With digital real estate marketplaces like Zillowand Redfingaining traction,there is no doubt thatmore andmore real estatedecisions are moving online.But having a website and posting on social mediais not enough on its own.You need to ensure yourlistingsaregetting seenat the top of search engine resultswhen people start their online search. And to do that, you need asolid search engine optimization (SEO) strategy.Let’sdive intowhatSEO is andhow you can leverage SEO foryourreal estatebusiness.
Read on to learn:
- What is real estate SEO
- What are the benefits of implementing a real estate SEO program
- Real estate SEO as a lead generation engine
- Real estate SEO tips: 17 steps checklist
- What is the ROI of real estate SEO?
What is real estate SEO?
SEOfor real estate isa way to optimize youronline contentto attract people through organic search results, as opposed to paidonline advertising, like Google Ads.Content that you can optimize for search engines includecontentonyour website, social media platforms, and mobile apps.In the earlydaysof SEO,optimizing your contentmeant puttinga great focus on keywords and links as the main way to rank.Now, however,creatingan all-around gooduser experience that helps meet your user’s needs is the most important.
Keep in mind thatSEO is a long-termstrategyand you should not expect to see results overnight. Instead, you can look at real estate SEOasa way toimplement yourbusiness goals,nowand in the future.Many companies pour their SEO efforts into ranking on Googleandthere isno surprise there with Googledominating88.83% of theUSsearch market sharein April 2021, according toStatscounterGlobalStats. Butkeep in mind thatGoogle is not the only search engine worth optimizing for.Microsoft Bingand Yahoo are bothwell-known search engines with5.47% and3% marketshare,respectively.Althoughthese other search engines boast less traffic than Google,the advantage is that there is less competition, meaning you have a greater chance at ranking on Bing and Yahoo.
What are the benefits of implementing a real estate SEO
As more and more realtors invest in SEO, being visible online is criticalto the success of a real estate business.Here are just a few reasons why you need tostart building your SEO program.
Increase traffic and revenue
The main benefit ofastrong SEO strategythat includes quality contentis that itcanimproveyour incoming traffic.Not only does it increase your traffic, butifyou arepublishingrelevant content and keywords,you are also attracting more of the right audience with greater chances ofbecomingclients.Withthe right conversion points in place, you can turn this traffic into new revenue.
Boostbrand awareness
In addition, qualitySEO contentestablishes your business as ago-to source of knowledge, which buildstrust with your audience.Each time someone reads your content and gains value from it, they are interacting positively with your brand, thereby increasing brand awareness.And better brand awareness further increases the conversion rate.
Improve brand protection
Anotheraddedbenefit thatmight not be asobviousis thatSEO alsooffersa form ofbrand protection, as you canbetter control how your brand isrepresentedonline.Anexample of how SEOcan protect your brand is if you areparticipating in an affiliate program.These programsare atried-and-trueway to increase revenue, however,youshouldbe careful not to let affiliates dominate traffic to your brandkeywords, as you have little controlover how affiliates are representing your brand.
Real estate SEO as a lead generation engine
A good real estate SEO programdoes not stand alone but rather is an integrated part of yourmarketing and salesfunnel.SEO, therefore,creates newpointsof entry for new leads to enter the funnelby guidingusers directly toconversion points on your website.The typesof conversion pointsyou can useinclude contact forms, newsletters,andlocal data driven market research that helps you understand the needs of your potential clients.
As with any lead generation strategy, tailoring yourcontent tofit the needs of specific target audienceswill improve your success.For example, users looking to purchase or lease properties have different wants and needs from users looking to sell their properties. Toattractbothof theseimportant target audiences, be sure to tailor your SEO program to cater to buyersandsellers.
Real estate SEO tips: 17 steps checklist
It is a jungle of information out there, soto help get you started on building your SEO strategy,here areactionablemust-know tipsfor SEO success.
1. Analyze your SEO competitors
Even if you know your industry competitors well,your SEO competitors can vary from keyword to keyword, so you will need torun acompetitor analysisto find outwho you are competing withfor search engine rankings.Once you know who your competitors are, analyze what works for them and whatdoes not. For example, what kind of content are they publishing? How do they structure their pages and their websites?Study and learn from their wins and mistakes, and you have a good starting point off which to build your ownstrategy.
