by The term “SEO” or Search Engine Optimization is being tossed around on a very regular basis. Some real estate professionals think they need to add “SEO” to their website or that maybe that could get someone to “SEO it” at a later date. I invite you to consider a different strategy when thinking about SEO and your real estate website.
First things first
SEO is both art and science. At the most basic level it is the practice of ensuring your website gains the maximum amount of exposure to the search engines that would allow you the highest possible rankings. In order to gain high rankings and expose as many of your pages as possible to the search engines requires diligence and a good plan of action. I would like you to consider that you don’t just “SEO” a real estate website; rather you approach it as an overall strategy to a successful online real estate marketing effort.
Understanding that SEO is part of a balanced online marketing strategy takes off some of the stress of getting the highest rankings and allows you to focus on the elements that you have the most control over. The search engines constantly change their ranking algorithms so one of the best practices that we can maintain while doing our own SEO work is that of making sure we follow good solid rules so we can have the best opportunity to get to the top!
A Foundation in Real Estate SEO
At the foundation of a good SEO strategy is the understanding of what keywords are being searched on in your marketplace. There are some wonderful keyword research tools out there like WordTracker, KeywordDiscovery,etc, but the essential part is to use them.
Take the time to sign up with one of them and develop a keyword list of words that are searched for real estate in your area. Local words with a good search volume are always preferred over more generic words (i.e. “real estate”) because they will be easier to compete on.
Uncover Content for Your Real Estate Website
Search engines love fresh, well written, website content. Using the foundation of the keywords that you developed, you will want to outline the pages of content that you can create for your real estate website. Starting with just a simple outline is best, because it will give you a direction of how you can group common area pages together while focusing on the most important keywords.
You might consider an outline that covers 20-30 pages as that will give you a good amount of work to focus on, while not feeling too overwhelming. This number of pages will give you a powerful start and will put you in a good position among nearly any competitor that is currently online. When you really want to get things going, set a big goal to reach your first 100 pages as you will notice some great results when you hit that big target.
One of the toughest parts is to understand that it never stops. Getting to 100 pages of real estate content is great, but it’s similar to hitting your ideal weight. When you hit your ideal weight you can’t simply stop working out and eating right, you have to keep working the program that got you there, but maybe with small modifications so you keep working with it.
Understand Content is More than Simply Text
In the early days of the internet one could dominate the search engines with rather poorly worded text and load it up with keywords but that hasn’t been the case for a very long time. In today’s era of search engine domination, consider that doing well in real estate is about a balanced set of content and one that is often in multiple locations. Consider a balance of content as the following:
- Imagery – Unique images that are taken by you (or you hire it out) that aren’t found anywhere else online.
- Graphics – Custom graphic images, like that could be developed via Canva or other tools, that communicate unique aspects about your market, architecture, etc.
- Video – Video that could be first person, of properties, or even interviews that give visitors a greater depth of information about the markets you serve. These videos could be on your website, distributed on YouTube/Facebook or even condensed to be on Reels on Instagram and more.
- Audio – People will end up talking to you in real estate, let your voice be heard ahead of time via podcasts or simple audio recordings to give them a greater understanding of your local market.
Let the Search Engines Know You Exist
Writing quality content is fun and exciting, but we need to let someone know that we have done all of this great work. Once you have some pages created on your website take the time to let the search engines know they are online. Submit your real estate website to the major search engines (i.e. Google, Yahoo, and MSN) so they can be aware of your website.
There is no need to “resubmit” your website once you have first notified them that you exist as they will send out their Bots/Spiders to find the updates to your website. You might consider additional ways to keep them up to date of your new information (i.e. Sitemaps) so that they are always aware of the latest information you are sharing online.
Dominating online with your real estate SEO efforts will take some time and you will quickly see results when you follow a simple plan. Backed with just a small list of keywords and an outline of pages to create you will be miles ahead of your competition.
