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In the United States, there are more than 1.53 million realtors and 106,548 real estate brokerage firms, competing against each other to find new home buyers and sellers. On the other hand, if we talk about Dubai, there are about more than 12,000 realtors in Dubai, which is again a significant number given the size and population of the emirate. The data indicates the need for real estate professionals and businesses to have a strong online presence.
If you are still wondering why you need real estate SEO services to grow your
business, here is what you need to know.
Home Buyer Statistics
- 350% to 2450% spike is seen in Real estate-related searchess
- 96% of all home buyers search for homes online at some point.
- 76% of homebuyers use mobile devices for property searches
- 51% of home buyers said they found their current homes online.
- Gen X buyers (24%) make up the largest share of home buyers
- 18% of home buyers first contacted a real estate agent.
- 10% of buyers found their agent online when inquiring for properties.
Home Seller Statistics
- Searches for “sell my house” increased 147% in the U.S.alone
- 86% of homes are sold through real estate agents or brokers.
- Baby boomers (52%) make up the largest share of home sellers.
Realtor Statistics
- 92% growth in “best real estate agents” searches since 2016
- 74% of realtors use Facebook for professional use
- 70% of brokers and 69% of realtors own a website.
- 56% use LinkedIn for professional purposes.
- 20% of realtors get their 1 to 5 percent of business online
- 10% of realtors get 6 to 10% of their business online.
- Real estate agents and brokers remain the top source to buy/sell homes for all generations
Source: Home Buyers and Sellers Generational Trends by National
Association of Realtors.
Since most home sellers and home buyers start their search for homes and
agents online and and your competitors use well-optimized websites and
social media to find their clients, it is high time you also focus on
real estate SEO to establish a robust digital marketing presence and authority in
the real estate industry.
How SEO Can Help Real Estate Businesses
SEO provides various direct and indirect benefits to real estate agents,
brokers, and brokerage firms. Some of these are:
- Increase website visibility among home buyers and sellers.
- Implementing real estate SEO strategy is crucial for appearing in the top 3 search results, as these receive a staggering 68.7% of all clicks.
- Get more website traffic, leading potential buyers to listings.
- Increase sales and reduce costs on paid ads.
- Get 2 to 3 times more sales than those who don’t invest in real estate SEO.
Challenges Faced When Doing SEO for Real Estate Websites
The real estate industry is unique from other industries in various aspects.
- Customer buying journey is longer due to many issues, financing, rising prices, market trends, etc. Based on the current real estate market, it can take 6 months to 1 year to find the home they look for.
- To get attention of interested home buyers and sellers, you need to produce regular visual content, such as blogs, video, images, and home tours. Properties with quality images online sell 45% faster, and 75% closer to the listing price.
- Apart from the homes up for sale, you also need to consider suburb overviews, amenities available, lifestyle, crime rate, etc.
- SEO for real estate is not a one-time project for realtors. It needs consistent efforts.
- Ranking for local and national keywords is often difficult but very important for real estate agents.
Ranking Signals You Must Know While Doing Real Estate SEO
Now that we've established the importance of e-commerce SEO for manufacturers,
let's look into the actionable tips to help you optimize your product listings
effectively.
- Google My Business Signals (25.1%)
- Link Signals, such as backlinks (16.5%)
- Review Signals such as Google reviews and reviews on other platforms (15.4%)
- On-Page Signals, such as keywords and domain authority (13.8%)
- Citation Signals, which include brand mentions on online profiles (10.8%)
- Behavioral Signals, for instance, CTR, checking reviews, and reading posts (9.6%)
- Personalization, which involve searches based on locations (5.9%)
- Social Signals, which include social shares, likes, and visibility (2.8%)
This article shares the top 5 essential local search engine optimization (SEO) tips for real estate websites.
1. Start with an SEO Audit of Your Real Estate Website
Evaluate the Performance of Your Website
A fast, mobile-friendly website is critical for real estate SEO success.
Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights and Pingdom to analyze site speed,
mobile friendliness, page load times, Time to First Byte (TTFB), and other key
performance metrics.
