Real Estate Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization or SEO is when a strategy is implemented or a website is optimized for the purpose of boosting the free or organic traffic from search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. People use search engines daily to make myriad of searches. Webmasters use SEO to get their web pages ranked higher in some search results listings to bring more traffic to their website. In real estate SEO, search engine optimization techniques are simply applied to real estate websites. To achieve our purpose, our focus will be on real estate websites. Although the normal SEO principles are applicable to real estate search engine optimization, there are also certain techniques that are recommended to boost search traffic for real estate websites.
Big brands like Zillow, Trulia and Realtor.com are the giants of the digital real estate field. It can be almost impossible for an individual real estate agent to exceed the big brands when it comes to localized search traffic, without having a well-designed SEO strategy coupled with consistent execution. Having proved so difficult, not many realtors are willing to commit the time and effort required to do real estate SEO properly. Hence, this is a chance for goal-driven individuals who are looking to develop a long-term asset with sustainable and consistent search traffic that ultimately results in real leads and real business.
SEO Statistics
A Comprehensive Real Estate SEO Plan
An effective real estate SEO plan is a combination of different parts. Some aspects rank higher in order of importance than others, but every aspect counts if you want to get large amounts of search traffic.
Build your domain authority – Domain authority is one of the most essential criteria of high search rankings. Even if your content is well optimized and matches up quite well with a certain keyword, you probably won't get a lot of traffic if Google doesn't value your entire website or your actual domain. In short, perfectly optimized and targeted content as well as high authority domains is the secret to search engine success. Now how do you build domain authority? Majorly through high quality backlinks from other well established, quality websites to your website. Natural links that build-up consistently over time are preferable. Such links can lead to your root domain and subpages within your site.
Local content and local links – The target is beyond just search engine traffic, instead it is search engine traffic that will ultimately translate to real estate leads. An effective way to build authority for your website specific to your locale is by building high quality local content and having other businesses and websites in your locale include a to link to your site. Taking these steps can help you stand your own with the websites of big brand real estate that aren't specific to your city or town.
Long-tail keywords and content – Targeting specific long-tail keywords can be a great way to drive long-tail search traffic to your website. You can find long-tail keywords to build content with the help of tools like Google's keyword tool.
Build other content distribution channels – One thing we've learnt from the recent Google algorithm changes is that Google wants websites that don't derive 100% of their traffic from search. Google prefers websites that have genuine visitors, not just ones good at manipulating search algorithms. The theory beyond this is that if a website has a great social media presence or is generating buzz from other channels, then it must have been a quality website with quality content. Hence, you should set a target to build other distribution channels through Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, or email newsletters, to drive non-search traffic to your website. This will bring in additional traffic, while also helping to generate more search traffic over time as Google notices this "buzz."
IDX (?Internet Data Exchange) integration – You will certainly want to include IDX integration as you build domain authority. With a domain and website that Google values, Indexed listings are a great addition. Furthermore, IDX is an excellent feature for your users and can be helpful in generating leads.
Consistent, fresh content – Another important SEO factor is consistency of new content. Google will start crawling your webpage more when it notices that your site generates regular, and fresh content. This aspect of SEO is one of the smaller and easily ignored ones, however they're extremely important. Instead of generating filler content for your website, work on maintaining a steady schedule of new content for your users.
Build quality resources – Apart from more dynamic, blog-like content, try developing some high quality, long-form content for your readers. Maybe a guide to purchasing an investment property or a guide for moving to your city. When you build high quality resources, you're helping to create highly ranked subpages on your site as other websites link to your resources, thereby building domain authority, bringing in new traffic to your site, and providing quality service to visitors and customers.