Did you know that 90 percent of people who search for houses and rental units today use the Internet to look for homes?
That’s not all. More than half of all buyers start their search online. These numbers and more come from the National Association of Realtors, which is trying to convince Realtors and investors that they need to spend more time promoting their properties and building their clientele online.
The online market for real estate is expected to grow at an incredible rate over the next decade, so professionals who begin marketing now should get ahead of their competitors and see the biggest returns on their investment. A big part of marketing online is understanding SEO and how it can boost your page rankings. By employing certain tactics, you can lead the way in SEO, improve your brand reputation, and maximize your reach.
- Build an Awesome Website
“If you haven’t already, you need to do the smart thing as a property agent and create a website for your business,” according to article from Green Residential, a property management company in Texas. “When people Google search ‘Realtors in Katy, Texas,’ you won’t come up in the list if you don’t have a well-designed website to match the query.”
Quality is essential on a good real estate website. Google’s search algorithm can discern the difference between a quality site that’s been optimized for photography and SEO, and a site that features poorly written content, low-quality images, and a cheap design.
- Focus on Local
Local keywords will drive traffic to your blog among people who will actually be interested in your services. According to the National Association of Realtors, 65 percent of home shoppers use a local keyword phrase such as “Houston real estate” to start their search.
“Most realtors service multiple cities and regions. However, when you start your website, focus on the main city you do business in first. From there, build out silos that target other areas,” says an article from BruceClay.com.
Using your city’s name in conjunction with terms such as real estate, homes for sale, or real estate agent will direct organic keyword search to your site.
- Practice Your Headlines
The real estate market is saturated with uninspired copy. Email headlines don’t inspire a click and blog content has pedestrian headlines. It doesn’t matter how good the content is if your headlines don’t move people to open it.
So work on making your headlines more informative and gripping. They need to promise high value, good-quality writing, a sense of personality, and solutions to problems.
It’s admittedly difficult to make a simple headline do all that, but if you study the headlines of winning blog posts, you’ll master the process of making good-quality headlines.
- Be Unique Whenever Possible
There are plenty of SEO basics you can glean from reading articles and practicing the craft. But ultimately, the best way to stand out from thousands of other real-estate agents in your area is to identify opportunities to be unique. And the best way to make yourself more unique is to let your personality shine through.
Find a certain aspect of your agency that stands out, and use that as the basis of your SEO strategy. It’s your job to tell a new story that engages your readers and provides value. The more personalized you can make it, the better.
- Invest in Quality Content
This will cost more, but it’s worth it to present better content for your readers. You might have to hire a writer, but the expertise and quality such a person can produce will take your blog to a higher level and generate a greater following.
To illustrate the value of investing in quality content, Seth Price, content connoisseur for the real estate market, says, “Why bother creating pages of writing, hundreds of images, and hours of video when all you’re trying to do is sell properties? Content builds trust … establishes you and your company as experts in the industry … gives you something to share in the social web … [and] drives organic traffic through SEO and social media sharing….”
Shell out the extra time and money to generate high-quality, useful articles that readers can engage with and learn from. Absent that little investment, your content will remain subpar and your brand will stay unnoticed.
