Search Engine Optimization for real estate agents, also known as SEO, will help your company’s Web site reach the first page of Google for your keywords. It is critical to understand real estate SEO strategies to grow your business since 75% of users never scroll past the first page of search results.
The more keywords contained within your Web site, the more search engines will find you. Building your positive online profile will help your online presence count across the board, from utilizing SEO to blogging and creating social media profiles. By understanding how to use SEO for real estate, you can capture more page views and, ultimately, more clients.
SEO Tips and Strategies
You may find it hard to let go of some of your old marketing strategies in favor of inbound strategies like SEO for real estate. However, it’s important to engage in these inbound marketing tactics, like social media and SEO, in order to reach your local customers in a new way.
Make sure that you’re engaging with SEO in the proper way. It may be tempting to pay someone to get you fast results, but more likely than not, those results are unethical and the search engines will penalize your Web site for it. It’ll take some time to work with SEO, especially since it’s an ongoing project, but it will be worth it for your online reputation in the long run.
SEO Tactics
A HubSpot study found that inbound marketing costs 62% less per lead than outbound marketing. More marketing budgets are shifting to focus on inbound marketing.
1. Choose keywords wisely. One of the easiest SEO real estate strategies that really work is to ensure you’re using a specific list of keywords on your Web site. These keywords will be specific to your industry, business and market, and will be ever-changing as the market and consumer wants/needs change. Think about ways to reach your customer in the way that they are thinking. Make sure that specific neighborhoods are listed on your Web site, especially the popular ones.
Don’t regulate your keywords to just the text within your Web site, use it for your pictures too. Pictures of the homes you’re trying to sell is obviously the number one priority on your Web site. Search engines are able to read the file name of the pictures that you post. So, instead of a default file name, like “house 3021,” identify it as specifically as you can, like “bungalow on western avenue.” Next, create an alt tag for each photo, which is a short piece of code that allows you to tag each photo with a short text caption. These captions will also be searchable by a search engine.
2. Blog to increase frequency of content. Make sure that your Web site is frequently updated. One way to do that is to start a blog. Real estate agents have a lot of material to write about. Some ideas can include: changing trends in the neighborhood, school systems, taxes, and local businesses. Writing about things other than houses, yet still impacting buyer/seller markets, will garner even more traffic to your site.
3. Linkbuilding. Engaging in linkbuilding will help your Web site gain a higher Page Rank. A Page Rank is a measurement of how important Google thinks your page is as it relates to your competitors. Having a link to your Web site on someone else’s site gives your Web site more credibility and authority. But beware of link farms and low quality business directories; these sneaky SEO tactics can be detrimental to your Web site. Always remember that it’s the quality of links, not the quantity, that is important to linkbuilding.
4. Hire the best SEO company. Many SEO companies exist. How should you choose? Look for one that is knowledgeable about the rules and regulations that real estate agents face when marketing their business. Also, look for a company that has a great writing portfolio. Be wary of companies that seem too affordable to be true…they probably are. Some companies outsource their writing overseas, which makes the result hard to read and understand.
Leave a Reply