Why should I care about SEO for my website?

According to a 2021 NAR report, 97% of homeowners started their home-buying journey online. When it comes to building a strong online presence, real estate agents can no longer afford to ignore the importance of SEO. Search engine optimization is a process of optimizing a website for Google’s search algorithm in order to rank higher in organic search results.

It all comes down to making sure that potential buyers and sellers can quickly find you online by Googling related keywords, key phrases, and sector-related inquiries. 

Search engines use a multitude of parameters to determine where websites rank for a specific keyword. Your website is far more likely to achieve high rankings for the keywords that are most pertinent to your company if you address these SEO variables.

For example, if you want to rank for the keyword, "realtor in Denver", you can optimize your website for this term. 


Benefits of SEO for Real Estate Agents 

When buying or selling a home, people start looking for information well before they're truly ready to complete a choice or call an agent. Once they are ready, it's important that your site comes up to match the information they are looking for. While every marketing channel enjoys its share of pros and cons, SEO has these benefits over social and traditional advertising:

Better Conversion Rates

Because SEO matches your content with the information a user is looking for, you have the chance to deliver the right message at the right moment at the right time. This leads to overall higher conversion rates and a higher return on your investment.

Increased Brand Awareness

Brand awareness occurs when a consumer links your business with a certain industry or feature. For example when you think of an ice cream company, who's the first that pops into your mind? 

You want locals in your area to immediately think of your name when they think about buying, selling or renting a property. With a thoughtfully crafted SEO & content marketing campaign, you’ll build that brand recognition and stay on top of people's minds.


Increased Industry Authority 

Great SEO content builds on your expertise and establishes you as a thought leader within the real estate industry. This in turn builds trust with your prospects and positions you in a place where they know you can help them with their needs.




 

SEO vs Paid Social Advertising 

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has become a go-to marketing strategy for real estate agents looking to generate higher-quality leads. This is in contrast to paid social advertising, which appears as sponsored ads in users' social media feeds. While paid advertising can be an effective way to generate leads, it is not a sustainable long-term strategy.


When potential clients are actively searching for an agent in their local market, they are more likely to find and contact an agent ranking high in search results. In contrast, when users scroll through their social media feeds, they are less likely to be interested in or pay attention to an ad for a real estate agent. As a result, SEO can provide higher quality and more targeted leads than paid social ads.


This is because SEO optimizes your digital content to be found by users who are actively searching for what you have to offer, whereas paid social ads are interruptive in nature. Paid advertising can drive leads, but those leads will stop coming in once you stop paying for those ads.


SEO, on the other hand, helps you build a credible online presence that will continue to pay dividends long after you stop investing in it. In addition, SEO helps you build authority within your field by creating content that is relevant and informative. When potential clients see that you are an expert in your field, they are more likely to choose you as their agent. 




5 Tips & Strategies for Improving Your Website SEO 


It's time to learn how to put together a winning strategy now that you understand why real estate SEO is essential to the success of your business in the future. When crafting an SEO strategy these are some essential components you need to consider to help you get started in the right direction:


1. Setting Goals 


Setting goals is the most important step in crafting a well-thought-out SEO and content marketing strategy for real estate agents. Without goals, it's impossible to measure progress or determine whether your efforts are paying off.


Furthermore, goals give you something to strive for, keeping you motivated and focused on the task at hand. Ask yourself what is it you're trying to achieve with your SEO efforts. Who is it that you are trying to reach? Your goals should follow the S.M.A.R.T methodology which stands for:

Specific - Be ultra-specific with what you want to achieve. Are you looking to generate 10 leads over the course of this month? Do you want to increase traffic to your site over the next quarter? 

Measurable - Narrow down your goal to a concrete number so you can measure it with an analytics tool like Google Analytics. 

Achievable - This is where you give yourself a reality check. The goals should be realistic and something you can reasonably accomplish. 

Relevant - This is where you need to think big picture and assess if the goal is relevant to both you and potential prospects.

Time-bound - To properly measure the success of your marketing efforts, you will need to set the time parameter for your goals. When will you start implementing your campaign? When will it finish? 

Without goals, your SEO and content marketing strategy is likely to be unfocused and ineffective. So if you're serious about getting results, take the time to set some clear, achievable goals before you get started.



