Finding a Home in Austin on Craigslist

Under the real estate section of Craigslist, you will find that many people, including Realtors place their numerous Austin real estate sales and lease listings. It has no charge and is sometimes effective, so there is no cause not to place your listings along with pictures. But after doing this and looking from the browsing point of view, the Craigslist interface is user-unfriendly, I consciously came to some realizations.

Searching for keywords is the only method that functions when using Craigslist to find Austin real estate For example, there have been nearly 300 latest real estate listing on the Austin Craigslist real estate for sale part so far today (4/13/2007). Scrolling along the page understanding the listing titles is time wasting and isn’t very productive. Then there is the “Next 100 Postings” found below the page, and look through all of them is all the more time-wasting. if you set on this path, you would just end up looking through the more than a thousand postings just so you find to spot the latest 4 days of entries. As postings stay available on Craigslist for 45 days, it’s improbable that anyone is going to look through all accessible listings. They are instead going to search for keywords.

So if I was searching for a property in Circle C or Legends Oaks or Western Oaks or Shady Hollow, I would be typing a search for those area names. Or I’d be looking for some other attribute such as “South Austin,” “Kiker” Elementary, or “Bowie” High School, for example. If a property near Westlake High School is what I like, then I would probably utilize keywords like “Westlake” and “Eanes.”

This instant that it is clear my posting in Austin Craigslist is more to be viewed as a outcome from a search engine, then it is best to print content with plenty of keywords in them.

If I have a Travis Heights listing in South Austin, off South Congress (soco) that is for sale, say that is the circumstances. Would the subsequent be good ad copy?:

A near-to-everything older cottage, charming, and accessible within minutes from the downtown. eating places, local stores, pool, and area park are a walking distance away.

Do you notice that the sample sentence is short with relevant keywords? For example, a browser likes to locate a Travis Heights property, how would he do so if the area itself is not revealed? The browser wouldn’t. On Craigslist I can guarantee you that there are a lot of poorly written ads such as this.

A better copy would be:

An attraction of South Central Austin found in Travis Heights a few minutes to the Austin downtown. Stroll to Stacy Park and pool and to South Congress (soco) stores and restaurants.

Notice the dissimilarity? Fundamentally it means the same thing, but in a keyword viewpoint the last one is more likely to be viewed by a Travis Heights property browser or by a browser for homes near (soco) South Congress.

We can take this concept a step more through thinking of derivative keywords to add in an ad. I have a currently listed Craigslist Western Oaks rental listing. I start the ad with :

Superb property, finely updated in a wonderful Western oaks area, specifically a South Austin area, Circle C and Legend Oaks are near by.

Why am I stating “near to Legend Oaks and Circle C”? it is for the reason that those searching for Circle C or legend Oaks homes may as well discover the Western Oaks home attracting. The point here is to get the interests of as many as possible. Another is that quality schools are good encouraging factors for the South Austin area so it is best to mention the full name of such schools in case there are some browsing for homes specifically attending such schools.

So writing a Craigslist ad is not that different from writing website copy. One has to inquire “what keywords and search phrases may be utilized by people whom I like to find this content?” Then take pains to incorporate those keywords in the ads you print.