Is SEO Good for Real Estate Professionals?
Like many small business owners, real estate agents also benefit from a local SEO campaign. Facebook Ads campaigns and pay-per-click on Google will drive traffic, but you can expect to make a significant investment into these channels that might leave you with sticker shock. For a long-term strategy, consider optimizing your website as much as possible for organic search.
How Is Real Estate SEO Different from Other Industries?
One key component of SEO is providing search engines with unique content. Whether you operate a blog and publish original posts or you manage an e-commerce store with thousands of product pages, unique copy is a must. However, property detail pages in real estate will inevitably contain duplicate content.
How Does Duplicate Content Persist In Real Estate Content?
Every real estate agent belongs to a regional MLS system. You can think of this as a localized database of all real estate property listings. Every agent in a specific area has to access this data through their real estate board and pays a monthly subscription fee. Any property data pulled from the database (images, descriptions, property features, etc.) are shared among real estate agents accessing the regional MLS database. Because every agent is forced to share the same basic content about real estate listings in their area, duplicate content is unavoidable.
In the above example, the property description comes from the MLS and is duplicated across thousands of sites. A quick search in Google shows the extent of the duplication:
Knowing that property listing pages will be considered duplicate content by Google, focusing on content you can control is essential. With that said, you’ll still want to be sure your individual property listing pages use basic on-page optimizations like titles, descriptions, clean URLs, etc.
Finding Hyper-Targeted Search Terms
You’re likely not going to rank individual property pages. This area is where bigger national sites swallow up the market simply because of their authority and depth in the space. However, this gives you an opportunity to focus on your specific areas of service like condo buildings, hyper-targeted neighborhoods and communities, or price-focused pages if that resonates best with your clients.
Research new content ideas through a common keyword explorer like SEMRush or Ahrefs. Try searching for your “city + real estate” to see what kind of content is currently ranking and by whom. You may want to include additional keyword modifiers like “luxury” to refine your search parameters further. The more long-tail you can get while being relevant to your clients, the better.
Mining Queries from Paid Search
Another great way to find potential search terms you can translate into content on your site is through a broad match campaign in Google Ads. This keyword match type allows you to cast a wide net to discover how people are reaching your site with precise search terms. Allow the campaign to run for at least 30 days to ensure you collect the best data possible.
Once the campaign has enough data compiled, begin sifting through search terms to identify those with the highest engagement rate (clicks). Avoid optimizing for searches with the highest impressions, as they might be outside your reach. Long-tail searches are key with a real estate SEO strategy.
Create Unique Landing Pages
With complete keyword research, develop unique landing pages for your target keywords and phrases. For example, if the primary type of real estate you offer are condo units, create unique landing pages for every building you show properties in. This helps create a niche area of content where bigger sites like Trulia and Zillow won’t have the same depth of knowledge about the condo building that you have.
You’ll also want to create landing pages for all the communities and neighborhoods you service. While a large real estate site may rank for something like “Chicago real estate”, you can rank for something long-tail like “Chicago Gold Coast real estate listings”.
You may also consider applying this strategy to price tiers. Sort all of your listings by property type, location, and then price, allowing searchers to find your content with phrases like “single-family homes under $500,000 in [city].” Again, bigger sites will not go in-depth with their content for searches like this. You have the opportunity to create better content and rank higher.
Unique Content is Key
With any content you create, remember that uniqueness should be the number one priority. Even if you are gathering information from local resources or other real estate sites, use the information as inspiration for your content and avoid blatantly copying anything you find. From text to images, try to be as original as possible. It will set you apart from other real estate agents in your target area and help you stand out to Google.
Use Tools & Widgets In Your Content
Want to further separate your content from everyone else’s? Use tools like a mortgage calculator or an interest rate widget within your content. This helps visitors engage more with your site and provides a useful resource most real estate buyers need at one point or another. Most IDX providers offer tools and widgets with their MLS plugins that are easy to configure.
Use Structured Data In Your Content
Use structured data to set yourself apart from other real estate websites in your area even more. This type of meta data further informs Googlebot about the content you offer specific to the real estate category. Learn more about structured data implementation at http://schema.org/RealEstateAgent.
Link Acquisition
Like everything else in real estate SEO, there’s an assumption that all authentic links point to the bigger real estate firms. However, plenty of real estate backlink data proves that’s not the case. With the right content marketing strategy, websites can still earn plenty of authoritative backlinks.
Before embarking on a content or outreach strategy, ensure you have the basics of local SEO covered. Publish your contact information and website on local directories, claim and optimize a Google Business Profile page, and use sites like Yelp to increase your authority further.
If you belong to a bigger real estate firm like Lyons, Coldwell Banker, Century 21, etc., request a link from the firm’s site to yours.
Above is an example of a backlink from a real estate firm point to an individual agent’s site. This is a highly relevant link that carries tremendous authority that Google loves.
Create Useful Information
When people search for real estate online or offline, they also want to know about attractions in their area. Restaurants, parks, shopping and crime are key things in the research process. Consider creating an FAQ or resource guide to the area to best answer potential questions from buyers searching your site. Not only does this help build your authority with your audience, but you’re also helping your credibility with Google and creating pieces of content that will earn links over time.
Get Social
Social media remains one of the top referral channels for real estate websites. Your followers will naturally share property URLs among family and friends; however, you have an opportunity to share content yourself. Get into a rhythm of posting your personal real estate advice, information about your area, and, of course, your property listings.
Aside from the standard Facebook and Instagram posts, consider Pinterest. Many real estate buyers turn to Pinterest to discover home styles they like and can easily come across your content. Additionally, if you don’t already have video content for your listings, consider using an online video maker to create engaging and informative tours. These can then be posted on YouTube and TikTok, reaching a wider audience of potential buyers increasingly looking for video content when searching for homes.
The reach of viewers grows daily for these video channels and you have an easy opportunity to show off your listings.
Wrapping It Up
Real estate SEO isn’t impossible, but it’s not easy either. It just takes a bit of extra work due to some industry-related limitations and the competition level of most keywords.
You can craft highly refined and unique pieces of content to help compete against big sites like Trulia and Zillow. Use advanced SEO techniques to make the content stand out as much as possible and work on earning links to your content. Over time, your organic traffic will increase and you’ll become authoritative for the specific area / region you serve.
If you need help with your real estate SEO strategy, website or paid search campaigns, please reach out for a consultation!
