SEO for real estate: how to boost your real estate website traffic
When real estate professionals first start their forays into internet marketing, one of the first words they hear is SEO strategy for real estate. You may have heard this acronym and associated it with the phrase “search engine optimization”, but what does it mean – and can it help you get more customers?
Search engine optimization helps robots from Google and other search engines see your real estate site as high quality, authoritative, and relevant to the interests of search engines. Using it properly can absolutely help you get more customers.With good real estate SEO, you rank higher in the search results. More and more buyers and sellers will see you as someone who understands real estate.
In this topic, you will learn about the methods you can use to optimize your website right now. You’ll learn about traditional and local SEO practices, why they’re important, and how to keep your site up to date so it continues to deliver great results.
Why real estate SEO is critical to your marketing strategy.
Real estate professionals need to be online. The National Association of Realtors reports that 93% of property buyers search for homes online and 44% search for properties online before doing anything else.
SEO helps people find you when they are looking for real estate or real estate services in your area. This is an important part of your digital marketing strategy because it puts your name in front of people who have never heard of you – people who don’t receive your emails and may not see your social media posts.
Using SEO can be tricky if you really get into the details, but it’s easy to get started with entry-level settings. Constant Contact has handy SEO tools to help you with the rest.
How to implement SEO on your real estate website.
The first step in real estate SEO is assessing how well you are already doing. Imagine that you are a potential client and review your site. As you look around, ask yourself these questions:
- Does the site load quickly or is there a tedious waiting period before the content finally appears?
- Do all links work or result in error messages?
- Does each page have a clear, concise, and relevant title?
Make sure your website looks great on both desktop and mobile. More people search on smartphones than on desktops, which is why Google prioritizes sites that look good on mobile screens. Plus, ranking high on mobile gets you more clicks than high rankings on desktop.
You also need to define the keywords you want to rank for. This may seem like an extremely technical process, but what it all means is that you have to figure out what search terms people are using in order to find real estate professionals like you.
Top real estate keywords
To choose the right keywords for your SEO, think about what you offer. Do you work with buyers or sellers? Maybe you want to highlight the areas where your property is located. Brainstorm a list of phrases people can type in to find services like yours. For instance:
- Seller’s agent in Dubai
- Real estate agents in Manhattan
- Real estate agents near me
Think about people who are ready to choose an agent, as well as people who are just starting the process of buying or selling a home. Remember the 44% of homebuyers who first look online? If you get their attention and give them the help they need, they can easily refuse your services.
The Power of Local SEO
Local SEO is just regular SEO with a few extra steps to highlight your location. Here are some important search engine optimization tips to keep in mind:
- In the footer of your website, include your name, business address, and phone number. This is one of the most important ranking factors when it comes to local SEO.
- List yourself on Google My Business, Bing Places, and Apple Maps and make sure the website listed there is correct.
- Add keywords for your location to your website. Include it in the main heading on your home page and in the body of your website. Do not overdo it. Sprinkle it where it makes sense.
- Include your primary location’s keyword in your website’s title tag – the title that appears in blue in the image below – and a meta description or introductory text below the URL.