What's in a search term?

June 13, 2006

I watch our search statistics constantly to ascertain what readers are looking for. It became clear to us last spring that the market was changing. That's when we started providing data to help our readers understand the overall direction in our local area. By the end of the year we translated data into graphics that showed trends over a long period of time. History helps put into perspective current conditions. We quickly discovered the data we presented was not readily available to the general public and, more importantly, real estate consumers. The more we provided, the more search terms popped up looking for market data.

So? By watching search terms directing people to our blog, we get a better idea of what information consumers want and need. The following is a snapshot of the top search terms directing people to the Guide (listed by page views, visit length and visits):

Top 20 search terms by "Page Views":
55% Organic links (not referred from a search engine)
45% Referred by search engine

• northern virginia real estate blog
• housing bubble in loudoun
• loudoun housing bubble
• the grail castle in virginia (not one of my listings)
• raspberry falls (our neighborhood, have listings here and another one of our websites)
• lovettsville town center (unique new community)
• merv forney (that's me)
• northern virginia land bubble june 2006
• northern va real estate blog
• median prices 2005 virginia real estate
• building costs northern virginia
• northern virginia real estate guide
• fairfax county housing market
• loudon county, virginia (it's L O U D O U N)
• new construction specials incentives, northern virginia
• northern virginia real estate investor
• craigslist northern virginia ( I post listings here)
• resale loudoun april 2006
• real estate trends northern virginia
• real estate northern virginia market trends

Top 5 unusual terms that find the Guide:

• heather (from an article I posted about our trip to Scotland last year)
• realtor in bikini (a Florida agent named Wendy Heath created controversy from her billboard ad)
• naked realtor (I get a kick out of unusual signs, I have one posted called "no smoking or naked lights")
• smoking naked (ditto #3)
• tony's auto service northern virginia (Tony is mentioned in an article about the local Habitat, Northern Virginia needs no explanation)

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