The biggest difference between this recession and the last is the importance of natural search rankings.  Agents that rank highly for phrases that have intent to purchase have a much better chance of survival than those that do not.   Here are some tips:
Unless you have an old, established site that already ranks well, don’t try and compete with portals on 2 word phrases like “<Location Name> Property”. You’ll lose.

Use your database to create lots of pages that are very specific.  For example we just created lots of pages like this for an IFA client selling developments in Cyprus.  When this goes live they will soon rank for lots of very specific terms like “2 bed townhouse in Peyia Cyprus”.  There won’t be many of these but on aggregate there will be enough relevant traffic to generate leads.

Go niche
The internet rewards niche players. If you can become an expert on a particular location and/or genre like investment property in Poland, you will generally get more links and be seen as more trustworthy than an agent selling in 10 countries. It must be balanced against the risks of over-specialisation but it’s worth remembering.

Source: globaledge.co.uk

Cultivate editorial relationships
Google only wants to count genuine editorial citations in their rankings.  The more you have, the better and the more dodgy stuff (link buying) you can get away with. 

Invest in PR.  Go with a few good ideas rather than lots of mediocre ones.

Write articles for editorial sites in your niche

Start a blog and write helpful and informative posts about the areas you work in. For example, write updates on completion dates and progress on building work on the developments you sell.
Improve your quality score Improve your quality score When using paid search, work hard on improving your quality score of your best keywords.  This is the single biggest thing you can do to improve lead generation on Google Adwords.  Watch this video for a good introduction to best practice.

Choose the portals you use carefully
Use portals that your customers are likely to use.  Test to see which ones rank well on Google for big two word phrases in the areas where you sell and the bigger terms above them (for example Marbella Property and Costa del Sol Property if you sell in Marbella). 

Build your referral networks
When times are hard, good referral partners are more valuable than ever.  The internet hasn’t really changed the game in this regard.  It’s currently hard to find new US business partners and deals on the web.