Real Estate SEO: The Complete How-To Guide for Realtor
Discover how you can leverage a real estate website to capture traffic (and leads) through search engine optimization.
1. Research Real Estate Keywords
2. Add Keywords to Your Site
3. Compelling High-Quality Content
4. Make and Publish Real Estate Videos
5. Make Sure Website is Responsive for Mobile
6. Write Yourself A Great Agent Bio
7. Get Listed on Real Estate Directories
What is Real Estate SEO?
Real estate SEO is the application of search engine optimization techniques to real estate websites. We focus on websites owned by real estate agents or agencies. While the broad SEO principles absolutely apply to real estate search engine optimization, there are also specific strategies we recommend to improve search traffic for real estate websites.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of implementing a strategy or optimize a website in order to increase the free or organic traffic from search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo. Webmasters use SEO in an attempt to get their web pages listed higher in specific search results listings in order to drive more traffic to their website.
1. Research Real Estate Keywords
Before you implement an effective SEO strategy for your real estate site, it’s crucial to do your research. Specifically, keyword research. You need to know which keywords will attract the right people to your website. Sixty-nine percent of home shoppers begin their research with a local keyword phrase, like “Houston real estate agents.”
Most real estate agents serving multiple cities and regions. However, when you start your website, focus on the main city you do business in first. From there, build out silos that target other areas.
Example of search terms:
- [City] real estate
- [City] homes for sale
- real estate listings [City]
- real estate agent [City]
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2. Add Keywords on Your Site
Now that you know what your target audience is searching for, you need to include those words and phrases on your site. focus on putting your keywords in places like your title tags, headers, and body copy. By including them where users would logically look to find out what a page is about, you can be confident that Google will associate those words with your page.
Follow all SEO best practices such as using the keyword in:
- Meta description
- Title tag
- Alt tag on photos
- Filename on photos
- The body content
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3. Compelling High-Quality Content
One way to secure traffic to your site for those specific properties is to write blog posts. Each blog post should target a specific property’s address or a specific real estate related topic such as mortgage and financing, which prospective home buyers will be searching for using Google.
When coming up with blog content, keep in mind that the best posts are informative. People in the market to buy homes are typically interested in learning about more than the current state of the real estate market. Yes, offer them information about the market, such as statistics and useful tips. But above and beyond that, consider offering home repair tips, design information, and other tidbits about home upkeep and maintenance.
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4. Make and Publish Real Estate Videos
Videos are key engagement objects on all websites, but this is especially true of a real estate site. Home buyers love seeing a video tour of the inside of their prospective new homes. In addition to video tours, consider capturing testimonials on video, too.
Aim to present high-quality videos and virtual tours of properties. Doing so will entice potential clients to contact you and learn more.
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5. Make Sure Website is Responsive for Mobile
In 2015, Google rolled out a change to the search engine algorithms which now factor in a website’s mobile presence as a ranking signal. This reason alone can justify why responsive design is important!
Simply put, a website needs to be usable on a smartphone. This includes elements such as:
- readable text without requiring zoom;
- adequate space for tap targets;
- and no horizontal scrolling.
With the Google algorithm update, a responsive web design increases visibility on search engines—because it is mobile-friendly. A site with an effective mobile experience will show up in search results above one without.
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6. Write Yourself A Great Agent Bio
If you’re a realtor working with an agency, your brokerage house more than likely hosts a web page for each realtor. You should write a great bio for yourself as an introduction to cold leads. Because people will Google your name, so it’s something you should optimize for.
Including your full name in the title tag and meta description for search engine optimization purpose. In this way, you will rank your bio pages with your name as the search term. You can also use the bio page to provide contact information and link to your personal website.
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7. Get Listed on Real Estate Directories
Real estate agent directories get a lot of traffic, so it’s worth your while to get listed in them. Each of the following highly trafficked real estate sites has directories available to realtors:
- realtor.com
- yellowpages.com
- trulia.com
- homes.com
- zillow.com
- homegain.com
- local.yahoo.com
- coldwellbanker.com
- facebook.com
- angieslist.com
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The Bottom Line
As you consider the real estate SEO how-to guide, be sure to keep one thing in mind: effective SEO takes time. You won’t see success overnight, but you can get started right away. Be patient, and your efforts will pay off. Provide potential clients with useful information before anything else, and in turn they will turn to you when they’re ready to buy.
Need Help?
Need help getting started with an SEO strategy for your site? Our dedicated SEO experts team is more than happy to help, so don’t hesitate to contact us or ask a proposal.