Most individuals in the real estate industry have made the switch to digital platforms due to the continuous evolvement of technology and homebuyer expectations. There are now a growing number of homebuyers who visit a real estate website to gather information and buy a home. In fact, most home buyers start their search on online listings.
These efforts may sound easy at first, yet this is often not the case for real estate professionals. Keep in mind that the chances of people stumbling across your site are slim, especially if you are not doing any form of digital marketing strategy, such as Search Engine Optimization (SEO). For this reason, you need to do some digital marketing if you want your real estate business to be a success. After all, the competition is tight out there in this industry, which means that you need to work hard to make your properties stand out.
If you are not as knowledgeable in this area, fret not as we have prepared six practical tips to kick start your SEO implementation for real estate:
Create a User-Friendly and Responsive Website
Your website will serve as your online office that people can go to when in need of house listings in a specific area. If you want to do your SEO the right way, make sure that you start with your website; the first step is to make sure that it is user-friendly and has responsive web design. Investing in well-thought-out site elements can make a significant difference in making your page appealing to visitors. Moreover, when designing the website, make sure to keep it straightforward and simple.
To ensure excellent user experience, put yourself in your customer’s shoes. How do you see the website? Is the navigation easy? Can you find what you need right away? These are some questions to ask yourself when designing a real estate website.
Take Time to Perform Thorough Research
Keep in mind that research is a huge part of your SEO strategies. Aside from performing keyword research, you also need to do market and competition research. On top of that, identifying the behavior and characters of your target audience will help you create an effective SEO strategy. There are many tools you can use to help with your research, such as Ahrefs and SEMrush.
For keywords, you can use Google’s keyword planner to identify the words or phrases that are relevant to your business. Keep in mind that just because a keyword has a high search volume doesn’t mean you should use it. Keywords with high search volumes tend to be saturated, which means that you might not receive the views you hoped for. This is why you should always be strategic when choosing and implementing your keywords.
Focus on Listing Optimization
When you have all the relevant data, it’s time you optimize your listings with them. However, that doesn’t mean you should use them for every listing that you have. Doing so would be deemed as keyword stuffing, and that is a red flag that can negatively affect your rankings. As mentioned, remember to be strategic, use your keywords wisely in your listings, and ensure that they flawlessly blend well with the listing content.
Build Solid Citations and Links
Citations are online directory listings of your business. Your business should be in general directories, such as Yelp and Yellow Pages. Besides these, have your business details on targeted real estate directories as well. Make sure that your Name, Address, Phone Number (NAP) are consistent across all listings.
When you have your citations set up, you will then need to focus on link building as well. To push your site ranking higher, you will need to have quality inbound links that point to authoritative sites; you can link them or build relationships with them. When building a relationship with companies relevant to your brand, you typically get the chance to trade links with them, meaning that your site will also show up on their content, which will be a major advantage for your site ranking.
Aim to Receive Quality Reviews
Reviews are essential, especially in real estate listings. Even home buyers and sellers alike rely heavily on these reviews to decide whether or not the real estate company is a good fit for them. This is why it’s essential to populate your site, listings, and other online platforms with genuine reviews from clients you’ve worked with.
You should also make an effort to ask for reviews from your clients—send them an email, call them, or ask them in-person. Should you have some clients who still haven’t left you a review, you can spice up the game by giving away promos or offers to motivate them to write a review.
Reviews will not only convince potential clients to try your services, but it will also let search engines know that your business is legit. Have a process for asking for reviews so that you can gain a steady stream of feedback.
Track Your Results Regularly
Having an SEO campaign is one matter, and knowing if it’s working is another. You can try all the strategies available to boost your real estate business online, yet if you’re not tracking the results, it will all be for nothing.
Keep in mind that you can use various ways to analyze crucial pieces of data. If you want to know your actual Google rankings, check out Google Search Console. For site traffic, you can use Google Analytics because it examines a myriad of metrics that will provide you with valuable insights. You can also track your conversions using Google Analytics, so make sure that this is set up. Tracking your results at least once a month will be beneficial because you’ll be able to identify your strong and weak points and improve them accordingly.
Conclusion
The six SEO tips mentioned above will help you build a strong strategy that will further improve your real estate business. The real estate industry is a competitive market, and if you want to stand out, you need to implement the right tactics to get people to notice you. Keep in mind that if you want to be good at what you do, you need people to find you, and the easiest way to do that is to be online.
Dominate search engine rankings and build a strong social media presence with SEO. It wouldn’t hurt to have professionals do this aspect for you as well. There are many agencies in today’s market that specialize in real estate marketing. With an agency by your side, you can focus on other aspects of your business that can further your company’s growth. Moreover, you can guarantee that experienced professionals are working on the online presence that will bring you more clients and sales.
If you are looking for a digital marketing company SEO services in St. Louis, MO, we have got your covered. Our experts at Framework Pros offer innovative solutions through AI-powered technology to help you gain the upper hand in your industry. Get in touch with us today to see how we can help!