The Ultimate Real Estate SEO Guide: 10 Steps to Better Ranking

While getting your content to rank on search engines is harder than it used to be, real estate SEO (search engine optimization) is still undeniably one of the most powerful marketing strategies to grow your business. By investing some time and effort and using basic SEO strategies that most realtors either don’t understand or don’t bother with, you will easily outrank your competition. Let’s dive into this guide, which talks about what SEO is, its benefits, best practices, and ten steps on how to use SEO for real estate.

What Is Real Estate SEO?

Real estate search engine optimization (SEO) is the strategy used to get your website ranking on search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. With a strong real estate SEO strategy, your website will show up when potential leads search for real estate-related topics. This translates into more site visitors and—as long as your website is optimized for lead generation—higher quality leads who are ready to work with you.

How Google & Other Search Engines Rank Content in 2024

Google uses advanced artificial intelligence (AI) to “crawl” websites (look at and evaluate them) and determine which pages should appear on the first page of search results. Since Google wants to deliver the best and most relevant results, they continually tweak their AI to make sure the most helpful results rise to the top.

Here are just a few factors Google uses to evaluate and rank content in 2024:

• Expertise or authority: This goes back to Google’s E-E-A-T score (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness). 
• Relevance to the search query: One page on “Minneapolis real estate” is unlikely to rank for more specific searches like “apartments in Minneapolis.”
• Content quality: Your content should be unique, accurate, and not just written by AI.
• User experience: The site should be well-organized and easy to navigate.
• User engagement: Google considers how long users stay on the site and whether they click on additional pages or exit immediately.
• Content freshness: Up-to-date content is valued more highly than dated content.
• Meta tags and descriptions: Optimize your pages and blog posts to help Google understand the topic
• Internal links: Linking to your own website pages helps the user experience and ultimately builds your authority.

How Much Does Real Estate SEO Cost? (+Tools)

Like most great lead generation strategies, it is possible to tackle real estate SEO with minimal upfront costs and a lot of dedication. By writing great content that puts the reader first, you’ll slowly but surely build trust with your audience and with Google—and there’s very little financial investment.

However, using this strategy will realistically take six months or more before you start seeing results. If you’re serious about using SEO and getting the biggest results more quickly and efficiently, investing in even one strong tool or hiring a contractor will go a long way. Make sure you research all your options, considering how much work you want to spend time on.

Here’s a basic comparison of the potential tools and costs that go into real estate SEO:

Another option to consider is hiring SEO freelancers or companies. There is a massive variety in the type of SEO service you can hire out; it can be anything from a single page or website audit to a total revamp of your website’s SEO and content.

Good-quality SEO experts can be extremely expensive—the best may charge more than $5,000 per month! And beware of “affordable” SEO freelancers. Some use dishonest tactics that might help you rank on Google for a week or so but can also result in your site getting blacklisted from Google’s search results. 

That said, there are many simple, individual SEO tasks that you can and should outsource to freelancers on a site like Fiverr as the need arises:

• Researching keywords
• Creating and optimizing you Google Business Profile
• Editing articles
• Reducing image sizes
• Submitting your pitches to HARO
• Doing basic link-building outreach

How Long Does It Take to See Results?

How long it takes to see results from SEO for real estate is like asking, “How long will it take until I can speak French?” The answer ultimately depends on the kind of work you put in, the quality of your content, and how competitive your specific market is. The quality of your content, website, and backlink profile determines how quickly you can see results from your SEO efforts. 

Also, the competitiveness of your target keywords matters. For example, if you’re trying to rank for an extremely general keyword like “New York City real estate,” your chances of seeing significant results are very low. On the other hand, if you’re aiming for long-tail keywords for a specific audience, like “best neighborhoods in Elmira, New York,” you will see results much faster since there is significantly less competition.

Benefits of SEO for Real Estate

Do real estate agents actually need SEO? The long answer is that if you create online platforms and no one sees them, do you have an online presence? The short answer is yes! The benefits of SEO extend beyond your website to your real estate social media marketing and, ultimately, your lead generation. Here are the benefits:

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  Increased online visibility:
  
  Ranking in search engines is easily the best way to generate website traffic and get the highest number of eyes on your content.

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  Higher quality leads:
  
  SEO attracts a targeted audience of local buyers and sellers more likely to start a real estate transaction.

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  Affordability:
  
  While there are upfront costs to optimizing your site for SEO, you can do a lot without spending thousands of dollars on ongoing content and advertising.

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  Builds credibility:
  
  When users find you while searching online, they automatically view you as a real estate and marketing expert.

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  Long-term results:
  
  Strong website content can continue to rank in search engines for months and years instead of publishing content multiple times per day.

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  Translates to all platforms:
  
  You can promote website content on every real estate social network, as well as email and direct mail, making all of your marketing materials cohesive.

