Thedemand for real estate is growing every year. The field belongs to a highly competitive niche. There are tons of real estate sites, so you need to look for effective ways to promote. SEO strategy helps to increase organic traffic, identify the target audience, and find those users who are interested in buying a home.
What is real estate SEO?
The advantage of real estate SEO is that it never “rests”. Quality executed optimization generates leads 24/7, without the need to call, buy advertising. The first steps when thinking about buying an apartment is to enter a query into a search engine. 44% of customers start their real estate search online.
SEO for real estate is a way to optimize content for search engines on website, social media platforms and mobile apps. An important goal today is a comprehensive user experience that helps meet the needs of the target audience.
Real estate SEO is a long-term strategy. The tool can be seen as a way to achieve business goals now and in the future. SEO for real estate is the organic display of a website in Google search results.
Many businesses compete for a little “organic real estate” left in the search results. SEO for these sites, realtors and agencies is fiercely competitive. It’s not enough to just create a website and publish content. You need to develop the right SEO strategy to get your real estate site ranked by Google.
Why do you need an SEO strategy for a real estate website?
As more and more Realtors invest in SEO, an online presence is critical to business success. Reasons why you should start creating an SEO strategy.
Increase traffic and revenue
Attracting more target audiences and users who can be potential clients. This is an opportunity to convert traffic into revenue.
Increase brand awareness
Quality SEO content turns a business into a source of knowledge, which builds trust with the audience. If the user reads the content and benefits, they interact positively with the brand. This increases recognition and increases conversion rates.
Improve brand protection
SEO is a form of brand protection that can be used to control how a brand is represented online. For example, participating in an affiliate program is a proven way to increase revenue.
Real estate SEO as an engine for lead generation
Good SEO optimization for a real estate website is not autonomous, but rather an integral part of a marketing strategy and sales funnel. SEO creates entry points for new leads to enter the funnel, directing users to the conversion buttons on the site.
As with any lead generation strategy, tailoring content to the needs of your specific target audience will increase success. For example, users looking to buy or rent real estate have different wants and needs than users looking to sell real estate. To attract both target audiences, it’s imperative to adapt your SEO strategy to provide service to buyers and sellers.
Top 10 tips on how to develop a real estate
SEO strategy We’ve compiled a list of “working” SEO tips in a highly competitive niche as a complete process for ranking a real estate website.
1. Technical and SEO site audit
There are 5 main areas to pay attention to in the process:
- Site structure: XML sitemap, robots.txt, redirects.
- Page structure: titles, meta descriptions, title tags, alt tags, URLs.
- Content: content, keyword and link placement, visual elements, duplicates, redirects and canonical tags.
- Links: outbound and inbound links, linking to other pages on the site, broken links.
- Usability: accessibility, mobile-friendliness, site speed.
You also need to do a full technical audit of the site. To start a successful real estate SEO program, you need to have an idea of how technically optimized the site is.
2. Local SEO
Local SEO in real estate plays an important role in closing deals. If a site is not found for real estate queries that users often enter when searching for homes in your area or region, it greatly reduces the chances of success for the business.
Nearly half of buyers start their real estate search directly through an online search. For this percentage, it’s important that the site is optimized for nearby neighborhoods and other conditions that indicate local relevance to Google.
The first step in creating local SEO is to create and approve a business profile with Google. This is the communication of information to Google about the brand being promoted. It is important that the data is consistent with the Google Business Profile account and other online, social media mentions.
You should include:
- The exact location on the map;
- Hours of operation;
- Phone number;
- Description;
- Photos;
- Primary and secondary categories (real estate, commercial, etc.).
Profile must be 100% complete with up-to-date information. A systematic approach ensures better search and ranking of the real estate site.
3. Keyword research
You need to find out what keywords potential customers enter when they begin their home search. Next, you need to establish which of these keywords are available, depending on the search volume and competition for each keyword. Additional services can be used to identify high-frequency keywords for which competitors are ranking.
Long-tail keywords are specific phrases that do not have a high search volume. They are more niche and less competitive. Therefore, finding a long tail keyword that is relevant to your audience will make it easier to dominate the rankings.
4. Meta headlines and descriptions
Meta titles and meta descriptions are easy to update. This is an important aspect of SEO for a real estate website. The meta title for each page should include keywords, which will ensure better rankings.
5. Quality Content
A priority in SEO is quality content. You should focus on writing content that potential customers will find useful when searching for a home, and the keyword will help you stay on topic. Valuable content answers a search query and gives information they can’t find.
6. Video Content
You should invest in creating and optimizing video content as a factor in your SEO strategy. It can help stand out from the competition. You can launch and optimize a YouTube channel. Fill it with video content, including video and virtual tours, live streams, interviews with local business owners.
Topics could include open house videos, live Q&As, home buying recommendations (e.g., top 10 homes for families).
To optimize video content, you should:
- Upload videos and share links to the site and social media pages.
- Broadcast live on Facebook and YouTube to expand your audience.
- Optimize video content for local search.
- Add geo-targeted keywords to headlines, descriptions, and hashtags.
- Include subtitles and transcripts.
- Add transcripts to descriptions so it’s easier for search engines to crawl and index content.
- Include links to social media profiles, website and any related listings in the description.
7. Blog
Having a blog on a real estate website gives additional opportunities for targeting relevant keywords.
You can publish:
- Informational articles.
- Posts on the cost of living, social community, schools, cafes and restaurants in the area.
- Pros and cons of the area, prospects of housing availability.
- It is important to dilute the texts on real estate visual content with pictures, infographics.
8. SEO Competitor
Analysis You need to do a competitor analysis to determine your search engine rankings, who are the leaders in the niche. An analysis of real estate competitors allows you to understand what works for them and what doesn’t. You need to pay attention to issues such as:
- What content they publish;
- How they structure pages and sites.
Studying the wins and mistakes will be a starting point for building your own strategy.
9. Featured Snippets
To stay at the top of search results, you need to create Featured Snippets. These are advanced snippets in Google’s search engine results, which contain additional information about the site. The search engine reads the information and shows it immediately in the output, without having to navigate to the site.
Extended snippets in SEO affect:
- Increasing traffic;
- Attraction of interested users;
- Increase in position in search rankings;
- Conversion rates.
10. Social Media
Social media will not directly affect a real estate site’s search engine rankings, but is an important part of a digital marketing strategy.
Benefits:
- Interaction with your target audience through multiple channels;
- Ability to build credibility, trust and awareness;
- Attract more traffic to the site;
- Increase the number of conversions.
Summary
The real estate industry is a highly competitive niche where you need to know the main SEO factors that affect organic promotion. Since users immediately turn to an internet search when they think of buying an apartment or house, SEO strategy is an important consideration.
Real estate SEO includes a large number of steps, which, when implemented and optimized, will help the site rank better.
To effectively promote a real estate website with SEO, it is imperative to optimize local SEO, fill it with useful content with keywords and video content, do competitor analysis, and use social media as an additional channel.
A comprehensive SEO approach ensures a high ranking position and a daily stream of organic traffic.
