It’s not rare knowledge that the real estate industry is extremely competitive, especially in major cities. Whether you are a solopreneur looking to make ends meet or the large national conglomerates trying to expand, everyone’s goal is to increase visibility and bag those listings. Here’s some good news: if you are smart about it, you can avert the massive cut-throat competition and hype up your services. The way out is through local SEO.
Here are some benefits of real estate SEO:
- Better brand awareness
- Better conversion rates
- Higher industry authority
But all that is well and good. How do you drive local SEO and get the best out of it? This is where our tips and strategies come into play. Let’s take a look at the best 5 essential SEO tips for realtors.
Go For The Right Keywords
Whether you are brand new to the SEO world or if you are just trying to make an existing SEO campaign more effective, targeting the right keywords is essential. Why? To start off with, keywords are integral to how search engines such as Google direct information seekers to websites that might sate their needs. There is no law against ranking broad key terms such as “real estate agent” or “realtor”, but most independent agents and small businesses will have much better luck going for niche and long-tailed keywords instead.
Think along the lines of “condos for sale in XYZ city” or “homes with solar energy”. Pick smart keywords and you will be driven up the rankings automatically.
Optimize Your Website For Mobile Devices
With people taking to mobile phone usage over laptops or PCS, especially for quick searches, nothing beats having a well-optimized website suited for mobile devices. Make your website mobile-accessible and get traction for those who are not fans of surfing on their laptops or PCs. A quick phone search should help prospective clients find you on their phones.
Not only will having an optimized website for mobiles make it a much smoother experience for your prospective clients, but it will also serve the uphill climb on the search engine ranking of Google. People regularly look up real estate agents, property listings, and similar queries on their handheld mobile devices, so by optimizing your website, you will be serving the convenience of your mobile-browsing demographic.
According to a recent statistic, nearly 75% of prospective property buyers use the web to look up homes at some point, and nearly half of the young homeowning population has come across their current homes online. So, it is important to pay attention to what they see when they land on your website.
Make Content Quality The Top Priority
If you thought sprinkling a few keywords here and there will serve your purpose, those days are long gone. The Google search engine algorithm is much more efficient now than ever before. You cannot simply trick Google into believing that your website deserves a high ranking by mindlessly stuffing keywords and short and lackluster content filled to the brim with keywords.
Now, when it comes to the Google search engine algorithm, quality is king and the difference between the good and subpar is palpable. So, make sure your focus is mostly on creating truly high value, helpful content that can dig deep into the topics that your prospective buyers and sellers will want to know about.
Insert relevant keywords in logical and natural ways, and add multimedia options such as marketing videos, images, and infographics wherever you can, as well.
Focus On Your Backlink Catalog
Whether it seems like it or not, a robust backlog catalog can go a long way in any thorough SEO campaign, and for good reason, too. Other sites linking back to your content is a signal to the search engine that your content is resonating well with the people and thus, deserves a high ranking. But much like anything else, it is not as simple as it sounds. Not all backlinks are equally valuable.
Here’s what we mean- you should never pay for any service that claims to promise hundreds or thousands of backlinks for a small fee, since those links often come from very low-value link farms that can end up hurting your SEO campaign more than helping it. Try to work on building a set of unique and valuable articles instead, which those within your niche you would want to link to and share with others.
Also consider building amicable partnerships with similar content producers within the industry as well as local media partners to drive your chances of ranking well.
Localize Your Efforts
This is essential since you will mostly be drawing a local crowd. Real estate, as an industry, is highly localized and location-specific. So, an effective real estate SEO campaign needs to be so, too. After all, most potential clients will be on the lookout for properties within a specific city, area, or neighborhood, especially once they are close to converting. You want to get the attention of those in your locality trying to get their hands on a great property deal.
Google also likes providing information seekers certain results specific to their location, so localizing your overall content will always prove to be beneficial to your SEO campaign. Always build dedicated standalone pages for each location that you plan to cover and keep them filled with informative and keyword-rich crucial information related to your business.
Try to upgrade your website’s blog regularly with helpful, entertaining, and generally valuable articles, guides, and so on. It has proven to be the best way to show Google that you happen to be an expert at your unique region’s real estate industry.
To Sum Up
The area you serve in is hyperlocal, so you will only be competing with others within the same hyperlocal area. Depending on location, this competition might be fiercer, even among solopreneurs and small businesses. Local SEO can offer a decent fighting chance, if you know what you are doing.
