With the world of SEO and search engine rankings becoming much harder, many real estate agents wonder if creating a website and fighting for a better ranking spot will still be a great method of lead generation. Fortunately, the answer is simple, and since most people still use search engines, it will remain a viable method of lead generation.
Why Is Real Estate SEO Important? It is no secret that we turn to the internet whenever we need information. You can look at yourself and see that whenever you plan to move from your home to another, you look at Google reports of the area and try to find as much information as possible. If you tap into this as a real estate company or agent, you can drive plenty of lead generation.
To ensure that you have the best understanding of SEO for real estate, we should dive slightly deeper to see how it can benefit your needs. This article aims to help you better understand some of the functionality. This would enable you to make the best decisions to ensure your real estate endeavors do work.
What Is Real Estate SEO?
I have not found any differences between SEO and what people refer to as “real estate agents SEO.” The core of SEO would remain the same throughout the process. It involves using an SEO strategy specifically targeted to ensure real estate websites would benefit from the process.
With the use of even the most basic SEO strategies, real estate agents can see an improvement in website rankings on search engines such as DuckDuckGo, Google, Bing, and Yahoo. Once the SEO on the site is efficiently optimized, it will help the website rank higher on the (SERP Search Engine Results Page).
If done effectively, many of my clients have seen an increase in rankings, which translates to more visitors and automatic lead generation.
Why is SEO For Real Estate Important?
Before I reveal some of the true benefits of real estate SEO services, I should stress the importance of why you should invest in such a strategy.
Upon creating your website, many new content creators would simply focus on what they believe is important. Unfortunately, search engines do not read through the entire content piece and mainly emphasize the use of specific keywords.
As an example, I can write this article about SEO services for real estate and include all the specific tips and pointers. However, if I don’t make it easy for search engines to understand the underlying theme, the content will simply disappear into the abyss of online content. Incorporating SEO would help the search engine identify the theme of the content. This would allow the search engine to match my content with someone searching for a specific “Real Estate SEO” query.
Benefits Of Doing SEO For Real Estate
The why has now been settled, and since you will use SEO real estate keywords for improving your site, I should mention some of the benefits. The only way to truly understand the benefits is to see how it would improve your lead generation through the online ranking process. Having done SEO for more than 6 years, here are a few basic benefits I have seen:
1. Improved Ranking
By far, the biggest benefit is the increase in the overall ranking of the website pages (keep in mind that SEO ranks pages and not entire sites). Once you have optimized your content page to contain a specific keyword, it should rank much higher when someone enters that keyword in the search engine.
Since more eyes would be able to see your content, it gives you the perfect opportunity to capture a few leads, which could later be converted into business.
2. Improves Professionalism
Nothing frustrates me more than searching for a specific website and having to go from page to page in an attempt to find it. If someone has heard of you through other means of marketing, they might want to search for your website. Having a website that constantly ranks high and is easy to find gives you a more professional look. This could boost trustworthiness and eventually lead to more clientele in the real estate industry.
3. Improved Brand Awareness
Much like the improved professionalism aspect, your website pages would pop up between various other queries. Thanks to the rank improvement under these queries, you are taking a page from the playbook of other big corporations. The idea is to make sure that people are aware of you. Once they need a real estate agent, you would be the first that comes to mind.
4. Better Lead Generation
Paid advertisement is a great way to generate leads through social media platforms. However, this often takes some form of convincing. The other side of the coin is that when someone finds your site organically and reaches out, you don’t have to convince them. Your website and brand awareness already have. This would help you attract clients that could be much easier to close.
Best Real Estate SEO Expert Tips
Now that you understand the value of SEO and know how it works, it is important to know where to start. You might only have heard of the terms as a beginner, but putting them into practice can be daunting. Real estate SEO services are an option that I would recommend, but here are a few tips if you are going at it yourself:
1. SEO Website Audit
The first thing you have to do is to check to see how the current state of affairs is going. This could involve doing an SEO audit of the current website and page content. You can do this yourself and check for some of the following things:
- Redundant content
- Duplicated content
- Poorly crafted content
- Lack of keyword integration
These are only a few of the important things to check for during an audit. You can also hire an SEO expert to assist you withg the audit.
2. Put In The Time To Research Keywords
Once you have completed the audit, you will probably have removed some of the issues you picked up on. Now, we should start afresh and make sure that the new content does not end up the same way. The best practice is to do some keyword research related to the topic at hand. Ahrefs is a great tool to help you understand keywords and their search volumes.
Keyword research also shows you the common queries from people you are targeting. Once you have this information, you can craft content specifically addressing these queries.
Keep an eye on the ‘People Also Ask’ Section. This can be a goldmine for finding content ideas that are currently popular!
3. Content Cluster Strategy
Another great tip for SEO ranking is understanding how much weight search engines give to certain content. Subject matter experts often get the nod ahead of self-taught experts. This means that when searching for fitness tips, a top bodybuilder who has won numerous competitions would get the nod over someone new.
