e. www.xyzapartmentassociation.com), the domain name, associated URLs, and all content within the site are normally included as “marketing material” when transferring ownership. Once the property changes hands, after a lot of extra paperwork, so does the brand recognition and corresponding website.

However, what happens if the online assets of the property are located within the website of a parent company? Who controls the digital assets? This is a problem commonly seen within real estate-based industries (i.e. REITs, Hotel Chains, and Assisted Living Communities). While most legal teams, real estate brokers, and business leaders know the importance of brand management and the effect that Search Engine Marketing has on brand management, the lack of education on the technical basics of SEO are keeping companies from capitalizing on the marketing efforts.

Problem:

Let’s take an example of Company A selling an apartment building to Company B. Company A branded their property “Seattle Ridge Apartments.” The property is well known within the Seattle area and has number 1 listing for “Seattle Ridge Apartments.” Because Company A still holds several other properties, they want control over the domain CompanyA.com, but the online identity of Seattle Ridge lives at CompanyA.com/Seattle-Ridge-Apartments.html. Normally, Company A will kill that page and try to redirect any traffic to one of its other properties in the Seattle area.

Company B is trying to capitalize on the brand name and wants its website to appear for the phrase “Seattle Ridge Apartments,” which it doesn’t because the Engines still see CompanyA.com as the owner of all content about Seattle Ridge Apartments.

While Google doesn’t mind if Company A sells the property to Company B, Google will not know that the property has changed hands without the proper signals. A letter to Google might seem like the best course for correcting the error, but that letter will most likely be replied with a list of some simple things Company B and Company A can do to ensure that both Google and its users have the best user experience.

Solution:

Presently, real estate contracts often do not make provisions for SEO basics to transfer over all Search Engine Marketing efforts for that particular property. Since search is an important part of the marketing mix, shouldn’t it be a part of the contract? By placing within the contract a few minor requirements, Company B can force Company A to transfer the property in question’s past online marketing efforts with the sale of the property.

URL Redirect:

The standard and most reliable method to single to search engines that a property has changed hands is by implementing a server side URL redirect. The primary definition is a response with a status code beginning with 3 that induces a browser to go to another location. Basically, it is a way to signal to either a browser or a search spider that the content on Page A now lives on Page B.

Because of the sensitivity of brand management as well as the timeliness of real estate transactions, a contract should specify that the selling company, if possible, should implement a 301 permanent redirect to the property’s page on the new owner’s site.

For a single page on an Apache server, a directory-specific .htaccess file (as well as Apache's main configuration files) can be used. For example, to redirect a single page, the following line of code would be placed in the .htaccess file (Example using “Seattle Ridge Apartment example from above):

Redirect 301 /seattle-redge-apartment.html http://www.companyb.com/new-page-name.html

The simple line of code will then permanently redirect the digital content on Company A’s website to its new home on Company B’s location.

Link on Site:

In the rare case that a company doesn’t have the ability to create a server side redirect, the purchasing company should insist that a text based link should be placed at the top of the existing page with the properties name

Example: Company A has recently sold Seattle Ridge Apartments to Company B. Please follow this link to see the latest updated information on Seattle Ridge Apartments: www.companyb.com/new-page-name.html.

The placement of the links and inclusion of the anchor text is important because those will show the search engines that content about the property in question is located at this particular area. By placing the text at the top of the page, a user will be able to see the link and have the choice to proceed to the desired property, as well as show search engines the importance of the content. This method is not ideal, but it may allow Company B to surpass Company A’s listing in the SERP (Search Engine Results Page).

If this option is being implemented, make sure that the buyer has the legal right to include the legal name of the property on any and all marketing material talking about the property in question.

Special Circumstances:

When dealing with brands that have tainted reputations, it may be that the purchasing company wants to distance itself as far from the original brand of the property. If this is the case, it could be in the purchasing company’s best interest to exclude this clause from any contract. The name of the property in question quickly becomes a liability rather than an asset. However, this will come with acknowledging that Company B has not and will never have a desire to gain online traffic from the property’s tainted name.

