The real estate industry is massive with quite a bit of money to be made. Realtors closing a few sales a month can easily have an income of 6 figures or even more. With these monetary rewards comes intense competition in regards to digital marketing. Ranking at the top of a search engine can bring in a plethora of organic leads but it will be hard work. The truth about digital marketing is that it is a full-time job in itself which can be tough with all of the paperwork and showings a realtor does weekly. Finding the right marketing freelancer or company can help free up bandwidth for the realtor. SEO is impacted by a variety of factors which need to be managed carefully in order to give a realtor’s website the best rankings for main keywords they are targeting. The following will highlight best practices as well as the overall importance of SEO for realtors.

Blog Content Should Be Informative And High Quality

A realtor’s website needs to keep the visitor comfortable by being informative. The process of purchasing a property can be extremely stressful due to the amount of money spent. The lending process can be a nightmare for those people that might be self-employed or earn a large percentage of their income freelancing. Blog content should center around topics like the housing market in the area as we as frequently asked questions. The realtor’s job is to help facilitate a buy with their client’s best interest in mind which helps with stress reduction. The correct keywork research can help the website rank for homes or neighborhoods in the area the realtor does their largest amount of business in. If a realtor specializes in beachfront luxury homes using the keywords “Beach homes in St. Petersburg, Florida” would provide better results than a generic “homes for sale Florida”. The locality of the keyword is important as people nearly always specify where they are looking for homes when flocking to the search engines. Below are other tips that will help blog content improve SEO rankings:

  • Interlinking to other pages of the site.
  • Long form content can generate backlinks to the website organically.
  • Podcasts should be transcribed into a searchable piece of text.
  • Utilizing data to see which forms of content generate the most traffic.
  • Publish at specific times when website traffic is usually surging.
  • Take a look at other popular pieces of content in the industry that received the most traffic as well as social shares. This does not mean to copy the content but a fresh spin on a new topic can do the trick.

Backlinks In Articles/Blogs

Backlinks drive rankings, any person working in the SEO industry will tell you that. Backlinks on real estate industry websites can allow a realtor to start ranking quite quickly. Local websites that might not have the acclaim of a larger website like that of Zillow can help with local SEO rankings. Picking a reliable company to help build links is of the utmost importance as reckless marketers can lead to a huge drop in rankings. Utilizing Blackhat SEO techniques is a recipe for disaster that can ultimately lead to a website being deindexed from Google. Then work needs to be done to disavow links which takes time and money while the leads to the website from Google being completely eliminated. Below are tactics to get articles published on relevant websites:

  • Email outreach to an industry publication can result in the website accepting a piece of content from a realtor or someone helping them market. Generic pitches are loathed by website editors so put effort in at making a genuine pitch. These generic pitches are often shared by website admins which can hurt a realtor’s personal brand by labeling them a spammer.
  • Invite an industry name to contribute to your site with the hopes they let you do the same.
  • Broken link building can be done as well where a link that no longer works is pointed out with a replacement resource ready to go. This can also be done if a link in an article goes to an amazing piece of content on the company site. Most editors are not willing to insert a new link unless the new resource is significantly better than the links incorporated in the articles currently.
  • Roundups of content or tools offered in the real estate industry can be a hot topic. This can allow for natural linking which usually goes unnoticed if not linking back to a product or sales page.

Automated Backlinks With Manual Approval

Automated backlinks can truly drive traffic but this automation has to come with manual approval. Manual approval helps keep the quality of the links as high as possible. LinkLifting’s automated backlink approach not only works by generating real traffic but it can save quite a bit of marketing budget. Far too many SEO companies try to create an all-inclusive plan with the goal of maximizing the revenue rather than results. ROI needs to be one of the most important aspects of SEO as certain tactics just do not work. Targeting the correct keywords is something that our seasoned staff of SEO experts have done for year with incredible success rates. LinkLifting also takes pride in keeping our clients informed by offering regular reports to show the progress being made. Other SEO companies might decline full and detailed reports as they are not getting the results they promised or any results at all. LinkLifting is even the choice of other SEO companies needing a boost in traffic as well as keyword rankings. Below is a sample of a competitive keyword with a 7-month campaign at $450 a month. The cost versus the benefits is nothing short of amazing.

