The real estate sector is rife with stiff competition, be it online or offline. When thousands of property sites, both big and small real estate businesses are trying to get their footing for gaining market share, finding your client becomes difficult. However, the property sector offers a practical opportunity to the smallest of local businesses provided you know the ins-and-outs of local SEO. Yes, you need to learn how to make your real estate website rank high in the search engine results pages (SERPs). It does not make sense to create a stunning website that people cannot find on the internet.
According to an article published on https://www.huffpost.com, the higher your property site shows in the SERPs, the easier it is for your potential clients to find your business. When more people find your website on the first page of Google search and that too at the top, your site would convert better.
There are numerous ways to optimize your real estate website for generating leads and increasing conversions. Even if you implement three to five of the optimization strategies consistently, you can beat your competitors and gain clients. Not every business owner focus on SEO, but you should if you want to boost conversions and improve revenues. Here are four smart ways to optimize your real estate website:
1. Optimize your web pages
Your real estate website may have issues that you cannot fix alone. You will need the assistance of an SEO professional to do the needful. It will not happen in a couple of hours because you should spend a considerable amount of time in solving the problems. A perfectly optimized site is imperative if you would like visitors to find your business and land on your home page. Yes, your website should show up in the local search results.
You need to address multiple issues related to your property site. These include optimized URLs, keyword (KW) research and analysis, optimized Meta tags and descriptions, fixing broken links, image optimization with ALT text, placing of proper internal and outbound links, improving website load speed, content optimization, redirects, W3C validation, schema, robots.txt, SSL certificate, and XML sitemap.
A professional will be fixing these aspects daily and help you make your real estate website rank high in the search results.
2. Perform an audit of your website
It is one of the smartest things to do if you would like to see your property website at the top position in the SERPs. Today, a few real estate business owners are performing a site audit to show up in local search. When your website does not show in the SERPs, fails to drive traffic, reach out to leads, or cannot convert visitors into clients, you should figure out why. Though website audit is a vast area, you must focus on these aspects to boost local rankings. These imply working on the structure of your site, improving page structure, optimizing content, visual components, KW and placement of relevant links, interlinking, mobile-friendliness, and working on the page load speed.
Once you work on these aspects correctly, you will see your site traffic and client base improve. Remember that an optimized real estate website would rank better, including local searches. Real estate investors paying heed to website optimization would benefit with regard to increased traffic and conversions.
3. Make sure your business is into Google
To ensure that you get a consistent stream of customers via organic SEO, get your real estate business into Google. Yes, your business must list in the Google 3-pack, which is simply an umbrella phrase for Google My Business and Google Maps. Once you register your property on Google, online visibility would improve significantly. Besides, if your real estate website’s authority, content, and age meet the standards of Google, your business will secure the top three organic positions on Google.
The web visitors pay more heed to search results featuring snapshots, reviews, Google map directions, and ratings. However, there are a few essential steps to get these correct. Here are they:
- Ensure that your business’s physical address is accurate. Once you are through with it, Google will mail an authorization code to your business address. In case, you do not have a rented office, provide your residence address.
- Make sure you validate all information thrice before setting up your Google My Business account. These include your website, physical address, contact details, and email. Once you enter all the information, it is very difficult to change these details on the account. Therefore, crosscheck before creating your account.
- Personalize your Google My Business Page. Mention your contact details and business hours. Include high-definition photos for visual appeal and a direct URL to your website’s home page. The next and final step is writing a helpful, informative, and catchy description of your real estate business.
Listing your business on Google is worth your time and effort. Once you claim your real estate company, Google will show your website in local search results. It will give you an opportunity to rank higher than websites such as Zillow and Trulia. You gain competitive advantage depending on your physical proximity.
4. Build a blog
Create a blog and useful and informative content to reach out to your target audience. Since you have a local business, you cannot overdo content. You cannot compete with already established and credible companies. Therefore, prioritize on informative articles. Create quality posts related to your locality, schools, social life, entertainment options, restaurants, the crime rate in the neighborhood, etc. Write about some of the unique perspectives and mention the pros and cons of your neighborhood in your blog posts.
Besides text, focus on visual content as well. You can consider standard and 360-degree immersive panoramic images, video tour of properties, virtual tours, live-stream videos, and infographics. Optimize all content for users and Google before posting and sharing your blogs. Integrate the right geo KWs in the post title, Meta tags and descriptions, URLs, hashtags, and ALT text.
Conclusion
Implement these optimization tactics to improve your real estate website rankings in local searches. Hire a professional to do the job because a few of these tips call for sound knowledge and experience on SEO.