Given the sweeping wave of digitization, many businesses have begun to operate online. The real estate industry is no exception. According to a well-established study, more than 53 percent of the buyers visit real estate websites for the purpose of house hunting.
If you are a real estate agent, the figure might trigger you to set up a real estate website. Indeed, that’s a great initiative. But do you know that people will hardly notice your online appearance if your website does not show up on the first page of Google results? That’s where SEO can win the day for you.
The following foolproof SEO tips will bring your real estate website in the spotlight and attracting the organic traffic will be just a matter of time.
1. Start blogging
Of course, updating online listing is an indispensable component of a real estate website. But that’s not the only criterion of a well-optimized real estate site. In order to get attention from search algorithms, you have to publish fresh and informative content as well.
The content marketing boots SEO in multiple ways. For example, if your blogs are research-oriented, you are likely to receive a massive influx of backlinks, perhaps from auto and home insurance brokers. Anyone who has the remotest of familiarity with SEO knows that backlinks add in your reliability of a website which is highly regarded by Google.
In addition to that, content gives ample space to adjust keywords related to your industry. It is commonly observed that people select keywords based on their instincts. Well, that’s a toothless tactic. Digital marketing experts recommend indulging in thorough keywords research and make two separate lists of long-tail keywords as well as small-tail keywords.
At the same time, don’t get carried away by cramming way too many keywords in the text. The search engine takes this activity as black-hat practice and penalizes the website big time. Remember, you have to be constant with blogging. Because it ensures that the website is active.
After reading all this, you might be tempted to pick any random topic concerning the real estate business and start writing. We acknowledge your passion, but it would be far better to discover the latest trends and then cherry-pick a current topic. Having social media by your side, you won’t have a hard time to unearth the top trends.
2. Focus on mobile-friendliness
Over the last few years, the usage of mobile has increased leaps and bounds. Today, one does not really need a high-ended smartphone to access the internet. Anticipating this change, Google modified itself and almost turned a blind eye to the websites that are not mobile-responsive. So it is amongst the top pre-requisites to winning the SEO game.
Making a mobile-friendly real estate website is not a tough nut to crack. Sticking to the following basics will get the job done:
- Photos are at the core of the real estate business. Since an over-sized photo will be inconvenient for the majority of mobile users, don’t forget to compress them for small screens.
- Don’t try to be flashy about font colors. Sometimes they can hinder the reading experience for particular mobile brands.
- Landing pages are an exceptional tool to accumulate potential leads. But you have to be very careful in designing them for mobiles. Mostly, website owners map out landing pages in such a way that visitors can barely catch a glance of buttons. Be careful about this particular aspect or else you will end up frustrating the audience.
3. Create a Google My Business account
Of late, Google has begun to show more interest in local SEO. For example, if you search a business, typically the first three results will be location-based. It is called Google 3-pack. As voice devices continue to improve, search commands increasingly incorporate the word “near me”. As a study unveils, more than 50 percent of our search queries will be done in the spoken form in 2020.
Therefore, it is very important for your real estate website to have an account at Google My Business. Once activated, Google will show the name, opening hours, address, and phone number of your business to the audience.
It is pertinent to mention here that your NAP (name, address and phone number) must stay the same on every social media platform. As time goes by, Google will judge your business’s authenticity on the yardstick of customer reviews. The positive feedback will eventually help you to consolidate your place in the Google 3-pack.
4. Incorporate mortgage calculators on your website
There are millions of websites on the internet. Google does not want its users to hop around aimlessly until they finally stumble upon a good website. That’s where user experience comes into play. If your real estate website is easy to navigate from the standard of an average web-user, it will have a special standing in the eyes of Google and the search engine is more likely to direct visitors to your website.
Though easy navigation counts as a positive SEO attribute, you can further enhance the user experience by facilitating the audience with mortgage calculators. Several house-hunters lack clarity regarding what they can afford. The calculator will assist them to determine their financial range and play a critical role in the process of budget-building.
5. Run website speed test frequently
Until recently, google barely entertained page load time. But the table has been turned now owing to the peoples’ growing disgust to slow websites. Numerically speaking, 47 percent of people will skip a website if it takes more than 2 seconds to load. Running a speed test is the best way to evaluate a website’s speed.
If your website falls short of the ideal pace, you may consider the following measures:
- Unburden the website from unnecessary widgets
- Optimize images
- Keep redirects to a minimum
6. Make video content
When it comes to engaging a visitor, videos are hands down the best medium. Nothing to take away from blogging, but people will read the relevant sub-heading and forget about your website. But that’s not the case with videos. If made in a tasteful way, videos have the capacity to keep people captivated for a long time, which is another strong SEO indicator.
The final verdict
Having a home of one’s own is a lifelong dream of every individual. People are always scrolling down real estate websites whenever they have spare time. Therefore, investing in a real estate website is definitely worth it. But don’t forget to execute the above-mentioned optimization traits to make most of your investment.