Check both desktop and mobile site speed. If your site is slow to load, has a
poor mobile UX, or other issues, it will negatively impact user experience and
search rankings.
Identify the specific performance problems such as large image files, bulky
code, and insecure hosts. Then, develop a technical SEO strategy for your real
estate website to optimize and improve site speed and responsiveness.
Identify Strengths, Weaknesses, and Opportunities for Real Estate SEO
Audit your website's on-page optimization, content, keywords, and technical
SEO.
Most real estate sites have weaknesses like thin, low-value content pages and a
lack of optimization for informational keywords. Fix technical issues that harm
SEO to maximize strengths and minimize weaknesses.
Leverage existing strengths like proper NAP data, GMB profile, and rich snippets
while expanding your keyword targeting and beefing up weak content.
Look for opportunities to create localized, optimized content about buying,
selling, mortgages, and other high-value informational real estate topics.
Free SEO Analysis
2. Optimize the Real Estate Website for Local Property Searches
Research Keywords for Searches Made for Targeted Local Areas
Keyword research is one of the crucial parts of off-page SEO factor as it impacts
the success of your real estate website.
Keyword research allows you to gain valuable insights into which keywords
home sellers and buyers are searching for in your area and what kind of SEO
competition those keywords have.
If you are looking for a free keyword research tool, Google Keyword Planner is a
great option. You can find this tool under Google Ads.
You may need to create a Google Ads account to access the Keyword Planner tool
under the Tools tab. With Keyword Planner, you can see monthly searches,
competition, and other data for any keyword or phrase.
Another popular paid option is SEMRush. This tool shows you which real estate
websites are currently ranking for a given keyword in your area, the level of
competition, monthly searches, and more.
You can also use WordStream to find related keywords for real estate
SEO.
When doing keyword research for a real estate website, your goal should be to
rank on the first page of Google (ideally positions 1-3) for relevant,
localized long-tail keywords.
A long tail keyword is a more specific phrase with 3 or more words.
For example, "cheap single-family homes in Encino, Los Angeles" is a long-tail
keyword.
Focus your research on finding long-tail keywords that incorporate:
- Your city
- Neighborhood
- Real estate type
- Other geographic and property specifics
Inside Google Keyword Planner, search for keywords with at least 3 or more words or phrases. Remember that long-tail keywords tend to be easier to rank for compared to short, broad keywords.
Do not worry too much about the keyword competition metric when conducting research, as this is more applicable for PPC advertising bids.
Instead, look for a decent search volume for keywords that match your service area and categories. Identify gaps where you could create optimized content.
Once you compile your keyword research, you can start optimizing your important pages and content for these terms.
Make sure keywords appear naturally in:
- Titles
- Headers
- Meta Descriptions
- Image Names and Alt Text
- Body Content
This will help search engines understand your relevance for each keyword and improve rankings. Update site navigation to include important keywords as well.
Write Useful, Informative Blogs Based on Local Areas and Amenities
Having a blog on your real estate website provides opportunities to target relevant local keywords and give value to site visitors. Did you know websites with blogs get 55% more traffic than those without blogs? With limited resources, prioritize blog content that will attract and inform home buyers and sellers.
Blogging plays a pivotal role in real estate lead generation. By providing valuable content, you attract potential clients and improve your SEO simultaneously. Craft informative articles for both home buyers and sellers, covering details such as walkability analysis, cost of living, and amenities.
Enhance your blog posts with visual content like images, videos, and infographics. By incorporating real estate blogging into your digital marketing strategy, you can increase traffic and engage your audience effectively.
Informative Articles
For Home Buyers:
Create posts describing your city and popular neighborhoods. Cover details like:
- Walkability analysis
- Cost of Living
- Social Scene
- Commute times
- Schools
- Crime Rates
- Hospitals
- Restaurants and Hotels
- Basic Amenities
- Luxury Amenities
- Financing Options, and more
For Home Sellers :
- Home Inspection
- Home Staging
- Market Conditions
- Selling Prices in the Region
- Home value assessment
- List to Price Ratio
- Repairs Needed to Increase Home Value
Give balanced pros and cons from a local real estate agent’s perspective.
