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SEO Strategy for Realtors: Everything You Need to Know to Have a Successful Website That Ranks

SEO Strategy for Realtors: Everything You Need to Know to Have a Successful Website That Ranks

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How can thousands of people find out about your business online easily?

Perhaps people cannot find your real estate business online or you are just starting and require a jumpstart?

The answer is real estate Search Engine Optimization (SEO). And, while this strategy takes time and effort, the rewards are enormous!

Implementing an SEO strategy for realtors guarantees that thousands of unique visitors will visit your website each month. Your business would be virtually unstoppable.

SEO for real estate agents means that you show up and stand out on Google whenever potential clients are looking for your services. The right strategies generate leads for your business all day and night!

Does this sound like something you would like to implement for your real estate company?

Read on to find some of the best strategies and real estate SEO tips that can help your website reach the top of search engine listings!

But first…

Why Is SEO Important for Realtors?

To understand why your real estate website requires SEO to succeed, mule over these statics:

  • Over 44 percent of home buyers look for properties on the internet first
  • Since 2008, the number of Google searches related to real estate has been increasing by 20 percent annually
  • Your prospective home buyers spend an average of three fewer days searching for homes using the Internet

Looking at these numbers, there is no doubt that real estate businesses need to prioritize their search visibility to be and stay competitive.

Understanding SEO

secrets-to-making-a-successful-seo-websiteTo understand the benefits of SEO for real estate listings, it’s important to understand what the term entails.

SEO simply means tailoring your real estate site’s content to rank high on search engines such as Google. A good ranking means that potential clients looking for terms related to your website—for instance, “homes for sale in San Andres”—find your site quickly in top search results.

Many internet users open their browsers, type in their search terms, and are more likely to open one of the top three results. However, advertisements, local maps, and instant answers are pushing down the once organic rankings, making it harder for businesses to get noticed.

Likewise, SEO for agents and brokers is brutally competitive.

Many realtors opt to add high-traffic keywords to the content on their sites. While not an effective strategy, it tailors each keyword for individual listings in order to catch the attention of the right homebuyers.

Fortunately, there are a few SEO strategies that you can use yourself to capture more traffic and leads for your real estate business.

3 Types of SEO Strategies for Improving a Real Estate Website

SEO is not a one-time activity.

It is a constant process that ensures that your real estate website remains on top of the results list. Investing in a long-term SEO strategy shows how dedicated you are to optimize your content to generate new leads, provide homebuyers with the right information and value, and maintained authority within your market.

Below are three types of SEO strategies that you should implement on your website.

On-page strategy

have-a-successful-website-that-ranksReal estate on-page SEO is an excellent approach to start with because it implements elements that are directly within your control.

An on-page strategy works on optimizing your website first so that any consequent strategies you implement afterward are effective.

The following are key features you want to prioritize:

  • SEO-friendly URLs — These are short URLs with keywords
  • Title tag — Include your keyword at the beginning of the title tag to add more weight to search results and include modifiers to aid in ranking long-tail versions of your keyword
  • H1 tag—Wrap your title with the H1 tag
  • Use multimedia — Include interesting diagrams, videos, and images to increase the time visitors spend on your website
  • H2 tag — Wrap your subheadings using this tag to divide your content into scannable sections. Remember to include keyword phrases in subheadings to improve content crawling for SEO ranking
  • Use the main keyword in the first paragraph — Make sure you include your keyword within the first 100 words of your content
  • Build a responsive site — Such sites help search engine algorithms assign indexing properties to a page for better find results on a mobile device
  • Outbound links — These links point to other credible authority websites
  • Internal links — They are hyperlinks that lead to another page within your website
  • Loading speed — A clean code, a fast server, and compressed images help improve the time it takes for your website to load as well as good website design
  • Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) keywords — This means using variations of main keywords within your content
  • Image optimization — Use alternative text to show visitors that images are blocked on their browser. Likewise, Google robots use the alt text to determine what is on the image
  • Social share buttons—The number of likes and shares are akin to mini votes of your website for Google, meaning that search rankings adjust accordingly
  • Long content — Most of the time, longer content leads to higher rankings
  • Bounce rate — Reduce the bounce rate by adding more content, including links in your pages to other resources, improving page loads, using engaging media, and encouraging visitors to click on something

Off-page strategy

seo-strategy-for-realtorsThis SEO strategy for realtors involves promoting your site in areas outside itself to improve ranking on search results.

