Find More Motivated Buyers and Home Owners With Highly Targeted
Real Estate SEO
This Real Estate SEO Guide Has Been Comprehensively Updated for 2023
Due to consistent algorithm updates, the relatively recent Helpful Content Update in late 2022, we’ve updated the written content that already existed on the page. We’ve written new content. And we’ve filmed new video content. Everything is up-to-date, fresh, and helpful for your real estate agency to dominate Google for 2023.
How We Help Real Estate Agents Grow Their Business & See A
5.7x ROI on Their Monthly SEO Investment
Increase Google Rankings
Get your real estate website ranking on Google for high-value keywords that your target audience is searching for.
More High-Quality Web Traffic
Get more interested buyers coming to your website each month.
Increased Leads & Phone Calls
Get more motivated house hunters calling your office to schedule walk-throughs.
You Get Your Time Back
Stop wasting your time writing blog content or trying to maneuver digital marketing on your own.
Here's What You Want To See With Your Real Estate Website & SEO
When Someone Types into Google "Real Estate Agent Near Me", You Show Up Here...
When Someone Types into Google "Real Estate Agent Near Me", You Show Up Here...
Think about how people search for real estate agents. They’ve been casually looking at homes for some time now on Zillow, Trulia, or another similar mobile app.
Are they going to go whip out their computer once they’re ready to find a real estate agent? Probably not.
They go to Google on their mobile browser and type in something like “Real Estate Agent Near Me” – the FIRST thing to show up is the Maps area of Google called the Google Local Pack. The real estate agents that show up here “win” and get the most phone calls.
When Someone Types into Google "Best Real Estate Agent in [City]", You Show Up Here...
When house hunters are looking for a real estate agent, they often use the language of “best real estate agent near me” or “best real estate agent in [city]”.
The real estate agents that rank in the Maps area for these keywords get the most website visitors and phone calls.
When Someone Types in Questions into Google like "Questions to Ask Before Buying a House", You Show Up Here...
When Someone Types in Questions into Google like "Questions to Ask Before Buying a House", You Show Up Here...
House hunters ask dozens, if not hundreds of questions into Google each day. Questions like…
- “What to look out for in a home inspection”
- “Where are the best neighborhoods to live in Portland, OR?”
- “How do you calculate mortgage insurance?”
Ranking for these keywords in Google shows that your website is an “authority” on these topics and can be trusted.
People Are Searching Differently For Real Estate Agents Than They Used To
Just take a look and see the increase in people searching for “real estate agent near me” over the last five years.
This screenshot above comes from a tool called Google Trends (a tool created by Google itself). You can see the increase in the number of people searching for “real estate agent near me.”
See The Common Theme? You Want To Increase Your Digital Presence Online As A Real Estate Agent To Be Found By Motivated House Hunters
This is what it boils down to:
You want more potential homebuyers in your city to know that you exist. Whenever they conduct a Google search around real estate, you want to outrank your competitors.
How Do You Get Tangible Results With Real Estate SEO Services?
Step 1: Comprehensive SEO Audit
Unfortunately when taking the time to do this step, most SEO companies fall short. And it’s the most important step of all!
How can you achieve your goals if you don’t know where you are now?
We recommend doing a comprehensive SEO audit to determine your:
- Current SEO performance
- Current SEO errors
- What your local competitors are doing
- Technical SEO performance
- And more
Step 2: Local SEO Visibility Audit
The goal for real estate agent SEO is to increase your “local visibility,” as we refer to it.
We use robust and powerful third-party tools to run a “SEO visibility test” on your business. This allows us to see how visible your business is on Google.
The report looks like this:
Step 3: Create a Roadmap Based on Data
Now we have plenty of data from the SEO audit and the local SEO visibility audit.
SEO for real estate agents should be strategized based on data.
But most other SEO companies don’t do this! They take steps based on an inkling of what they think will work.
We recommend creating a comprehensive roadmap based on the data. For example, if the data shows that your site isn’t optimized for mobile, you should probably fix that first!
Step 4: Implement Highest Priority Changes First
Here’s where it all comes together.
Some SEO activities work better than others.
Adding an image to your contact page isn’t going to make as big of an impact as improving your home page’s content.
So, what you need to do is target the “low hanging fruit” opportunities first.
Do you need to set up a Google Business Profile still? Do that before worrying about your About Us page’s images.
Step 5: Local SEO Best Practices & Content Creation at Scale
Local SEO for real estate agents comes down to the following:
- Consistent information that Google trusts
- Authority
- Accurate information
If the phone number on your website doesn’t match what’s on your Facebook page, Google doesn’t like that.
You see, Google doesn’t want to risk ranking your site if that means a user could potentially try to call you but the call doesn’t go through.
Having consistent NAPs on high-authority directories across the internet is critical.
Now, when it comes to “authority,” that’s where content comes in. If the content you create answers your audience’s questions, then Google will see your business as having more authority than another real estate agent that doesn’t have much content on their site.
Step 6: Meticulously Track Data
SEO is aimed to have a tangible impact on your real estate business. To increase website visitors. To increase phone calls. And to ultimately have those activities lead to increased revenue.
