Hey hey Friend! Sooo let’s get into the nitty gritty of the keyword functionality because it’s a powerful feature that helps track conversations, measure engagement, and optimize marketing efforts. How? By using root words and strategic misspellings (you read that right..), teams and agents can maximize keyword coverage that ensures better conversation tracking and broader insights to how conversations are going. This handy guide outlines the best practices for using Shilo’s keywords functionality effectively and even give you a few out of the box ideas on how to track client events and partnerships 😉
1. Understanding Root Words & Variations
Shilo automatically recognizes different forms of a root word, meaning a single keyword can track multiple variations.
For example:
Client → Covers clients, clientele, client-focused
Sell → Covers selling, seller, sells, sold
Home → Covers homes, homeowner, homestead
By using the simplest form of a word, agents and teams can ensure that all related conversations are captured without listing each variation manually.
2. Optimizing Keywords with Purposeful Misspellings
Some words have multiple related variations that might not be fully captured by a single spelling. To broaden coverage, certain words should be shortened or slightly altered. We know.. it feels a little (ok more like very strange) to purposely misspell words BUT the proof is in the pudding
For example:
Financial / Financing→ Use "financ"
Appraisal / Appraised→ Use "apprais"
Competition / Competitive → Use "competit"
Development / Developer → Use "develop"
This approach of purposely misspelling words ensures that all relevant variations are captured efficiently.
3. Using Keywords To Track Event Promotion
Using keywords for event tracking is one of the most valuable ways to measure engagement and promotion. Thanks to Shilo, you are now able to ensure team members are promoting the event in conversation as well as seeing how many times they do.
Why This Matters:
Identifies which agents are actively promoting the event.
Tracks how often the event is being discussed.
Helps optimize future event marketing based on conversation volume.
How to Set Up Keywords for an Event:
Give the event a clear, trackable name. Example:
"Spring Fling" for a client event happening in the spring.
"Holiday Party” for a client event happening around the holidays.
Be sure that team members understand the word(s) you want them to engage clients with on this because Shilo will be counting how many times the event name appears in conversations. By tracking these keywords in this way, you can be confident that agents are active in promotional efforts of the organization and leadership can encourage more engagement where needed.
4. Leveraging Keywords to Track Partner Involvement & Offset Costs
Sales conversations provide a perfect opportunity to involve business partners—such as lenders, title companies, or home inspectors—who may be willing to contribute financially in exchange for brand exposure. Shilo is a great tool to help you show your partners the value of the product as well as data as to how you are helping promote them within your business.
Why This Matters:
Helps teams demonstrate partner visibility in conversations.
Creates a strong case for sponsorship by showing engagement data.
Encourages cost-sharing for events by involving partners.
How to Set Up Keywords for Partners:
Use the partner’s name as a keyword. Example:
If working with ABC Mortgage, use "ABC" as a keyword.
If partnering with XYZ Home Inspections, use "XYZ".
Track mentions across team conversations.
The AI will show how often the partner’s name comes up.
This helps partners see the value in continued collaboration.
Present data to partners to justify sponsorship.
“We’ve mentioned ABC Mortgage 127 times in the past month—this proves that sponsoring our event will give you significant visibility!”
By using this approach, real estate teams can make a strong case for cost-sharing, reducing out-of-pocket expenses while strengthening business relationships outside of Shilo.
5. Recommended Keywords by Shilo
If you can’t think of any keywords at the moment, don’t worry because this guide has you covered! Here is a list of 20 keywords to help you as you start to narrow down the words you want that’s specific to your business. If you are a Zillow Flex team, below are 5 keywords you REALLY should have in your keyword list in Shilo!
Lead → Tracks conversations about leads, leadership, leading.
Conver → Covers conversions, converting, converted.
Engag → Captures engagement, engaging, engagements.
Clos → Includes closing, closed, closings.
List → Covers listings, listed, list.
Offer → Tracks offers, offered, offering.
Negotiat→ Includes negotiate, negotiating, negotiated.
Referr → Covers referrals, referring, referred.
Contract → Captures contracts, contracting, contracted.
Buy → Includes buyers, buying, buy.
Sell → Covers sellers, selling, sells, sold.
Home → Tracks homes, homeowner, homestead.
Propert → Includes properties, property value, property management.
Financ → Covers financial, financing, finances.
Market → Covers market trends, marketing, markets.
Time → Covers timelines, timeframe, time.
Lend → Covers lender & lending.
Apprias → covers appraisal, appraising, appraised.
Own → covers own, owning, ownership.
Specific Keywords For Zillow Flex Teams
ZHL
Zillow
Lender
Loan
Zillow Home Loans
Final Tips for Best Use
✅ Use root words strategically – Simplifying keywords ensures broader coverage.
✅ Leverage intentional misspellings – Adjusting spellings for multi-form words to maximize tracking accuracy.
✅ Standardize event and partner keywords – Consistent naming ensures accurate tracking and measurable insights for events and partners.
✅ Encourage full adoption by your team – Shilo delivers the best results when everyone follows the same keyword structure so make sure everyone is on the same page!
✅ Use keyword data to drive decisions – Tracking trends helps optimize marketing, improve engagement, and secure sponsorships… plus so much more 🚀
By following these best practices, you will maximize the power of Shilo’s keyword feature and know have confidence that you are saying the right words to your leads. Happy Converting!