A Closer look at Quality Score

By Scott Liu Paid Search Coordinator, Advertising Solutions

In the Search world, search engine has a “Black Box”—its complex algorithm which determines what organic results should be ranked higher according to the query/location/user’s preference. And Quality Score is that “Black Box” in paid search. It’s a constantly updated value that determines whether and where your paid ads should be appearing, as well as how much you’re going to pay for each click. Most search marketers probably don’t look at quality score as often as other major KPIs. However, the truth is, Quality score can be the secret source that improves your overall campaign efficiency.

Define Quality Score

Google--- Google had a big update to Quality Score (QS) last summer, which makes QS a dynamic value that will be calculated at the time of each search query. Here’s how Google defines QS, “It looks at a variety of factors to measure how relevant your keyword is to your ad text and to a user's search query. A keyword's Quality Score updates frequently and is closely related to its performance. In general, a high Quality Score means that your keyword will trigger ads in a higher position and at a lower cost-per-click (CPC).”

Yahoo--- Yahoo has its own “Quality Index” (Shown on a scale of 5 at ad level), the official definition looks slightly different, but the idea is the same—this is the key factor that determines your ad rank and CPC.

Bing--- Bing/AdCenter doesn’t show QS information just yet. According to them, a Bing keyword quality score can have one of the following 3 values, OK, Poor and Not available. And “The keyword quality score feature is part of an AdCenter invitation-only pilot program and is not yet available to the public.”
We’ll take a closer look at how Google handles QS, since Google is the one that has provided most information about QS to advertisers.

Economics of the Quality Score

So why does QS exist? Who gets the benefit from this secret metric?

QS wasn’t introduced when Google started their sponsored ads platform. It used to be just straight bid-to-position model without “Black Box”: the top position belongs to whoever is willing to pay the highest amount per click. As paid search became more and more popular among advertisers, engines realized that the old model probably won’t work since the top ads might have nothing to do with what the user is looking for. Search engines have to find a way to balance the interest between users, advertiser/publisher and search engine itself.

That’s where the QS come into play, giving the user the best results possible and let advertisers get the most relevant traffic at a relatively reasonable price. After the QS concept is incorporated into the paid search algorithm, the engine might be making less money per click on average. But obviously in the long run, this would be the secret source to maintain a healthy competitive marketplace.

Why QS is so important to advertisers?

QS is important because of its prominent role in calculating Ad Rank (Ad Rank=Max Bid * QS), which translates to your ad position for every query. Here is an Official video that helps explain the point. In addition, QS becomes even more important when it comes to determine your CPC—because your ad only needs to pay a price that’s high enough to beat the competition, your CPC is decided by only 2 factors, the ad rank of the advertiser below you and your own QS! Although max bid change could possibly help you improve the ad position, it doesn’t have a direct impact on your actual CPC. By improving your QS, you could pay less for higher ad positions. With that being said, QS data could be very helpful when you’re doing bid management and optimizations.

Tidbits

• Quality score varies by location. Same keyword might perform better in the U.S. than Canada. Therefore it might have a higher QS for searches in U.S.
• Google and Google search network might have different QS for the same keyword.
• QS data is only recorded for a particular keyword when the query exactly matches the keyword, which means match type does not have a impact on QS. (We learned this from our Google reps. But it was not part of Google’s official explanation about QS)

My Speculation

Google gives us some ideas of what’re the main influencers for QS, but it is far from clear and specific. And Google probably would never disclose that type of information to public, just because that’s one of the core pieces of their paid search business. One thing for sure in my opinion, search engines will continue to improve the QS technology in order to provide better results to users and relevant traffic to advertisers.

Something like Quality Score optimizer platform is already in the marketplace.

What’s next?

Healthcare Reform: Who's Crippling Who?

By David Gould, President

Advertising Age recently ran an interesting article on the government’s perceived beat-down of the marketing industry (“Marketing Takes a Beating in Beltway”). The article surmises that the Obama Administration’s need to fund healthcare reform and other programs in a down economy makes the marketing industry an “easy target ripe for regulation and shakedown to fund the federal piggy bank.”