Visual Content
Images are the most useful website feature for 9 out of 10 home buyers. So, enhance your articles with:
- Images of the property
- Images of the surrounding area
- Video tours
- Virtual property tours
- Live streams
- Infographics
These help bring the neighborhood to life in the eyes of potential home buyers and real estate investors.
Interviews with Local Business Owners
Conduct interviews with small business owners to share insider perspectives on
the community.
Their unique local viewpoints and positive experiences can influence potential
home buyers. The business owners may also share the interviews on their sites,
expanding your reach.
Before publishing any blog content, take a few minutes to optimize it for both
visitors and search engines
Include targeted geographic and real estate keywords in titles, headers, meta
descriptions, alt text, captions, and page URLs.
Informative local real estate blogs help you attract buyers interested in the
area while also improving SEO with relevant, engaging content.
Optimize Content of Your Website for Featured Snippets
Create informative and accurate answers to the most common queries and get
featured at the top of SERPS.
Grabbing a featured snippet can significantly boost:
- Your real estate website's visibility
- Organic traffic
- Local keyword rankings
- Conversion rate
However, with local SEO, featured snippets don't show for geo-targeted queries. You'll need to get creative.
Carry out keyword research to find relevant long-tail informational phrases containing your city or neighborhood names. Look for questions people may ask about buying/selling properties or living in the area.
- Optimize pages and posts to comprehensively answer question-based keywords while working your geo-targets in seamlessly. Focus on especially those questions that don’t already have their spot in featured snippets.
- Make sure to structure your content using questions for headers and subheadings, and use short paragraphs, bullet points, tables, etc. that could fit into a featured snippet box.
- Add more Q&A content. Create a Questions page with common FAQs about your market. Provide detailed answers in a scannable format and be as authentic and genuine as possible.
- Precise responses with images and lists tend to get selected for featured snippets.
- Use H1 and H2 tags for questions, schema FAQ markup for Q&As, alt text for images, etc. to make it easy for Google to understand your content structure.
This strategic approach aligns with real estate SEO tips aimed at boosting organic traffic and local keyword rankings.
Add Visual Content and Property Images to Your Website
Investing in quality visual assets and video marketing provides another way to:
- Engage home buyers
- Build authority
- Distinguish yourself from other realtors
Launch a YouTube channel specifically for your real estate brand and start uploading new video content consistently. Share these videos across your website, social profiles, email newsletters, and anywhere else you can showcase them.
Live stream open houses new listings tours, market updates, and Q&As on YouTube and Facebook. Interact with viewers in real-time to nurture leads and get more eyes on your properties.
Repurpose recorded live streams along with other videos into many forms of content. Turn a property tour video into social posts, a blog article, and more.
Optimize your real estate videos for both visitors and search engines. Include targeted keywords in the titles, descriptions, captions, and hashtags.
Improve accessibility by adding subtitles and a transcript. Put the full transcript in the video description which helps search engines index the content. Also link to your website, social profiles, and related listings.
Ideas for Real Estate Video Content Include:
- Open-house live streams
- Recordings of new luxury listings with a property tour
- Market updates and analysis
- Q&A videos answering common buyer questions
- Hyperlocal neighborhood tours showcasing amenities
- “Best Homes for Families” listing compilation videos
- DIY home tips from contractors
Videos and virtual tours allow you to showcase listings and local expertise while also boosting SEO if properly optimized. Visual content helps a real estate site stand out while improving search visibility.
3. Optimize the On-Page Elements on Your Real Estate Website
Implement Silo Architecture to Make Site Navigation Easier
Silo architecture refers to organizing your real estate website's content and
navigation into clear, intuitive categories or "silos". This allows site
visitors, including potential home sellers and buyers to easily navigate to any
page within 1-2 clicks.
