Real Estate SEO – 9 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Site

real estate seo

As a realtor, you have likely set up your own site because who can deny the importance of having an online presence, right? But have you given the same kind of attention of real estate SEO?

Without property website SEO, your site is as good as invisible – literally. And if your site is invisible, who on earth will see your property listings (pun intended)?

SEO for a real estate website is a must – heck, SEO for any kind of site is something you just cannot do without in today’s day and age.

SEO, or search engine optimization, allows you to rank your website higher in the SERPs (search engine result pages). In other words, when someone searches for the relevant keywords, your website is the one that tops the list. Or is near the top of the list at least.

This is what it takes:

But before we can move any further and talk about driving traffic to the site, let’s address a very important question:

Do I really need real estate SEO?

Is property website SEO really worth the hype? Would my business get anything out of it?

The answer to these questions is very simple – which is why we’re going to help YOU figure it out.

What were you thinking when you created a site for your real estate business?

You wanted to:

  • Attract property owners to the site so they could list their properties.
  • Attract buyers looking to purchase property to the site.
  • Gain listings from property brokers, which is definitely a win-win situation.
  • Make your site a feasible enough place for people to run sponsored ads.

These are just some of the goals, among many others, that you may have had when you moved your business to the online space.

What’s is the common thread in all of these goals? That’s simple – everyone benefits. You charge a buyer to list a property, and they can manage to find a buyer. You charge businesses to run ads on your site and as a result, they get more customers.

But what is the condition for you to meet these goals and, eventually, benefit?

You need a site that people actually know about and visit. In other words, you need a significant amount of traffic coming to the site.

And if you know anything at all about digital marketing, you’ll know the best way to increase traffic to your site is through property website SEO.

Now that that’s decided, we come to the next question?

Do I need a real estate SEO expert or can I do it on my own?

In 2019, more than half of all homebuyers in the United States found their home on the internet.

The shift is evident – more and more people are turning to search engines to search for the house of their dreams.

But what does this mean for you? When someone types the relevant keywords into the search bar, you need to be one of the top results for that search.

And you can only achieve that if your real estate SEO practices are top-notch.

SEO for a real estate business can be tricky, especially if you’re looking for high-quality results. And so a real estate SEO expert can help you create and implement a foolproof strategy that guarantees results.

Looking for real estate SEO services? Get in touch with our experts!

But that isn’t to say that it is impossible for you to implement some optimization hacks on your own.

In this real estate SEO guide, we share with you some techniques that help you get the ball rolling.

Without wasting any time, let’s begin!

Real Estate SEO tips to rock the property world

If you have chosen to give SEO a shot for whatever reason, there are some things you can do to make sure you’re not wasting time and effort.

All we ask is that you have a basic understanding of SEO and you will be able to benefit from these property website SEO hacks immensely.

Let’s begin!

Google My Business Listing

It may not seem obvious at first but a Google My Business Listing increases traffic to your site.

If you have a Google My Business listing, your business, along with all its details, appears on the right-hand side of the webpage. But that’s not all. If someone searches for a relevant local SEO keyword, your business will appear in the Google Maps listing for nearby businesses.

Both these things, of course, boost your visibility and, in turn, the chances of your website getting hits.

So be sure to list your business on Google My Business.

Make sure you are targeting the right keywords

Your keywords are the words your target audience is typing into the search bar when they are looking for a house. Or a realtor. Or to put up a house for sale.

It is essential, thus, that you know what these keywords are.

We can go into a lot of detail here but we have covered keyword research in detail in these blog posts – learn all about it here:

Ultimate Guide: How to Research and & select the right keywords for your business?

Keyword Research: A Guide to Improve your Google Rank

Need help with keyword research? The experts at CANZ Marketing can help.

Modify your content strategy to be in line with your optimization strategy

There are many elements of your content strategy that you need to work in if you want your website to rank. Here are a few of them.

  • Keyword optimized content

Now that you have discovered the keywords that will allow you to appear at the top of the SERPs, you need to put them into action. In other words, you need to create content that is optimized for those keywords.

You can always modify your existing content to incorporate the keywords but we would strongly recommend rewriting the content. Why do we say this?

When you approach your website content with the keywords already in mind, you will be able to incorporate them in a way that doesn’t seem forced. The content will flow perfectly, ensuring a great experience for the reader while also helping you achieve your goals.

  • Keyword-optimized meta titles and descriptions

The meta titles and descriptions for your webpages are basically one- or two-liners that tell your consumers and search engines what to expect on the page.

They, thus, must truly reflect the most important elements of that page.

Incorporating keywords into these meta tags helps with the SEO aspect of things.

