If you’re a real estate agent looking to expand your online presence and attract more potential clients, then understanding SEO is crucial. As a beginner, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by complex strategies and technical jargon. But fear not! We will explain what SEO is in a simple terms and explain the steps you can take to improve your website’s visibility on search engines.
What is SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Okay, but what is it? We’re talking about all the steps to help a website or piece of content rank higher on Google (in search engine results pages – SERPs). Imagine you have a special box full of tools and want to find a particular one quickly. SEO is like giving the box hints so it knows which tool you like the most and can show it to you first when you open the box. In the same way, search engines like Google are like big boxes full of websites. When you ask Google a question or look for something, it uses SEO to figure out which websites should be shown to you first. It looks at different hints on the websites: how many people visit them, how helpful they are, and what words are used on them. This way, search engines can show us the best and most useful websites at the top of our search results!
SEO aims to increase organic traffic (it means that you don’t pay to be in that space) to a website by making it more relevant and appealing to search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo.
For example, when someone types “lofts in Los Angeles” into Google, they’re likely looking for a property to buy, rent, or invest in, with links to active listings and open houses. If you are a real estate agent with such property in your portfolio or specialize in lofts or properties in the LA area, you’d want people to find your website. For anyone to find it, you need to rank above all the other real estate websites offering properties in this area. It’s not easy, but that’s what SEO marketing is all about.
When you type the phrase “lofts in Los Angeles” first, you need to get through paid Google ads, which are at the top of the results.
Then comes the real deal – the top pages ranking for the words you typed in – that’s where you want your page to be visible.
SEO is not the only reason for top ranking in search engines. Many other things decide your position. To name just a few:
- Page Authority: Individual pages within your site can have varying levels of authority based on factors like backlinks, engagement, and content quality.
- Domain Age: Established domains with quality content and engagement history tend to have more authority in search rankings.
- Click-Through Rate (CTR): A higher CTR for your website’s listings in search results can indicate to Google that your content is relevant and engaging.
Two main types of SEO
- On-Page SEO
Involves optimizing individual web pages and building content to improve your rankings. This comes down to incorporating keywords into your pages and content, regularly posting high-quality SEO copywriting content, ensuring your metatags, titles, and headings are keyword-rich and well-written, paying attention to Alt images, internal links, etc. Check out our guide to learn how to optimize your blog posts for SEO.
- Off-Page SEO
Refers to activities outside your website to improve its search engine ranking. Off-page SEO includes building backlinks from reputable websites, social media engagement, and influencer outreach.
What are backlinks?
Backlinks are created when one website links to another. When there is a strong linking structure between your content and other credible sources of information, it shows Google that other pages find your information valuable enough to link to it within its content. Backlinks can increase your site’s authority and boost the value of other subpages by linking to a service page or another blog.
Link building is generally done by blogging, guest posting, competitor link analysis, blog outreach, networking, and dofollow blog commenting.
What is guest blogging?
Guest posting (or blogging) is a popular way of getting backlinks. After the last update, Google stated that guest blogging is not recommended when it comes to building links. But what if you do it to build awareness, generate high-quality traffic back to your site, and become a household name in the industry? With SEO and page ranking, quality is always the key. If you’re purchasing guest posts on sites that have nothing to do with your niche with spamming links, it won’t work, and your site might be banned. If you’re creating unique guest posts that provide value to readers on sites relevant to you, you’ll be fine, and the link juice will flow nicely to your site.
PRO TIP: White hat SEO (unique, relevant, human-generated content) takes time, so don’t be tempted to take shortcuts and implement black hat SEO. This means sneaky tactics like keyword stuffing, duplicating content, and link scraping to rank quickly. Going out and purchasing a Fiverr package promising you 3,000 links in 24 hours is not the right way to build your domain rating. You need to get links from relevant content and sites in your niche that have their traffic. It might work in the short term to generate traffic, but Google will end up penalizing and even blacklisting your site.
Step-by-step SEO
1. How to choose the best keywords for your real estate website
Keywords are the backbone of any real estate website. They get your business in front of potential buyers (and sellers) when people search for your services. Today, 44% of real estate buyers start their home search online, and 95% use the Internet at some point in the buying process.
What is a keyword?
A keyword is a word or concept that best describes a post or page’s content. It’s the search term you want to rank for with a page on your website. The terms buyers use during the home search process will be somewhat predictable.
Here are a few examples:
- best realtor Boston
- Wisconsin lake homes for sale
- how long does it take to buy a house
- New York real estate agents
The keyword pyramid model
Another way to manage your keyword list is to break it down into different buckets:
While starting at the top of the pyramid might look worthwhile, long-tail phrases are easier to win and more relevant to your business, especially when you’ve just started your SEO adventure.
Keyword research
Keyword research refers to discovering what search terms your target audience enters in search engines to find businesses and websites like yours. By optimizing your content for those keywords, you are more likely to rank higher and appear in search engine results. Where to start with keyword research?
- You can think of your target audience and list words you want to rank for.
- Try to put yourself in their shoes: type keywords from your list into different search engines and see what pops up. You will kill two birds with one stone: check if your keywords align with your intent and view top-ranking competitors.
- It’s time to use some tools to build a more extensive keyword list and see their difficulty, search volume, and how much it would cost to use them in a paid advertising campaign.