Optimize silo architecture by:
- Using relevant keywords in site section names
- Implementing internal links between related content
- Ensuring URLs are meaningful and contain main keywords for easy identification
- Maintaining a clear hierarchy by using an H1 tag for the main heading, followed by H2 tags for subheadings, and so on.
Proper silo architecture improves SEO by making pages easily discoverable and strengthening relevancy signals.
Create SEO-optimized Meta, Titles and Description Tags
Title tags and meta descriptions are critical on-page SEO elements that influence click-through rates from search results. Craft compelling titles and descriptions that make potential home buyers and sellers want to explore your real estate website.
Title Tags
The title tag appears as the clickable headline for your listing in search results. Create titles within the length of 60 characters; otherwise, they might get cut off. Open with your most important keyword or geo-target keyword, as Google gives more weight to the beginning of titles.
Structure your title tags to serve both visitors and search bots:
- Start with the target keyword/location
- Add your brand name
- Describe the page content
For example: "Dubai Wharf Real Estate Agents | Homes for Sale in Dubai Wharf, Dubai| ABC Realty"
Don't just use generic page names like "Contact" or your brand name in titles. Include keywords and specifics.
Meta Descriptions
43% of people click on a search result based on how compelling its meta description is. Meta descriptions summarize page content in search snippets below the title and URL.
This is your chance to intrigue searchers to click through.
- Describe the page purpose clearly
- Use keywords naturally
- Length: 150-160 characters
- End with a call to action
- Include the service area and city name, preferably in the beginning part
For example: "Search homes for sale in Dubai Wharf, Dubai, UAE with our real estate agents. View listings, school data, prices, and more. Contact us to find your dream home!"
Tips:
- Focus on one targeted keyword per description
- Avoid overused marketing jargon
- Check descriptions on mobile since space is limited
- Use tools like Yoast to preview how they will appear
Titles and meta descriptions that are keyword-rich and compelling can significantly improve click-through rates. Make every character count to get your real estate listings noticed.
Improve Page Speed to Retain Site Visitors
Fast page speed is critical for real estate sites to keep visitors engaged and satisfy Google's mobile-first ranking factors.
Test your site speed
using tools like Pingdom and Google PageSpeed Insights.
Identify bulky elements
that are slowing down your site’s performance such as large uncompressed images, excessive plugins/scripts, insecure hosts, or outdated site architecture.
Optimize images by compressing files ,
using newer image types like WebP, and adding lazy loading.
Minify CSS, JavaScript, and HTML files
to improve the page loading speed.
Update plugins and themes
or disable resource-heavy ones and switch to a faster web host if necessary.
For WordPress sites, install caching plugins
like WP Rocket or enable server-side caching.
Remove unnecessary redirects and optimize code
for faster page rendering.
Aim for a PageSpeed score above 90
and a page-load of less than 2 seconds.
Page speed optimizations enhance user experience leading to better engagement and conversions as well as improved SEO rankings for real estate search queries.
Ensure that your website is optimized for speed, as fast page speed positively impacts user experience and SEO rankings. Implementing these on-page optimizations is integral to the success of your digital marketing for construction businesses.
Optimize MLS Listing Pages on the Website
Optimizing MLS listing pages on your website is crucial for ranking for relevant long-tail searches. A listing page has the same format for every property, and you need to ensure that the template is properly optimized so that it can rank for several long-tail keywords.
For each listing page:
- Include the full property address at the top of the page.
- Use the property address in the page title and H1.
- Add property name and location to the image alt text.
- Implement schema markup for key details like beds, baths, and prices.
- Use templates to ensure cohesive SEO-optimized formats across all listings.
For example: For the listing page, your template should be like this – [Complete Property Address] Area | Your Website (or Business) Name
Standardized pages with unique titles, alt text, schema markups, and structure signal to Google that each listing page is relevant and useful.
To learn about schema markups, visit Schema.org
4. Optimize Your Real Estate Website for Mobile Searches and Devices
Over 60% of searches are done through mobile devices, as per Statista. Thus, having a mobile-friendly real estate website is no longer optional - it's imperative for reaching today's on-the-go home buyers.
