This post originally featured on Generic Marketing.
Succeeding in the real estate industry can be challenging without a proper online presence. Learn about the benefits of real estate SEO and what you can do to better pull in leads.
Finding clients in the real estate industry is tough these days. With market share split between companies of all sizes, how can you compete?
The answer is with a clear cut digital marketing strategy, because of the majority of consumers that are online.
SEO compared to PPC is a long game. But the residual and relatively evergreen traffic makes it worthwhile.
Find out what Real Estate SEO is and how you can integrate it into your marketing strategy to earn more clients.
What is Real Estate SEO?
Real Estate SEO (or real estate search engine optimization) is a digital marketing strategy focused on improving on search presence to generate traffic, specifically for real estate specialists.
The primary reason for generating traffic from search engines for real estate agents would be to acquire qualified leads that are interested in buying or selling property.
Because real estate is a mostly localized business, real estate SEO aligns heavily into local SEO initiatives.
The Benefits of SEO for Real Estate Agents
There are many benefits of leveraging SEO for real estate agents, but the most important is generating qualified local leads. More and more people are turning to the internet to find their next agent to help them sell or buy their dream home.
In this day and age, it’s imperative that you have a solid online presence to stay competitive.
With 44% of all buyers looking online for properties for sale, having an online presence is a must.
You may be thinking: But how can I compete with companies like Trulia and Zillow?
The answer is, you can’t when it comes to users searching for properties on their own.
But you can plug into that process by being there for them when they want to buy and sell as their agent.
Local SEO is a huge part of having a great online search presence because of users looking for real estate agents in their area.
Don’t overlook the staying power and longevity of a well thought out SEO strategy among your overall marketing efforts.
Real Estate SEO Strategy Tips
To help you improve your real estate SEO strategy, we’ve put together the best tips to help homebuyers and homesellers find you on Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, and other search engines.
Content Strategy
Content strategy is one of the most important parts of SEO. Search engines surface content to fulfill searcher intent. Answering the questions of someone who “Googles” something is the primary goal, and that is done through content.
Not only written content, but through video, audio, and images.
Think through questions that your prospective leads are asking and answer them through comprehensive and concise content.
Maybe it’s things to know when buying a home. Or things to know when selling a home.
Create content that focuses on local real estate trends that will resonate with your readers.
Local SEO
Local SEO is a process that requires proper upkeep month to month since it’s the identity of your business for local searches.
Google My Business
Setting up Google My Business is an important signal for Local SEO, specific to Google. Here are the core items to focus on in Google My Business
- Set up your Google My Business accurately with a well thought out description, address, operating hours, and categories.
- Create a backlog of local posts to stir up engagement and let users know of events, new posts, and business updates.
- Set up a review collection system for your GMB account to improve your chances of ranking in the local 3 pack.
Local Citations
Local citations are online mentions of your business name, address, and phone number (N.A.P.)
Be sure to keep this consistent across all mentions, down to the way the address is represented.
Having discrepancies between different directories can give off negative signals and hinder local SEO success.
Technical SEO
If your site can’t be crawled properly or used by visitors leaving them with a positive user experience, your rankings will be held back. Technical SEO focuses on the technical requirements of search engines (which oftentimes aligns with a positive user experience).
The best way to spot technical SEO errors is to run an audit. Looking through your website visually, with a spider SEO tool, or general use SEO tool.
Here are some of the top technical SEO changes you should look out for within your Real Estate website.
Mobile Optimization
With 81% of Americans with a smartphone, the status quo of using a desktop computer for the internet has transitioned to the powerful computers in our pockets.
Optimizing for a positive mobile experience is desired by not just consumers, but search engines.
Utilize a website template with a responsive design so there is parity between the mobile and desktop view.
Pay attention to device demographics in your analytics as well to determine how to tailor the smarphone view of your site to drive more leads.
Secure Website
When important information is shared, a secure website can help provide protection against attacks.
Make sure your website is secured with an SSL Certificate.
Look for the checkmark in your browser or HTTPS in the URL.
Pagespeed
If it takes forever for someone to load pages on your site, they will most likely leave. Because this is an important metric valued by users, search engines take this into account.
The biggest culprit of pagespeed issues relates to images. Optimize images by compressing them and resizing them to the absolute largest size you’ll show them.
Another thing that impacts pagespeed heavily is third party assets. If you have a bunch of third party tools running on your site (analytics, live chat, etc.) or a bunch of plugins/apps, your site may take a hit. Users have to load those up with your site.
Remove any third party scripts you aren’t using and anything you don’t really need.
Top Real Estate Keywords
Keyword research is an important process for any business looking to expand their online search presence. We’ve put together a list of the top real estate keywords to help get you started and guide you towards becoming a real estate SEO expert.
Here are 25 of the top real estate keywords with a relatively low difficulty for you to work off of. The information was pulled from Ahrefs.
| Keyword | Difficulty | Volume | CPC |
| homes for rent near me | 17 | 112,000 | $0.40 |
| wake county real estate | 22 | 71,000 | $3.00 |
| home for sale | 27 | 53,000 | $1.20 |
| real estate express | 30 | 46,000 | $0.45 |
| condos for sale near me | 6 | 37,000 | $1.00 |
| estate sales riverside ca | 2 | 32,000 | $0.90 |
| open houses near me | 2 | 31,000 | $0.45 |
| apartment guide | 17 | 30,000 | $0.80 |
| apartments for sale | 4 | 20,000 | $0.80 |
| new homes near me | 15 | 15,000 | $2.50 |
| townhomes for sale near me | 27 | 15,000 | $0.90 |
| open house near me | 19 | 14,000 | $0.45 |
| duplex for sale near me | 21 | 12,000 | $0.35 |
| lots for sale | 2 | 11,000 | $0.90 |
| st louis county real estate | 8 | 10,000 | $2.50 |
| north carolina real estate commission | 12 | 8,400 | $7.00 |
| multifamily for sale | 17 | 8,300 | $1.40 |
| chico real estate | 18 | 8,300 | $0.60 |
| oklahoma real estate commission | 5 | 7,500 | $6.00 |
| alabama real estate commission | 10 | 6,900 | $4.50 |
| condos for sale nashville tn | 4 | 6,900 | $1.90 |
| open houses today | 16 | 6,700 | $0.50 |
| wholesale real estate | 10 | 6,200 | $4.50 |
| santa fe nm real estate | 28 | 6,100 | $0.80 |
| wooster real estate | 6 | 6,100 | $0.25 |
Real Estate SEO Services
Executing a successful SEO strategy for your business takes time and effort. When you’re focused on selling homes, time is limited. Lean on a professional SEO agency that specializes in local SEO to handle your SEO strategy.