Answer by Ute Ferdig

I think local advertising of your domain name(s) is more effective than trying to increase your luck with organic search results. There's only so much room on that first page. The reality is that most web searchers never get past that first page of search result. Since the algorithms that search engine companies use for their crawlers seem to change frequently and the criteria for search engine placement seems to also be moving targets, you really have to hire someone who knows what they are doing. Large companies spend thousands of dollars to stay on top. I am the chair of the tech committee in our office and I am trying to find a speaker on that very subject. I read up on it myself and it makes me dizzy just thinking about it. There's a lot to know and the average person can't do it. Some real estate website companies offer SEO as a separate service, but I don't know of anyone personally who has utilized it. I think that your money is spent better in trying to spread the word about your domain name (i.e., include it with every marketing piece and encourage people to use it).