2. Understand Your Target Audience 


Before you can begin to craft an effective SEO strategy, it is essential that you take the time to understand your target audience. What are their needs and desires? What are their pain points? What kind of language do they use when searching for information online? Are you looking to target homebuyers, sellers or renters? 

Creating a customer/buyer persona can help you deliver a more personalized approach to your messaging. Here's an article by HubSpot on how to create a buyer persona for your business. 

Only then can you craft a well-thought-out strategy that will help you reach your goals. Once you have a good understanding of your audience, you can begin to create content that meets their needs and provides them with value. In today's competitive market, this is more important than ever - after all, the goal is to not just attract visitors to your site but to turn them into clients. By taking the time to understand your target audience, you'll be well on your way to achieving this goal.



3. Choose The Right Keywords 

Keyword research is the foundation of any SEO strategy. It helps agents identify the best keywords to target based on user intent and search volume and keyword difficulty. 

Keyword research also helps agents understand how their customers are searching for homes and what they are looking for in a home. By understanding these things, agents can optimize their website and content to better match customer search intent, leading to more website visitors and ultimately more leads.

Think of keywords potential leads will type into Google. For sellers, they might type in, "how to sell your home in {your area}". This is a great opportunity to craft some content to help them with home-selling tips. For buyers think “homes for sale in {your city},” “home buying tips,” and similar options. Here's a beginner's guide to keyword research from Search Engine Journal, there you can find more resources to help you with your SEO efforts. 

Screenshot from Neil Patel's free keyword research tool Ubersuggest 



A good keyword research tool can help you find the most searched keywords in your area. Most tools have a paid premium plan that allows you to do more than just basic keyword research. You can view your competitors most viewed content, search traffic and their highest-ranking search terms. Here's a list of some popular tools to help you narrow down which terms to target:




4. Start a Real Estate Blog

Although we live in the social media age, blogging is a great way for real estate agents to create content that will pay dividends for years on end. By starting and maintaining a blog, agents can provide value to their prospects and boost their SEO at the same time. 

Search engines love fresh, relevant content, and a blog is a perfect way to keep your site current. In addition, a blog can be a great way to connect with your customers and build relationships. By providing valuable information and insights, you can build trust and credibility with your readers. If you're looking for a way to stand out from the crowd and attract more leads, blogging is a great solution. 

Establish a publishing schedule for your material and stick to it. A best practice is to use a content calendar in conjunction with your preferred social media platforms to keep all of your content planned and organized. Focus on these areas when generating ideas to create content for your blog:

  • Informative articles about your neighbourhood that might appeal to prospective homeowners, including info on restaurants, nightlife, schools, walkability, and cost of living.

  • Visual content that helps people picture the life they’d be living if they purchased one of your properties — video tours, professional photography, virtual tours, etc.

  • Detailed videos and infographics designed to deliver deep dives into key topics at a glance.

  • Interviews with business owners in your area, profiles on local companies, and so forth



5. Register Your Site In the Right Places

Naturally, real estate is a sector that is location-specific, so real estate SEO effectively has to do the same. Consider the last time you used Google to look up a certain category of neighbourhood shops or services.


Your organic search results most likely began with a map, then a list of businesses nearby. Those businesses showed up due to their claiming of a Google Business Profile & other local business directories that increase the reach of your website. To start off, you'll want to claim your free Google Business Profile listing, and add relevant categories like "real estate agent", and "real estate firm" so Google can categorize your business and show it to the right users. 

There are other local business directories which include claiming your site to Yelp, Yellow Pages, Realtor.com, Angie’s List, and CitySearch. 

Lastly, you'll want to make sure your (NAP) Name, Address & Phone number are all consistent and in the same format on EVERY listing you claim. To read more about NAP and how it impacts SEO please read this article on the importance of NAP for local SEO. Overall, claiming these listings send signals to Google that you are a legitimate business.



Conclusion 

By providing potential leads with helpful and informative content, you can establish yourself as an expert in the field. In addition, by optimizing your website for search engines, you will also make it easier for potential leads to find you when they're ready to buy or sell a property. While it may take some time and effort to implement an effective SEO strategy, the long-term benefits will result in a higher return on investment and stronger relationships with potential leads.