You must track data to ensure your SEO campaign is working as it should. Build a comprehensive dashboard that gives insights into your:
- keyword rankings
- website visitors
- phone calls
- and other important KPIs
Real Estate SEO Services Shouldn't Be 
Cutter - Everything Is 100% Customized To Your Business
Real Estate Agent SEO is not the same as other types of SEO. The strategies that work for you won’t be exactly the same as SEO strategies for a hair salon.
But many other SEO companies don’t treat it on an individual, industry level. They use the same “tips and tricks” that they use in other industries, thinking that it’ll work with real estate agents. That’s not as effective.
We treat your business as unique. We approach the following on an individual level:
- Industry (such as real estate)
- Specific city (Miami might be different than a small town in Illinois)
- Specific website (do you use WordPress? Shopify?)
5 Tactical Local SEO Strategies for Real Estate Agents
Strategy 1: Google Business Profile Optimizations
This is an example of a realtor’s Google Business Profile:
Well, this is an example of the front-end of a Google Business Profile. The part that a user searching on Google would see.
Now let’s back up for a minute:
Why do Google Business Profile pages matter for real estate agents? Well, if you’re looking to rank in the Google Local Pack, it’s important to have a detailed Google Business Profile. If you forgot what the Google Local Pack is, take a look at the screenshot below:
Optimizing your Google Business Profile helps you get found there ☝️
And when you reach Google Local Pack ranking, you WIN. You get more website visitors and phone calls than your competitors that aren’t ranking in the local pack.
So, how is your Google Business Profile properly optimized so that you land in the Google Local Pack?
This one’s important: Be comprehensive. Optimize your Google Business Profile with as comprehensive information as possible.
There are many sections within a GMB profile that you can provide comprehensive information, such as:
- Your categories
- Your main description
- Your services
- Your products
- Your photos
Here’s a short example to illustrate the difference between being comprehensive and not being comprehensive:
For your main description, you might write a sentence like “Johnson Realty Group is a leading real estate agency in Portland dedicated to finding the right property for you.”
That’s great and all…but that’s just one sentence. Google gives you up to 750 characters for the main description. Use them! Do you offer both residential and commercial real estate services? Are you a full-service realty? Do you provide any perks or extra benefits to your clients?
Answering EVERY possible question is how you can be more comprehensive and show Google that you’re trustworthy.
Strategy 2: On-Page SEO for Your Homepage and Location Pages
What exactly is on-page SEO for real estate agents? Simply put, it’s the content on your website.
It includes:
- Your title tags
- Your meta description
- Your header tags (H1, H2, H3)
- Internal and external links
- Your images
- And essentially anything that you can put on a website page!
Why does on-page SEO for real estate agents matter? Well, Google cares about it.
For single-location real estate agents, the most important page on your website (from a local SEO perspective) is the homepage. For multi-location realties, the most important pages on your website are your location pages.
When creating on-page SEO for these pages, you want to use SEO-friendliness by using keywords while also providing as comprehensive information as possible for both the user and Google.
For example, instead of a title tag like “Star Realty Group – 503.111.2222” you can offer more context to Google with a title such as “Trusted Real Estate Agents in Portland and Surrounding Areas – Star Realty Group.”
Strategy 3: Website Architecture Best Practices
This is an underrated SEO strategy for real estate agents. Your website architecture and your sitemap are intimately connected.
A sitemap is used so that Google crawlers can better understand your website architecture, which allows Google to understand what your site is actually about.
Here’s an example of a sitemap that Google might crawl:
A little technical/confusing…but don’t worry. The important thing is that when Google looks at a sitemap like the one above, it’s piecing together what your site is about (which matters A LOT for local SEO).
The point is for your website structure to have hierarchy. For example, most real estate agents provide services for both 1) buying homes and 2) selling homes.
Where should these pages live on your site? First, you should probably have a “Services” page that has the URL structure similar to .com/services/
Now, any services that you offer (such as buying, selling, financing, etc) should live UNDER this main services page. The URL structures would look similar to the ones below:
- .com/services/buy
- .com/services/sell
This seems like a given, but many websites do this incorrectly. There’s no vertical architecture. Instead, every page lives directly under the homepage like this:
- .com/services/
- .com/buy/
- .com/sell
- .com/finance/
With this structure, Google doesn’t fully understand that “Buy” is a service that you offer. It’s just another page on your site!
Strategy 4: Content Creation at Scale
This is where it gets fun. Home owners and house hunters search for thousands of questions into Google every day.
Some are super local:
- best real estate agents in Portland
- best home loans in Oregon
Some are generic:
- Is selling your home taxable?
- How do real estate agents list homes to sell?
- Can a realtor take pictures of my home for the listing?
- Do real estate agents stage homes?
If you answer these types of questions through comprehensive blog articles on your website, it will do 2 things in your favor:
- You could rank in Google for these keywords that people are searching and drive more traffic to your site.
- Google will take notice. It’ll see your website as an authority over your competitors and think “They’re thoroughly answering all of these real estate-related questions that users are searching for. Wow, their website must be more valuable than other local competitors who haven’t answered any questions for their target audience.”
