Real Estate SEO: Strategies to Boost Success
What is Real Estate SEO?
Real estate SEO is the strategy real estate websites use to improve their ranking on search engines. The higher your website ranks on a search engine, the more people will see it and hopefully click on it. This translates into more site visitors, and if your website is optimized for lead capture, more buyer and seller leads in your CRM.
Steps to Perfect Real Estate SEO
Run an SEO Audit on Your Website
The first step to any SEO project is to audit your current website to see if there are any technical issues that might cause Google to rank your content lower or ignore it entirely.
Fix Issues Found in Your SEO Audit
After you have your audit, you can then start fixing any issues uncovered in the audit. These might be easy fixes, like deleting duplicate content or fixing broken links, or more complex issues like HTTP vs HTTPS. Fix what you can and hire out for the rest.
One of the easiest improvements you can make on your marketing website is to make it load faster.
Set Up Your Google My Business Account
After you’ve run your SEO audit and fixed any issues that came up, the next step is to claim your Google My Business account. Google My Business is Google’s tool for indexing local businesses for search on Google Maps.
Research Keywords You Want to Rank For
After you’ve completed your audit, fixed SEO issues, and set up your Google My Business profile. The next step is to research the keywords your local audience is searching for. Once you know what your audience is searching for, you can create content to address their questions and concerns. For example, if your audience is searching for “affordable condos in Miami,” you can write an article or create a video explaining how to find affordable condos in Miami.
Create a Content Cluster Strategy
One of the ways that search engines determine your expertise in a subject area is by looking at how much content on the subject you have on your marketing website, and how well organized that content is.
This is where content clusters come in. Content clusters are groups of articles organized from top-level subjects like “condos in Miami” that then drill down to more specific related digital topics. Like “Condos in Brickell” or “How to qualify for a condo in Miami.”
Build Backlinks and Build Relationships
Google will reward you with more traffic if you’re attracting visitors from other sources. Backlinks, or links to your site from other websites, is an important factor in boosting your rankings. To build backlinks, contribute to or advertise on reputable sites in your field and community. Use your broker digital websites and reach out to local media and neighborhood partners. Relationship building is as important online as it is off-line.
Encourage Online Reviews
91 percent of people are reading online reviews, and 84 percent trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. Reviews can make or break your business.
Be Local
Especially with mobile, Google focuses on local content, so there is a huge opportunity in real estate to draw local traffic. Search engines seek to provide customers with useful information, and local is key to accomplishing that. Be sure to include content that highlights resources in the states, cities and neighborhoods you’re serving.