Search engines determine subject matter experts by looking at the number of valuable content on a specific website. You can create top-level content cluster strategies focusing on more in-depth detail on a specific subject. Since I have been doing SEO for such a long time, I have a history of producing effective content that has worked, contributing to being seen as a subject matter expert. Here is an example of a content cluster strategy:
Pillar Content – Homes in California
Links to:
Subpillar – Best neighborhoods in California, How to buy a home in California, Crime in California
Links to:
Cluster Content – Homes in Hollywood, Homes in Virginia Beach, Homes in California Central
4. Creating Useful Content
The next step in the process is to put plenty of emphasis on content quality. Anyone can write an article and upload it to the internet, but does it provide real-world value? The big problem with many writers is they don’t put in the research to understand what something is about, which means they copy old content without contributing something new.
Unfortunately, search engines would punish you for this. It is important to create fresh content that provides real value. Even if you take an existing topic and simply change your view on it with facts, it can help. Including videos and infographics also shows the level of effort you have gone into before simply clicking publish.
5. Link Building Strategies Are Important
When it comes to SEO, very few things will help you as much as having solid link building. Beware of link spamming from bad sites, as this could have a detrimental effect on your website.
Backlinking is defined as a different website giving your webpage or content the nod of approval. They might find so much value in your content that they decide to link back to the content on their own sites. If you can get backlinks from quality websites like the New York Times, you could have millions of viewers find your website.
In the real estate world, I often recommend creating high-quality content and reaching out to some media outlets. This could help you get more traffic to your website.
6. Consistent Content Updates
If you have done specific content for your website and notice that one or more pages are doing very well, you shouldn’t just leave them. The best practice would be to constantly update the content. In the real estate industry, things change at a rapid pace, and updating your best-performing content will keep them from sliding down the rankings.
Best Practices For SEO Real Estate
Once you have the tips down, you will see a massive improvement in the overall rankings of your website. However, there are a few additional best practices to keep in mind. These are slightly different from the tips and focus more on making sure you create valuable content that continues to rank well:
1. Enlist An SEO Expert
For someone new to the world of SEO, this might sound like gibberish and even confuse them. However, there are numerous SEO services for real estates, like Link Publishers, which offer services that could help you rank. With numerous tools, you will have access to all the methods of improving SEO without having to pay massive monthly fees for all these tools.
2. Be Unique And Innovative
One thing I have seen that punishes many SEO websites is when copying content from competitors. To search engines, this looks like someone else has done the work, and you want the credit. Unfortunately, you will have to put in some work to create something fresh and new. The idea is to create your own brand with a unique voice that stands out.
3. Optimize The Use Of Keywords
Instead of only adding keywords throughout your content, I suggest adding your main keyword early on. It should be located somewhere in the introduction. Throughout the rest of your content, you should include organic images and videos wherever possible. However, you should remember to optimize the “alt tags” with keywords.
4. Internal Content Linking
I have briefly touched on this when doing a content cluster strategy. However, it is one of the most important things to keep in mind. You should focus on internal content linking. Suppose you have created content on a specific subject that overlaps with something already done. In that case, you should interlink the two pages to help visitors easily navigate the pages.
How Link Publishers Helps With Real Estate SEO Services
Link Publishers have been around for quite some time now and have amassed a solid following and reputation. Through some of their services, they offer content creators fully trained in SEO and research skills to create fresh and unique content.
However, the real benefit comes with some of the tools they use. Having been in the SEO world for so long, Link Publishers have access to some of the best tools that would cost you a fortune each month. With Link Publishers, you have access to all these tools that will save you money and ultimately increase website traffic.
How Much Does Real Estate SEO Cost?
Having said all of this, the real question is how much this endeavor would cost you. Truthfully, it is hard to estimate the costs and would depend on your plan. You can create a free website with free content that has been optimized for SEO. Unfortunately, not everyone has the know-how or time.
Most online tools cost you between $20 and $100 for the most basic SEO tools that will make an immediate difference. Fortunately, SEO companies and freelancers already have access to some of these tools. This could reduce overall costs.
Fortunately, Link Publishers features a team of writers, SEO experts, and various other professionals that could help you grow your site for a more affordable price.
Conclusion
SEO for real estate agents is a great way to ensure you get the best value for your money and see your website grow. You must put in some time to focus on this aspect. It could make the difference between new leads or having to struggle with current leads. I would love to see some of your comments on real estate SEO and how you have implemented it.
Frequently Asked Questions
I often put a lot of research into creating content, which might take me a few days. During the process, I often come across important questions from SEO beginners. Here are a few questions you might not have now but will eventually need to ask as you become better:
Why Do Real Estate Agents Need SEO?
Let me address this question differently. It is not only real estate agents SEO that should be important to you. No matter which site you own, having a grip on SEO would help improve your ranking in the SERP. Real estate investing SEO services is simply a faster way to grow your website and attract a larger audience.
Does SEO Work For Real Estate?
SEO works for virtually any site you can think of. SEO real estate keywords are abundant, but many agents often neglect this and rely on simply creating content. You can easily beat some of these sites with a little bit of searching and using real estate SEO services.
What Should I Look For In Real Estate SEO Companies?
Whenever I look at real estate SEO companies, I often focus heavily on their reputation and history. If the company has a proven track record of helping individuals, it is a clear sign you would benefit from them. You can also look at some of their tools to determine if this would suit your needs.