Strategy 5: User Experience is a Bigger Deal Than You Think - Stop the Keyword Stuffing!
Spammy SEO won’t fly anymore. Keyword stuffing… PBN link building… all the stuff that used to work.
Not only is Google getting smarter, but Google’s also beginning to comprehend that user experience on a website is important.
So what does this mean for you as a real estate agent?
- Make it simple for users to find what they’re looking for on your site. Don’t make them spend 5 minutes searching for your house listings.
- Make it easy for users to contact you. If your phone number isn’t clickable on a mobile device, that should probably be updated. You should consider an online schedule so someone can make an initial sit-down appointment. Basically, anything that can make the user’s experience a breeze.
- When writing content, you should actually offer value to the reader. Outsourcing writers that keyword-stuff articles without offering any real information is yesterday’s strategy. Your content should thoroughly answer the user’s questions and add real value to them.
On Average, Our Real Estate SEO Services Cost
31% Less Than Other SEO Companies
Compared to Other SEO Companies That Average Between $1.5k and $3k Per Month.
FAQs About Real Estate SEO Services
Here are the most common questions we’ve heard.
What is Real Estate SEO?
Real Estate SEO is a form of digital marketing that helps real estate agents increase their visibility in search engines, namely Google.
The SEO strategies used specifically for real estate agents vary greatly (which is why all real estate SEO is NOT created equal).
Strategies include:
- keyword research
- on-page SEO
- off-page SEO
- Google Maps optimizations
- local SEO
- content creation
- landing page creation
- PR
- and more
Why is Real Estate SEO Important?
Real Estate SEO is important because it allows you to get in front of your target audience (the motivated house hunters looking to buy or sell RIGHT NOW).
Think about how social media marketing for real estate agents works: People are scrolling through Facebook or Instagram and stumble upon an advertisement for a real estate agent in their city. Did they get onto social media looking specifically for a real estate agent? Probably not.
On the other hand, SEO puts you in front of motivated homebuyers and sellers looking for what you have to offer:
SEO for real estate allows you to show up in Google for people that are ready to take the plunge and buy or sell a house. People searching for “best real estate near me” or “real estate agent in downtown Portland.” Ranking for those keywords is much more valuable in conversation rate than catching the eyes of those scrolling through Instagram.
How Long Does SEO for Real Estate Agents Take To Work?
Real Estate SEO can take 1 week – 6 months for you to start seeing results. It depends on a variety of factors:
- How big of a city you’re in
- How long your website has been around for
- How high your website’s “domain authority” is
- How your current SEO is performing
- And much more
Some of our clients have seen 2x – 3x the phone calls within a month after starting their SEO campaign. Other clients don’t see noticeable increases in phone calls for 2-3 months.
Think about it this way:
If everyone could make a couple of tweaks on their website and rank overnight for the HIGHEST value keywords out there, like “best real estate agent in Boston” then the internet would go into overdrive.
Google realized this and built their algorithms to allow time to keep things running smoothly.
What Real Estate SEO KPIs Should We Track?
Real Estate SEO should be meticulously tracked.
You want to ensure that your money invested in SEO is working for your real estate business.
Therefore, you need to track certain metrics to ensure that the campaign is working:
- Keyword rankings: Are your ranking on Page 1 of Google for your most important keywords? How are your keyword rankings changing week over week? Month over month?
- Organic website traffic: Is your organic website traffic from Google going up or down? Which keywords are driving the most traffic?
- Online lead submissions: Are you seeing more online leads? How are they changing month over month?
- Phone calls: Are you getting more phone calls from people searching on Google? How are phone calls changing over time?
What Type of Content Should Real Estate Websites Have?
Real Estate SEO should include content that your homeowners and/or house hunters are searching for:
How do we know what keywords/content your target audience is searching for? We use advanced software and tools that give us insider information and data. We, for example, know that 1,300 people per month (on average) search for “how to stage a house for sale.”
So, with that being said, we do extensive keyword research to find the topics/questions that home hunters/owners have.
Questions like:
- “How to prepare to buy a house?”
- “Are real estate agents necessary?”
- “Can a real estate agent buy and sell for the same client?”
If you create content that answers these questions, then you can potentially rank when people enter these search queries into Google.
Also, since Google will see your site as more trustworthy, you’ll have a better chance at showing up above your competitors.
What are the Most Valuable Real Estate Keywords for SEO?
How To Work With Us
First of all – we don’t work with all real estate agents.
We only work with real estate agents who:
- Are ambitious about growing their business
- Have the bandwidth to take the growth that will come from working with us
- Treat their clients and other agents well
Step 2
Check Your Email
In less than 24 hours, one of our talented SEO specialists will send you a 3-5 minute customized video analysis. It will explain opportunities for you to outperform competitors
Step 3
Sit Back And Watch Your SEO Skyrocket
Just take a look at our case studies of the success that other Portland businesses have seen. You can have the same results.
If you’re looking for an SEO firm in Portland, we can help. Give us a call today to learn more about our pricing and availability.
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