One of the most important competitive advantages in today’s red-hot real estate marketplace is visibility. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) could well make the difference between customers finding your site and the opportunities you can offer or missing out completely. The rewards of visibility can be considerable, since 86 percent of prospective buyers look to a real estate site for information first. There are several actionable tips you can use to get, and stay, in the front of the pack.
1. Meaningful Content Is King
Potential clients are a lot more likely to engage with you if you let authentic passion for what you do shine through in the content on your website. As the era of content marketing rises, more and more people are sceptical of an obvious sales pitch, but 84 percent of people want meaningful content from brands large or small.
Meaningful content means something that entertains, that tells a story or that provides a solution for something they want. A good agent can do all of these things when selling a house in person. Translate that skill to blog posts and social media — two of the leading ways that SEO content gains visibility — and you’ll have a head start on a successful SEO strategy.
This means more than just coming up with a couple hundred words of unique copy about a property. It means digging in to something more personal for you about that property. A funny story or cautionary tale it reminds you of, a piece of advice about how to show your home that you remember from selling a similar property previously: something that’s there to provide meaning for the client, rather than just a vessel for tags and meta-descriptions. Use photos and videos to provide virtual tours and testimonials for extra impact.
2. Write for the Semantic Search Era
Over the years, Google has grown more and more sophisticated about semantic search, which simply means developing tools to try to grasp the intention behind each search, instead of just searching for keywrods. “Semantic search” may sound scary and complicated, but there are simple ways to optimize your SEO copy to work efficiently with it and increase your visibility:
- Use synonyms and include word and phrase variations. “Glendale Realtor,” “real estate professional in Glendale” and “Glendale realty” are all useful variations on a theme.
- Add context. This should be a natural consequence of mentioning where a property is and filling in some details about it, but it’s important to remember that the more context you provide, the stronger your visibility becomes.
- Stay literal. It’s okay to have a sense of humor, but don’t make your content so thick with irony or obscure references that search engines will have a hard time parsing it. Google isn’t that sophisticated yet.
3. Make Your Site Mobile-Friendly
Tablets and mobile phones are critical tools for the house hunter. Prospective clients are often on the go and use their phones to consult your site for everything from contact information to directions to a property to finding photos, videos and other relevant content to their purchasing decisions. Making sure your site is mobile-friendly is essential, so ensure that you’re familiar — or at least that your site designer is familiar — with Google’s guidelines for responsive mobile design.
Follow these tips to ensure that your SEO strategy is helping to make your next commission advance through Commission Express everything it should be. Check out more posts on this blog for helpful advice from professionals, for professionals.
