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Real Estate SEO: The Complete Guide

Jason Vaught

In an up market, competition exists on every corner as skyrocketing real estate prices cause people to run to the real estate profession. This increase in demand drives up the prices for paid advertising such as magazine publications, social media advertising, and pay per click marketing. We cannot say the same about real estate SEO marketing.

In a down market, there’s less real estate to go around, so most agencies reduce their ad spend. The budgets tighten, leading to fewer leads and revenues for the business. Had they invested in SEO, the traffic would only decrease based on the search volume rather than the company’s shrinking budget.

SEO For Real Estate

Hopefully, this example helps you see how SEO can help. If you’re a real estate agent, you know that online visibility in today’s world is important for your brand’s success. You need those who are in the consideration or home buying phase to know your name. Most real estate agents flood social media with open houses, listings, and informational content.

What most don’t do is take the information and position it on their website so that search engines will find it. In order to attract potential clients, it’s important to have a website ranking high in search engine results pages (SERPs).

Getting these top spots isn’t as simple as writing, pasting, and publishing. Google search difficulty depends on the competition, the industry, and your current domain authority. But once you grab that top spot, a smaller investment will keep you there for years to come.

Here is what you will learn in this article:

What is SEO?
What is real estate SEO?
Local SEO for real estate.
The Costs of SEO for real estate.
The important Keywords for real estate.
Why directories are still important.
The importance of your Google Business Listing.
How to design your website for SEO.
Content marketing for becoming the subject matter expert.
Social media‘s impact on SEO.
Why reputation management is important to your rankings.
Building backlinks to increase your search position.
Real estate SEO tips.

Think of this article as having your own real estate SEO consultant giving you the information needed for your real estate business to compete in search. Use the information here to reach the ideal potential client who your business can best serve. Motivated to read further? Then let’s get going.

What is SEO?

SEO is short for search engine optimization, and it’s improving the ranking of a website in search engine results pages. By optimizing your website for relevant keywords, you can improve its visibility and attract more potential clients. But SEO doesn’t just happen by including the right keywords. There are many ranking factors to consider right if we want Google to see us rank us for those keywords.

What is Real Estate SEO?

You might understand the basics of SEO but still question how to do this for real estate. SEO for the real estate industry has unique differences from most online service companies.

One key difference is home and building listings. These come and go, so it requires frequently listing on your website and distributing those listings to places like Realtor.com and Zillow. This presents both a challenge and an opportunity for real estate SEO marketing. It gives us plenty of fresh content for brand awareness, but since it is not evergreen and disappears over time costing us our position in Google search.

In Real estate SEO, not all keywords lead to an interested buyer or seller. Real estate has keywords such as “luxury real estate agent” where the search intent is specifically looking for someone to find them an upscale home. This is exactly the type of client we are looking for. So in real estate SEO, you can identify your niche and target that potential customer with your SEO.

Warning: Because of the industry size, there are many real estate SEO scams offered by what seem to be real estate marketing companies. These scams use black hat SEO tactics that provide temporary results. The results last until the point where Google penalizes your website, or you stop paying the company for their services.

In full transparency, SEO for real estate can be tricky, as the industry is very competitive. However, by following the recommendations in this article, you will improve your website’s ranking and attract more traffic. If you really want to win, consider hiring a local SEO agency like ours so that you can focus on buying and selling properties.

Ready to know how to do SEO for real estate? Good, that is what’s coming up next.

Local SEO for Real Estate

Local SEO for real estate agents and agencies is search engine optimization that’s specific to a geographical area. By targeting potential clients in your local area, you can improve your website’s ranking and visibility. People interested in your services are searching online for terms such as “near me” or “real estate agent in [city], [state].

Where you show up for these terms when a customer performs a local search is just as important as basic keywords. The best SEO company for real estate businesses understands how to weave these words into your website for local search engine optimization. Here are a few ways we do this.

Include them into your on-page real estate SEO description.
Outreach to other websites that link back to your website with these phrases.
Build city specific pages for the communities that your agency serves.

This is where strategy and structure in a SEO plan is crucially important. The way we target these terms on your internal website pages is a way to communicate to Google how they should see you.

SEO For Realtors

SEO for real estate agents that have to go it alone should focus on very specific long tail keywords and frequent content publication. Our SEO services for real estate agents hones in on where you can win with organic search.

SEO For Real Estate Investors

Having a “we pay cash for houses” sign isn’t the only way to get leads. We have a specific strategy for real estate investing SEO. Our SEO services for real estate investors help people looking to sell quickly, find your company. If you are a real estate investor, contact us to learn more.

