This is a question I have been asked a few times recently - mainly when talking about the Property Search Index report that we publish each month.

The question is usually asked by those that are curious as to why their websites are not ranked as highly as they would like by the search engines (actually when they say "search engines" they actually mean Google) or by those who wonder why they do not receive the number of visits to their websites that they hope for.

I often turn this question and ask them what they would search for? Invariably they will start with something like "commercial property". That's fine - but over the last month there were around 1,220,000 million such Google searches performed around the globe and when you do such a broad search it produces "About 111,000,000 results". With ten results per page that's a lot of pages to scroll through!

The next suggestion is a little more realistic and is usually something like "offices in London". Already the search is being narrowed - but still this is still a fairly broad search as there are lots of web pages out there that may include the phrase "Visit our offices in London" in an About Us section or similar.

And so the conversation goes on until the realisation that - in the same way that search engine users do - the search terms are narrowed down until they become very specific by property type and location. Then there is often a look of horror on the face as the realisation of the scale of the problem dawns upon the person asking the question.

Sadly it doesn't end with the location of a property. There is the question of the specific terminology regarding to tenure and how the property is described. As an example, last month, the following terms were used to search for office accommodation in the UK. I've mixed them up a bit - why not try and work out the correct order?

• office space to rent
  
• cheap office space
  
• rent office
  
• offices to rent
  
• office space rent
  
• office rent space
  
• office rental
  
• commercial office space
  
• serviced office space
  
• lease office space

The correct order is shown below. What it reveals is that the words that we use in everyday speech and the jargon we use in the property sector are not necessarily the words that are used on the search engines.

• rent office
• office space rent
  
• office rent space
  
• office rental
  
• offices to rent
  
• commercial office space
  
• office space to rent
  
• serviced office space
  
• lease office space
  
• cheap office space

The other point to consider is the international variations in the terms used, for example the phrase "lease office space" was only ninth out of the top ten phrases used in the UK last month - but on a global level it was the fifth most popular. Worth noting if you are looking to target the international market.

A final consideration is that the words used on Google and other search engines change by the day and it is an ongoing process to monitor what is in vogue. The Internet is not static and neither should a web strategy. It should change and adapt as those that use it change their habits.

Discovering what keywords are being used on Google is only part of the battle. How they are used as part of a wider strategy to communicate with occupiers and other property professionals is just as important. As some might say - it's not what you say it's the way that you say it.