2. Do your keyword research
To rankat the top of search engines, you need to find out whatkeywordsyourpotential clients aretyping in when they start their housing search.You then need to investigate which of these keywords are reachable, depending on how muchsearch volume and competitionthereareforeach keyword. You can use anenterprise SEO platformlikeSiteimproveSEO, to uncover the top keywords your competitors are ranking for. You can also useit to find out what keywords you are already ranking for, which aregreat low-hanging fruits for you to start with.
3. Look for long-tail keywords opportunities
A successful SEO keyworddoes not always mean one that has ahigh search volume or popularity.A long-tail keywordis a keyword or phrase that isveryspecificandusually does not havea lot of searchvolume.Although long-tail keywords are more niche,they are also much less competitive, soif you find a keyword that is very relevant to your audience, you canmore easily dominate rankings.
4. Create good quality content with your clients in mind
As mentioned earlier, the main goal of SEO should be to help visitors to your website find what they need. In SEO, content is king, meaning that good quality content should be your top priority.For each web page, you should target a researched keyword, but avoid stuffing the content with this keyword. Instead, yourfocusshould be writing content that your potential clients will find useful, while the keyword helps you stay on topic.The mostvaluablecontent will answer their search query and provideinsight and information they cannot find elsewhere.
5. Perform a full technical audit of your site
To start asuccessfulreal estate SEO program, you should first have a good overview of howtechnicallyoptimized your website is.These are elements on your website that you shouldlook for:
- Response codes 404, 401, 410, 503, 505
- Website structure, orphan pages, and internal linking
- Canonical and hreflang tags issues
- Duplicate URLs and duplicate content issues
- XML sitemaps and robots.txt file setup
- Web security (SSL certification)
- Negative SEO (harmful backlinks pointing to your website)
6. Prioritize solving crawling and indexing issues
Onceyou haveaudited your website for the appropriate technical elements, youshouldfocus on fixing the issues that influence crawling and indexing. You can have the best content in the world but if it is not getting crawled and indexed by search engines, it has no SEO value.The types of issues that can affect crawlability includebroken links, outdated URLs,a missing or inaccurate sitemap,page duplicates, and slow load speed.
7. Have a local approach
Make sure that people knowhow to get in touch with you and where to find you. To do this, claim your Google My Business listing and optimize itfor search to appear in the right locations. Be sure to list your services and add relevant posts.Whereverpossible, localize your website’s content and include your name, address, and phone detailswhereit makes sense.
8. Use real estate agents schema markup
Schema markup, also known as structured data,iscode you can add to your website’s HTMLtohelpsearch enginesmore accurately read the information on your websiteand, in turn, helppotential clients find the information they are looking for.There are two types of schemamarkupthathave been created specificallyfor real estate businesses,RealEstateListingandRealEstateAgentschema.Using thereal estate listing schema, for example, youcan hand-feedrelevantinformationto search engines, so it is clear to both search engines and your potential clientswhen the listing was published,where it is located,price of the home or lease, and length of the lease.Use the schema markup welland you might even be able to snag a featured snippet in the search results.
9. Get local backlinks to your real estate website
Just as inthe non-digital world, word-of-mouth referralscan offer the best business.A backlink is a linkfromanother websiteto your own. A local backlink is therefore a link froma local online source, such as a business directory, a local newspaper website,or blog. Local backlinks send signals to searchengines that help validate your local authority, as well as help drive referral trafficwith relevant leads to your website.
10. Monitor your keywords rankings
Tokeep track of yourgoalsand report on your performance, it is key to monitor the evolution of your keywords.Staying on top of any changes to a keyword’s search volume or rankingenables you to make any tweaks or course changes in your strategy.Monitoring also ensure you keep an overview of which pages have low rankings andneed further optimization.