Free Keyword Research Tools
Google has a few tools that make keyword research easy, and the Keyword Planner is a great place to start because it is a free tool. To use Google Keyword Planner, you need a Google Ads account (sign up for one at ads.google.com) Once you have an account, log in and navigate to the Keyword Planner tool to start your keyword research by entering words or phrases related to your business or services. These are called “seed” keywords.
For example, if you’re a real estate agent, you might enter “buy a house,” “sell a property,” or “real estate Boston.” Google Keyword Planner will then generate a list of keyword suggestions related to your seed keywords. These suggestions include similar keywords, synonyms, variations, and related terms that users commonly search for on Google. The tool provides important metrics such as average monthly search volume and competition level for each keyword. Useful terms:
- Search volume – number of searches the keyword has during a month
- SEO difficulty – estimated competition in organic search
- Paid difficulty – estimated competition in paid search
- Cost per click – average cost per click for a Google Ad
It is another free tool from Google that lets you enter multiple keywords and filter by location, search history, and category. Once you enter that information in, it’ll give you results that show how much web interest there is around a particular keyword, what caused the interest, and where the traffic is coming from – along with similar keywords.
This is a very simple online keyword research tool, but it can be useful if you’re just looking for a list of long-tail keyword suggestions related to one you already have in mind.
Paid keyword research tools
There are many paid tools, some with advanced keyword research options. The most popular include Ahrefs, Moz’s Keyword Difficulty Tool, SeoStation, SEMrush, Ubersuggest, HubSpot, and TermExplorer.
2. Choosing the right keyword
Okay, so you have some keyword ideas. Naturally, you start gravitating toward the ones with the highest number of searches, but here’s what you’re missing: Your ability to rank for a keyword often depends more on the competition you’re up against.
Let’s Google: real estate boston.
After a few paid ads, which are always shown at the top of the page, you get to see the top website ranking for the phrase you entered. These sites sitting on page one have been there a while. They have a strong reputation because Google knows they provide quality information. That’s how they’ve earned the spot. On the other hand, if your website is new or you’ve just started your SEO quest, you haven’t earned Google’s trust yet. It would take a lot for you to outrank these top competitors. You need to be realistic and patient.
Make your final list of keywords spick and span.
- Go with keywords with the most transactional intent based on the currently ranking websites.
- Look for a “sweet spot” of high search volume and low difficulty/competition.
- Look at keywords with high search volume and top competitors with lower domain authority and backlinks.
- Target 2 – 5 keywords in a blog post and ensure they read naturally. There should be one main keyword and a few longer words connected with the topic.
- Don’t overstuff your content with too many keywords - it won’t be easy to read and will feel robotic rather than human-made.
If you need more help choosing the best keywords, look no further than Placester Keyword Research Guide for Agents.
3. Write quality content
It used to be not hard to create high-quality content. If you were creating content that solved someone’s problem, you were a standout, making it easy to rank. In the time of different AI tools, ChatGPT, and relatively inexpensive copywriting services, it is a much more difficult task. Where to start?
- Understand user intent: To write quality content, you must understand your readers and know what they want to accomplish when they land on your page. Do they navigate many websites, browsing or searching for information? Your audience may be ready to buy something or use your service.
- Think about who you are writing for, your customer persona, what they like and dislike, and why they’re there.
- Niche down and focus on a particular problem the reader is struggling with. Dare to solve that problem with your content.
- Break up the text: We have short attention spans, and writing giant walls of text doesn’t work anymore; you need to break it up with plenty of headers and images.
- Make it clear: There’s nothing worse than reading a piece of content and not getting everything you need to accomplish something.
4. Optimize your website and content for SEO
You must take care of certain website elements to rank in search engines. Without proper tags, headers, and descriptions, Google will have difficulty figuring out what your content is about and why it should rank higher than the competition.
- Page Title Tags
The title tag is displayed in the tab at the top of your browser and when your page appears in Google.
In the image above, the title tag sits below the URL. This is the most prominent heading in the search and has a blue color that stands out.
Title tags are often the first thing someone will see if they find you on a search engine. You want to use this section wisely by including your main keyword and enticing the heading so users want to click. You don’t need an identical title tag and H1 tag, but both should contain your keyword.
Sometimes, a title tag is called an SEO title:
- Meta description
Meta descriptions are about 160 characters long and summarize a web page’s content. Search engines display these snippets in search results to let visitors know what a page is about before they click on it. They also help users decide whether to click on your website in a search result.
This is the area below your title tag in the search results (in the above example: #1. Set a Budget – How Much Does it Cost to Buy a House in Boston? etc.). You should include your keywords in the meta description, and they will be bolded if they are in the user’s search query.
5. Technical SEO
This is an important part of any SEO strategy and can help you reach your online marketing goals. At a minimum, a technically sound website should be secure, quick to load, easy to crawl, have clear and actionable navigation, and not contain any duplicate links or content. It should also send a clear message to users that hit a dead end, such as 404 for errors and 301 redirect pages. Finally, a site should have structured data to help search engines understand the content.
Ready, steady, go!
There is no single working for all SEO technique because it is a dynamic field that requires staying up-to-date with search engine algorithm changes, industry trends, and best practices to ensure a website’s optimal performance in search results. Whether you’re just starting to make optimizations to your real estate website or want to build out your existing keyword database, now is the time to take action.
Suppose you are still overwhelmed by the concept of SEO optimization. In that case, you can choose one of the Do It For Me (DIFM) plans in Placester, where we will take care of all important elements of your website and make sure it will be SEO optimized and able to rank in search results.
