Most commercial real estate brokers think Loopnet is invincible. It’s not. In fact, a little known secret is that commercial real estate brokers are some of the least savvy when it comes to SEO because in the past, so much of their business has come from business relationships, not search engines. That’s changing.

While the commercial real estate business is still heavily dependent upon business contacts, as younger portfolio managers and facilities decision-makers move up the corporate ranks, the less generational memory there is for past corporate contacts. These younger professionals are increasingly turning to the search engines to help in their investment property or corporate relocation search.

The relative lack of competition among brokers for good keywords (compared to the housing market, which dominates real estate search results) has made it relatively easy to rank well for niche commercial real estate keywords. Granted, you won’t rake it thousands of commercial buyers per day by nailing “Yourtown Office Buildings,” but you will net some nicely targeted traffic.

If you are a commercial real estate broker, don’t underestimate the power of SEO. With a little creativity and a sound SEO strategy, it is possible to beat Loopnet on Google, Yahoo, and Bing.