How To Do SEO For Your Real Estate Business

Introduction.

SEO remains vital when it comes to building an online business, every business needs visibility online and SEO is one avenue that helps any business achieve such milestones.

According to a 2020 survey conducted by the National Association of Realtors in the USA, millennials make up the largest share of home buyers in the country, but with the rise of the GEN Z who are most tech savvy.

These stats can also be applied globally in any part of the world. Real estate investors need to prepare for the needs of this digitally savvy generation by making it more digital.

With digital real estate marketplaces like Zillow and Property Pro gaining traction, there is no doubt that more and more real estate decisions are moving online. But having a website and posting on social media is not enough on its own.

You need to ensure your listings are getting seen at the top of search engine results when people start their online search. And to do that, you need a solid search engine optimization (SEO) strategy.

Let’s dive into what SEO is and how you can leverage SEO for your real estate business.

What is SEO for Real Estate?

SEO for real estate is the process of optimizing your real estate business to get search engine traffic.

Each search engine — Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. — has an algorithm that crawls online web pages to determine which results to show people when they search for any given keyword phrase.

Why should I do SEO for my real estate Business?

Optimizing your real estate website business for a search engine’s algorithm helps your business rank for high-value phrases and drive passive traffic to your website.

This practice saves you the cost of having to pay so much for paid digital and physical advertising.

Keep in mind that SEO is a long-term strategy and you should not expect to see results overnight.

Instead, you can look at real estate SEO as a way to implement your business goals, now and in the future. Here are some reasons why your real estate business needs an SEO strategy.

1. SEO helps drive revenue

The main benefit of a strong SEO strategy that includes quality content is that it can improve your organic traffic. Organic traffic comes free of charge and you dont have to pay for it.

Not only does SEO increase your traffic, but if you are publishing relevant content and keywords, you are also attracting more of the right audience with greater chances of becoming clients. With the right conversion points in place, you can turn this traffic into new customers.

2. SEO helps Boost brand awareness.

Positioning your brand online is one strategy used in boosting your brand awareness. Quality SEO strategy establishes your business as a go-to source of knowledge, which builds trust with your audience.

Each time someone reads your content and gains value from it, they are interacting positively with your brand, thereby increasing brand awareness. Better brand awareness further increases the conversion rate.

3. SEO helps Improve brand protection.

Another benefit that comes with SEO is that it offers a form of brand protection, as you can better control how your brand is represented online. An example of how SEO can protect your brand is if you are participating in an affiliate program.

These programs are a tried-and-true way to increase revenue, however, you should be careful not to let affiliates dominate traffic to your brand keywords, as you have little control over how affiliates are representing your brand.

How do I do SEO for real estate?

While preparing your business for an SEO campaign, keep in mind that Google is not the only search engine worth optimizing for.

Microsoft Bing and Yahoo are both well-known search engines with 5.47% and 3% market share, respectively.

Although these other search engines boast less traffic than Google, the advantage is that there is less competition, meaning you have a greater chance at ranking on Bing and Yahoo than on Google.

These need to be understood when crafting your SEO strategies, as more and more realtors invest in SEO, being visible online is critical to the success of a real estate business. Here are just a few steps to take when crafting an SEO campaign for your real estate business.

1. Develop a website.

81% of people research a business or service online before making a purchase decision. If you don’t have a website, you have no chance of capturing a share of this market.

A website acts as your “always-on” business advocate during and outside of office hours. 56% of people stated that they won’t trust a business without a website. Having a good website instantly boosts your credibility as a legitimate business.

First impressions count and websites allow you to make a very strong impression with a well-designed introduction for your business.

Owning a website is your business gateway to the internet, I wrote a comprehensive guide on how you can develop a website. Check out the link to the article to learn more.

2. Analyze your competitors.

The first thing that needs to be done before running an SEO campaign is to analyze your competitors and find out what they do that makes them stand out.

With the information gathered, you can understand what works and what does not work, and build an overall top-performing website to drive up organic traffic, and increase qualified leads and sales.

3. Do Technical SEO Audit.

Next is to do a technical SEO audit of your website and ensure it meets up with proper web guidelines, required for ranking on Google. Technical SEO audits allow us to figure out how well your website is optimized to provide the best user experiences.

By evaluating elements like indexing, site speeds, page loading speeds, hosting features, responsiveness, and the mobile-friendliness of your website, we get to refine your site elements to ensure the best performance.

I wrote a comprehensive guide on this blog on how to craft a successful SEO campaign. Check out the link to the article below to learn more.

How To Do Proper Website SEO Audit

4. Create your Google Business profile.

Next is to get your business listed on Google Maps. Google Business Profile aids allow you to improve your local SEO and give customers an easier way of finding you. It also enables more business profile management in Google Search, Google Maps and other related apps.

Setting up your Google Business Profile is quick, simple, and completely free, but without proper optimization, it will be hard for people to find you when they search.

The Google my business profile allows businesses to highlight important information about their business, add their company’s logo and photos for potential customers to view, add posts about new projects or upcoming events, share thoughts and inputs about the latest trends in the real estate industry, send and receive direct messages, and respond to reviews and stay connected with those who want to do business with you.

I wrote a comprehensive guide on how to set up a Google my business profile for your business. Check out the link to the article to learn more.

How To optimize Your Business For SEO Using Google My Business

5. Start Blogging around your business.

Content is king when it comes to SEO, beyond your company website, a blog is a fantastic tool to keep your audience in the loop about your business.

While a website might be more practical in content and straightforward in tone, a blog offers more flexibility to connect with customers, to share updates in a way that shows who you are, not just what you do. Blogs provide the perfect platform to strengthen your SEO strategy.

Your business can boost its chances of generating traffic and converting leads by creating fresh and well-written articles that incorporate long-tail keywords, images and videos.

I wrote a comprehensive guide on how to start a successful blog. Check out the link to the article to learn more.