10 Steps to Perfect Real Estate SEO

Ready to start your SEO journey? Here are the beginning steps to optimizing your website front-to-back for search engines and users.

Step 1: Run an SEO Audit on Your Website

If you already have a real estate website, this will be your first step. If you don’t have a website yet, check out the best real estate website builders to get started. Start by setting your real estate website up for success with an SEO audit. This will show you any technical issues that might cause Google to rank your content lower (or ignore it entirely). It’s important to start with this step so that you don’t spend weeks creating great content that isn’t optimized.

Option 1—Hire someone to do it: The easiest way to do an SEO audit is to hire someone to do it for you. It requires highly technical expertise, so I recommend looking into freelance SEO auditors on a site like Fiverr, which should cost about $50. Choose from real estate SEO specialists based on their services, pricing, and previous reviews. An audit will include a report showing any issues that might be holding your site back from ranking on search engines.

Option 2—Do it yourself: If you want to start by doing a DIY website audit, you’ll need to use the right marketing tools. If you don’t have existing technical or SEO expertise, keep in mind that your audit will not be as thorough or easy to understand as a report from an expert in SEO for realtors. However, doing a simple audit at the beginning is better than nothing! Start with this in-depth guide from Semrush on setting up and running your audit, and consider the following tools:

Step 2: Fix Issues Found in Your SEO Audit

Now, you can start fixing any problems your audit uncovered. There might be some easy fixes, like deleting duplicate content or fixing broken links, or more complex issues, like upgrading your security protocol to HTTPS. Fix what you can and hire out for the rest. Here are a few common issues found in an SEO audit:

• Meta descriptions missing or not optimized for SEO
• Image alt text missing or not optimized for SEO
• Wrong image size and resolution
• Poor keyword usage
• Improper or missing heading structure (H1, H2, H3, etc.)
• Duplicate content
• Broken links
• Using HTTP protocol instead of HTTPS

The right SEO professional will help you understand which issues must be addressed, what they mean, and how they are fixed. If you do the audit yourself, you’ll have to dig in to learn how to fix different issues. 

Step 3: Set Up Your Google Business Profile Account

After your website is set up for technical SEO, it’s time to claim your Google Business Profile account. Whether you already have a website or are preparing to create one, this is arguably the most important step to establishing SEO for real estate sites. Your Google Business Profile is Google’s tool for indexing local businesses for searches, particularly searches in Google Maps.

When someone searches for a local service like real estate, Google automatically shows them results near their location. In 2024, Google Maps results are almost always at the top of search engine results pages (SERP), and these results only show realtors’ Google Business profiles. For example, when I search “real estate agent” from a device in New York, Google puts a map of nearby real estate brokerages at the top of the SERP.

Of course, having a Google Business Profile doesn’t guarantee you’ll appear at the top of search results. However, without it, you might not ever show up!

Step 4: Research Keywords You Want to Rank For

With your website and Google profile set up correctly, you can get into the real bread and butter of SEO for real estate agents. At this stage, you must thoroughly research the keywords your target audience is searching for. It’s important to gather this data before you start creating website content so that you can craft it to appeal to their questions and concerns directly. 

Here are a few tips for researching and choosing real estate keywords:

• Use a strong keyword research tool like Ahrefs or Semrush.
• If you don’t want to pay a monthly fee for SEO or keyword research, hire a freelancer on Fiverr to do research for you.
• Check the SERPs for your target keywords to see the current results. Are they articles or videos? How long are the articles?
• Use the “People Also Ask” section for even more content ideas. These are questions that Google’s algorithm thinks are related to the main keyword. For example, here are the “People Also Ask” results for the keyword “Condos in Miami.” Each one of these questions would make a great blog post.

Pro Tip: If you do keyword research before creating your website, try to work a few simple keywords into your real estate domain name and even social media titles. For example, if people are searching for “Windy City realtor” more than they’re searching for “Chicago realtor,” your domain name could be windycityrealtor.com or even [yourname]windycityrealtor.com.

Step 5: Create a Content Strategy with Clusters

Search engines consider your overall website when they rank individual pages. You might have the most well-optimized page on Miami real estate, but it won’t rank well if the rest of your website is bare. You have to show Google that you are a subject matter expert. There’s a reason that Google does this! 

To show Google that you are an expert and that your website deserves a spot in the SERPs, you need a variety of content and a well-organized website format. This is where content clusters come in. Content clusters are groups of articles organized from top-level subjects like “condos in Miami” that then drill down to more specific related topics like “Condos in Brickell” or “How to qualify for a condo in Miami.” 

Here’s what a cluster map might look like for an agent who sells condos in Miami:

Step 6: Craft Useful & Compelling Content

Once you’ve mapped out a cluster strategy, the next step is to create the content for your website. Some people think that SEO for real estate just means making endless blog posts, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Realtor SEO content includes website pages, real estate listings, written blog posts, images, and video content.