Follow these best SEO practices to optimize your real estate website for mobile users.
Implement Responsive Design
Responsive web design automatically adapts your site's layout to look great on any screen size - desktop, tablets, and mobile phones. As per a survey, home buyers conducted 50% of their search on mobile devices and 50% of their search on desktops/laptops.
To adjust to mobile screens, content responds and resizes while retaining proper formatting and accessibility by using a flexible grid, images, and CSS media queries.
You can easily test whether your website is mobile-friendly or not by using Google's Mobile-Friendly Test tool. Identify and fix issues like small text, crowded interfaces, broken images, etc.
Optimize Images and Videos
High-quality images and videos allow you to showcase listings of homes while conveying lifestyle and emotion. However, oversized uncompressed media content can lead to slower mobile page speed and poor user experience.
- Compress files using TinyPNG or Squoosh
- Use modern lightweight formats like WebP
- Set appropriate image dimensions and resolutions
- Implement responsive images that auto-resize
- Add lazy loading to only load images in the visible area
- Videos should also be compressed while maintaining resolution and playback quality.
- Offer mobile-friendly MP4 format for videos
Simplify Navigation
On smaller screens, complex navigation menus become cluttered and tricky to use. Hence, you must simplify your site navigation for mobile:
- Condense top-level navigation categories
- Use fixed top or bottom navigation bars
- Implement hamburger expandable menus
- Ensure buttons and links have enough padding to be easily tappable
- Maintain key pages like "Listings" and "Contact" in the main navigation
The easier your website is to navigate on mobile, the better the user experience will be for potential home sellers and buyers.
Make sure to monitor analytics to identify and eliminate points of friction. Streamlined mobile navigation helps you optimize conversion rates.
5. Create a Strong Media Presence on Facebook, Instagram, and More
While social media may not directly influence search rankings, having an active presence on channels like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter is still crucial for real estate success. Why?
Social Media helps
- Connects real estate agents with local home buyers where they spend time online
- Increases brand awareness and establish trust
- Drive traffic back to your real estate site and listings
- Build relationships and nurture leads
- Share visual real estate content that engages and inspires
Choose 2-3 social media platforms to focus your social media optimization efforts:
- Facebook – Share real estate listings, market updates, blog content, open house events, and other news to attract followers. Go Live to give virtual tours of properties for sale.
- Instagram - Post appealing images of available homes using relevant hashtags like #FloridaRealEstate and link to your site in your Insta bio.
- Twitter - Share bite-sized real estate tips, market trends, and company updates. Engage with other local agents and builders.
- Pinterest - Create eye-catching boards with home photos, decor inspiration, renovations, architecture, and more.
For each platform, you should tailor your social media content to align with user behavior and expectations. Make sure you post consistently, interact with followers, optimize profiles, and analyze what resonates.
When sharing any post, incorporate targeted keywords in descriptions and hashtags. Add location names like "Homes in Nashville". This helps extend your local SEO efforts
An active social media presence builds brand awareness and trust that drives website traffic back to your real estate site. Leverage social media platforms that are popular with home buyers in your target areas to boost visibility.
This synergy contributes to a comprehensive approach to incorporate digital marketing strategies for real estate and stay ahead in the competitive real estate market.
Latest SEO Tools We Use
Avoid Making Common Mistakes that Most Real Estate Sites Make
Many real estate websites make similar mistakes that hold back their SEO and marketing success. By being aware of these pitfalls, you can avoid them and improve your site's performance.
Mistake #1: Not Having a Mobile-Friendly Website
As stated above, 76% of homebuyers prefer using mobile devices for their home search process. Having a real estate site that is not optimized for mobile can destroy your traffic and rankings.
It is mostly because real estate websites contain lots of images of houses and properties to attract more users.
You need to ensure that your website is mobile-friendly and loads quickly on desktop and mobile devices. You can use Google's Mobile-Friendly Test to check page speed of your websiste.