11. Define KPIs for your real estate SEO program
To measure the success ofyour real estate SEO program, you need to set clear goals and KPIs that arerelevantto your businessneeds. Different KPIs you could potentially track include:
- IncreasedGoogle rankings on key terms for your realtor business
- IncreasedGoogle impressions
- IncreasedGoogle traffic
- Increased interactions with your GoogleMyBusiness profile
- Improved click-through rate (CTR)
- Improved conversion rate
- Improved time on page
- Increased number of pages viewed per user session
- Reduced bounce rate
- Soft conversions, i.e.,newsletter subscriptions ordemo videoviews
12. Get insights on your users with a web analytics tool
Toimprove your real estate website, you need to gather and analyze data on howyour clients and potential clientsbehave on your website. Someweb analytic tools, likeSiteimprove, allow you to gather data on how your usersbehave onyour siteandwhat the typical user journey is. Youcan set specific goals and events related to actions on yourwebsite that allow you to segment your users, so you can target different groups more effectivelywith the relevant content and information.You can also consider usingheatmapson your key pages that would allow you to understand how your users are interacting with your real estate listings pages.
13. Have a well-functioning internal search engine
When a user is on your website,many of them prefer to search for keywords, locations, and addresses directly in your internal search bar.A poor experience with your internal search engine could jeopardizeyour conversion rate,so do make sure that your internal searchbarshows the right pages without any broken links or redirected pages.An added benefit to having an internal search engine is that you gain insights into what your potential clients are looking for. This knowledge can help you improve the content and optimize the user journey.
14. Test and iterate to improve your conversion rate
Finding the rightrecipe for successcan take some experimenting to see what clicks. To improve the user experience and conversion rate on your website, consider testing different versions of your page.Analyze whatcombination ofelementson your websiteworkto convert and eliminate anyelements that do not work. Keep in mind, the goal is always to improve how visitors interact with your website, as this will help you rank better and convert visitors into clients.
15. Optimize your real estate website for mobile search
More and morepeople are searching from their mobile devices, so much so that many websites areautomaticallyswitched tomobile indexing firstwhich means that Google only crawls the websites withmobile bots.These mobile bots treat your website the same as a mobile device, therefore, it is vital that your website is optimizedfor mobile users. If the mobile bots cannot easily get around your website, your rankings willsuffer.Ways to improve the mobile experience on your website include improvingpage speed, ensuringyour website’s design adapts well to smaller tablet and phone screen sizes,and ensuringanypop-upsyou might be using on your sitedo not interfereon mobile.
16. Improve your EAT factors
YourExpertiseTrustand Authority (EAT) factors are highly important for userslooking for trusted sources of information.Search engines are putting increasing value on your EAT factors, so much so that if your websitelacks these factors, you can lose your ranking and traffic.Fortunately,you canoptimizeyour websiteto boost these factors.For example, make sure thatrelevant pages, such asyourAbout page, contact pages, and homepageare on point withup to dateinformationand content that positions you as a trustworthy, local authority in your field.If you have accreditations or have won awards,be sure to includethisinformationtoo.
17. Make sure that your website is ADA compliant
TheAmericans with Disabilities Act (ADA)requiresbusinesses to provide equal access and services to people withdisabilities. In your real estate office or home officein whichyou conduct your business with clients,this would mean removing barriers to access such as installing rampsor widening doors.The same requirements apply to your real estate website. To avoid litigation and loss of business,you should therefore ensure your website is ADA-compliantby checking your website for accessibility issues, such as non-compatibility with assistive technology used by people with disabilities.Consider using atool such asSiteimprove’s automated accessibility checkerto get an estimate of your website’s ADA compliance.
What is the ROI of real estate SEO?
A study by Outbrain revealed that organic search drives 300% more traffic than social media.Moreover, apoll conducted on Twitter by Search Engine Journalshowed 49%of marketers reported thatorganic search brings the highest ROI out of any digital marketing channel.The stats show that SEO worksto increase traffic and, in turn, profits, but keep in mind that SEO is a long-term gamethat can take months to showsignificant results.Although you will not get instant return on investmentas you might with paid ads, with consistency andtime, you can reach some of the millions of visitors logging in every day.
