I could ask you the same thing with lenders. 

Why do you ask?

Top 3 on Google? Methink not. I'm on the 1st ten pages but no, I haven't paid to be in the Top 3 for the search term local real estate agent. 

Who is? 

1. Realtor.com

2. Zillow.com

3. Local Agency that pays to be in thte Top 3 of searches

Pretty much:

1. Loopnet = my (premium) listings.

2. Point2 = my listings.

3. Google Business companies - LOL most show low/no stars. I am a home office so I can't be there.  Fine with that.

4. One of my websites.

5. The other of my websites.

When a prospect calls and says, "So I heard you're the queen of commercial real estate out here," that's better than Google in 10000 universes!

Mike,

I think for the most part unless you are willing to spend lots of money and wasting a lot of time finagling every time Google changes its algorithms, you are better off getting out in you community and getting to know people and their needs.  The rest of the time you can enjoy life, your family, your friends, etc.  We live in your neck of the woods, and we would ask friends  and agents we have worked with for your type of services.  I would not look at Google, let along the top three.l

Depends on what they are searching for.

depends on what they type.  I come up first is many long tail searches and and in the top three on several.  Having photos on my google business listing helps a LOT.

We used to, but not any more. Not sure if they got better or we got worse.

We work hard every day for the brokerage to come up high on the search engines. We are on the first page for most categories - and get a lot of leads due to this positioning.

I've never tried.

Wouldn't want to be - most people don't click those top 3 spots because they know someone paid to be there. Typically, if you have to pay to be on top, there's a reason for that!!

Yes.  I have spots 2-6.  Facebook's search of everone named Ryan Huggins has #1.  My blog has #3.  Doing alright if you ask me!

For my listings, I usually have a site in the top 10.

I'm ALWAYS number one when Googling notaries in Ward County Mike Easton . When I was a Real Estate Broker/Owner I was happy if it came up on the 1st page period.

Yep... it did before I retired.  Top 7 of 10 organic search results because I had a high ranking website and several niche blogs. 

I come up...

Yes.

This is a question that none of us can answer. What we see in the search results is not what other people see. The results are personalized for what they think each individual wants to see.

Never give it a second thought. Most rankings are pay to play!

I'm still into the long tail. Be specific.

Yes

on a google search for "free market analysis in franklin ma" we have 7 of 10 titles on the first page.... everything above the fold.... we're listing agents and if someone does not know who to call for a free market analysis, that search will deliver them to us...

For some searches yes, others --- well, we do have 28,000 REALTORS in Denver.

Used to be 

I would be happy to refer the next person who calls me to offer to put my name on the first page of Google results to you.

No.

Not everyone is searching ''A'' realtor via Google search. Usually they do search you to verify if they want to work with you. 

Most of the first pages - paid ads.

Yes.