SEO TIPS FOR REAL ESTATE
The real estate market is very competitive nowadays with new real estate agents coming up. For your real estate agency to win in the market, you need to stand out and be seen by your prospective clients. This can be achieved through innovative marketing strategies. Research has shown that more than 90% of buyers are searching for property listings online. Google is the most used search engine but there are other search engines including Bing and Yahoo.
This means that you have to make your real estate business get found when users search for property listings online. Most clients will search for terms like “House for rent in city y”, and “4 bedroom apartment in city x”, among other terms related to property buying. You need to make your agency website found when people search for phrases related to your business. This process of optimizing your website is referred to as Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
This post explains how real estate agents can use SEO to generate website traffic. It helps you generate a website from relevant users: people searching for your services. If done right, SEO can make you stand out and dominate the real estate market. Over 1 billion people are searching on Google every day and this makes Google a gold mine you cannot ignore in your overall marketing strategy. 25 % of online searches lead to a purchase while 70 % of people searching a business online pay a visit. SEO is therefore an important part of any successful marketing strategy.
To get meaningful results from SEO, you need to create relevant content on your website that will attract traffic. You must be knowledgeable in real estate as clients trust brands they perceive as experts in their field.
Ways to implement a successful SEO strategy for your real estate business

The following are top tips for real estate SEO:
1. Set goals
You must set clear goals for your real estate SEO. What do you want to achieve? Whether you want to drive relevant traffic or position yourself as an industry expert, starting with clear goals will act as a guide for the rest of your SEO journey.
2. Quality content
Content is at the center of every successful SEO plan. You need to create content that users will enjoy leading as Google ranks websites based on the quality of content. When users visit your website and spend a significant amount of time, it means they enjoy your content and this will make your content rank highly on search results. Your content might take many forms including blog posts and regular email newsletters.
3. Google My Business profile
As stated earlier in this post, most users will search for “Real estate agents in city x” and “Rental houses in city y”. This means you need to optimize your business to appear on search results when users search for real estate agents or properties in your city. This will be achieved by creating a profile on Google My Business.
When creating your business, add important information about your business including opening hours, website, contacts, and street address. This will guide your prospective clients on how to find you.
4. Keyword research
You need to research to understand which keywords your target clients are searching on Google. These keywords are related to rental properties, for-sale land, and other real estate services. Make a list of these keywords and optimize your website content to rank for these keywords.
5. Publications
Many publications write content related to real estate. These include real estate magazines, property sections in newspapers, and blog posts. Reach out to these editors to request a chance to contribute to these publications. You can write weekly articles on these publications and link to your website for readers to get more information.
Some of these publications are influential and attract a huge reader base which you can tap into. Some of these readers are seeking answers to questions related to the services you provide. You may write blog posts answering these questions. This will create a perception that you are an expert and knowledgeable in real estate and readers might visit your website to acquire more information about you.
6. Create content for users, not for search engines
Some real estate agents make the fatal mistake of writing content for the sake of ranking instead of creating content for the readers. Such websites tend to fill their content with keywords which is overusing keywords. Google has a way of detecting such websites and they penalize them by not ranking them. Readers will also detect content that is not offering them value and they will not visit the website.
When creating content for your real estate website, you should have the readers in mind. Make content that is meant to offer them value and when they flock to your website, Google will notice this and will rank your website.
7. Build customer trust
People will visit your website regularly if they trust you and perceive you as an authority in your industry. You need to earn the trust of clients by providing quality services and offering excellent customer service to enhance their experience. Satisfied customers become loyal fans and they even tell their friends about you who follow you by visiting your website and interacting with your content.
8. Technical SEO
There are several technical aspects of your website you should work on to improve your overall SEO efforts. You should make your website friendly across different devices including computers, tablets, and mobile phones. Your readers are using different devices and your website should be usable on all these devices.
Also, ensure that your website loads quickly as slow website loading is a huge turn-off for users. Once a user clicks a link to your website, they expect it to load quickly. If they wait for minutes for your website to load, they leave and explore other websites. Also, make sure your website images are compressed so that they can quickly and easily appear on the website. Compressed images reduce your website loading time.
Conclusion
Search Engine Optimization is a critical part of every overall real estate marketing strategy. As a real estate agent or marketer, you should invest enough time and resources in SEO to improve your website ranking and ensure maximum return on your marketing investments.