At Resolution Media, we’ve seen the direct impact of increased regulation while working with our pharmaceutical clients. Assuming the article is correct about the administration’s desire to fund healthcare reform, it’s painfully ironic how the FDA’s rampant regulations have created havoc in the pharmaceutical paid search space.

Until recently, the industry subscribed to the “one click rule”. Under this mantra, drug companies would advertise pharmaceuticals by brand in paid search text ads as long as clicking on the ad landed the consumer on a page that thoroughly described the drug’s indications, side effects and all other information the FDA requires be present in pharmaceutical advertising. You know what I’m talking about, the full page of fine print accompanying any magazine ad for pharmaceuticals or the speed reading narrator on TV ads who barrels through side effects so fast that no one pays attention.

Lacking any written guidelines on digital advertising, the FDA was fine with this self imposed industry rule until April. At that point, some bureaucrat decided that paid text ads needed to have all required information resident in the sponsored search ad despite the obvious character limitations on text ads. In essence, pharmaceutical companies were severely crippled in their efforts to advertise their products through paid search.

How ironic … as the administration works toward healthcare reform, it simultaneously strangles the flow of information to consumers regarding important healthcare issues. Many consumers turn to the internet to search for relevant medical information. By preventing pharmaceutical companies from advertising their products and in the process creating links to valuable information on many different disease states, the FDA is effectively limiting the free flow of valuable information and making the quest for better healthcare more difficult.

No doubt the FDA plays a crucial role in helping consumers avoid the snake oil salesman peddling the cure-all tonic, but does requiring all detailed information be present in a text ad versus being one click away do anybody any good? I have yet to hear a compelling argument as to how it does.

Your Best Ad Copy - According to Whom?

By Ammon Brown, Associate Director, Client Strategy & Development

As search marketers, we all know the value in testing ad copies and the importance of the ad copy to the overall performance of your campaign. However, in order to test ad copies we frequently add a number of them to Google AdWords, turn on the ad optimizer, and wait. But is this really the most optimal means of determining your best ad copy? For that matter, what numbers should you look at to compare ad copies?

First, it is useful to know what Google considers good ad copy. Google likes the ad copy that garners the highest CTR. With enough data they will always skew toward that one ad copy that does better than the rest. However, is that in your best interest? If I am a direct response client seeking ROI then this is certainly not in my best interest. A good example of this came up recently while looking through one of our accounts to boost ROI. The account’s ad copy statistics are below:

Click to view larger image.


As you can see, ad copy A was receiving the best CTR, a whopping 21.23%. Ad copy B was “only” getting a 20.77% CTR. Over time, Google had optimized toward ad copy A, showing it 44% of the time and ad copy B only 7% of the time. But look at the conversion rate difference! If we assume the conversion rate would be the same regardless of traffic, we can see which ad copy is really best.

Assume that only ad copy A was in the ad group. The 26,706 impressions would have then received a 21.23% CTR and a 1.77% conversion rate.

26,706 (B) impressions * 21.23% (A) CTR = 5670 clicks, a lift of 123 additional clicks.

5670 clicks * 1.77% (A) CVR = 100 conversions, a decrease of 29 conversions!

Now let’s assume that only ad copy B was in the ad group:

157,021 (A) impressions * 20.77% (B) CTR = 32,613 clicks, a decrease of 715 clicks.

32,613 clicks * 2.33% (B) = 760 conversions, an increase of 169 conversions!

By removing ad copy A we should in theory receive 715 fewer clicks and 169 more conversions! Of course other factors such as landing page could skew the conversion rate, CPCs may vary slightly by ad copy, and this analysis makes some assumptions that the numbers will remain constant. However, this type of ROI-based analysis still yields measurable incremental gains in many cases.

Be on the lookout for these types of mathematical opportunities. In the example above, Google was optimizing toward delivering the additional clicks generated by ad copy A, regardless of conversion rates. Moral of the Story: You should not always trust Google to make these decisions for you.