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Generate Endless Leads With Real Estate SEO

Written by Paul Esajian

In a world of instant information and where people favor screens over faces, it is essential for real estate entrepreneurs to step up their online presences. One way to stand out from the crowd is to embrace real estate SEO, also known as “search engine optimization.”

Utilizing real estate SEO will help to increase your real estate website’s visibility in a search engine’s organic – or unpaid – search results. This means that if you optimize your website properly, which you will learn how to do shortly, you will have an increase in prospective clients viewing your site. Think of real estate SEO like the domino effect; When a website is ranked higher on a search results page, it will receive more clicks, meaning more visitors, meaning more leads for your business. All you have to do is give Google and other search engines what they want, and they will reward you with a good rank. But how can one discern what Google wants? Read on to find out:

What Are The Benefits Of Real Estate SEO

real estate SEO strategy
The benefits of using real estate SEO are endless, but it is important to understand that success in the SEO arena takes persistence. There is a lot of online competition for real estate investors, which means it can take some time before your efforts pay off. However, when you begin to generate countless leads, the time spent tweaking your SEO strategy will be worth it.

Having a great real estate website is great. Whether you are tech savvy or you hire someone to help you design an attractive site, having a website is absolutely crucial in today’s world. One of the most enticing reasons to care about SEO is that it is essentially a free form of advertising. You can pay top dollar to have an ad appear on a google search results page, or you can pay nothing – other than your time – to have your site rank high naturally.

SEO is one of the best lead generation strategies because it is a form of inbound marketing. This means it primarily advertises to people who are already looking for your product or service, which helps you capture warmer leads. While other forms of marketing are necessary, the right SEO strategy has arguably the finest ROI in advertising because if you commit to keeping up with your efforts, the effects will eventually snowball.

Understanding real estate SEO will also help you better understand your target audience’s search habits. Once you know what people are looking for, you can optimize your site accordingly, bringing more people to your business homepage. Keep in mind, however, that Google is constantly changing its algorithm. If you want your site to stay up to date, you must always update and improve your SEO strategy.

How Do I Implement Real Estate SEO

SEO for real estate
If you are new to the SEO world, this jargon might sound confusing, but implementing an SEO strategy is easier than you think (as long as you understand the basics).

Now that you understand the importance of SEO, it is time to understand how to make SEO work for you and your business. It is important to remember that SEO isn’t just about pleasing Google and other search engine sites. Google places a heavy importance on SEO because it wants to create a great user experience, which should be your sole focus when designing your site.

The first place to start when creating your real estate SEO strategy is to target the most valuable keywords. Aside from real estate apps, mobile applications like Google Ad Words will help you find beneficial keywords, but consider using this free method to start:

Let’s say you are a wholesaler in the Boston real estate market. A valuable long-tail keyword you might want to utilize could be “we buy houses Boston, MA”. To see approximately how valuable this keyword is, type it into the google search bar and note how many ads show up on the search results page. The more ads, the more valuable the keyword. Be sure to also take note of the “searches related” area at the bottom of the search results page. Those are other phrases and long-tail keywords users who searched for “we buy houses Boston, MA” also searched for. The reason it is important to take note of related searches is because you can use those phrases and long-tail keywords as synonyms in your site as well. While focusing on a single keyword is certainly important, the last thing you want is “keyword stuffing,” Google will punish your site for not diversifying your keyword enough.

However, there are certain places in your website where it 100 percent necessary to include your target keyword:

  • Page Title: Be sure to include your keyword in the main title of your site.
  • Page Heading: If you have any large headings on your site, also known as <h2> tags, it is necessary to include your keyword in that tag. 
  • Bolded On The First Page: Somewhere on the homepage of your site, be sure to bold your keyword.
  • Linked To: If possible, try to include a link to another one of your sites, or perhaps a different page on your site, on your homepage. Note that the anchor text for the hyperlink should be your keyword.
  • URL: Your keyword should also be included somewhere in your URL. (i.e. www.pattyshomes.com/we-buy-houses-boston-ma/ OR www.webuyhousesbostonma.com) Note, the second URL in this example would be ideal, but most likely harder to obtain.
  • Meta Description: Finally, it is necessary to include your keyword somewhere in your meta description, which is the one sentence description under your page title that shows up on a search results page.
  • Photos: All of the photos on your site should be titled and “alt text tagged” with your keyword or a keyword synonym.

Don’t start to worry if your real estate SEO efforts do not pay off immediately. Continue to focus on finding new keywords, making your site user friendly, and constantly tweaking your lead generation strategies.