Search engine optimization for a website that sells $10 should be completely different from SEO for a site that sells houses worth about $200,000 right?
Not really.
Search engine optimization is simply making your website rank higher when a related search query is made. To optimize a website for search engines, you need to study and understand their many rules and algorithms. So you don’t get outranked by your competition or worse, penalized by search engines for breaking their rules.
Irrespective of what you’re selling online, these rules and algorithms remain the same. However, your communication with your audience has to be different. So, this article is going to be focused more on content optimization and improving your websites user experience and user interface.
Here are eight SEO hacks to help you attract more customers.
Create a user-friendly website.
The two most important factors you need to focus on when optimizing your real estate website for search engines are search engine algorithms and your audience.
Search engines will rank a website that:
- Loads faster,
- Has an attractive interface,
- Is mobile friendly,
- Is secure ( HTTPS vs HTTP),
- Has schema markup,
- Has social signals and
- Has quality backlinks.
You also need to get into the mind of your audience and come up with ideas to keep them on your website for longer. This can be internal linking, creating visual and written content, etc.
Just do whatever you can to make your site as friendly as possible for your visitors.
Level up your SEO with blog posts.
You’re probably tired of hearing every digital marketer or SEO expert recommend this. However, relevant content is still one of the most important ranking factors for search engines.
Adding a blog page to your real estate website will improve your ranking if your blog posts are optimized. Here’s what I mean.
- Your article ideas should be relevant to your audience.
- Your articles should be keyword and search engine optimized
- Your blog posts should be long form. Typically, the material that is ranked highest on Google is between 1,140 words and 1,285 words.
- Update your blog posts regularly.
90% of buyers now turn to the internet to solve all their housing needs, from finding out how to get a mortgage to make that final decision. 53% of buyers start their search online, frequently on a search engine.
Since 55% of searchers click on one of the first three entries of Google’s search results, optimizing the content on your real estate website in 2019 is very crucial if you want to stay relevant and make more sales.
Pay per click advertising.
Running a pay per click advert is a win-win because it generates paid traffic for you and if your website and its content are friendly and optimized, it also helps you grow your organic search ranking.
Organic search equates to 95% of all web traffic and the first position on Google search results has a 34.36% clickthrough rate for desktop and 35% for mobile.
Google will rank your website higher if more of its users are visiting your site and staying there for a long time. This gives them the impression that your website is offering its users much utility. Moreover, that’s what search engines want. Satisfied searchers.
Related: Real Estate SEO – 3 Link Building Tactics to Gain More Attraction
Localize content.
One way to keep your website visitors interested in your offerings is to make them location specific. Include as much city-specific content as possible. The more local and more recent the information, the more likely the search engines will score you highly.
You can achieve this by talking about:
- Local construction projects,
- Annual festivals,
- Changes in city policies, and other matters related to these things.
The trick here is to make your website content more about life in the areas where your properties are, rather than a sales catalog about your properties.
Use a lead magnet.
In real estate SEO, you can never go wrong with lead magnets. Your magnet can be a:
- Tool,
- Directory,
- Resource,
- Ebook,
- Mortgage or financial calculator, or
- An interactive map.
These magnets attract your customers’ attention and make them feel grateful to you for offering them a valuable resource for free.
Also, Providing online tools like a mortgage calculator on your site will allow search engines to include your site in searches for these tools. This will give your site’s ranking a considerable boost.
Use video content to keep people on your site longer.
Video content generates revenue of 49% faster for marketers than non-video content. Also, Including videos that take time to watch and also shows your prospect what the property looks like and how well it’ll fit into their lifestyle makes your website a fun, informative place. Your visitors will stick around longer and visit more pages, and this will improve your ranking.
Utilize social media for more exposure – Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
If you are not already using social media to promote your real estate business, you are missing out on one of the most effective ways to boost your sales.
You need a social media marketing strategy, and you need one right now.
Create a Facebook business and include your website’s URL. Share interesting real estate articles, home maintenance tips, and other exciting content to attract more people to your page and boost your engagement.
Post video clips and pictures on Instagram to give people a better experience of your properties.
Twitter is a great place to establish yourself as an authority in the real estate industry. You can tweet listings and retweet links to articles on buying, selling, moving and other subjects that will interest your followers.
The final tip is to
Hire an SEO agency.
Search engines are continuously optimizing their algorithms, and it’s best to have a team of experts who are dedicated to studying these algorithms and making sure your website is always on track.
Also, your competition is continually trying to climb up the ranks or remain on top. You can’t rank high on search engine by just being passive about your SEO strategy.