Every great real estate group starts with a fantastic website.
Your website is often the first thing potential clients, sellers, and buyers see when they begin researching real estate companies.
Whether someone wants to buy a house or sell a property, they’ll generally look online to start figuring out how they can get the process started and how they can find a real estate agent who will help them.
In fact, Bruce Clay notes in his article, “Ultimate Guide to Real Estate SEO” that the first step 44% of homeowners take when they’re ready to sell their home is to look online.
Although there are still real estate listings in magazines and newspapers, the Internet really is most peoples’ first stop.
Because of this, it’s vital that your website be not only professional in appearance, but readily accessible to potential clients and users.
SEO is one of the most powerful tools you can use to enhance your website, draw in more customers, and help even more clients.
It ensures that you’ll be able to connect with your customer base and quickly get them the information they’re looking for.
Before you can reap the benefits of SEO for real estate, though, you need to implement it in your website.
Here’s what you need to know.
Understand SEO
First off, make sure you understand what SEO is and what it is not.
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, and it’s the practice of using keywords and phrases that will help your website appear more clearly and prominently in website searches.
When someone searches for something online, they rarely type out a full sentence. Instead, most searchers use a keyword or a keyword phrase, such as “real estate + City” or “real estate agents near me”.
Because of this, it’s important to include common SEO phrases in your website’s content.
Unfortunately, many new real estate agents make the mistake of thinking that SEO means keyword stuffing or saying the same thing over and over.
It doesn’t. When you create content for your website, you should never simply repeat a keyword multiple times.
This won’t help your website. Instead, the language and content you use on your site should naturally include the keywords you want.
Be specific in your keywords
It’s also important that you carefully consider the keywords and keyword phrases you want to use.
For example, don’t just use generic keywords or phrases. Using “real estate” as your keyword phrase isn’t going to help you draw in local buyers or sellers.
You may get a lot of hits, but there’s no guarantee you’ll connect with people in your immediate area.
Instead, choose to target local keywords or phrases in your website content.
For example, you could use phrases such as, “Montgomery homes for sale” or “Brentwood real estate agents.”
When you include local keywords, you’ll be more likely to find clients, buyers, and general website visitors who are looking for a person in your area.
This means that the leads your website generates will be very specific to your area in general and you’ll be more likely to have good, high-quality leads.
Make sure that you not only include the keywords and keyword phrases in the content itself but in the title of your blog posts.
Optimize your website for mobile users
You might have a wonderful website full of great content and important information, but is your website fully optimized for your mobile users?
According to the Search Engine Journal, nearly 50% of real estate web searches are conducted on mobile devices.
Both buyers and sellers are busy people and they’re looking at properties and listings on the go.
Make sure that your website is designed to be user-friendly for your mobile device users.
Whether someone is using a tablet or a phone, they want to be able to access the information on your website.
This means that you need to have a mobile version of your website that includes all of the content potential buyers or sellers will want to access, including articles, blog posts, and listings.
Real estate agent information should also be readily available for easy access.
Utilize internal linking
When you write a page for your website, make sure you link to other pages within your own site.
Ideally, you should link to several other pages that include similar keywords to the page you’re writing on.
This will not only help boost your page’s visibility, but it will give readers more information they can easily access on the topic they’re interested in.
Furthermore, this will keep them on your website for longer periods of time, provide them with more information, and boost the possibility that they will reach out and contact you for assistance buying or selling a home.
The longer someone visits your website, the better it looks for your website’s page rank, as well.
Websites that are frequently visited and that users spend a lot of time on tend to be ranked higher than other websites.
Provide valuable information
One of the most important aspects of creating an SEO-friendly site is to place keywords within valuable content you create for your site.
Never copy and paste generic information from another website. That doesn’t help anyone.
Instead, create meaningful content that can help your personal readers.
For example, if there is important real estate news in your area, create content that discusses this with your readers.
You can include SEO keywords throughout the article.
If there’s going to be a new real estate development in your area, share a post about that.
The possibilities are endless, but it’s important to make sure that each article you create is well-rounded, informative, and meaningful to your personal readers.
Share your content
Make sure that no matter what type of content you create, you share it on social media platforms.
The reality is that adults of all ages are using websites like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and even Instagram to look at houses.
They’re using these websites to connect with real estate agents and to research areas to live.
When you create content on your website, you should always share it on social media websites so you can easily connect with potential leads.
Having more people click your links will help boost your page’s rank and visibility in search engines, as well.
Generally, when you write a new blog post or share an article on your website, you should share it on all of your social media pages, but make sure that you include a valuable and meaningful caption that’s sure to get people clicking on your content.
You may also choose to include pictures of listings, and this will further encourage people to click on your link and to share the post with their own friends and loved ones.
Conclusion
No matter how large or small your real estate company is, creating a website that has great SEO is vital to the success of your organization.
SEO makes a big difference in how well your company ranks online.
It ensures that the right people are finding your website when they’re searching for more information on real estate or homes for sale in your area.
Additionally, quality SEO provides you with a great way to link other internal pages and share even more content with potential readers and clients.
When you utilize multiple aspects of SEO, you’ll create a well-rounded website that caters to the needs of your visitors.
Don’t wait to start implementing these SEO strategies into your own website.
With the right mindset and careful planning, it’s possible to create an SEO-driven website that potential buyers and sellers will love, so start today.
Begin planning the types of content you’ll include on your website.
You can include articles, blog posts, listings, realtor biographies, and pictures from houses you’ve already sold.
Additionally, you can include information on open houses in the area and helpful hints for making a home sell quickly.
Always include contact information, as well, so that both buyers and sellers can reach out to you directly.