For example, Park City Luxury Real Estate is the only real estate website in the Google Image results to rank for the keyword “Empire Pass Deer Valley.” They beat out all other real estate competitors because they have a combination of written content and images optimized for this keyword.

Step 7: Increase Backlinks to Your Content 

Another way to show search engines that you are a valuable resource that should be ranked in searches is through backlinks. When another website links to any page of your website, that is a backlink, and it is a powerful tool for improving SEO for real estate investors, agents, and brokers.

There are a few ways to get backlinks, but our best recommendation in 2024 is to use Connectively, formerly HARO. Connectively is a forum for publications and journalists to find content creators and small businesses (like real estate agents!) to connect and collaborate. Sign up for the platform, and you’ll get access to a huge variety of online publications for those looking for input on real estate-related topics. You answer their queries with a pitch; if they use your answer, they’ll link back to your website.

Pro Tip: Link quality counts more than quantity! Getting one link from a well-respected site like the New York Times or Inman is as powerful as getting 100 links from smaller websites or blogs. Plus, links from websites related to your pillar content are more valuable than general websites. For example, if you’re writing about Miami condos, a link from the Miami Herald could be more valuable than one from the New York Post. Since you are writing about real estate, a link from Realtor Magazine or your state’s Realtor Association would be even more valuable. 

Step 8: Regularly Update Your Content

In general, search engines rank new, up-to-date content higher. This is especially true in the realm of SEO services for real estate, where the real estate market is constantly changing. Of course, your website should have a large percentage of evergreen content, but you should still update it regularly.

It may take some testing to find out how long it takes Google to rank your content and how long it is considered “fresh,” but here is a general calendar to follow: 

• Pillar pages: update once per quarter
• Subpillar and cluster pages: update once or twice per year
• Time-sensitive content: update regularly (i.e., monthly or biweekly newsletter or market update)

Step 9: Monitor Your Traffic & Analy

Analytics are a vital part of real estate SEO. If you aren’t checking the data to see if your posts are indexed, getting ranked, and driving traffic, I call that a “spray and pray” strategy—and I don’t recommend it. It’s essential to see where you are generating traffic and which pages are getting the highest rankings and clicks. This information will help you create more content and improve your lower-performing pages.

Google Analytics is the best, most reliable source of gathering website data. Most real estate website builders include reporting and analytics tools, and they are sometimes even easier to use. However, Google Analytics generally has the most accurate data, so it’s essential to understand your traffic and user behavior on this platform.

Step 10: Regularly Audit Your Website for SEO Issues 

As you publish more website content and your traffic increases, make sure you continually monitor the site for technical SEO issues. Even if your content ranks well, keeping tabs on this for the absolute best results is important. For example, articles or videos you link to might change their URLs, leaving you with dead links. Or your articles might load slowly if you install a new plugin or forget to compress images. Scheduling biyearly or quarterly SEO audits can help you find these issues before they affect your ranking. 

Best Practices of Real Estate SEO

It can be challenging to learn SEO for real estate because there are so many factors to consider, and it can be highly technical. However, it’s a challenge that can be overcome with determination and by following a few best practices. If you invest your time, energy, and finances into real estate SEO, the result can massively increase your business growth.

Here are a few basic SEO concepts and best practices to keep in mind:

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  Build authority (E-E-A-T):
  
  Google will only rank websites that are topic matter experts. Build your EAT score (expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness) by creating original content, collaborating with other respected websites, and maintaining a well-organized website.

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  Use the right tools:
  
  Finding the right tools (or freelancers) for keyword research, optimization, and website analytics is essential for optimizing your content for search engines.

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  Write with structure:
  
  Your content should use structured data like H1, H2, and H3 headings, numbered lists, bullet points, and keywords. Using Ahrefs, Semrush, or a website builder with SEO tools like Easy Agent Pro will help you create optimized content.

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  Keep your website speed fast:
  
  A slow website will be devalued in the search engine’s algorithm. Keep track of your website speed with Google’s free PageSpeed Insights tool, and follow that report to improve your site’s speed.

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  Keep your website mobile-friendly:
  
  Most agents work on their website on a desktop, but more than 60% of website traffic is from mobile devices. If your site isn’t mobile-friendly, users may not have the patience to stay and become one of your leads.

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  Make navigation simple:
  
  It should be easy for users to understand how to view different pages on your site. Using menus and internal links will keep visitors on your website for longer, which builds your authority—and, ultimately, your rankings—in search engines.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Bringing It All Together

Real estate SEO can be complex, but it is a compelling way to grow your business. By creating a well-organized website and high-quality content optimized for the right keywords, you can attract thousands of users to your website and generate leads ready to work with you. With the tips in this guide, you’ll be able to start using SEO for real estate immediately.

The post The Ultimate Real Estate SEO Guide: 10 Steps to Better Ranking appeared first on The Close.