SEO For Real Estate Agencies

Want to be the biggest agency in your community? SEO services for real estate companies will establish your authority as the best in the biz. We work with your entire team to maximize your SEO ROI.

SEO For Real Estate Websites

SEO for real estate listings means quickly showing up at the top of the search. We can help with that. Our services help Google find your new listings, making it available to potential home buyers.

How Much Does SEO for Real Estate Cost?

The cost of SEO depends on the amount of competitors and opportunities you have. At 805 SEO, we lay our pricing structure out in three packages based on how much area (keywords and geographically) you want to cover. Question any real estate SEO specialist who tells you that small amounts of money will get the job done. Real estate is just too competitive for that to be an accurate statement.

Is real estate SEO worth it? Yes. Compared to Google Ads, over time, the cost savings quickly builds. Besides cost savings, SEO helps you better understand your business and the customers you serve. Finally, working with a SEO agency is like having a digital marketing partner who can see your business through an entirely new lens.

Real Estate Keyword Research

The very first thing that SEO agencies or your team should do is keyword research. Exploring different keywords gives you a broad look at what you should talk about online and offline. Keyword search helps you fill out your directory listings, home page, location pages, service pages, and blog articles.

Find target keywords you can use for people looking for real estate companies but also for companies who can become a part of your network.

Some of the best keywords for real estate agents include: “real estate,” “homes for sale,” “realtors,” and “property.”

The top real estate SEO keywords are not solely based on how many people search. If a keyword is too difficult to rank for, then it may not be your priority. Instead, the best real estate SEO are the ones that have enough search volume and are within your company’s striking distance.

Once you know which keywords are most likely to attract potential clients, use them on your website content and real estate listings (more to come on this). This includes placing them in the title and meta tags of your website, as well as in the body of your content.

Important note, it’s important not to use a keyword too many times, as search engines see this as keyword stuffing. Instead, focus on creating comprehensive content that uses keywords naturally.

There are free tools such as Google keyword planner that you can use along with Google Analytics and Google Search console to track your progress. Our SEO service includes these tools but also integrates tools we use for enterprise SEO, so that we capture and report on the widest range of real estate keywords.

Competitor Research

Competitor research looks into how well they are doing for specific keywords, but it goes well beyond this. Competitor research means looking at internal backlinks, external backlinks, incoming backlinks, topic authority, and any gaps in content they have that we can capitalize on.

Performing research on organic search often leads to different competitors than you might assume. Often, our SEO and content marketing agency find offline competitors differ from online competitors. This awareness helps you build a better overall strategy for your entire real estate organization.

Real Estate Directory Listings

One of the best ways to improve your website’s ranking and visibility is listing it in relevant online directories. Some so-called “SEO experts” may disagree with this, but when you consider every directory has its own search engine, having the right content in directories becomes more valuable.

Being listed in national, local, and real estate specific directories signals to Google that your company is the real-deal. No, they do not consider it a direct ranking factor, but organic search is more than just these outlined factors from Google. Brand mentions and your NAP is important to validate what your business is, what it does, and who it serves.

Some of these directories include a do-follow backlink, which is considered a ranking factor. With the inexpensive cost of listing your business in an online directory, there’s no excuse not to take advantage of them.

You know the big players in the directories space. These include Google, Bing, Yahoo, Yelp, YellowPages and so on. But you can find a lot of opportunities by being listed in local directories that may include a backlink with local intent.

There are several real estate directories that you can list your business in, including:

Being listed and optimizing your content on these websites is a fast way to get ahead of the competition by taking a lazy approach to profile listing pages.

Managing Your Google Business Profile

For SEO for real estate, one of the most important things you can do is create a Google Business profile (formally called Google My Business Listing). This is a free listing that allows you to showcase your company and its services. It also allows potential clients to find your business on Google Maps and gives them the ability to leave reviews.

While many people think you should first build out your website, the fastest way to get leads is through your Google Business Profile. The good news and bad news is since your listing is a Google Map Listing, the algorithm prioritizes distance. This means a searcher 15 miles from a business is less likely to see your Google Business Listings.

In the real estate industry, it’s your closest neighbors who see your Google Business listing. This is one reason to open your office in an area that you want to sell the most homes. Of course, that isn’t always possible, but not to fear. We can address this by increasing your position in organic search.