Image via Twitter https://twitter.com/LinkLifting/status/1189501281691492352

Variety In Quality Of Links

Placing articles on huge real estate or business publications like that of Forbes Magazine is not going to happen on a daily or even weekly basis. A combination of different quality links will make for a well-rounded marketing campaign. Avoid websites that are just used to build links where content barely is read due to low levels of organic traffic. These types of websites can do damage to the website as it is only a matter of time before Google penalizes the sites or network the sites are on. Private blog networks are used by various digital marketing companies to generate paid links which is against the policies Google has laid out for marketers. LinkLifting has worked with websites for years to form great relationships in order to build links in a variety of niches. An extra 10 leads per month for a realtor can completely change the trajectory of their career.

Avoid SEO companies that do the following:

  • Refuse to create reports or try to use complex language in order to confuse you as a client. Any great mind in the SEO industry should be able to explain the results in simple terms. Brush up on SEO so you can make sure that you are getting the services that you are paying for.
  • Will not use a time tracking software to log their hours. This could be for a variety of reasons with one of which being they are using tactics that could hurt your website. Others want a client to think they have an entire team on a project when that is simply not the case.
  • Companies that seem to rebrand far too many times can be dangerous to work with. The reason for a rebrand could have been a huge penalty leveraged against them by Google. Shady business practices can be hidden simply by using a different name in order to gain the trust of customers again.
  • Refuse to create a custom plan and would like you to pick one of their base plans. All industries are different and real estate can differ depending on whether commercial or residential property is being sold. Ask for previous results for a realtor that the company has garnered utilizing their “standard” package.

LinkLifting not only has experience in multiple niches but also helps immensely for those looking for traffic in the real estate industry. Below are the results of a 3-month campaign to help with real estate SEO.

Image Via Twitter https://twitter.com/LinkLifting/status/1156171990178455552

Winning New Customers…..Hopefully For Life!

New customers are going to find your website via search engine results for a majority of cases. Current and former customers can be a huge resource as referral marketing can really help drive sales. A person that is happy with their homebuying experience will refer your services or use your services in the case they are in the market to purchase another property. This impact all starts with SEO as exposure of a realtor is the first step, providing quality service is the next. A good way to generate traffic can be to send out email blasts with newer properties that have come on the market. It just takes one buyer to be intrigued to close a sale so maximize reach with SEO as well as email marketing.

Good SEO Reduces The Need To Spend Large Amounts Advertising

The real estate industry has massive budgets when it comes to advertising. Realtors have invested in benches at bus stops as well as billboards for decades. None of these tactics are going to provide as much in terms of ROI as ranking in the top spot for target keywords in your local area. Paying for traffic does not result in leads like organic traffic that was searching for properties in a targeted location. Quality of leads garnered are important as well as leads that cannot be given a mortgage or do not live in the area will take a tweak of the marketing strategy.

Technical SEO

The way that a website is designed is going to directly impact its SEO. Take the time to do the right title tags and meta descriptions as it could be a difference maker. One thing that many people outside of the SEO industry do not understand is that page speed impacts a websites SEO. Slow loading times are viewed as negative by Google as it impacts the experience of the user negatively. Small things like getting rid of redirects as well as being conscious of the type of scripts and media on a particular page can also help increase page speed. Real estate websites are going to have a lot of media due to people wanting to see the different properties an agent is listing. The website needs to be optimized for mobile devices as this is where a majority of searches are done in today’s smartphone/tablet infested world. Listing an agent’s phone number correctly seems minor but with one click calling that is a far better option.

Social Media Even Impacts SEO

Social media is a tool that all businesses should use with real estate agents being the same. Something as simple as answering a question of a follower can generate a lead as well as build a sense of community among followers. The process of promoting content is extremely important as hashtagging a post correctly can expand the reach of a particular piece of content. Commenting on trends in the industry and trying to spark conversation is a perfect way of increasing an agent’s following. Shares on social media of content is also taken into account as Google has a dedication to quality content is obvious. Profiles also rank in search results so including the company website can be some of the first sites that appear in the rankings. YouTube rankings should be kept in mind as well as the right YouTube video talking about popular real estate topics can generate massive amounts of traffic to an agent’s page/website.

Real estate agents that are not focusing on SEO or paying a professional to do so are selling themselves short. The number of leads generated for properties sold could surprise agents that have been closing sales at a high volume for years. Do not underestimate the importance of SEO in real estate as the search engines govern the way information is delegated to consumers. Hit a high sale total than ever before with a far smaller marketing budget to watch your overall profits annually increase!

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