Blog posts are an important part of your property website SEO strategy. They help you reveal yourself as an expert in the niche and provide the reader with useful and engaging information.

People who are about to buy or sell a house have a ton of questions, especially if it is their first time. You can use the blog to answer these questions and establish yourself as an authority.

This helps you rank in the SERPs and get more visitors to the site.

  • Video content

There are a million ideas you can explore as a realtor when it comes to video content.

You can create virtual tours of the houses on sale, for example, that give people a much better idea of the space than pictures.

You can also create informational content that can help your consumers make the important decisions they are faced with more easily.

This content, again, establishes you as an authority and boosts your ranking.

  1. Optimize your site for mobile users

According to a study by National Association of Realtors titled Real Estate in a Digital Age, it was found that in 2019, the average user searched for a home on their mobile device.

Let’s face it – searchers will often not open up their laptop every time they want to search for a listing – it is the era of the handheld device and you need to keep that in mind when developing the website.

It is for this reason that you need your website to be optimized for mobile.

According to Google, 40% of consumers will ditch your website and go to a competitor’s one instead if they have a bad mobile web experience. 57% wouldn’t recommend your business to anyone for that same reason.

Here is a great resource we found that can help you make sure your mobile web consumers have the best possible experience:

Checklist for Making Your Website Mobile-Friendly

  1. Nail image SEO

Images play a very important role when it comes to SEO for a real estate website.

Why?

Because the searcher immediately wants to see what a house looks like when they click on a listing. And so you need to display multiple high-quality images on a single web page.

Having said that, you can’t compromise on your page speed as this will ruin the consumer’s experience (we talk more about this in the next point).

The type, size, format, and responsiveness of the images you use is crucial to your real estate SEO strategy.

Learn all about how you can optimize your images here:

Image SEO: Optimizing images for search engines

And don’t forget to add a caption and an alt text to each image!

Enhance user experience with site speed optimization

Page speed, or the speed at which your webpage loads, holds an important place in your property website SEO strategy because it is a crucial factor in how Google ranks you.

And not just Google – all search engines take into account page speed.

Why?

Because it has a massive impact on user experience when it comes to your customers or potential consumers.

Did you know that the likelihood of bounce goes up by 32% when the page load speed increase from one to three seconds? As a realtor, this is unacceptable to you.

You want the page to take as little time as possible to load, whether it is on a desktop or a mobile device.

Here are some things you can do to ensure this:

  • Choose a good hosting service
  • Compress images
  • Use page speed testing tools often
  • Opt for a CDN (content distribution network)

Learn more about how to enhance page speed and, in turn, consumer experience, here:

Page Speed and SEO

Work on your online reviews

We mentioned earlier that 52% of people in the US found a home to buy online in 2019.

This doesn’t change the fact, though, that people still face some level of apprehension when it comes to online businesses.

And that is where online reviews come into the picture.

A study by Podium found that 93% of people said their purchase decisions are affected by online reviews. It is understandable, then, that search engine algorithms take these reviews into account when ranking a site.

A property website SEO strategy, thus, must take reputation management through reviews into consideration.

The easiest way to ensure this is to ask clients to review you once you have finished working with them.

Get backlinks from business directories and listings.

One of the best things you can do for your business is to register to get a slot in as many business directories and listings as you can.

This does three things.

First of all, people realize that your business is legit and not a scam and that they are in safe hands when they choose you to assist them in their real estate transactions.

Secondly, it gives people an easy way to contact you as all your contact information, as well as your business summary is present in one place (in as concise a form as possible).

Lastly, and most importantly for our purposes, online directories allow you to link back to your site, giving you yet another way to boost traffic to the site.

Getting backlinks from different kinds of sources is important but this is how can you kick it off.

Use social media for your gain

Sure, but what does social media have to do with real estate SEO?

That is simple.

When the decision is as big as buying or selling a house, the consumer needs to trust the middle party – in other words, you, the realtor.

You can use social media to build this trust.

You can also use it to interact with your audience and build authority.

In addition to this, by sharing blogs and web pages to your social media channels in creative ways, you will be able to redirect this interest to the website in the form of traffic.

ACE property website SEO to win at real estate!

You’re only as good as your business website.

We believe that 100%.

And that is why we want you to have all the tools you may need to excel at real estate SEO.

The first of those tools is knowledge – and that is what this blog post is for.

But if you find yourself getting stuck, we are here to help.

Reach out and we help you get back on track!

 

Leave a Comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

    Subscribe Now

    Get Exclusive Tips That We Only Share With Email Subscribers


    
    Show Me How
    Free Audit

    Canz Marketing