Off-page SEO is one of the best ways to build awareness and drive organic traffic to your real estate website. This strategy involves inviting internet users to your website for further information they can rely on.

Some ways of improving your website’s credibility and business reputation include:

  • Using reviews — Positive reviews that contain keywords and your business name help search engines understand that your site is a reliable source
  • With links — Make sure that the anchor text is directly connected to the page topic and grabs attention so that users use it. Plus, the links should be diverse to ensure that your content is not flagged as spam, which will affect your ranking
  • Using social media — Monitor your business’ online reputation using brand mentions to understand what people are saying about it on social media. Next, understand their requirements and take action
  • Using partnerships — Increase mentions of your real estate business by creating partnerships with influencers

Local SEO strategy

how-to-make-a-successful-seo-website

Local SEO for real estate agents is a powerful tool for successfully promoting your business to clients in your specific geographical location by ranking high on popular search engines.

Below are steps that will help improve your real estate website’s ranking to dominate the local search results:

  • Carry out an SEO audit to see what pages are performing well and that need improvements
  • Optimize your website for search using the audit results to address identified issues
  • Ensure website accessibility in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, so that your online presence is ADA compliant
  • Optimize your website for mobile devices to keep potential clients and Google happy
  • List your website on Google My Business and other industry-relevant directories
  • Go social to connect with your target audience and drive conversions
  • Post informative articles and interviews with local business leaders on your website
  • Distinguish yourself from the competition by creating video content
  • Use schema or structure data mark-up to help search engines learn more about the content you post

The Best SEO Tools and Resources for Realtors

secrets-to-making-a-successful-seo-websiteTo get your real estate website to rank for SEO keywords, you need the help of the best resources and SEO tools in the industry.

They include:

  • Yoast — A popular WordPress SEO plugin that helps you optimize critical on-page elements, come up with site hierarchies, check the readability of your content, and manage the technical side of SEO.
  • Google Search Console — This tool shows exactly what Google sees when looking at your content. Included are important reports such as 404s, warnings, and organic search performance that will help improve how your website ranks.
  • Lighthouse — A Google tool that works in Chrome. Lighthouse provides insights into the SEO technical elements on mobile as well as usability statistics.
  • Neil Patel’s Ubersuggest — An SEO tool for finding keyword suggestions and evaluating the competition.
  • Yext — Use this tool to find out where your website appears and does not appear on the web. The tool works with major aggregators, so you can upload your business’ information to it. Yext will send your data to all the directories on which you are not appearing while updating your older ones.
  • BrightLocal — This service operates like Yext but also helps you locate local and niche directories that you should also target.
  • Ahrefs blog — The world’s leading source of SEO studies, facts, and insights.
  • Moz — An authoritative SEO blog that covers a range of SEO topics.
  • Search Engine Land — A resource that offers the latest information on algorithm updates, trends, and studies in the search marketing industry.

Be Prepared to Reap the Benefits of a Good SEO Strategy

Despite fierce competition in the real estate world, there are plenty of opportunities to grow and get noticed. Investing in a proven and working SEO strategy for realtors will help your business rank well and attract many new customers. If you are not familiar with the SEO process, it is advisable to get help from a professional to minimize the chances of making costly mistakes. After all, SEO does take a lot of time and effort to implement successfully.

The best way to beat the growing competition is to seek out the latest information that can help you stay ahead of the digital marketing game. Browse here for more useful tips about SEO that ensure you stay on top of any search engine list!

Author Profile

Manuela WillboldOnline Media & PR Strategist
Blogger and Educator by Passion | Contributor to many Business Blogs in the United Kingdom | Fascinated to Write Blogs in News & Education I have completed a journalism summer course at the London School of Journalism and manage various blogs.