Mistake #2: Thin, Low-Value Content That Does Not Give Information about Local Areas
Many real estate sites have limited general information and mostly just property listings. This doesn't give search engines much to index and rank well.
Create useful, in-depth content about your real estate market, buying/selling tips, mortgages, home styles, and other topics. Optimize this content for key phrases
Mistake #3: Neglecting local SEO
Not having complete and accurate NAP listings, no Google My Business profile, and lacking local keywords can lead to lost visibility and opportunities.
Do proper local SEO including schema markup for your address, opening hours, and other business info.
Mistake #4: Not Tracking Analytics and Site Performance
Without tracking key metrics like organic traffic, lead form submissions, page views, site speed, and more, you are flying blind.
Set up Google Analytics, Search Console, and other tools to monitor your progress.
By avoiding common pitfalls like poor mobile optimization, thin content, inadequate local SEO, and blind marketing, you can set your real estate website up for success.
Analyze competitors, fix weaknesses, and keep optimizing to stand out.
How to Measure the Impact of Real Estate SEO Efforts and Improvise
To get data and insights into your real estate website’s performance, set up Google Analytics and Google Search Console accounts.
Here is how you can do it.
Google Search Console and Google Analytics are FREE tools every real estate website owner should utilize to monitor SEO performance and help pages get indexed.
Connecting your site with Google Analytics and Search Console provides valuable data and insights into how Google views and interacts with your website.
How to Set Up Google Search Console (GSC) Account
- Go to Google Search Console and log in with your Google account.
- Click "Add Property" and enter the URL of your real estate business website.
- It is highly recommended to connect Google Analytics with your GSC account to verify or install the HTML code on your website.
- Click on the Verify button to verify both the www and non-www versions of your domain.
- This confirms you control the site and allows Google to associate data with your verified property.
Submit Sitemap to Google Search Console
- Open your Google Search Console account and click on the verified website from your dashboard.
- Submit your XML sitemap(s) under Sitemaps > Add/Test Sitemap. This helps Google discover new and updated content.
- Submit the URL of your sitemap and click Submit.
- Wait up to 48 hours for Google to process, verify, and start crawling your real estate website
How to Track Your Site Performance with Google Search Console
Search Console provides data to help optimize both on-page and off-page factors.
- Under Search Traffic > Search Analytics, view keywords driving traffic, impressions, clicks, and click-through rates. This informs you of how your SEO efforts are translating into results.
- The Links report highlights the number of backlinks to your site along with source domains and anchor text used.
- Regularly monitor for unhealthy links and remove them as soon you find them.
Site audits identify critical issues like errors, security threats, unauthorized structured data, and more. Fix detected problems to improve visibility.Integrate Google Search Console with Google Analytics to get a full picture of performance. Regularly check key metrics like site traffic, top landing pages, queries, location data, and more.
Search Console gives invaluable insights to diagnose issues and see how Google bots view your site. Connecting your website is a vital step to monitor and improve SEO results.
Key Metrics to Track in Google Analytics
While there are many metrics you must keep an eye on such as organic traffic, impressions, number of site visitors, and CTR, the following three metrics will provide you with greater insights into what to do to improve your site performance.
- Bounce Rate - This metric shows the percentage of single-page sessions where the user entered and exited your site without viewing any other pages. High bounce rates may indicate content doesn't match searcher intent or technical issues are driving visitors away.
- Engagement Time - The amount of time visitors spend actively engaging with your site indicates how captivating and useful your content is.
- Acquisition Tab - This section provides data on how visitors are acquiring your website - whether it be through organic search, paid search, social media, referring sites, or other channels. Analyze trends over time and double down on high-performing channels.
Along with these metrics, track goal completions, top landing/exit pages, location data, conversions, and more. Regularly monitoring key Google Analytics reports helps spot opportunities for improving performance.
Do you need professional help with real estate SEO to find more home buyers and sellers in your service areas? If yes, please connect with MSG real estate SEO experts at +1 6573124124 or send your queries to us at info@mediasearchgroup.com.
