Why Local SEO Is Important for Real Estate Agencies

When people tend to think about local search engine optimization, they typically think of small mom-and-pop businesses. However, local SEO is also used by large real estate firms to rank for local real estate keywords.

While budget concerns may make it difficult for some real estate agencies to see the value in local SEO, studies show just how important SEO is for real estate agents. According to the 2014 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers study performed by the National Association of Realtors, 43% of home buyers reported that the first step in the home-buying process was looking online for properties. Approximately 92% of homebuyers used the internet in some way in their home search process and 50% of homebuyers use a mobile website or application in their home search.

Real estate agencies need low-cost leads in order to bring in more sales through their websites. As a result, increasing the amount of organic traffic to a website is one of the best ways to fill this gap. Unfortunately, not enough agencies are making SEO a priority. A study published to Inman revealed that 9 out of 10 Realtors believe that more time should be spent on SEO. However, 85% want to spend less than 10 hours a month, while 80% of Realtors want to spend less than $500 per year.

However, if you willing to invest in your local SEO strategy, now is a good time. Here is how real estate agencies can get started with local SEO.

How to Get Started With Local SEO

Your local SEO strategy should start with keyword research. If you have never done SEO before or are not sure how to do it effectively, it is a good idea to consider hiring a professional. Here are some of the basics of a local SEO strategy:

On-page SEO

As you implement a local SEO strategy, improving the on-page optimization of each page of your website is a good place to start. The title, heading tags, page loading speed, backlinks, and images are all important for SEO. Pay attention to these items and make sure that they are properly optimized.

While the meta description isn’t important for ranking your webpage, it is still important to have a well-written meta description because it is the first thing that visitors will see when your site appears in the search results. Make sure that you do not stuff your meta description with keywords. Instead, focus on making the description into a call-to-action to encourage visits to that particular page. The meta description should also reflect the content on the page in order to increase relevancy.

Content

Content creation is an essential part of a local SEO strategy for your real estate website. Many real estate agencies get excellent results from organic searches by creating locally focused content that has been properly optimized for SEO.

Keyword-focused real estate articles and landing pages are also great options for ranking your website for local search keywords. Many real estate businesses opt to create local guides for neighborhoods and cities in order to give buyers an overview of the area while also providing opportunities to rank for local keywords. While it might be tempting to stuff each page of your website with local keywords, this is not going to help you rank better and might actually earn you a penalty from Google. So make sure that the content is well-written and don’t overdo it on the keywords.

Directories

Many local customers rely on local directories to assist them with finding homes or real estate agents to work with. By making sure that your business is listed in these local directories, you can boost your business’s ranking for related local search keywords. Most local directories utilize SEO strategies to obtain the highest rankings for local real state search keywords, as these keywords typically drive the most organic traffic to their websites.

In addition, some directories such as Google+ Local, Facebook, and LinkedIn are favored by Google. As a result, getting listed with these directories can make it easier to rank for local search terms, especially if there isn’t a lot of competition in your area.

More Help

If you need additional help with ranking your real estate website for local search keywords, consider hiring a professional SEO service to assist you with a targeted local SEO strategy to help you get ranked.