An Internet presence is a must for any real estate agency that means serious business. The purchase of a home is a complex process with many steps and possible draw backs. For real estate agencies, the Internet remains a great channel for acquiring potential clients and for initiating sales.
According to the Consumer Barometer in the UK, 53% of real estate purchasers used a search engine to do research before the actual purchase. In France, 50% based their research on search engines before making a property purchase.
These numbers clearly show that being visible in search engine results is an essential factor for acquiring new customers. The only problem: the competition for top rankings is becoming tougher every day.
So how to create the perfect real estate SEO strategy that will not only help your website rank better, it will also get you the traffic your business needs?
Based on our experience with real estate SEO and particularly with luxury real estate, we have put together 7 tips for building a website compliant to search engine requirements and to online customers’ needs.
1. Determine what your competitive advantage is. The fact that each business is unique and proposes an unique array of services makes it easier for consumers to make a choice. The services and characteristics that set your business apart from the competition will help you define your image in the online medium. You propose better prices than the competition? Your real estate brokers have an extensive experience in a certain area? Your business is specialized in a certain type of properties (luxury properties real estate, holiday rentals for families, luxury city apartments, etc.). All these must be reflected in your SEO strategy. And it all starts with you deciding what makes your business special and what you can offer to your customer.
2. Never forget about geolocalization. The thing with real estate websites is they never escape geolocalization. Even if you are an international company proposing properties all over the world, the main criterion for organizing your content and your real estate offers is probably going to be location. If you want your SEO strategy to be successful, you will incorporate location in all required elements: from on page optimization, content strategies and linking strategies, to tangential fields like social media.
3. Chose a powerful and easy to use real estate CMS. You probably think “what’s this got to do with my real estate search engine rankings”? Well, CMS is not directly related to your digital and SEO strategy, but a good back end will make the SEO tactics you apply more efficient. First, a real estate CMS that takes into account SEO techniques, will help you easier implement things like: dynamic meta tags, image optimization, redirects, content optimization. Second, a real estate business implies a great deal of work with the CMS and the management of large quantity of content and products, that are usually very fluctuating. Despite the huge quantity of information, a good CMS will ensure maximal website performance (one of the factors search engines use to evaluate websites) and usability.
4. Write great product descriptions. Content is still a main factor in acquiring better rankings. And the content of product pages is going to constitute a great proportion of your website’s text content.
So try to respect the two rules of successful content:
- write with your keyword strategy in mind for search engines
- write persuasive and useful descriptions for your customers
One might object that visitors don’t pay much attention to text or that they read superficially. Well, in real estate the purchase is fueled by a great motivation. Visitors who search for a home are interested in all available details. And when they think they have just found their dream home, the focus on information is even bigger. So offer them what they need: useful and complete information about the property, punctuated with benefits.
*Tips for writing real estate descriptions: If you are a broker, you can take notes while you are visiting the property. Describe the architecture, the rooms, style decoration and emphasize the advantages of the property (close to the sea, with amazing view, spacious rooms etc.). You can also guide your descriptions by using virtual tours created for the property.
5. Don’t compromise on the quality of photos and their optimization. When doing research online, real estate purchasers are interested in how the properties look and use it as a decision factor. From an SEO point of view, images are great at keeping users engaged and decreasing bounce rates.
For this to happen there are two conditions that must be met:
- Have professional photos that show the property in a fair light.
- Optimize images for users and for search engines.
Well optimized images will give additional clues to visitors about what the image represents, and they will also rank better in search engines.
Moreover, original and professional photos give you a clear advantage over your competitors.
In real estate industry it is not unusual to see the same property listed on different real estate websites, associated with different companies. Great images can turn the balance towards the business that uses them. According to a recent study, 67% of consumers consider the quality of a product’s image more important than: product-specific information, long description and ratings and reviews.
6. Establish from the beginning your metrics. SEO is a very measurable activity. Besides simple rankings, the impact of SEO can be further measured through various metrics. The bounce rate can be an important indicator for your real estate SEO strategy. Moreover, calculating the conversion rate by search query or keyword can show you which of your keywords perform better and are more valuable for your business. The Average Visitor Duration can show you if you provide interesting enough content for your visitors. Page depth shows if visitors are interested in doing extensive research on site and if the pages are naturally linked so that they encourage visitors to explore the website.
7. Chose a team of experts to handle your real estate SEO strategy. If you want to create a winning SEO strategy, you can always leave it to professionals. An experienced real estate SEO agency will help you define a strategy that encompasses your businesses characteristics and assets.
Due to their complexity, online real estate businesses can be a real challenge when it comes to web promotion and SEO. However, with a carefully designed SEO strategy you can attract the traffic that perfectly matches your business’s profile and objectives. So pass this one step and give your real estate business the chance to flourish.