How to Set Up Your Google Business Profile

To create a Google Business profile, you first need to create a Google account. Then, go to business.google.com and click “Start Now.” It will then prompt you to enter your business information, including your name, address, and phone number. You will also need to create a logo and provide a brief description of your business.

Complete all information accurately and update it as needed. Keep in mind that potential clients will probably search for your business on Google Maps, so it’s important to make sure your information is correct and up-to-date.

Optimizing Your Google Business Profile

Creating a basic listing gets you into the conversation, but optimizing your Google Business Profile puts you front and center in the Google Local Pack. Real estate Google Business Profile optimization includes:

Setting up all services and including keyword rich descriptions people will use to find your business.
Taking advantage of Google Lens by placing photos on your profile that match keywords people search for.
Requesting online reviews and then responding to them with keywords you want the top position for.
Making Google Posts to promote recent listings, home sales, events, and blog articles you publish.

We have many GPB and Google Maps strategies to help a real estate agencies rankings skyrocket, but starting with these four goes a long way with your SEO campaign.

Real Estate Website SEO

Most agencies hire website designers to make their website look stunning. The intent is to get people to take action by either making a phone call, emailing or visiting a business.

This is all good, but it only leads to people coming to your website through a referral, print, media, or paid digital marketing. For proper SEO, you need the technical side of search optimization in place throughout your entire website.

Technical SEO is a critical part of any real estate website. Here are seven basic aspects of technical SEO real estate companies must include.

Premium hosting with a nearby server, fast speeds, and 99.9% uptime.
Mobile web design with easy navigation and proper image formatting.
All pages include a meta title and meta description that speaks to the content on that page.
Optimize all images for loading speed and include the image meta title and meta description.
Schema markup to tell Google what this page is all about.
Blog articles with keyword rich content and SEO friendly URL’s.
Sitemaps that update regularly with Google, Bing, and Yahoo search engines.

By following these seven real estate SEO optimization steps, your website’s search engine results ranking improves, attracting more potential clients. Now, let’s move onto the next step of real estate on page SEO, which is content marketing.

Content Marketing For Real Estate

We have laid the SEO foundation and created a solid framework for future growth. Now, It’s time to dig deep and bring out the details that make your website stand out above the competition.

The real estate industry is primed for content marketing. You could write a daily article and never run out of topics to talk about. Exactly why we need a content strategy.

At 805 SEO, our content marketing process tests articles performance, while creating an action plan for our long-term content marketing efforts.

Content Strategy

Content marketing helps support our primary goal of ranking for high priority keywords. It also brings in new traffic from people at the interest stage of buying or selling a property. When investing in SEO, a content strategy becomes a living document that changes.

This content strategy creates the initial framework guiding your SEO content marketing, but allows for adjustments when you find more opportunities and see how Google responds to your plan.

Creating Blog Content

The term “quality content“ gets pushed by SEO writing agencies looking to sell their blog post services. The problem is, there are millions of quality articles on the internet that nobody sees. Creating blog content is much more than writing a good story.

To show up at the top of the search result, your content needs to be in line with your industry. It needs to align with the other articles you’ve published. It needs to cover the topic in detail.

A blog article needs to have a proper linking structure, mention all the related keywords, and earn backlinks from other websites. If this sounds like a lot of effort, it is, and it’s one reason real estate agencies start and quickly stop producing blog content.

At 805 SEO, our content process takes care of everything from concept to publishing so that you get a return on investment without disturbing your business operations.

Page Experience

If you want your page to rank for difficult keywords, then invest in the on-page experience. When needed, a real estate SEO expert creates a page layout that is engaging, stimulating, and keeps people on the page for longer than the competition.

Google considers page stickiness an important ranking factor. So for those important keywords, include video, audio, infographics, and vivid imagery into the page experience.

Sound like a lot of work? It is for us, but the benefits go beyond the page experience. By creating a video for your article that is hosted on YouTube, you can use real estate video SEO to find even more home buyers. Those infographics you publish are perfect for social media content pointing people to your full article.

It’s a win all the way around.

What About Commercial Real Estate SEO?

We’ve talked a lot about residential real estate SEO focusing on selling single-family homes, but what about commercial real estate agents? There’s many opportunities for commercial agents with large transactions to capture new leads.

SEO for commercial real estate agents follows a similar approach, but has different strategies than SEO for residential agents. Here are a few ideas when optimizing your site for commercial real estate.

Find backlink opportunities from commercial real estate publications.
Guest post on commercial broker websites with helpful information.
Get a profile on all the commercial listing websites such as loopnet.com and its subsidiaries.

