They're still missing a huge opportunity: RentHop actually ranks better on Google for less targeted searches. For example:
Search Query Ranking
new york no fee listings 26
nyc apartment search 30
new york apartment map 14
east village apartments 69
west village no fee listings 53
apartments in chelsea not in top 200
You can be pretty sure that someone who looks for "apartments in New York" is less ready to buy than someone who looks for no-fee listings in the West Village.
Part of the problem is that the search page is dynamically generated; neighborhood-specific landing pages would help capture those more targeted queries.
> Part of the problem is that the search page is dynamically generated; neighborhood-specific landing pages would help capture those more targeted queries.
Yes, yes and yes. SEO matters for almost every site, but it is a really big deal for this kind of site. I tweaked the internal SEO of my site to highlight and description (One Bedroom Apartment in Newark, New Jersey) of the listing and it paid off for those "long tail" searches.
Part of the problem is that the search page is dynamically generated; neighborhood-specific landing pages would help capture those more targeted queries.