10 Local SEO Tips to Improve Your Real Estate Websites
The real estate industry is extremely competitive – both offline and online.
With tens of thousands of small, mid-sized and large companies vying for their share of the market, finding a client is always a challenge.
Here are 10 SEO tips that will improve your real estate website and help it dominate in local search.
1. Conduct an SEO Audit
Running an SEO audit is usually the smartest place to start.
In fact, an audit is a necessity if you want to optimize your real estate site for local search.
If your site fails to rank locally, drive any organic traffic, generate leads, or convert clients, you need to find out why.
A website SEO audit is a huge topic in itself. For a local SEO audit, pay attention to these areas:
1.Site structure: XML sitemap, robots.txt, redirects.
2.Page structure: Titles, meta descriptions, H1-H6 tags, ALT tags, URLs.
3.Content: Keyword and link placement, structure, visual elements, duplicates, proper redirects and canonical tags.
4.Links: Outbound and inbound, interlinking, broken links.
5.Usability: Mobile-friendliness, site speed.Bring these five up to snuff and you’ll see a considerable increase in traffic and clients.An optimized site will rank nicely, including for local searches
2. Optimize Your Website
Once you’ve pinpointed all the problem areas of your website, invest an adequate amount of hours into fixing them.A perfectly optimized website is essential if you want to show up in local results. Address all the SEO essentials,
3. Optimize for Mobile
Once you’ve covered all the SEO essentials turn your focus to optimizing your real estate webite for mobile.Why is mobile optimization necessary? Consider that over 48 percent of all real estate searches are now initiated on mobile.Make sure potential clients can access and use your site conveniently on any mobile device.Here are nine key areas to bear in mind when approaching mobile optimization:
-Responsive design
-Page speed
-Hosting speed
-Homepage
-Site navigation
-Site search
-FormsConversions
-Usability
4. Get Your Business into Google
To build a continuous stream of clients from organic search, get your business listed in the Google 3-pack.The Google 3-pack is an umbrella term for Google My Business, Google Maps, and Google+. If you list your business there, its visibility in search will dramatically increase.If your site’s age, authority, and content meet a high standard, it will definitely secure one of the top three non-paid positions on Google.
5. Register with Business Directories & Listings
To verify your business and drive backlinks, you need to register your company with business- and real estate-related directories and listings:
-Make a list of directories and listings in which you would like to register your site.
-Prepare info for new accounts: business name, physical address, telephone number, email, work hours, logo, visuals, unique descriptions, etc. Some directories allow you to post content, too.
-Fill out the accounts and check them regularly. If users leave comments or rate your business, always reply or send a thank you message.
-Now that you have covered all the coveted spots, research new opportunities. Directories and listings are not that popular nowadays, and yet new players appear once in awhile.
-Place logos of registered directories and listings on your site. Show your website visitors that you are a trusted and respected business.
6. Start a Blog
Though you can run an IDX site, you still need a blog. Properly optimized content that speaks to the needs of your targeted audience is your path to dominate local search results.
7. Create & Optimize Video Content
Videos can truly distinguish your business from your competition. This is why you should:Launch and optimize a YouTube channelUpload videos to your channel on a regular basisShare (or upload) videos to your site and social pagesRun live-streams on YouTube and Facebook to attract a larger audience.
8. Be Social
Social media can help your SEO efforts, though it may not necessarily improve your organic rankings. However, social media is important because it helps you:Connect with your targeted audience.Build awareness, authority, and trust.Increase exposure.Drive more traffic.Convert this traffic into customers – and sales.
As a real estate business, it’s tough to gain visibility online unless you have social media accounts (including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest). Use social networks to post and share your blog content, videos, and other important things (stats, news, etc.).
9. Implement Structured Data Markup
Structured data markup allows you to display rich snippets in search. As a real estate business, consider implementing the following schema:
-RealEstateAgent
-Offer
-Product
-Place
-RentAction
-Residence
-PostalAddress
-SearchResults
-PageWebPage
10. Earn Featured Snippets
Featured snippets give your site a chance to get to the #0 spot with almost zero effort (provided your page is ranking in the top 10 already).
But this is actually only one of the benefits of earning featured snippets. Thanks to snippets, you can:
-Improve rankings in SERPs.
-Display your offer directly in search.
-Attract users who are interested in your offer.
-Increase conversion rates.