If you are a commercial real estate agency, there will be fewer competitors, but those competitors may invest into SEO. Not to worry, our agency has groundbreaking strategies that will outperform the competition.

Social Media SEO For Real Estate

A less known but equally important way to improve your website’s ranking and visibility is using social media. Hearing that may excite some, while making others cringe. If you’ve felt defeated by the recent algorithm changes limiting your exposure, not to worry. Now that you are investing in SEO, social media serves a greater purpose than likes and follows.

As previously discussed, sharing your website content as social media tips helps to get more people interested with minimal effort. Not only that, but Google also considers it to be a social signal.

Us SEO insiders know this to increase your search rankings. As you can see, social media helps SEO and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

Social media marketing is also a great way to connect with potential clients who first found you through a search engine. While they may not be ready now, by following you on social media you can engage with them at a later time. Once you build trust and credibility, those leads eventually convert into clients.

In order to get the most out of social media for SEO, post high-quality content that appeals to your target audience. By doing so, you improve your website’s awareness and attract more potential clients. As a part of our services, we provide social media for real estate marketing.

Reputation Management For Real Estate

We’ve touched on getting reviews for Google, but full reputation management includes places where customers can provide a rating and explanation of your real estate expertise. By monitoring your online reviews on Yelp, Facebook, FourSquare, Nextdoor, and Yellow Pages, you can portray the business in a positive light.

Reviews are a valuable resource for potential clients. By reading reviews, they get a sense of what it’s like to work with you and whether you’re the right agent for them. They also learn about your personality based on the responses you provide to these online reviews.

Respond to both positive reviews and negative reviews. Responding to reviews shows potential clients that you’re listening to their feedback and care about their opinion. It also shows that you’re willing to take the time to address any concerns they may have.

By managing your reputation, you can help improve your SEO by driving more website traffic. Plus, it’s just good business to communicate with satisfied and unsatisfied customers.

Link Building For Real Estate

Backlinks are an important part of SEO. Google sees these as signals from the internet that your company’s website is worth mentioning. What they mention is also important as anchor text with keywords related to your core business encourages Google to rank you for those specific terms.

Real estate agents have plenty of opportunities for earning backlinks. Here are a few strategies for your business.

Sponsor an event: Event pages often have their own websites where they mention sponsors. Find out if the event has a website and ask for a link to your website.

Support a charity: Non-profit organizations often welcome the opportunity to support their donors. Find out if charities you support will put a link back to your website.

Host an event: Do you have a special type of real estate expertise? If so, host an event and invite bloggers, media, and local publishers to attend for free. If they like your information, expect them to talk about you online with a link back to your real estate website.

Write for real estate journals: Guest posting is a great way to earn high quality backlinks. You can do this on many real estate publications. Start with the smaller ones that are eager for contributors. Then work your way up to the larger ones with a high domain rating.

Ask Your Friends: Almost everyone has a website in this day and age. What can you do to get a mention on a friend’s blog or a business website? It would surprise you to know how many opportunities exist. Like door knocking, do the hard work it takes to win at real estate SEO.

Real Estate SEO Tips

We have provided you with plenty of ideas about how to increase your website ranking. From keyword research to backlink building, every one of these requires work and discipline. Since you now have more than enough to chew on, here are some real estate tips to keep in mind as you work to increase your rankings.

Set realistic expectations: Organic SEO takes time, and it’s easy to forget this when you’ve made the investment and continue waiting for results.
Keep on grinding: SEO is most effective when you are continuing to build your real estate agencies brand identity. It’s a combined effort that leads to the greatest rewards.
More is not better: You can spend endless amounts of money on SEO, but you only need more articles when there is more to talk about. You only need more links when it will increase your ranking. You only need more directories when those directories will help increase visibility.
Watch out for scams: The SEO industry is full of scammers. If a price is too good to be true, it is. If you know more about SEO than the “expert”, run for the hills.
Find Your Niche in the Real Estate Industry: When getting started, earning the top spot for “real estate agent” can be tough. Aim to earn the top spot for terms such as luxury real estate, beach real estate, or a smaller known area within a city.

Real Estate SEO Agency

If you’re looking to improve your website’s ranking and visibility, then you need our real estate SEO services. Our real estate SEO experts can help you optimize your website for search engines and attract more potential clients to your business.

We offer a free SEO audit and strategy call, so you see exactly how we improve your website’s ranking. Contact us today to learn more about our real estate SEO services!