More than 50% of home buyers begin their search online. Real estate brokers cannot afford to pass on incorporating real estate SEO into their marketing strategy.
This guide provides 7 ways your real estate business can earn traffic leads using real estate SEO.
Use local SEO keywordsWhy begin with local SEO? Because nearly 70% of home buyers start their search by using a local keyword such as “Homes in Chicago” or “Chicago realtors.” While many realtors tend to serve multiple cities, it’s important that you focus your website’s content on the city you primarily conduct business. Once you’ve done that, you can move on to target other areas where you provide realtor services.When optimizing your website for SEO, ensure your NAP or name, address, and phone number are accurate for each location. Bob Clay Inc advises realtors to optimize their website with these terms and have them appear throughout your website.
- [City] real estate
- [City] homes for sale
- [City] real estate listings
- [City] realtor
- [City] real estate agent
You don’t want your website to just be pictures of homes you are selling. You want to add value to potential home buyers by making your website a resource. Share information about public transportation, the crime rate statistics, median income, the school districts, and homeowner statistics as well.Create content about homes you want to sellWhile a realtor generally represents hundreds of listings, there is likely a home or two or three that the real estate agent may be eager to sell. A great way to draw attention to those properties is with a well-crafted, SEO-friendly blog post about those properties in particular. By using local SEO best practices, website traffic to your website and that listening, will certainly grow.
For your blog post, ensure that you include keywords in these realtor SEO best practices:
- Unique content, at least 200 words.
- Title
- Meta description
- File name on photos
- Alt tag on photos
- Leverage photos and videos
Videos and pictures are vital to all websites, especially real estate websites. From photos of a well-lit, open floor plan to a video virtual tour, the right visuals will get you much closer to a sale than not. A way to leverage those beautiful photos and videos is to get a testimonial from a home buyer. It’s an especially great idea to keep a video camera with you for when you sell a home. In fact, most smartphones have high-quality cameras that will allow you to capture the right lighting along with your gleeful, new homeowners.
Make sure your site is mobile-friendly
We live in the digital age—an age where most people shop via their mobile devices. This includes shopping for a home. In “The Digital House Hunt” report, the research found that 89% of new home shoppers used their mobile phones in their search. Also, real estate broker-related searches on tablets increased by 300%. And to top it off, home foreclosure searches via mobile phone grew by 180%. Google ranks responsive websites first. Your digital marketing strategy needs to include a mobile-friendly website in addition to SEO for real estate.Realtors cannot afford to have a website that is not responsive.
Ensure your business is listed in relevant directories
By the numbers: Zillow has 36 million unique monthly visitors and Trulia has 25 million unique monthly visitors. Being listed on the top real estate directories offers huge potential for an increase in traffic to your website.
Spruce up your bio on your broker’s website
Bruce Clay says that optimizing your bio on your brokerage website is a great way to get you noticed. While your sub-domain may not rank for real estate SEO, there is still potential to boost your name in your local real estate industry.
Take advantage of social media marketing
Social media has quickly become a vital tool for real estate agents, with 77% using social media. What’s more? Social media generated the highest quality of leads at 47% compared with 32% from an MLS site. Realtors can leverage social media to build and strengthen relationships. Every realtor knows that real estate relies on building relationships with home buyers. So, when a potential homeowner is vetting a real estate agent, having a social media presence signals trust and having an authority voice in selling homes.Social media platforms like Instagram and Pinterest are great for showcasing beautiful homes, décor and helping those shopping for a home imagine being in the home you are selling. This is another reason photos and videos are vital to selling homes.To leverage social media, you will need to do your research and find out where your target audience is hanging out online. Are they mostly on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Pinterest? Tailor your content to those specific platforms so that the content is relevant.It’s amazing the many benefits SEO for real estate agents has to offer. Make sure you take full advantage of them.Call KitelyTech on (800) 274 2908 today for more information.
